Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

November 10, 2021

COP26 – a heady melange of triumphant world leaders, angry dissatisfied sign hoisting activists, fat-cat-petro-lobbyists, back room meeting system changers, groupies and real working diplomats and scientists who know that this should be much easier than this, considering that the house is on fire.

It’s enough to give you the worst hangover of your life in exchange for a party that never really seems to get started.

The 26th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference is an ongoing global exercise in cognitive bias. For 26 years scientists have been giving us accurate models of the impact of climate change and how to avoid the most catastrophic of those impacts – CUT CARBON AND METHANE NOW! It’s dead simple, still we get timelines and commitments from leaders that kick the can down the road in terms of making hard choices and getting humanity on the road to regeneration. Politicians and diplomats “do what they can” never diverging from the limited scope of actions. If their hands aren’t tied then they act as if they are.

Every year the conference has laid bare the brutal politics of tribalism. Each country represented works to get the best deal it can. It’s like negotiating where to put your chair on the deck of the Titanic to get the best view of the sea. And worse yet it’s a slow rolled stage play, scripted months before the actual event. We learned this week that the US and China are going to “ramp up cooperation tackling climate change”. This surprise announcement came at the end of ten months of negotiating. No commitments to targets or policies or well anything but the afore mentioned ramping up of cooperation. Ten months to agree to announce that they had an agreement to cooperate, something that any rational person might have assumed given wide scale distraction the climate crisis is bringing to us all.

It’s both clear that the UN and the Climate Change Conference are inadequate tools to help us deal with the climate crisis, and that the UN and the Climate Change Conference are the only global tools that we have to do the job. It’s enough to have you running stark naked and mad over the Scottish Highlands looking for way out of the hall of mirrors.

This editorial is being released a few days before the closing of the conference and I hope that I will be proved wrong and lambasted for my lack of belief in the process. But none of that really matters. We have no choice but to get this right and take the clear steps that must be taken. The only question is what will the cost of inaction or inadequate coordinated global action be? The answer to that ranges from human extinction to a rough hundred years on the planet.

Now that that is cleared up, I want to acknowledge the scientists, diplomats, bureaucrats, activists, indigenous youth leaders, press agents, celebrities, CEOs and anyone who has had a hand in creating policy, targets or actions that lead us to achieving the agreed upon 2016 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5° C. Thank you for your work and service on behalf of the rest of us who are trying to figure it all out.

This issue is dedicated to helping you do just that, figure it out. You will get an idea of what is needed, what is being done and what might help us bridge the gap. We are very excited by our podcast interview with Kim Stanley Robinson who lays out a futuristic vision of a UN based agency that is responsible for the rights of future generations in regards to global climate policy, The Ministry for the Future.

We hope that in our new PROOF in ACTION feature will help you to move beyond understanding into action in your own life, oriented to ending the climate crisis and generating a thriving future for humanity.

We believe it’s the only game in town, and the best ever cure for a COP26 hangover.

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Letter From the Editors:

Welcome to the new home of PROOF at proofzine.com.  PROOF of a Thriving Future started one year ago as an email update on news that provided proof that there are people and projects that are taking action that are generating a thriving future. At Issue number 16 we moved the newsletter onto the internet as Bold.ly NOW’s blog.  By issue 34 it was clear that you, our readers wanted more, so we set about building PROOF as a standalone magazine – hence proofzine.com.

Over the coming months we will be adding more content areas and guest writers.  We are very excited about our new column PROOF in ACTION where in every issue we give you a concise list of actions you can take to align with and bring about a thriving future.

The Bold.ly NOW Show, our podcast series has also grown both in audience and ambition.  We now have three sub-brands to the show so you can tune into the conversations that matter most to you.  The Bold.ly NOW Show name will continue with conversations with thought leaders, businesses and organizations that contribute to a thriving future. 

Generative Futures Initiative (GFI) conversations is a series of conversations that directly relate to Generative Futurism.  We will be hosting fellow futurists and those who are leading long-term to multi-generational impact projects.  Look for our second episode of this series with Sci-Fi author and futurist Kim Stanley Robinson. We will be digging deep into his new book The Ministry for the Future.  

We will also begin a series of transformational/educational conversations with the name Bold.ly YOU, reflecting on how to see and realize a future.  Tune into these conversations if you are looking to discover your purpose, design a thriving future project or get into action on an area of life that is important to you.  

With all these projects we are looking into reliable ways to financially support the work.  You can become a subscriber to PROOF by clicking on subscribe in the menu or scrolling to the bottom of this page.  As practitioners of the Gift Economy, PROOF is our gift to you.  If you are moved to give a gift to us, a subscription or one time donation would be greatly appreciated. By the way, you can become a subscriber with a $0 gift to us. Your time to connect with us by subscribing at this level is appreciated and keeps us going. 

Our transformational and educational courses are available for members of Bold.ly YOU, our app.  Be sure and check out our three-course program, Do What You Love Change the World.  The three courses are: Burning Desire, Big Idea and Bold Action.  Each course features 9 hours of highly interactive content designed to move you in action from one level to the next.  These programs are all unlocked for a monthly membership of $17. 

We value you no matter how you choose to connect with the Bold.ly NOW Movement. If you have ideas or input, you can email us at bebold@bold.ly.

Proof 35 – What’s Up COP26?

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: The Gambia

The Gambia is a small West African country, bounded by Senegal, with a narrow Atlantic coastline. It’s known for its diverse ecosystems around the central Gambia River. It is the only one of the 39 countries being tracked by the climate action tracker whose policies, targets and actions are fully in alignment with the Paris Agreement of limiting warming to 1.5° C

See the the climate action tracker click here.

What We’re Watching: David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

In his 93 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of the planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. But during his lifetime, Attenborough has also seen first-hand the monumental scale of humanity’s impact on nature. With stunning cinematography and a story that exposes the impact that man has had on the natural world, this is a must watch film for anyone who cares about the planet.

What We’re Reading: ReGeneration

Paul Hawken’s Regeneration is a radical new approach to the climate crisis, one that weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation that can end the climate crisis in one generation. It is the first book to describe and define the burgeoning regeneration movement spreading rapidly throughout the world.

The purpose of the book and the project is to end the climate crisis in one generation. Ending the crisis does not complete the challenge of global warming. That is a century-long commitment. Ending the crisis means that by 2030 collective action by humanity will have reduced total greenhouse gas emissions by 45 to 50 percent. At this time, we are going backward and increasing emissions. Regeneration is an inclusive and effective strategy compared to combating, fighting, or mitigating climate change. Regeneration creates, builds, and heals. Regeneration is what life has always done, we are life, and that is our focus. It includes how we live and what we do—everywhere. We have a common interest and that interest can only be served when we come together.

What We’re Listening to –  The Bold.ly NOW Show with Kim Stanley Robinson

Tune in to the Boldy Now Show featuring Kim Stanley Robinson, the Hugo and Nebula-winning author of the Mars Trilogy. He is known as a realistic, science-based highly-literary science fiction author with over 20 books published. Stan’s work often focuses on themes like sustainability, economic & social justice, climate change, and speculative futures.

In this podcast, we discuss these themes covered in Stan’s atypical sci-fi novel, The Ministry for the Future. Stan uses the book to demonstrate a vision of a new future for humanity and investigates what it might take to survive and transcend the climate crisis. 

PROOF in ACTION 35

This issue we have been looking in on COP26. That this UN led conference deals at the level of nations can leave you wondering what is there to do at the personal level.  We’re going to break that down into two parts, the political and the practical.

At the political level here’s what you can do:

At the practical level we can all make an impact on reaching our targets.  Here are a few simple steps:

If you have additional thoughts on actions we can all take, please post them in the conversation below.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post What’s Up COP26? appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Doug Fisher

Publishing Editor

July 8, 2021

You may recall in PROOF #25 Michael Shaun asked us all to speak about what’s happening as a climate crisis rather than “climate change” or “global warming”. In the news in the last few weeks there have been stories about the highest recorded temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the world, and the lowest recorded water levels in reservoirs in the Western US.  Powerful evidence for accepting Michael Shaun’s request.

At Bold.ly NOW we’re dedicated to you, me, all of us taking action to generate a thriving future for humanity and thriving lives for ourselves. In the face of situations as dire as the climate crisis, this can be daunting.  How can we remain optimistic and take bold action rather than get resigned or defeated? How we respond to this challenge will make all the difference in addressing the climate crisis and all the other significant challenges we face.

If we get daunted, it’s easy to avoid the news about what’s happening. Yet, to have any power with our actions to address the issues we face, it is important to know what’s going on.  That’s one action that can help generate a new future – being informed about the current state. In that light, in this issue of PROOF we are offering news and information about what is happening regarding the climate. We are also including news of some innovative things people are doing to address the climate crisis.  

As Michael Shaun has also written about, the shocking news is what gets the most press; for example the record high temperatures and wildfires. What’s harder to find are practical actions you and I can take as individuals to turn the tide on the climate crisis.  

One of our fundamental beliefs at Bold.ly NOW is that you and I, each of us, can take meaningful action to address the significant issues in front of us.  It’s up to each of us to do the work to identify what’s important to us, what are we passionate about, and what are our gifts. From there we can imagine what’s possible and take action to make that possibility real.

Why am I saying all this? Well, the news is pretty daunting! As I have been preparing this issue of PROOF I have found out the current climate situation is more grim than I thought. I am writing to prepare you, and me, to look at what’s happening with open eyes, without looking away. And then, take a deep breath, consider what’s possible, and take action.  

What action? Well, that’s for you to determine.  Maybe it’s contacting someone you know who is actively working on addressing the climate crisis.  Maybe it’s starting a project in your community to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Maybe it’s merely informing others about what you are learning.  There is no action that is too small.  

Right now, no one knows what will resolve the climate crisis. There are many people doing many things to address it, some profiled in this issue of PROOF.  What’s most likely is there will be many different approaches by many different people and there will be breakthroughs in the future that we can barely even imagine right now.

It’s said that we overestimate what can be done in one year and underestimate what can be done in five or ten years.

What makes the difference is taking action today. Some of the actions will produce beneficial results, and some won’t. However, it is in action that the way forward will be discovered by us.

And, your action makes a difference, regardless how big or how small.

We invite you to read this issue of PROOF (and, well, every issue) to provoke yourself to consider: What action will I take today to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for myself?

We hope you enjoy this weeks PROOF.  Please share it with your friends.

Thank you for joining us and other like-minded adventurers in discovering what it takes to generate a thriving future. We’re grateful to be on the path with you!

Doug

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast and subscribe to us on Youtube

Proof 34 – The Climate Crisis

In the News:

What We’re Watching : Hands On: Women, Climate, Change

Hands On demonstrates what’s possible when we begin to take action on the large challenges we face. The film profiles five women from four continents tackling climate change through policy, protest, education and innovation. The film powerfully demonstrates how women are transferring knowledge and local networks into hands-on strategies.

This collaborative doc offers unique perspectives across cultures and generations; A young woman challenges the expansion of oil rigs in the North Sea while a seasoned community organizer interprets satellite weather reports for fisherman struggling to survive on India’s increasingly volatile coast.

What We’re Reading – The Uninhabitable Earth

In his travelogue of our near future, David Wallace-Wells brings into stark relief the climate troubles that await–food shortages, refugee emergencies, and other crises that will reshape the globe.

The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation – today’s.

What We’re Listening to –  TILclimate Podcast

Understanding climate change can be confusing. TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) is an award-winning MIT podcast that breaks down the science, technologies, and policies behind climate change, how it’s impacting us, and what we can do about it. Each quick episode gives you the what, why, and how on climate change — from real scientists and experts — to help us make informed decisions for our future.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Climate Crisis appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Micheal Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

July 8, 2021

“A la mode”, “modisch”, “alla moda”, “fashionable” – up to date with current style or trend. FASHION. We have all been trained to try and keep up with the current colors, cuts and styles. We feel good when we are in fashion and awkward at best when we are out.

We’ve been taught to never judge a book by its cover, while trying to adopt coverings that “make a good impression”, quite the contradiction. So we dress, we dress well, we dress down and we dress for the occasion.

The fashion industry knows that the more we care about our looks the more clothing they sell. They trained us to seasonal looks, and then they revved up the cycle and created fast fashion where style changes every few weeks. And we consume and consume and consume mountains of inexpensive clothing that makes us feel great for a moment.

Dancing on the end of this string we lose our ability to be confident in the indelible self, the enduring self.

If this is not bad enough, fast and cheap clothing has created mountains of waste by over production and disposal of out of date styles.

Our obsession with fast fashion is toxic.

Still, we all do want to express ourselves, to celebrate our uniqueness with our clothes and costumes. There is nothing wrong with that but it’s a fundamental fallacy that we need to follow a brand to do that. The rise of second hand fashion shows us that we can engage in our personal style and expression without being on the fashion hamster wheel.

Thinking through the idea of a growing second hand fashion industry, it’s clear that unlike the products of fast fashion where clothes are made as cheaply as possible, a well made, good wearing piece of clothing can be resold again and again, creating a cycle of earnings for second hand clothing retailers without the negative environmental impacts.

Who knew that one of the ways to fight the climate crisis would be to buy quality second hand clothing, and then sell it on when we are done with it. The good news is that many people are waking up to this idea. Quality and sustainability are suddenly fashionable and that is a trend we all should follow.

In this weeks PROOF we will explore sustainable fashion and the ways that you can shift your dollars from toxic consumption to a closed loop cycle of virtue that gives us a vast amount of freedom to really be yourself.

We hope you enjoy this weeks PROOF. Please share it with your friends.

Join us as we help to invent and invest in a sustainable future.

Michael Shaun

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Proof 33 – The Future of Fashion

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: Candiani Denim

Candiani Denim was established in 1938 in a tiny town near Milano and is a family-run company ever since.

In 75 years of experience the enterprise grew to become the World’s finest and most sustainable denim mill creating the fabrics that gave birth to the Premium Denim Industry.

Today Candiani is known as the greenest textile company in the blue World and produces for the most prestigious names in the market, such as Levi’s, Lucky Brand, Hugo Boss, Madewell and J. Crew.

See the company’s website here, and read more about the company here.

What We’re Watching : Where the future of fashion is headed

What is the future of fashion and where is the fashion industry heading to? What kind of future do fashion pioneers think of and how do they try to change the way of thinking about fashion? A documentary about the future and a new way of approach to fashion.

Backlight shows five future fashion pioneers who make their industry future-proof by experimenting with new fabrics, reuse and hi-tech design. Their ‘fashion of the future’ goes far beyond sustainability alone. They also force us to look differently at beauty and the role that clothing plays in our lives.

(Note – turn on subtitles to understand the people speaking in Dutch.)

What We’re Reading – Unraveled

A groundbreaking chronicle of the birth–and death–of a pair of jeans, that exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the planet.

A sprawling, deeply researched, and provocative tour-de-force, Unraveled is not just the story of a pair of pants, but also the story of our global economy and our role in it. Told with piercing insight and unprecedented reporting, Unraveled challenges us to use our relationship with our jeans–and all that we wear–to reclaim our central role as citizens to refashion a society in which all people can thrive and preserve the planet for generations to come.

You can read an excerpt here, and listen to a discussion with author Maxine Bédat here.

What We’re Listening to –  Conscious Chatter

Conscious Chatter opens the door to conversations about our clothing + the layers of stories, meaning and potential impact connected to what we wear.  It reimagines the narrative around sustainability, explores the importance of resourcefulness, questions conscious consumerism, and works to deconstruct how oppressive systems impact the sustainable fashion space.

In Episode 237 listen to a discussion with Ben Mead, the Managing Director of Hohenstein Institute USA, about green chemistry and the OEKO-TEX® Association which attempts to certify green practices in the textile supply chain.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post The Future of Fashion appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Doug Fisher

Publishing Editor

June 21, 2021

I’ve been thinking a lot about our – Bold.ly NOW – responsibility for the things we share in the pages of PROOF. We do our best to make sure that the articles we post are truthful and lead to a thriving future for humanity, the heart of our purpose.  Yet, if we were to take a hard look at almost any article, company, film or podcast here, I am sure we would discover shortcomings. That likely is human nature.

Not only is it hard to assess the projects and ideas of others, it is also a hard challenge to say what thriving would look like, or better said, what the numerous possible successful versions of thriving might look like. So rather than tell you what thriving is, we simply show things that point in that direction. 

The Buddha said,

“A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.”

Likewise an article in PROOF points at thriving and is not thriving.  Following the Buddha’s teaching here: Don’t look at the finger or you will miss the moon. Don’t think the finger is the moon.  And realize that although we don’t really know what the moon is we can move towards it and as we do, it will become clearer.

This week in PROOF 32 we look at the future of food with some stories, films and companies who are pointing the way.  Food is an incredibly personal topic. It seems that there are a million different philosophies on the food we grow and eat and that they all claim to be the one true way of food.

Regardless of your philosophy of food, there is a shift in perspective that we feel is fundamental to the shift we need to make in regard to how we grow our food and the food by which we nourish ourselves and that is to move beyond seeing ourselves as separate from our ecosystems.  You’ve heard it said that:

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!

This has a common sense clarity. We all know it to be true. And yet we eat all kinds of things we might not want to “be”. If we break this down a little further even if we believe this statement, there is still a separation, a dualism between the food and the one eating the food, “I”. If we are what we eat then there is no distinction between me and what I eat. 

Extending this further we come to, You are “the land/ecosystem that produces the food” you eat. And ultimately we get to:

You are the Earth!

Given all that, it’s time that we reconsider the way we grow and eat our food. Fortunately for us there are a number of large movements exploring what the future of food will look like. You can participate by getting involved with food production, waste reduction and sustainable and regenerative growing practices.

We hope you enjoy this weeks PROOF.  Please share it with your friends.

Join us in generating the future of food!

Proof 32 – The Future of Food

In the News:

What We’re Watching : The Need to Grow

In a race against the end of farmable soil, three individuals fight for change in the industry of agricultural food production, calling for a revolution.
“The Need to GROW” delivers alarming evidence on the importance of healthy soil — revealing not only the potential of localized food production working with nature, but our opportunity as individuals to help regenerate our planet’s dying soils and participate in the restoration of the Earth.

And, if that’s not enough, The Need to Grow is one of 8 Must-Watch New Sustainable Agriculture Documentaries as compiled by the New York City Food Policy Center.  Check out the entire list here.

What We’re Reading – The Zero Waste Chef

There is an enormous amount of waste in our food systems.  Now, there is some guidance about what we all can do to reduce the amount of food waste.

In her debut book, Anne-Marie Bonneau gives us the facts to motivate us to do better, the simple (and usually free) fixes to ease us into wasting less–you can, for example, banish plastic wrap by simply inverting a plate over your leftovers–and, finally, the recipes and strategies to turn us into more sustainable, money-saving cooks.

What We’re Listening to –  Down To Earth – The Planet to Plate Podcast

Listen to a discussion with Jesse Smith, director of stewardship at the White Buffalo Land Trust, discussing designing agricultural systems that improve as they age.

Down to Earth is a podcast about hope. As climate change collides with our industrial food system, the podcast focuses on people who are developing practical, innovative solutions.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Future of Food appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Doug Fisher

Publishing Editor

June 14, 2021

The future according to mainstream media is bleak . Our menu for future options has us being killed by machines, eaten by zombies, and generally facing the end of humanity as we know it through some other calamity like a new plague. According to them, the future is dystopic and not very pretty.

What’s the impact of this? Well, how we imagine the future has an impact on our actions today. After all, if the only future we imagine is grim, why bother doing anything to change it?

We need solutions for all the issues we are challenged by – climate crisis, social and economic disparities, pollution, waste – the list goes on and on. Where are those solutions going to come from? We at Bold.ly NOW are clear that it comes from the imagination. The needed solutions will not come from small tweaks to the current conditions. While ongoing improvement is needed, radical new ideas are required to overcome the major threats facing us today.

The human capacity of imagination, the divine spark of creativity, is the essential ingredient for all of us to thrive. If you look at any great advance in society or technology, it started with someone imagining a new future. And then others refine that imagination, and others prototype and test until the imagined future has become a reality. All of the stories we have published in the many issues of this e-magazine of PROOF of a Thriving Future are the outcomes that started with someone imagining a new future.

But why is imagination so important?

Our brain will only act on what it can see. And, the brain doesn’t discern between what comes in through our eyes and what we imagine. If we want to take action on generating a new future, the brain has to see it in our imagination. If it can’t see it, it won’t take any action to bring it about. If we’re not imagining new futures, our actions are then limited by what’s come before, from our past including all of the limitation and failings of our past. Only when we imagine a new future, a thriving future, can we take action and make it real.

In that light, imagining a thriving future for humanity and taking action to realizing that future is the essential element creating a world that works for everyone.

In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination. And then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand

-Brian Andreas

This is where you come in. Your imagined vision of a thriving future for humanity, and a thriving life for yourself, provides significant leverage in bringing about that future.

You may ask: “Why me? Aren’t there people working on all the things that need to be fixed?”

To answer that, let’s imagine something. Imagine that everyone on the planet spends time each day imagining what a thriving future for humanity looks like, and what their life looks like inside that thriving future. Imagine how that would influence and shape how they interact with their families, their work, their communities. Imagine the conversations they would have with the people in their lives, including random strangers who are also imagining a thriving future.

Now, imagine yourself in that future. How would you see the world? What would you be talking about?

You see, you are important and even essential to a thriving future for humanity.

For example, if you imagine a solution for sustainable energy, that imagining provides fertile ground for a sustainable energy future to sprout and blossom, whether or not you are the one that imagines the solution. You taking the time to imagine a thriving future for humanity (and yourself) creates that fertile ground. And if we all do this, then solutions become exponential.

We can do no great things – only small things with great love.

– Mother Theresa

Thankfully, there are people around the world at work on the critical issues facing us. And, it takes all of us. If you and I merely take a few minutes each week imagining what a thriving future looks like, engage others in that imagining, we are contributing to that thriving future becoming a reality. That imagining will begin to shape our actions and the actions of people we speak to.

In this issue of PROOF we highlight people who are using the power of imagination to generate a thriving future and provide resources for how we can all up-level our own imagination.

Join us in imagining (and acting on and making real) a thriving future for humanity.

Proof 31 – The Power of Imagination

In the News:

What We’re Watching : The Future of Imagination

Thinking about the far-off future isn’t just an exercise in intellectual curiosity. It’s a practical skill that, as new research reveals, has a direct neurological link to greater creativity, empathy, and optimism. In this session from master game designer and acclaimed futurist Jane McGonigal, you’ll learn three practical habits that will increase the power of your imagination in a way that can shape your actions to bringing about a new future.

What We’re Reading – The World Could Be Otherwise

In frightening times, we wish the world could be otherwise. With a spark of imagination, it can be. Imagination helps us see what’s hidden, and it shape-shifts reality’s roiling, twisting waves. In this inspiring reframe of a classic Buddhist teaching, Zen teacher Norman Fischer writes that the paramitas, or “six perfections”—generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and understanding—can help us reconfigure the world we live in. Ranging from our everyday concerns about relationships, ethics, and consumption to our artistic inspirations and broadest human yearnings, Fischer depicts imaginative spiritual practice as a necessary resource for our troubled times.

What We’re Listening to –  Pure Imagination

Want to change the world?  There’s nothing to it!

Yes, Gene Wilder as Willie Wonka takes us into the world of imagination and what we can create.  It may be that the freedom provided by imagination is exactly what we need to change the world.  Take a listen!

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Power of Imagination appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

June 8, 2021

Net zero waste sounds great and from the many articles that we are bringing you this week it seems to be both in reach and a matter of instrumentalization – all we have to do is design processes to reduce, reuse, recycle, and ultimately eliminate waste.

From where we stand at PROOF this is only a part of the equation and likely of less importance than the real problem of consumption. The past 25 years of online retailing has proven to lower the barriers to consumption. While there were numerous negative economic downturns in the pandemic, online retail flourished with a 44% increase in year over year sales for 2020. We went indoors and shopped until we dropped.

The consumption / waste connection is clear. The more we consume the more waste we produce in packaging, transportation and eventual disposal of the items we purchase. No matter how good we become at reducing, reusing and recycling, if the quantity of products we are consuming is increasing, we will never reach net zero waste.

The question then is how do we reduce consumption? The technocratic answers usually have to do with eliminating low quality, rapidly replaced consumables and producing products that have both high utility and the kind of quality that makes them last a long time. I have mountaineering and cycling clothes that are 10+ years old and with a little upkeep may never need to be replaced. These kinds of items are more expensive than the disposable ones, which leads to less frequent shopping, which means that retailers would see a drop in the volume of products sold, which is not something that they would likely want to see. Most retailers want us to shop until we drop.

The bigger issue is that many of us want to shop and shop and shop. If you look at this closely, you can clearly see that a part of our identity comes from the things we consume. We associate who we are with the brands we buy, the stores we buy them from and the kinds of things we consume. Others see the things we consume and that becomes a part of who we are for them as well.

Why do we consume so much? If consumption is a part – and for many of us a big part – of our identity, then when our sense of self is threatened, or our self confidence wanes or we just feel down, we often turn to buying things to lift ourselves up. This is a never ending cycle with a seemingly endless number of things to consume. The bad news is:

Things will never fill us up.

Rather, after the first rush of accomplishment, they leave us feeling hollowed out and empty. Our consumer culture reduces our humanity to a never ending cycle of craving. Suffering becomes an ever present part of who we fundamentally are. We have to reinvent our culture with new ways to ease our discomfort in life. It’s time for us to turn our ability to hunt and gather to the pursuit of a good life, with a healthy community and thriving global commons.

When feeling good is decoupled from consumption, then and only then will we be free from our waste and achieve net zero.

So the next time you are feeling down, or unloved, or simply unfulfilled, go take a walk with friends or call a family member or work in your garden for a while. We promise that you will feel better and you won’t be left with things to throw away when the party’s over.

Join us in generating a zero waste world with thriving for all.

Proof 30 – The Future of Waste

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: Sea Cleaners

Created in 2016 by the French-Swiss navigator and explorer Yvan Bourgnon, the NGO The SeaCleaners acts against plastic pollution, both at sea and on land, through corrective and preventive missions. An Observer Member of the United Nations Environment Programme and supported by the Albert II Foundation of Monaco and the CCI France International, The SeaCleaners has set itself four main objectives:

·     Protection of the environment with the collection of floating waste
·     Promotion of the circular economy
·     Scientific research
·     Education and pedagogy, with the development of awareness-raising activities for the populations affected, the general public and decision-makers.

For more information click here.

What We’re Watching : Trashed

Trashed follows actor Jeremy Irons as he investigates the global scale and impact of humanity’s modern wasteful consumerism and pollution. The film is a call for urgent action to resolve the issue of existing deposits and drastically reduce our consumption towards sustainable levels and zero waste, but also demonstrates how this is already being achieved successfully in many communities around the world.

What We’re Reading – Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash

The average American produces 102 tons of garbage across a lifetime and $50 billion in squandered riches are rolled to the curb each year. But our bins are just the starting point for a strange, impressive, mysterious, and costly journey that may also represent the greatest untapped opportunity of the century.

In Garbology, Edward Humes investigates trash—what’s in it; how much we pay for it; how we manage to create so much of it; and how some families, communities, and even nations are finding a way back from waste to discover a new kind of prosperity.

Garbology reveals not just what we throw away, but who we are and where our society is headed. Waste is the one environmental and economic harm that ordinary working Americans have the power to change—and prosper in the process.

What We’re Listening to –  The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast – #131 – Zero Waste in India

Sahar Mansoor and Tim de Ridder are the co-authors of Bare Necessities: How to Live a Zero-Waste Life. Sahar is also the founder and CEO of Bare Necessities and joined the conversation from her home in India.

The Zero Waste Countdown Project and host Laura Nash discuss their new book, and how the Indian entrepreneurial spirit is tackling waste. For example, spent flowers from temples and river beds are upcycled into powdered colors to celebrate Holi festival each year.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Future of Waste appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

May 30, 2021

The Earth is finite. And for the vast majority of human history this has not been a problem. With our small population, we could collect and consume only a small fraction of the wealth of the planet. We spread out and the population grew. Still there was no problem. Then we technologized our means of extraction and means of production and our ability to extract and consume has grown exponentially. Petrochemicals provided cheap energy and we industrialized and supersized growth. Simultaneously we invented new materials like plastics that were easy to manufacture and almost impossible to destroy.

The word pollution comes from the latin polluere, which means to soil or defile. Plastics have polluted even the most pristine ecosystems. Microplastics have even been found at the top of the world in the ice on Mt. Everest. The products we produce are soiling and defiling the planet. This toxicity comes from extraction, with damage to the natural environment and on site waste and spillage, from transport and from disposal, dumping and burning products and packaging. It works in a linear fashion: we extract, we produce, we consume, we dispose. On a finite planet, this equation will run until everything that is extractable becomes garbage.

Our waste will eventually overcome us.

To escape this linear equation of extraction, consumption and waste, scientists and engineers are turning to the natural world. In an ecosystem the waste from one life form is food for the next life form. A tree falls to the forest floor which then becomes a home for small animals and food for insects, fungi and bacteria who in turn enrich the soil with their waste providing a good place for a new tree to grow. This simple model of a circular system, is the evolutionary leap that humanity must make to avoid the life extinguishing folly of our current linear system.

We must learn to transform every molecule of one product into a new product without needing to extract more resources. Products and materials will need to be invented and designed to be a part of a circular system, rather than just serving a single utility. These circular cycles require energy. In the natural ecosystem, the sun’s energy is harvested by photosynthesis. Again we must discover how to harvest energy with low or no toxic accumulation.

The Circular Economy looks at this from the system level. How do we design a human civilization that operates in circular cycles where the waste of one process provides the resources of the next?

In this week’s PROOF, we learn about the circular economy and some leading innovators in this drive to transform our life on the planet. If you are interested in becoming a part of this movement you can take a few simple actions:

  1. Reduce your consumption.
  2. Buy products that come with minimal packaging.
  3. Reuse or hand down products you no longer want.
  4. Aim to reduce the waste you send to the landfill to zero.
  5. Join a circular economy business or a project.

Please join us in creating a zero waste world that provides for all.

Proof 29 – The Circular Economy

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy. It works with, and inspire, business, academia, policymakers, and institutions to mobilize systems solutions at scale, globally.

In addition to learning about the Foundation, consider participating in their free Summit 21, June 8-10. This free online event explores how we collaborate to connect government and industry to tackle our biggest global challenges while creating resilience and wellbeing. For more information click here.

What We’re Watching : Closing the Loop

Closing the Loop is the world’s first feature length documentary on the circular economy. It features five key strategies for going from a take-make-waste linear economy to a borrow-use-return circular economy.  Despite what can seem like dire warnings, it is an optimistic film about innovative solutions.

What We’re Reading – Circular Economy for Dummies

A circular economy is an economic system designed to save money, eliminate waste, and achieve deep sustainability. No-brainer, right? Circular Economy For Dummies explains why the old way of doing things (the take-make-waste model of a linear economy) is fast going the way of the dinosaurs, and it gets you ready to think circular. From business processes and material lifecycles to circular design in just about every industry, this book is a fascinating glimpse into the sustainable future we urgently need.

What We’re Listening to –  The Circular Economy Podcast

The Circular Economy Podcast interviews inspiring people who are making the circular economy happen.  They explore how the circular economy makes a better business (and a better world): for you, your partners, and your customers.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Circular Economy appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

May 19, 2021

We live in a material world, a built world, an endlessly changing world. The cycle between material desires and fulfillment of those desires has shortened from weeks to days to “same day delivery”.  We consume, therefore we are. Full stop until the world stops.

It’s no mystery how we got here.  The invisible hand of the market has propelled growth, some of it producing profound benefits for humanity, some of it producing illness, heartache and darkness and much of it producing nothing more than excess and waste. Producing a product or service and then psychologically manipulating people to want that product or service with smart learning algorithms, is not a free market.  It is anything but free as we see the costs literally piling up around us as we bury ourselves in waste.

This cannot go on.

But what would a future without waste, or extraction toxicity look like? Would we have to go back to a preindustrial way of life? Or can we invent new ways of living in a material world that is sane and balanced for the benefit of all?  Can we design completely closed loop systems that recycle every bit of material into new products?  Can we harvest energy without toxicity? Can we let go of the impulse to consume and fan the flames of the impulse to connect?

I say that if we can imagine it then we can do it.

We are already off to a new start on the materials side.  Recycling rather than new extraction is gaining momentum.  Sharing is becoming more fashionable than ownership.  Experiences more fulfilling than a growing pile of stuff.  

In this week’s PROOF we will see some of the steps being taken to explore a new relationship to our material world.  In between the articles you will catch a glimpse of what we are becoming.  This reinvention is perhaps the most important investment we will ever make in the future of humanity.  We will innovate what it means to live a good, sustainable, fulfilling life – not just for you and me, but for every one of us, all life on the planet and the planet itself down to the last molecule.  

Please join us as we reimagine the future for humanity. 

Proof 28-  Generating Our Sustainable Future

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: Recycling Technologies

Recycling Technologies Ltd is a UK-based company founded in 2011. Through a decade of research, engineering and collaboration with academia, it has developed a proprietary, patented technology to recycle mixed plastic waste.With a uniquely collaborative approach and innovative industry expertise, Recycling Technologies has managed to establish itself as a prominent player in the chemical recycling sector at both a national and global level.

What We’re Watching : Sustainable

A vital investigation of the economic and environmental instability of America’s food system, from the agricultural issues we face — soil loss, water depletion, climate change, pesticide use — to the community of leaders who are determined to fix it. Sustainable is a film about the land, the people who work it and what must be done to sustain it for future generations.

What We’re Reading – Turning the Tide on Plastic: How Humanity (And You) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again

Journalist, broadcaster and eco lifestyle expert Lucy Siegle provides a powerful call to arms to end the plastic pandemic along with the tools we need to make decisive change. It is a clear-eyed, authoritative and accessible guide to help us to take decisive and effective personal action. So now is the time to speak up, take action and demand the change you want to see in the ocean, in the supermarket aisles and on the streets. It’s time to turn the tide on plastic, and this book will show you how.

What We’re Listening to –  Turning the Tide on Plastic

Do you want to leave a lasting mark on the world? Throw a plastic bottle into the sea – and chances are that it will still be there well after you are gone.

In this podcast, we discuss our global plastic addiction and what we can do about it. The Natural Resources Podcast by Highgrade Media speaks with Denise Hardesty, an expert on plastic pollution at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post Generating Our Sustainable Future appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

May 13, 2021

We are born into a world that gives us lifelong operating instructions on every aspect of our lives from language, to culture, to education, to work, to relationships, to childbearing and child raising, to eating, to health, and even to death. Every aspect of life is mapped out in the norms of this world. We live and grow in this world which gives those at the top options: Banker or baker. East coast, heartland, west coast, Europe. SUV or convertible. And for others who are not so privileged, it offers more stark options: Clean or polluted water. Physical labor or hunger. Basic shelter or homelessness.

The world is a complex system developed layer by layer by people, or perhaps more accurately by peoples through time.

When we at PROOF and the Generative Futures Initiative speak of a Thriving Future for Humanity, it is with full understanding that in order for all people and for all the species on our planet home to thrive, we will need to reimagine and reinvent this world. One of the challenges is, “How do we imagine a new world when we ourselves are a product of the existing one?”

While we have critical problems to solve in the next decade, there is one system that underpins all of the other systems in the world: economics. An economy is the system of management of goods, services, production and resources of a country or region. Note: People are a resource as well as the source of production in an economy.

In our above example of the options for people in this world, wealth was the determining factor in what quality of life one leads. Wealth is primarily a product of your birth nation and family holdings. Laws that govern the economy ensure that gained wealth can be maintained and passed down to future generations. The world has an economic status quo.

If we were to seriously pursue a world that works for all, or a world of equal access and equal equity, we would have to reimagine our global economy. We would need a new system including dismantling the laws that maintain inequality. The enormity of this undertaking should confront you and every belief you have about being self made or being justly rewarded for your work and contribution.

It is likely that in the world you were born into, notions like “Hard work pays off” or “You can pull yourself up from poverty” are part of your framework of how people are. It is part of an imagined world that was first invented by European Protestant culture. And while it feels true and we may have stories to back up our belief, it is an imagined order that moves us through life

“How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism First, you never admit that the order is imagined.”

― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

One element that you might consider in this conversation is that we created an artificial relationship between work and money. In pre-monetary societies, work produced a product. Farmers grew produce. Hunters took game. The product allowed you to live another day, another season, another year. With the invention of complex societies and types of work that would not provide a direct living, like farming, money became a medium of value exchange.

From there the value of our work has been measured by how much money we earn. This value is determined by the market such that teachers are far less valuable than stock brokers, although the education of our children is much more important to society writ large.

To start any meaningful reinvention of our global economy, or our local and hyper local economies, we must start by examining the value of things and determining which things or behaviors we want to incentivize. This starts with the fundamental question: What is important?

As we look at the future of humanity through the lens of economics this week in PROOF, keep asking yourself that question: What is important?

We at PROOF are thankful of what today’s economy has brought us and we know we can and must do better, much better.

Please join us as we work for a Thriving Future for Humanity.

Proof 27 – The Future of the Economy

In the News:

Every U.S. City Testing Free Money Program

Amsterdam’s ‘Doughnut Economy’ Puts Climate Ahead of GDP

What Is The Sharing Economy?

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future

Global Rewilding Alliance – WILD Foundation

Since 1974 WILD has put respect for nature at the center of the global leadership community and simultaneously stewarded coordinated action for the protection of Earth’s life-giving biodiversity.

WILD combines on-the-ground projects with subtle activism and policy interventions to achieve lasting protections for Earth’s wildlife and wild places.

In one current campaign, WILD is mobilizing one hundred million voices around the world in defense of nature, so that global leaders are empowered to take the next step to ensure our survival: protecting half of Earth’s land and seas.

What We’re Watching : David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

In every moment of every day, there’s a choice to be made. If we all make our choices with nature in mind, then together we’ll find a way to live in balance with the natural world. After all, we are nature, and we need it to survive.

During his lifetime, Sir David Attenborough has seen first-hand the monumental scale of environmental change caused by human actions. Now for the first time, he reflects on the devastating changes he’s witnessed and reveals how together we can address the biggest challenges facing life on our planet.

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet shares Sir David Attenborough’s greatest story yet – his witness statement for the natural world and vision for the future for rewilding the planet.

What We’re Reading – A New Path: Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone.

So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? That’s what George Monbiot does in Feral, a lyrical, unabashedly romantic vision of how, by inviting nature back into our lives, we can simultaneously cure our “ecological boredom” and begin repairing centuries of environmental damage. Monbiot takes readers on an enchanting journey around the world to explore ecosystems that have been “rewilded”: freed from human intervention and allowed―in some cases for the first time in millennia―to resume their natural ecological processes. We share his awe, and wonder, as he kayaks among dolphins and seabirds off the coast of Wales and wanders the forests of Eastern Europe, where lynx and wolf packs are reclaiming their ancient hunting grounds. Through his eyes, we see environmental success―and begin to envision a future world where humans and nature are no longer separate and antagonistic, but are together part of a single, healing world.

What We’re Listening to –  The Complexities of Large-Scale Conservation

Tom Butler shares how the Chacabuco Valley has successfully been rewilded from overgrazed ranching lands to a thriving ecosystem through the utilization of privately protected areas. We explore the differences between restoration and rewilding and the complex world of large-scale land conservation and wildlife restoration.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Future of the Economy appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

May 4, 2021

In the desert of Southeastern Utah the sand itself is alive. There is a crust made up of cyanobacteria, green algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, and other tiny organisms that protect the soil against erosion, retain moisture and help the grasses and bushes to keep a foothold in the sand. The National Park Service warns: “Don’t Bust the Crust! It’s Alive!”

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend in Moab Utah to do some biking and catch a glimpse of the stars with no local light pollution. It was epic and deeply moving. The desert in Moab, Utah is a mostly intact wild ecosystem. Human activity is channeled in specific areas and trails and the vast majority of the land is untouched. As it does not hold many extractable resources of value, it has not been tamed by humankind.

By contrast, Florida has sold off vast tracts of its wild land for development. Wetlands have been drained and conservation pushed back in favor of extracting value. This has given rise to a number of environmental issues including; nutrient pollution from fertilizers and septic tanks, tourism based waste, wildlife extinction, invasive species and toxic algae blooms. Bit by bit we have developed the wild out of Florida, the wild that had maintained a balance for hundreds of thousands of years. Florida is no exception. Wherever we go, extract and develop, natural systems break down leaving us to chase down a series of endless ecological issues.

The best course of action in this case is to refrain from development without anticipating its impact on the environment. The second best course of action would be to rewild the land. This is more than simply vacating the land and letting it go wild. The changes are too great to make a difference on time scales smaller than a thousand years.

Rewilding is working with natural systems to restore the ecosystem, or maybe better said, rebuild enough of the basic wildlife structure that the ecosystem restores on its own as wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats.

The rewilding of the Yosemite National Park is an example of this approach. Twenty-six years ago wild wolves were reintroduced to the park. The results of this effort brought the grey wolf back from the brink of extinction and restored the balance of park. The wolves brought down the elk populations that had over-grazed sapling willows and aspens, sending populations of birds plummeting and leaving the beavers without materials to build dams, causing fish die offs from high water temperatures. All those issues are now resolved in the park due to the reintroduction of the wolves.

The wolves were just the start of dozens of projects that the park rangers have taken to restore the park. Success in Yosemite has sparked rewilding projects across the US west, including a movement to remove dams from rivers to restore spawning grounds for fish. Time and time again, we see that if we can give nature enough room, she comes back.

This week we share stories about rewilding projects and how we are learning to consider the wild nature of a place to be one of the highest priorities in how we steward that place.

These projects are indeed PROOF that we are heading in the right direction. And yet, I want you to consider that in order for the planet to recover it’s natural balance, we will have to confront our basic western dualistic view of man and nature. Francis Bacon is one of the philosophers who set us out on our present course with his dominion over nature argument. “Let the human race recover that right over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest.” (Novum Organon, Bacon).

With this divinely granted dominion over nature, we have tamed the wild world and have forced it to do our bidding. We cannot rewild the world with the same mindset. Rather we will need to rewild ourselves and relinquish our dominion over nature. We need to contemplate the questions: Who would we be without our planet? Can an Earthling be separate from Earth?

Humans are a wonderful and unique emergence in the history of this planet. We are an expression of the amazing complexity of life. And we are not separate from the planet on which we live.

At Bold.ly NOW we imagine a future where we celebrate our culture and our wildness without having to reconcile the two. We imagine a future where human presence is a net benefit to the Earth and the innumerable species of life with which we share it.

The first step to restoring the balance in your life is to learn about rewilding and contemplate our human place in the global ecosystem. We hope you join us as we work to generate a thriving future for humanity and the wild world.

Proof of a Thriving Future for Humanity

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future

Global Rewilding Alliance – WILD Foundation

Since 1974 WILD has put respect for nature at the center of the global leadership community and simultaneously stewarded coordinated action for the protection of Earth’s life-giving biodiversity.

WILD combines on-the-ground projects with subtle activism and policy interventions to achieve lasting protections for Earth’s wildlife and wild places.

In one current campaign, WILD is mobilizing one hundred million voices around the world in defense of nature, so that global leaders are empowered to take the next step to ensure our survival: protecting half of Earth’s land and seas.

What We’re Watching : David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

In every moment of every day, there’s a choice to be made. If we all make our choices with nature in mind, then together we’ll find a way to live in balance with the natural world. After all, we are nature, and we need it to survive.

During his lifetime, Sir David Attenborough has seen first-hand the monumental scale of environmental change caused by human actions. Now for the first time, he reflects on the devastating changes he’s witnessed and reveals how together we can address the biggest challenges facing life on our planet.

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet shares Sir David Attenborough’s greatest story yet – his witness statement for the natural world and vision for the future for rewilding the planet.

What We’re Reading – A New Path: Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone.

So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? That’s what George Monbiot does in Feral, a lyrical, unabashedly romantic vision of how, by inviting nature back into our lives, we can simultaneously cure our “ecological boredom” and begin repairing centuries of environmental damage. Monbiot takes readers on an enchanting journey around the world to explore ecosystems that have been “rewilded”: freed from human intervention and allowed―in some cases for the first time in millennia―to resume their natural ecological processes. We share his awe, and wonder, as he kayaks among dolphins and seabirds off the coast of Wales and wanders the forests of Eastern Europe, where lynx and wolf packs are reclaiming their ancient hunting grounds. Through his eyes, we see environmental success―and begin to envision a future world where humans and nature are no longer separate and antagonistic, but are together part of a single, healing world.

What We’re Listening to –  The Complexities of Large-Scale Conservation

Tom Butler shares how the Chacabuco Valley has successfully been rewilded from overgrazed ranching lands to a thriving ecosystem through the utilization of privately protected areas. We explore the differences between restoration and rewilding and the complex world of large-scale land conservation and wildlife restoration.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post Rewilding the Earth appeared first on PROOFZINE.