Did you miss the Bioneers
Film Showcase last night at SBCC? You can read about it below, and if
interested, watch the inspiring main feature we showed, The Least
Deadly Catch, with Bren Smith, GreenWave founder & 2015 recipient of the
Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFPdTnclUA.
We had a great time, hope to do again next year. Margie
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About
Film
showcase highlights environmental innovations
April 10, 2017 • 76 views
Filed under Features
http://www.thechannels.org/features/2017/04/10/film-showcase-highlights-environmental-innovations/
Groups
of like-minded advocates met Sunday evening to learn about environmental
innovations happening locally and coast to coast.
The environmental horticulture department co-sponsored the “Central Coast Bioneers Film Showcase”
alongside Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and Ecologistics from
5 to 8 p.m. Sunday evening at the Fe Bland Forum, where clips from the 27th
Annual Bioneers Conference were shown.
“Bioneers are people that look at solutions found in nature
to solve human problems,” said Stacey Hunt, chief executive officer for
Ecologistics. “Bioneers [Conference] is where you go to get energized, to
get excited again about solutions.”
Early arrivals to the event were treated to samples of seaweed
products from AMA SeaBeauty, organic herbal dandelion coffee from
Carpinteria-based company Teecchino and informational flyers from the Community Environmental Council.
Nonprofit organization Ecologistics, headquartered in San Luis
Obispo, aims to create resilient and healthy communities for Central Coast
residents that are environmentally and economically sustainable. Service areas
include Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.
Ecologistics last hosted the showcase in Santa Barbara in
2013. Hunt said Bioneers allows Ecologistics the licensing and
media rights to distribute its videos to the public to offer a showcase such as
this one. “We try to reach out to all the counties,” Hunt
said. “We love to bring the information anywhere because it’s
really good information.”
The first clip featured a mural created by London-based eco-artist Louis Masai of a coral reef system.
Masai uses his street art to raise awareness about endangered
species and ecosystems such as the coral reef. A statistic from the film said
that by 2050, 90 percent of reef systems will be in danger. “Coral
reefs are resilient,” a quote from the clip read. “Our smallest
actions together can help them to regenerate.”
The second clip featured
speaker Bill McKibben, the founder of grassroots climate campaign 350.org, who used the
analogy of “lights going out on earth” to refer to the loss of
natural systems such as arctic sea ice. “I see lights go
out,” McKibben said. “When they go out, we don’t see as well
as we used to. These lights aren’t just going off on their own,
they’re being turned off.”
Nonetheless, McKibben expressed hope that other lights were coming
on, including the increasing affordability of solar panels, whose prices have
decreased by 80 percent in the last 10 years.
The third clip introduced
biologist Janine Benyus, founder of Biomimicry,
an organization that draws inspiration from nature to seek sustainable
solutions and innovations. She argued that plants grow together as whole
networks or “parties” and that we need to understand them to
“help the helpers.” “We need to make the planet great
again,” Benyus joked.
The pace picked up again with the fourth clip which
featured youth activist and hip hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, who rapped two songs for
the audience. Martinez is the founder of Earth Guardians, an organization of young activists, artists
and musicians devoted to defending the planet.
The feature film of the evening, “The Least Deadly Catch: Ocean Farming in the Climate
Change Era,” was introduced by Daniel Marquez of Pharmersea, a 25-acre sea
farm off Ellwood Pier near Bacara Resort where Marquez and his wife Antoinette
grow kelp. The film featured fisherman Bren Smith, founder of GreenWave and winner of the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge award, which recognizes efforts to
identify and measure effective, enduring solutions to global sustainability
challenges.
“Ecological crisis has nothing to do with the
environment,” Smith said. “It has to do with the economy. There
will be no jobs on a dead planet.”
Smith emphasized the need to adopt more seaweed in culinary
cuisine, stating that seaweed is the most affordable way to grow and eat, and
that a network of farms the size of the state of Washington could feed the
world. Smith came up with the idea of “restorative 3D ocean
farming” that has low aesthetic impact, small footprint and protects the
environment.
“Climate change is going to force us into the ocean,”
Smith said. “This is our opportunity to protect rather than privatize our
oceans.”
After the film, Marquez discussed Pharmersea and compared it to
Smith’s model of 3D ocean farming, where the Marquezs use their seaweed
crops to create cosmetics and skincare products. The company sells the products
under its brand AMA SeaBeauty. Marquez said she hopes to open up a storefront
on State Street by April 30.
Margie Bushman, co-founder of Santa Barbara Permaculture Network,
said she hopes to host the event again next year.
“We were very happy with the outcome,” Bushman said.
“We always thought it would be powerful and we would like to keep doing
it.” Ecologistics will host a second Central Bioneers Showcase from April 25 to April 27 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
(805)
962-2571
P.O.
Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org
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