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“Everything connected with life, including the supporting cast: soils and air and waters, is the Biosphere.

Las Casas de la Selva, a protected habitat for Puerto Rican native flora and fauna

Biomes can be looked at as the organs of the Biosphere, equivalent to the heart or the liver, and the key ones are the forests, the grasslands, the marshes, the deserts and the oceans.

Even the human tribes have clans which basically adjusted their lives to the biome they were in. But with the Industrial Revolution, the savannas by and large, tropical and temperate, were plowed up for farmlands. And the farms have now become a new biome.

The most important element to deal with is other human beings. That’s the most dynamic aspect of the biosphere today. The population growth is the driver of the problems that we’re having, and then the other thing is the creation of megacities.

So the big changes are the introductions of these two new planetary biomes: the world city and the agriculture system. So it was modeled to demonstrate that these could all live in harmony. But under the present system people at the ruling helm of society have for the first time in history abdicated; whether it’s a communist-type system or the capitalist system of taking any responsibility of looking at the total system.

The R/V Heraclitus has sailed over 250,000 nautical miles studying oceans, coral reefs, rivers, lakes, estuaries and exploring the origins and futures of human cultures since it was built in 1975.

If you follow the leader, you’re very likely to follow him over a cliff, but if you follow a project… “-ject” is throw and if you throw something out, a path is going to emerge. For instance a group of fourteen of us we wanted to see what marshes and sea currents and coral reefs did, so we built a ship. And we went out and actually explored all these different biomes. There’s actually a project dealing with these realities.

For example, biospherics is the study of the total life system of planet earth, not hacked into little pieces to study here and study here, but it looks at the whole schmeer. We need to change the education system back to where you study total systems—what are all of the vectors that are involved?

So to save the evolutionary possibilities of the Biosphere, get together with some friends, form a group, and start studying some aspects of the biome—study the total system you’re in.”

For more by John Allen, check out Me and the Biospheres: A Memoir by the Inventor of Biosphere 2, his definitive autobiography, describing Allen’s extensive travels around the planet and how his experiences inspired him to invent the largest laboratory for global ecology ever built.

One student considering how she can impact the planet. Photograph by and courtesy of Esha Chiocchio

One common difference between kids and adults is that adults love the news. Adults are usually listening to, reading or watching some form of news. And so much of the news these days is about what’s happening in the environment around the world. Information about the changes in the climate has already been starting to circulate in the collective consciousness for some time, and as the large-scale destruction of wild spaces continues, these messages will keep getting louder. We’ve reached a point where the news even features stories about climate scientists struggling with depression and feelings of hopelessness as they come to terms with the meaning of the current data.

As adults, we’ve already had some time to recognize and respond to these messages, but what about the kids who are just starting to learn about the conditions of the planet where they were born?

“Imagine you are eight years old and you just found out about what’s happening to the Earth. What would you want to do about it?”

GWE Founders Marina and Joanna speaking with US Senator Tom Udall

For two kids, Joanna Whysner and Marina Weber, they started learning about the effects of climate change and the loss of species when they were eight years old. They were so moved by what they learned that they wrote a book about climate change and sent it to President Obama. After sending their message to the President, they created an after-school mentorship program, The Global Warming Express, in Santa Fe, New Mexico (home of Synergetic Press). At the Global Warming Express, kids help each other study climate science and general scientific principles, receive training in sustainability, and support each other in developing communication skills to advocate for the environment.

The kids at the Global Warming Express act by deciding on Big Goals and Small Goals that will help their schools, homes and cities to operate more sustainably. They encourage adults to adopt more earth-friendly practices, such as when they successfully advocated for the Santa Fe City Council to ban plastic bags and charge 10¢ for paper bags. And when the GWE kids learned how the fee would burden lower-income residents, they designed reusable bags that could be given to those in need.

Their enthusiastic and effective approach has brought them to speak with elected officials at the local, state and national level. A few of the inspiring actions that the Global Warming Express has been taking both close to home and at larger scales include:

• Partnering with Santa Fe Public Schools on green initiatives and sustainability actions, including a composting program and a low carbon footprint lunch program
• Advocating, planning, measuring, and testifying for solar panels at Acequia Madre Elementary school.
• Holding a seat on the Mayor’s Climate Action Task Force
• Testifying at the EPA hearings on coal in Denver (sponsored by the Sierra Club)
• Organizing a letter-writing campaign against unsustainable palm oil production
• Participating in the NYC Climate March
• Writing letters to the editor, the Secretary General of the UN, and President Obama

The kids at the Global Warming Express show us that at any age, it’s possible to get informed and take action to radically change the way that we relate to the environment and each other.

The Global Warming Express kids performing at the Mayoral Inauguration in Santa Fe.

You can find out more about The Global Warming Express and help to continue and expand this program by donating here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-global-warming-express#/story

And to read more about how, as adults, we can cultivate a sense of responsibility and harmony in the evolving relationship between humans and the environment, check out The Anthropocene: The Human Era and How It Shapes Our Planet.