The 2008 Bioneers Conference

I left the Bioneers Conference feeling a bit sad. The turn out was about half of the people they had last year and there was definitely a “down” feeling by the founders of the Bioneers, Kenny Ausbel and Nina Simmons. With our economy in a recession, if I dare use the “r” word, it was obvious people were not spending money to attend. I even opted to buy one of their discounted tickets, which meant we, my friend Linda and I, sat in a tent watching speakers on a huge screen rather than sit in the luxurious theatre to see them live.

The overall impression of the presenters made us all aware that the global warming issue is real and happening quicker than first estimated. From the point of view of the founders, more funding is necessary to educate people to make a substantive change. At the same time our economy, and the rest of the world for that matter, is feeling financially contracted. I just felt a wee bit bummed about this.

On the upside, hanging out for a day with great speakers and conscious people is always inspiring for me. Janine Benyus, a biologist and author, talked about her passion, biomimicry. This is the study of natural intelligence in all life forms to figure out ways to create sustainable products and processes. If there is a problem to be solved, she asks the question: How would nature do it? Some of her examples are architecturally designed buildings that cool themselves, which was inspired by termites; and the control of bacteria, which was inspired by how red algae protect themselves from various bacteria. You can learn more about biomimicry and purchase her new book 101 Nature’s Best World-Changing Innovations Inspired by Nature by going to http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/


She told a story about a New Zealand woman who spends her days off work sitting in a forest to protect Kiwis, an endangered bird, from non-indigenous predators. Some kind of light beam is placed around the nest so that when the parent Kiwi leaves, it notifies the “bird sitter” to protect the egg. There are times when this woman would literally place blankets around and over the egg to keep it safe. Janine, who clearly loves this earth, asked each of us to please “tuck in and keep safe” our own “egg” in nature wherever we live.

Bill McKibben was another innovative speaker at the Bioneers. An author and environmentalist, his current book is entitled Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. In it he describes the trend we will all be seeing in the future, and that is the “need to move beyond ‘growth’ as the paramount economic ideal and pursue prosperity in a more local direction, with cities, suburbs, and regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment.” The message is: GET LOCAL AND FORM COMMUNITIES. You can learn more about him at http://www.billmckibben.com/


Being a very energetic Artisan, Bill had all of us take out our cell phones and text both presidential candidates to invite them to the UN Climate Meeting in Poland in December of 2008. The goal is 35,000 text messages to McCain and Obama by Election Day. You can help by going to http://www.350.org/and click on the box “Invitation Counter” and enter your info. They are currently at 31,000 invitations. The significance of “350” is that according to scientific study, humans must reduce carbon dioxide to no more than 350 parts per million in the atmosphere to avoid permanent damage to the planet.

After listening to six main speakers, a bunch of other speakers in between, lots of PowerPoint presentations with graphs, charts, numbers, statistics, data, and more, my brain was absolutely fried. My right brain was desperate for balance. Linda, who is pictured, and I headed out for the lawn and a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day. It felt so relaxing sitting under the trees and enjoying one of my best pals.

From then on, we decided to roam the exhibit hall, allowing our minds to relax and browse the booths. There is one booth that we always seem to end up staring at with morbid fascination. It’s the one where people put their feet in an ionized footbath that is supposed to draw toxins out of the body. A handful of people lined up in a row with their feet soaking in these “magical” baths lined the main walkway. The water in every one of these footbaths is absolutely filthy, gross and disgusting looking. It really turns my stomach! Some of them have dirty bubbles around their ankles. This reminds me of a bad past life in the Dark Ages and the Plague. I always wonder if this really works or is just hype. I thought I would see if I could find anything on this topic on the internet, and low and behold I found this site: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/FootBathBunk.html.

I still don’t know what to think. The person who writes this website is a total Skeptic and probably a young soul as well.

The last experience I want to share has to do with water. On the grounds by the exhibition hall, three women put together a water-gathering place to honor the water spirits. Springs and water holes historically have been places to gather water, a necessary element, and to connect with community. They have also been places of healing and meditation, such as the spring of Lourdes.

Mary White, Andree Thompson, and Christina Bertea built a recycled pond using a discarded satellite dish, because it represents communication. Solar floating flowers were placed in the pond to keep mosquitoes away. Blue ribbons were also tied to the surrounding trees to allow people to leave messages, which they indicated is a tradition in some cultures. The pond was graced with a Hopi saying, “When the springs dry up, the earth is tired.”

There was something very amazing about this exhibit. While it was very simple, the water element felt strong and alive. At the same time it was soothing and calming. The water elementals were definitely very active. My hunch is the reason it seemed so alive is that those three gals did some sort of invocation or ritual to enliven this sweet, little pond with all that water energy. By the way, if you do have any kind of ponds or fountains, do your own invocation and invite the water spirits to share your space, bringing their healing energy with them. Offer them gratitude and see what happens.