Ecosystem Restoration at COP15 in Montreal
John D. Liu, Journalist, filmmaker, ecologist and Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation, joins Paul Beckwith in a conversation which took place at the United Nations COP15 event in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
This video was recorded on December 11th, 2022 and published on May 21st, 2023.
The conversation focuses on the work of Ecosystem Restoration Communities, the growth of its many ecosystem restoration camps, and the events in John’s career which led to their establishment.
The key message is that we don’t have a theoretical or rhetorical problem. What we have is mass degradation to Earth systems on a planetary scale and therefore we must work locally but simultaneously to make ecosystem restoration happen all over the world. Restoration needs to be the central intention of human civilization.
Some of the topics discussed:
- How John, during the first 17 years of his career, worked as a cameraman and program producer with CBS News in China followed by Italian state and German state television.
- How the pollution he observed while working in China got him interested in doing something about it and how this led to the creation of an organization called the Environmental Education Media project for China. This organization took a thousand films from Europe and the UK to China and translated them into Chinese for use all over China. This eventually led to the BBC asking him to produce programs in China.
- How he helped to create the China HIV AIDS Information Network, which became the UN Information Center for HIV and AIDS in China.
- How he built the China environment and sustainable development reference and Research Center.
- How the World Bank asked him to document the restoration of the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, i.e. the Loess Plateau, and how this experience helped him understand the pattern of environmental degradation that had taken place over human history and how it was possible to restore it.
- How the realization of the importance of this insight determined what he would do for the next 30 years and how this eventually led to his involvement with Commonland Foundation, the establishment of the Ecosystem Restoration Communities Foundation, and the formation of a growing number of ecosystem restoration camps around the world.
- And much more . . .
Links:
Special Guests:
- John D. Liu - Journalist, filmmaker, ecologist and Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation, whose work has helped to show that it is possible to restore natural ecological systems. He is the founder of the Ecosystem Restoration Camps Movement that has, together with many partners, created 56 Ecosystem Restoration Camps throughout the world. John has produced, filmed, written, directed, and presented dozens of films on Environment and Ecology that have aired on the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery, PBS, and other networks.
Regular Panelists:
- Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University
Video Production:
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Charles Gregoire – Climate Reality Leader, Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum
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Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP26 Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum
Acknowledgement:
We’d like to acknowledge these two organizations without which our attendance at COP15 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, would not have been possible.
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