The Flourishing Path

John D. Liu, Journalist, filmmaker, along with Jane Goodall, primatologist, and an international host of environmentalists and Ecosystem Restoration Camp leaders come together in this video produced by John to present an alternative path, The Flourishing Path, to the current destructive path human civilization is on.

Special thanks to the tens of thousands of people who are supporting, working in and creating ecosystem restoration camps and communities. They are showing us all what we need to do to heal the Earth and the Human Spirit. Let’s all join them on The Flourishing Path.

This video was recorded on March 10th, 2023 and published on July 9th, 2023.

The video production 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. This is supported by the appearance of Jane Goodall along with other environmental workers and Ecosystem Restoration Camp leaders.

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 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:

• Ecosystem Restoration Communities - Share a few dollars a month. It’s the lowest cost and the highest impact we can have to ensure the future.

• Commonland Foundation

• John D. Liu

• Jane Goodall

• Hope in a Changing Climate (Video)

• Earth Restoration Peace Camps

• UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

• The Holy Grail of Restoration

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.

• Jane Goodall - An English primatologist and anthropologist. She is considered the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. As of 2022, she is on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project. In April 2002, she was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Goodall is an honorary member of the World Future Council.

Host of Environmental workers:

• Lazaro Arvizu Jr. - Gabrielino-Tongva Scholar
• Alexii Sigona - Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, PHD Candidate UC Berkeley
• Valentin Lopez - Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band
• Suprabha Seshan - Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary
• Jamiah Hargins - Founder of Asante Microfarm

Ecosystem Restoration Camp leaders and workers:

• Michel - Desperto, Brazil
• Jacob - Wasini Lookout, Kenya
• Chan - Doku, Borneo, Malaysia
• Silvia - Altiplano, Spain
• Noam - Kitigay, Canada
• Ronald - Human Nature, Uganda

Video Production:

• John D. Liu

Production Assistants:

• Charles Gregoire
• Heidi Brault

Attributions

• Image and video attributions