Joe Brewer is a true polymath and lover of Earth! He is executive director of the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution and the founder of the Earth Regenerators network, a study group for restoring planetary health and avoiding human extinction. He is the author of The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth(which will be self-published soon), where he brings together the fields of complexity, Earth Systems, cognitive science, and cultural evolution.
Show notes: * causes of the planetary predicament — difference between learning and instinct * evolution of the human brain and technology, especially language * environmental fitness using technology and building on what came before * human ability to learn culture that can temporarily disconnect from the nonhuman environment (creating a temporary buffer) * disconnected in causality in our short term thinking = displaced causality * if we are to survive this time we will need to spread survival out in space, in time, and in causation * a future that no one can see but somehow still move toward it = we become the past of some future * collapse through the metaphor of hospice * complex sequence of collapses of subsystems of the body * civilizations as one long term living system, example of COVID and shut down as systems * collapse is plural * OPEC oil crisis in 1980 * wealth accumulation is like cancer * collapse of the US economy has been happening for 40 years * Confucius “If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children. ” and if you’re planning for 1,000 years grow a forest * Aristotle and teleological thinking * the original cathedral is forest building * cultural evolution and design of culture * population genetics * cultural traits * future fitness is our design challenge * bringing sacred relationships to our environment is an essential ingredient * cumulative culture = we can build on culture * cultural scaffolding or developmental scaffolding * David Sloan Wilson and wise management of cultural evolution * regeneration is a dynamic pattern * Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela * autopoiesis = self generated self expression * Janine Benyus and the Biomimicry Institute * real sustainability is regeneration * we need to work with living systems * limits to growth * Joe and his family decisions to move to Barichara, Colombia * having a daughter in this time * what do children need in this time? * our daughter is learning that what normal people do is bring rivers back to life and grow forests * Earth Regenerators Network * regenerating at the bioregional level * local living economies * 97% of our history we lived in small hunter-gatherer tribes evolving with nature * should we humans be here or not? * there is no singular human culture * we (humans) get to decide if we stick around! * without enough complexity and diversity in a food web it will collapse * loss of too much non human species and humans go away too' * should there be too many humans or balance and diversity of life? * “we need to deserve to be here" * The Kogi and pagamentos * debt of gratitude to Tierra Madre * gratitude releases hormones of pleasure * Paul Cherfuka’s addition to the stages of grief: the gift * you grieve because you care * to regenerate land we have to feel what has been destroyed * an ability to love that has no end * The true evolutionary adaptation for humans is teamwork * Your medicine is what you give, it’s your genius * we are the medicine if we realized we are the Earth loving itself * how to live in a landscape - to live in a place you love so much you will give your body to it * where should my body rest?
Support Joe: https://www.patreon.com/joe_brewer The Earth Regenerators: https://earth-regenerators.mn.co/ Joe on Medium: https://medium.com/@joe_brewer Support the ATR podcast: https://www.patreon.com/astemperaturesrise Music is “The Light Within” by Gavin Luke