Regeneration is not only about bringing the world back to life; it is about bringing each of us back to life. It has meaning and scope; it expresses hope and kindness; it involves imagination and creativity. It is inclusive, engaging, and generous. And everyone can do it.
~ www.regeneration.org

Putting Life and the Future of Life
at the Heart of Everything We Do

Regeneration means putting life at the center of every action and decision. It applies to all of creation -grasslands, farms, people, forests, fish, wetlands, coastlands and oceans—and it applies equally to families, communities, cities, schools, religions, cultures, commerce, and governments. Nature and humanity are composed of exquisitely complex networks of relationships, without which forests, lands, oceans, countries, and cultures will perish.
Our planet and youth are telling us the same story. Vital connections have been severed between human beings and nature; within nature itself; and between people, religions, governments, and commerce. This disconnection is the origin of the climate crisis, it is the very root—and it is where we discover solutions and actions that can engage people, regardless of income, race, gender, or belief…
If putting the future of life at the heart of everything we do is not central to our purpose and destiny, why are we here?

~Paul Hawken (Regeneration- Ending the climate crisis in one generation)

It is with this question and appeal that Paul Hawken, an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author, and renowned lecturer opens his book Regeneration- Ending the climate crisis in one generation (Penguin Books, September 2021).
He concludes the book with two lists: a climate checklist and a punch list. In between the beginning appeal and the ending lists, you will find a plethora of life sustaining solutions for the planet, detailed and complemented with additional resources on the Regeneration website, including a page that Hawken and his colleagues have titled Nexus for large, complex, overlapping issues which can be influenced through collective action.

As I am very often asked “I am not an expert. What can I do?”, let me highlight Hawken’s lists as guidance.

The first list called the Climate Checklist is a compass, a guiding principle, a set of questions that you can ask yourself as you engage in your day to day life, assessing whether the action you are ready to take is life and future of life affirming or not. The first question is the fundamental principle of regeneration. The remaining are outcomes of that principle.

1. Does the action create more life or reduce it?

2. Does it heal the future or steal the future?

3. Does it enhance human well-being or diminish it?

4. Does it prevent disease or profit from it?

5. Does it create livelihoods or eliminate them?

6. Does it restore land or degrade it?

7. Does it increase global warming or decrease it?

8. Does it serve human needs or manufacture human wants?

9. Does it reduce poverty or expand it?

10. Does it promote fundamental human rights or deny them?

11. Does it provide workers with dignity or demean them?

12. In short, is the activity regenerative or extractive?

The second list called the Punch List is a personal, group, or institutional list of climate actions. There is no one common or correct punch list. The real solutions are what you can, want, and will do. The value of a punch list is that when you commit to something, things can happen. On the Regeneration website you will find a kit, a worksheet, and sample punch lists. Give it a try!

More on the lists with the blog post below.

Additional Climate Engagement Resources

In addition to the aforementioned book Regeneration- Ending the climate crisis in one generation by Paul Hawken, I would like to recommend the following resources:

• Book and Project: All We Can Save-Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson (allwecansave.earth). See post Every Job is a Climate Job below for info on starting your own circle at work.

• Book: Speed and Scale- An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now by the venture capitalist John Doerr. (www.speedandscale.com)

• Movie: Don’t Look up by the director Adam McKay, available on Netflix, a satire about the climate crisis and the apathetic response of our society and governments and its associated website in partnership with Count Us In for taking action.

• Poem: Don’t Look up reminds me of Jane Hirshfield’s poem On the Fifth Day which refers to the fifth day of Donald Trump’s presidency, when information on climate change was removed from the White House website and scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, department of agriculture and other federal agencies were ordered to release no further research information without permission.

• Activism for people 60 and over: Third Act! with Bill McKibben, a community for experienced americans who want to engage with the climate crisis.

If you have any feedback on any of these resources especially the Climate Checklist and the Punch list from Regeneration, please write back.

Warmly,
Anne-Marie
January 10, 2022
417.81 ppm of atmospheric CO2 (safe level 350 ppm)

Every Job is a Climate Job-
Taking Climate to the Workplace

To change everything, we need everyone.
~Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson
(All We Can Save)

After seeing the powerful engagement generated and the actions that resulted from my 10-week All We Can Save-Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis book circle (Jan-April 2021) and following the lead of All We Can Save project and Drawdown labs who have partnered to expand the AWCS circles to the workplace, I am happy to announce that I am offering my coaching services to support YOU in leading such a circle in the workplace. If you are wanting to take climate conversations to your workplace and need support to do so, click the button below to get started.

Next Contemplative Walk: February

I am intending to lead another contemplative walk during the month of February. I am waiting until the omicron wave has crested before I commit to a date. Stay tuned. Here is a link to past walks.

New Year, New Beginnings?

The start of the New Year is always a good place to create new intentions and make plans. If you need support from a Life Coach to get unstuck, become more regenerative, discover or recover your own aliveness, create your climate actions punch list, or reconnect with yourself and Nature, please contact me. I am here to help.