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Jonathan J. Halperin
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Connected Ecosystems: Climate and Agriculture
I have mixed feelings about #ClimateWeek, unfolding in NYC this week to coincide with proceedings at the United Nations General Assembly. It’s a little like the “patient safety” department in a hospital. A department? Isn’t patient safety the first responsibility of everyone?! A week? Isn’t preserving a stable climate everyone’s responsibility every day?
I get it. I work with a lot of the organizations that participate and wholeheartedly support taking advantage of UN conferences and meetings to draw attention to this global, species-level problem. 15 years ago, our film "Hope in a Changing Climate" premiered at Agriculture and Rural Development Day as part of the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 15).
Broadcast globally by BBC World, our award-winning documentary told the story of successful large-scale ecosystem restoration in China, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. It was the impetus for subsequent gatherings and guided discussions in more than 30 countries. The film remains one of the projects I’m most proud of leading because it took an almost impenetrably complex set of issues and made them understandable to non-specialists without oversimplifying. It showed what people around the world could do when working together. Yes, there are more than a few other ingredients in the theory of change, but figuring out how to bring people together is fundamental.
How people then exercise collective power to drive change becomes critical, especially if the goal is to alter or replace embedded systems. Early next month in Denver, as a guest of Canopy Farm Management, I’ll be with a group of investors and practitioners driving change through investments in regenerative food systems (Regenerative Food Systems Investment). Regenerative agriculture is not exactly the same as ecosystem restoration. But if we can appropriately scale regenerative agriculture now, maybe the sequel to “Hope in A Changing Climate” could be “The Promise of Regeneration?”
Watch the full-length version of "Hope in a Changing Climate"
(Courtesy of Plant for the Planet)
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When I began to unhook from SustainAbility in 2008, after 20+ years, to co-found Volans, Jonathan was working with the US end of SustainAbility — and sent the London end of the Volans team a large cardboard box of multi-colored felt rocks, which initially I couldn't make head nor tail of. I thought he was mad, or overly American.
But I have to say that, over time, those felt rocks have become a central feature of the Volans culture, thrown by team members at other team members (or guests) on the slightest provocation. That aside, he's a consummate professional, creative collaborator, skilled communicator, and keen intellect—and I am delighted both to have had Jonathan as a colleague and to now count him as a friend.
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