Global Earth Repair 1080

Hello and welcome to the 2022 Global Earth Repair Summit. I'm John D Liu, and it's my honor to have the opportunity to speak to you at the opening of this amazing conference. I want to acknowledge the organizing team, all the people who have worked to make this happen. Thank you so much for your service. I'm especially grateful to the Common Land Foundation and the Mustard Seed Trust, whose support makes it possible for me to continue to do this work. And I want to say thank you to you who are joining in this summit and who are considering the future of life on Earth. I think we're at a turning point because so many things are happening, and I think everyone can recognize now that it's absolutely necessary to restore the life support systems on the planet. We simply have too much knowledge to allow for the continuation of unsustainable, irrational, greedy, and, uh, ignorant actions. That are causing massive, massive changes to the Earth. And I really don't want to enumerate all the quite tragic and difficult things we're enduring at this time. I just want to note that it is in this type of crisis that in China, at least, there's a saying that it's It's a wei ji situation, which means there's extreme danger, but there's also great opportunity. So I would prefer to focus on the opportunity. We know, for instance, that many people are depressed at this time. There's a kind of a terrible funk all over the world. And in the worst cases, it's breaking out into violence and, and terrible unhappiness and suffering. And I think what's interesting about this is that for those of us who have been studying and working in ecosystem restoration, we can see that there's fun and excitement in seeing that the hydrological cycle can be restored, or that biodiversity can increase. It doesn't have to decrease continuously. And it's possible to grow fertile organic soils and to have and eat really nutritious and healthy foods, and that there's tremendous abundance on the earth. This is not a, a place of scarcity. This is a planet which is filled with beauty and joy and symbiosis. It's a miracle. It's the only planet we know that has an oxygenated atmosphere, a freshwater system, fertile soils, and amazing biodiversity. This is what we need to focus on, and we need to understand the value of that. For much of human history, people have been considering the things that they extracted from the earth and manufactured and turned into products and thought that these were more valuable than the earth systems itself. And you can see this in the way the Gross Domestic Product is, is the basis of the mercantile and materialistic economies that have grown up around the world. And we need to look carefully at this and to understand that all of the things that human beings have ever made and all of the things that human beings will ever make are worth less than the oxygenated atmosphere, the freshwater system, the fertile soils, and the amazing biodiversity on the Earth. The fact is, when we study this, We learn that all life is in symbiotic relationship with all other life. That the substances in our bodies are the same substances that have been in other bodies. That we are all an expression of all life since the beginning of time. It can't be any other way. And our DNA has the map of everything that has happened in life. We are literally stardust. We are literally connected to the life's energy throughout the universe. And as human beings we are going to pass away from this dimension. We have to ask a question: are we human beings seeking to have a spiritual experience, or are we spiritual beings who are spending a short while having a human physical experience in this dimension? And I would say that the latter is the truth, because we live and we die, and death is part of life. And this is why we have compost. This is why we have soils, living organic soils. This is how all organisms are related to to one another and have co-evolved and co-created an oxygenated atmosphere, a freshwater system, fertile soils, and amazing biodiversity. And this is the only planet that we know, and we are looking. We're spending vast amounts of money. We're spending tremendous amounts of energy looking throughout the universe the known universe to find out if there are other, other planets like this. And this is the only one we know. So I think it's the moment that we have here is we're facing multiple crises, and the trajectory that human civilization and human society has been on cannot remain this way. We are forced to change or face serious consequences. We are already experiencing them. And I think we all know this. For the last 30 years, I have been aware that it's possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems. And I've looked at systems all around the world, and I've seen and met and collaborated with people in all different continents who are able to restore hydrological function. So we don't have to look at a stream and then watch it shrivel up and dehydrate and dry out and say, "Well, that's done. There's nothing we can do." There's a lot that we can do, and we are required to do it. And I think for a lot of us, we've struggled to figure out, "Well, how do we make a living at this?" Because the materialistic world is saying, well, that's not valuable. The value is in extraction, manufacturing, and buying and selling. And then selling, really, I mean, like, overselling, having waste. Waste in the GDP economy is part of the economy. It increases the GDP, while restoration of the Earth is you know, nothing. You— that— leave that to volunteers who are so crazy as to not be materialistic and want to restore Earth systems so that their children and future generations can survive. This is the key point that has to change. The functional ecosystems on the work— on the Earth have got to be seen as the most valuable thing And human civilization has got to stop being about dominating other people. Who thought that up? That's just suffering, which stratifies us into those who have power over others and those who are subjugated by those who have power. Why would we want that? So we need to tell the truth. And understand that we're breathing air and we're drinking water and we're eating food that comes from the fertile soils. And these are not just chemical components or a medium to stick a plant into. These are living systems that have been co-evolved and, and which are evolving still, and they have to react to whatever is happening to them. So if an asteroid hits the Earth and blocks the sun for a year or two, then we're going to see massive species die out. But life will recalibrate, will, will reset and, and come back. It may take millions of years It may take billions of years, but here we are, and we are human beings. We are not consumers. We're not just workers. We're human beings, and each of us that's alive has the right and the responsibilities that being alive give us. We've been looking often at the price and the cost of things. We need to change direction and look at the value of things. A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. In this summit, we're going to hear from and learn from many people who are working in restoring hydrology, who are working to restore soils, who are working to bring together people of all ethnic groups, all races, all religions, all classes of people and say, "We are humanity and we have a central intention." And that central intention needs to be to restore all degraded lands on the Earth. Because in doing this, we can address climate change. We can address biodiversity loss. We can address extreme and erratic weather events. We can ensure food security. We can ensure meaningful employment for everyone on the planet. We can ensure freedom and equality. And we could look at all the reasons why we can't do that, but I think what we're supposed to do is look for all the reasons to do that and how to do that. So it's not up to an individual to decide what humanity is going to do. It's up to all of us and all life to find the answers of how to go forward together. And this is what the Global Earth Repair Summit is also striving to do, to use collaborative inquiry for collective intelligence. There's no one who's better than anyone else. We all have a role to play because we're all alive. We all have life's energy. And as an individual or as individuals, we only have so much life's energy. We only have so much time on this earth. We're spiritual beings on a human journey. And we will, as individuals, pass to another time and another place, another dimension of existence. But the spark that goes through each of us, the life that goes through each of us, will continue. It will continue in our children and in our children's children. And in all the life forms around the world. And it's what we understand during our lives that is determining what we do. And what we do is determining the quality of life for all life for all time. As you can tell, I've become rather philosophical by observing, documenting, studying, and communicating about ecological restoration. And I can tell you that it's been a very, very interesting life. And now I'm 70 years old, and I realize that the purpose of all of this is for the young people, for the next generations. So the way for us to have the best lives, the best time, and to do something meaningful is to realize that we are called to respond to all these crises and to act in a way that can transform human society, restore the ecological function on a planetary scale, and re-regulate the climate. And in, in doing this, we have to engage everyone, and we have to realize that this is the basis of true value. True wealth, and that the concepts of domination or the concepts of selfish materialism, they are not the basis of the economy. The economy as it's functioning now has a fatal flaw at its core, and it's not possible to secure the health and well-being of humanity or of all life on the Earth using this method, using this economic thinking, which is fundamentally flawed. There is an error in the reasoning. And when they find these ruins, they're going to say, what were they thinking? What is it? There's a toxic layer There are like nitrate stratas where the agriculture was. What is this? It is ignorance to do this, and we know too much. So we need to listen. We need to understand. We need to study. I had a fellowship to the Rothamsted Research Institute in the UK, and I had to give a speech. When I first got this fellowship, and all of the people assembled in the aula, in the meeting room. And afterwards, a relatively famous scientist came up to me and he said, "You seem to know what you're talking about." And I thought, "Oh, that's very kind of you to say." And then he said, 'If you can understand it, anyone can understand it.' And I thought, 'Ooh, that's different.' But I accept that. I think that's true. We can all understand this. We need now a tsunami of consciousness that travels throughout the world where this knowledge becomes the common knowledge, the collective intelligence of humanity. And the central intention of human civilization is not to go shopping. Is not to be workers for some tiny minority of people who are stealing the ability and the intelligence and the energy of people all over the world, but to realize we're all equal. And that in that equality, we can work together as a species. And as a species on a planetary scale, we can restore all degraded lands. On the earth. In this summit, you're going to hear from people who are explaining their work and the connection between human beings and fertility, human beings and the water cycle, human beings and pollination, and human beings and food systems. And it's not the end. It's the middle of a continuous evolution of human understanding. But this is a new point. This is our time. This is what we have been called to do. And we are answering that call. What I've noticed in going to camps around the world and working together with other people to do restoration is that it's very satisfying. And it creates the most value. So it's not just an esoteric feel-good thing. It is the basis of wealth. It is the basis of survival and sustainability. It is a recognition and a participation in the multiple symbiotic systems that we live in. Our problems are physical. We're not going to solve them by clicking like. The internet will not massively restore the hydrological cycle or the weather systems or, or, or the climate, or remove toxicity from the earth or remove pollution or end waste. Those are things which we have to do physically. But the internet and communications can help us to understand that we're all one, one family. We're all indigenous. And the concept of Domination is horrible. It's the worst expression of human greed and ignorance, and it leads to war, and it leads to destruction and suffering. And we don't need that. We can transcend that and be in another space. When we look at people who want to have war, who want to steal things and oppress people and have this inequality, create this inequality, we need to find pity and see exactly what's happening to them because they are losing their lives. They're losing their souls. They're victims. I think in many religious cultures this is quite clear. So it's not at all new. But if we're not living it, then it's new to us. So we need to live the change that we want to see on the earth, because then we are feeling and understanding what's happening to us. We should listen to the birds. We should listen to the subtle changes in temperature and wind and moisture. We should see and experience the beauty of symbiosis and biodiversity. What an amazing world we live in. And as we do that, our thoughts change. We stop thinking about "what's in it for me?" and we think about how can we serve, how can we manifest what we know is possible. So I think this is where the Global Earth Repair Summit has a tremendous opportunity to reach people, to collaborate with one another, and to grow this movement into a worldwide movement. Some of you are aware that I've helped to found the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement, and that in 6 years that movement has grown to 55 camps in 6 continents. I think there can be thousands or tens of thousands of camps. There could be millions. This can be of huge importance to the refugee communities, to the communities of people whose societies were damaged by colonization, by imperialism, by genocide. By slavery, by overexploitation. And it can bring back their rights, and it can balance their rights with their responsibilities. But as they restore their ecosystems, as their land and their sovereignty is returned to them, the Earth will flourish. The ecosystems will be restored. The only agency that can do that now is humanity on a planetary scale. This is the great work of our time. We're forced to understand this. And if we do, we can join others on a flourishing path that leads to tremendous beauty, to joyful light-hearted work, work that makes sense. Not going to a cubicle to buy and sell plastic goo-gaws that are transferred around the world in containers, but bringing back fertility, bringing back hydrological regulation, climate regulation, weather regulation, and supporting and encouraging, conserving and restoring the biodiversity that makes it so beautiful on the Earth. We live on the Earth, the only planet we know that has an oxygenated atmosphere and a freshwater system and fertile soils and amazing biodiversity. Why would we want to go to another planet that doesn't have these things? And why would we want to destroy our home, our Mother Earth, and then imagine that we can go into space and drink our own urine and live in a titanium tube, and that's somehow progress? That's not progress. So the future is in our hands. We are the people who decide. We don't want to have power over others. We just want to work together and live together and have meaning in our lives and trust and joy and faith. And beauty and love. We want an economy of love. We want lives that are fulfilling. It's kind of hard to say these things because it's so different than the current narrative. But we have the ability to communicate with every human being on the planet simultaneously and instantaneously. But what do we say? There's so much misinformation. It's cacophony. We need to cut through the noise with a very clear signal that the Earth, the Earth's functional ecosystems are co-evolved, that are part of eternal time, that we are part of eternal time. And in restoring them, We're restoring our faith and our understanding in life. Each of us is flawed. We have free will. We can often— we often do make mistakes. But we have to also understand forgiveness. We also have to understand compassion. And we have to realize that we're going to die. And as we are living, we need to think, "Well, what's the purpose of this?" Why are we living here? Are we living to go shopping? Are we living to dominate others? Are we living to spread inaccurate information to manipulate people to do things that are not in their interest? Are we simply working for self-interest? So there's a lot to do. We have to help the Earth to reregulate. We have to remove the impacts that we have created on the functional systems. Because actually it's not the Earth that's endangered, it's human civilization. And the reality is human civilization has gone through many changes. And this is the latest one, and we are processing what we have learned, and we're also looking at what is our evolutionary niche, what is the evolutionary niche for human beings. And in this, I've recently had the opportunity to be on a panel with with Noam Chomsky, and I think I started to learn about Noam Chomsky's work 55 years ago, approximately. What he's been talking about and his perspective has been truthful, but it's also been sorrowful in that I didn't see him gaining much joy. And what I noticed in my own work is that often In the early stages, I was examining dysfunction. I was studying what's wrong. I think we need to study what's right and to work to restore functional systems. Functional systems are self-replicating. They are robust. And resilient and they're adaptive. Dysfunctional systems are on a trajectory that lead to collapse. So understanding these things, learning, enjoying what we do— just enjoy— is a very good recommendation because every moment is precious. And our time as spiritual beings on a human journey as individuals is short. If we're perceptive, we can live in multiple dimensions. And we can feel that energy flowing through us from all time and understand that we have a role to play. And our role seems to be cognition and language. And that allows us to expand the sum of human knowledge and to communicate from one generation to the next. And in this is something of great joy and great importance. And great equality, because we all have that. Restoring the Earth is what brings us together. We can look at all the things which pull us apart, but this is what brings us together. So let's work together, let's have fun, In order to do something at this scale and this important, we need to prepare, and we need to understand that maintaining the existing systems is not going to have transformational outcomes. We're going to have to look at how can we organize things in ways where everyone is equal, where all the energy from all the people on the Earth can be, can be collected to address the quite difficult things that we need to do. And we also have to understand that many people are now falling through the cracks. The existing society is not caring for many. And historically, many have been disenfranchised. They've lost their rights. And really, the idea that you have to buy your rights, if you— it's horrible. It's ridiculous. If you're born, then You're born into life and you're equal with all life. And it doesn't seem like that the way our society has been organized, but it's true. So we need to reorganize our society, not continue to condemn or to marginalize vast numbers of people. We certainly won't be able to restore the Earth if we do that, because they are the people who have the ability. We, as human beings, collectively can restore the Earth. Individually, we can't. As institutions dedicated to selfishness and inequality, we can't. But as Collectively, humanity choosing to work together to restore the Earth. This we can do, and we can do it while having fun. And the whole society, the whole civilization must come to the conclusion that functional ecosystems are vastly more valuable than anything else. On the earth. And that because it takes all of us to do it, then we can base our civilization, base our governance, base our economy on restoring ecological function. I'm recommending that all camps and communities develop central kitchens where there's a direct relationship between the producers of food and those who are hungry and need food, and that's everyone. So by removing this from mercantilism, and, and, and saying, well, that's a right. We can still buy at the highest price from the producers, but we can do it as a society and make sure that everyone is fed. And by doing this, we can— having central kitchens where the food comes in and we prepare it and we process it and we store it for the community, it's decentralized. It engages more and more people, and it's not simply a purchasing of things or purchasing of labor, but it's part of the economy of love, and it's something which is essential and necessary. And it allows us to engage everyone and anyone who wants to participate in this work. So it can lead to full employment in production of food and in processing and preparation and storage of food. And in doing that, we can just all have fun. Instead of like, "Oh, I have to go to work now." Go to work knowing you're serving your family, your community, and yourself. Interest. Central kitchens. Another thing I think is critically important are creator spaces. We need to stop buying new things. We need to recycle and upcycle all the waste. And we can do that by having art, by having beautiful heirlooms. We can have furniture that is passed from generation to generation. And instead of saying, "This is mine," every— if we share, everybody has everything. So we can have machines for woodworking, metalworking, for mechanics. We can have industrial sewing, we can have ceramics, we can have design, and so on. We can even go up to 3D printing and computer numeric design and robotics if we want to, but we'd better save the Industrial Revolution and make it serve, and make the ability to fabricate things serve everyone. Instead of serve some. I like to imagine the creator spaces have retired engineers and scientists and artists and craftsmen and mechanics. They curate. They have— all the communities have perfect shops. All the people who want to work in these shops have a chance. But it's a little bit like The Karate Kid, you know, the Mr. Miyagi is in charge of training, and so they have to wipe on and wipe off until they have total respect for the tools and the knowledge that they're able to learn. And let's not have any isms. Let's, let's have consciousness. Let's have truth. Let's have trust. Let's have faith. Let's work together. The other thing I think we have to have is cultural stages. We have to have the ability to transfer culture from one generation to the next. And we have to do that in a way which is not just celebrity-driven, where there are certain stars in the celestial heavens and the rest are just fans. We have to give everybody's ability to express themselves. A stage. So all camps and communities could have cultural stages. So Central Kitchens, Creator Spaces, cultural stages. And in doing this, we're going to engage so many people in wonderful creativity. And that can then go also to the people who are working in the central kitchens or working in production, food production, in food forests or in syntropic agroecology systems. And we'll be able to transition and transform all of the monoculture industrial agriculture We can eliminate chemicals and toxicity. We don't need them. And I can tell you from long study, biodiverse systems, functional ecosystems, are more productive than degraded systems. If you go look at the impact of industrial agriculture, you'll find that it kills the soil. Fertility, and then you are required to use artificial fertilizers. It destroys the hydrological cycle, so you're required to irrigate and pump water around, which disrupts the weather systems, increases the surface temperatures. In the discussion, let's go deep into these kinds of things. But once we understand that functional ecosystems are more productive than degraded ones, that's when we see millions and billions of people doing restoration around the world are the way forward for everyone to have meaningful work and and for the very difficult work that needs to be done to be done. Well, I'm waxing philosophical. I can tell many stories, but I just want to tell you how happy I am that we're moving into a new phase, that nature-based restoration is being recognized more and more, and you are the reason that it's happening. And this movement can grow and grow and grow until it becomes the central intention of human civilization, and that's when our children and future generations can have a beautiful life. That's when we have understood and achieved our purpose on the earth. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great summit and great lives. Let's make the economy of love.