Our middle-schooler consultant, Bay Johnson, has recommended Susan Ives to watch as his Pick of the Week. If you click below you will hear Bay’s reason why he picks Susan. We hope you enjoy Bay’s pick this week.
Bay Johnson, Middle School reviewer
To watch Bay talk about this week’s pick click here.
To watch Bay’s Pick for Week 2 click here.
Bay Johnson, a middle-schooler and a consultant to the Resource Renewal Institute would like to share his pick for this week. He tells why Yvon Chouinard’s video was interesting to him and why is a standout for students (or anyone) to watch.
To watch Bay talk about this week’s pick click here.
To watch Bay’s Pick for Week 1 click here.
Bay Johnson, Middle School reviewer
The Forces of Nature team has been reaching out to middle school and high school students to understand how the students relate to the videos. One of our local middle-schooler’s, Bay Johnson, has reviewed our entire collection and will be providing his recommendation, or a pick, to watch each week. We will include a short video with Bay’s comments on the video of the week. Once Bay has made his recommendation, you will find Bay’s Picks on the pull down Theme menu found on the Gallery page. We will also provide a clickable link.
We now introduce Bay, so please watch this short kick off video. Please click on Bay’s name, it is highlighted in blue. This will load the video and you can begin by clicking on the right arrow in the video. Next week, Bay will make his first pick. Stay tuned.
Those of us at the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) who knew and worked with Thomas Winston Fookes are deeply saddened by his passing. Tom passed away peacefully on August 2 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Tom was one of our first Forces of Nature and sat with Huey Johnson for a Skype interview on March 5 2012, where he talked about his greatest accomplishments as a green planner: he was one of the chief architects of the New Zealand Resource Management Act http://theforcesofnature.com/movies/tom-fookes/ and a go-to strategist on issues concerning human settlements around
Tom was a passionate practitioner and teacher, and part of a tight knit network of RRI’s green plan advisors from New Zealand, the Netherlands, other European states, Canada, and Mexico City. Here is a link to one of his videos about green planning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGBBAeu3bY.
His many colleagues, students, family and friends the world over will sorely miss him. Peggy Lauer, who directed RRI’s Green Plan Program in the 1990s and who worked closely with Tom, wrote a touching elegy that can be found on the RRI website.: http://rri.org/blog/?p=828
We send our deepest condolences to his wife, Susan, their daughters Emma and Catherine, their son, Ian, and their grandchildren present and future who will grow up knowing of Tom’s integrity, intelligence, humor, and love of them and their country.
We thank you for watching our Forces of Nature video series. Our Forces of Nature all share a very deep love of the land and its people. Three of the next four recently posted elders are known to be published writers and two are well known activists. All are currently from California. A commonality among these individuals is that each seized a moment in their life that changed the trajectory of their existence and these ripples affected the environmental movement. In doing so, they created a rich life for themselves and made a tremendous difference to others.
Richard Wilson found his inner activist when his family ranch and other Native American ancestral lands were threatened to be flooded under a massive dam proposed on the Middle Fork of the Eel River in Northern California. Richard was not about to let this happen and fought tenaciously to stop the Dos Rios dam. He went on to contribute many things to the environmental movement through his work as the California Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and as a whistle-blower exposing Pacific Lumber’s dirty tactics regarding their sustainable yield actions.
Paul Lee is a scholar, teacher, philosopher, writer, and founder
Lloyd Carter was a young man enjoying a journalism career when one day a discovery upended his world.
He came upon a contaminated wildlife refuge where he saw dead and deformed birds littering the refuge and adjacent residential properties. He began an investigation into this tragedy, creating a thread that continues to runs throughout his journalism and blog today. Hear Lloyd’s story about the infamous Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in San Joaquin County California and how this changed the path of his journalism.
Malcolm Margolin, a young graduate from Harvard was compelled to write a “quick book” about Native American peoples of California. This “quick” six- month book took Malcolm three years and along the way he found a special kinship with Native peoples. Malcolm continued to write several more books about Native American culture; while doing so, he founded Heyday Books, a publishing company notable for publishing magnificent books about nature and environment, anthropology, poetry, writing and much more.
We hope that these stories inspire you to watch and share our videos with others. When unexpected opportunities arise, how might they be important to your life and the planet?
“If you want to bring about real, sustained change, you have to constantly be aware that you are not just taking care of yourself.” Robert Redford
One goal of our Forces of Nature video series is to inspire individuals to take concrete actions to help to create a sustainable world; a world which we will be proud to pass along to future generations.
Recently, at Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, we shared the Forces of Nature website videos with an AP environmental science class. We were moved by the energy of the students and their interest in many of the same concerns our elders faced in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. The stories we share began in a different era with passionate young people who were active in their communities and beyond. We hope that the elders’ stories will inspire today’s young people and that they will join in to help us all to confront the environmental problems of today and become the leaders that we need in the next wave of environmentalism.
Today, we have a couple of links for you and a couple of requests. First, our requests: We would like you to watch more — and share our videos with your friends and family. Please take a moment to comment on one of our short films or blogs. This will help us to increase the visibility and interactivity of our site. Finally, you will find in the About page, a link to a form that you can fill out so you can nominate an elder (someone at least 60) who has made an extraordinary effort to protect or enhance our common environment.
Now for the links: the first link is to the Redford Center, which is known for producing high quality and visually stunning films with positive environmental messages that align with our economical vision of activism and commitment to our environment and communities. The Redford Center has posted a trailer and some short videos in their series, The Art of Activism.
These videos examine the moment in young people’s lives when they are moved to act in extraordinary ways. The Redford series clearly shows how the emerging generations are making a difference today. Check it out! Click on the Art of Activism above.
The second link is to Island Press, which publishes first-rate books on the environment.
They have expanded their environmental reach by partnering with Treehugger, the US Green Building Council, the California Academy of Sciences, the Wildlands Network, Town Hall Seattle, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, and the Society for Ecological Restoration. For instance, Island Press, in their partnership with the Society of Ecological Restoration, is sponsoring a video contest with a $500 scholarship for students and early career professionals who will create a video no longer than 4 minutes on the topic “Why Restore?” If you are interested in entering the contest, click on the words “Why Restore” above for details on how to apply.
