“Powerful tools to cope with the climate”
with Eric Toensmeier & Bonita Eloise Ford
Saturday, November 16, 1pm to 5pm
and Sunday, November 17, 1pm to 5pm (Eastern time)
Join this ONLINE WORKSHOP to learn:
- How climate change will likely affect your local area
- How to use nature-based strategies to lessen local impacts
- Where to access key data and tools
- How to move from emotional overwhelm to climate action
Why?
Nature-based strategies to climate mitigation and adaptation can greatly reduce harmful impacts on people and ecosystems—in other words, the same amount of warming will create less damage if people work together and plan ahead to respond intelligently.
For Whom?
This workshop is meant for people who have some basic understanding of permaculture design and/or land-based strategies. It will aid permaculture practitioners, land stewards, and other land use planners to better design for resilience.
Session 1: Climate Projections and Impacts (November 16)
This presentation uses the latest science from the IPCC and leading climate researchers to look at the projected impacts of different levels of warming. First, it examines impacts on land, water, and ecosystems: extreme weather, fire, glacial and polar ice melting, oceans, sea level rise, extinctions, and loss of species and ecosystems. Second, it examines impacts on people: human health and disease including projected deaths from heat, weather disasters, famine, etc., climate-induced migration, increased slavery, conflict, war and fascism, and other atrocities. Finally, it includes some potentially catastrophic yet entirely plausible scenarios.
Session 2: Climate Emotions and Personal Design (November 16)
As the news is grim, and often worse than people think, this portion supports participants in connecting with their climate emotions and practicing some simple tools to start processing them, including breath awareness, movement, meditation, and writing. It leads participants through a simple design exercise to refocus on their values and identify their personal purpose as they shift their efforts toward climate action.
Session 3: Climate Adaptation Toolkit (November 17)
This presentation demonstrates how and where participants can find climate projections for the regions where they live or work, so they can better understand their local challenges. It then examines adaptation responses that can reduce the harmful impacts on people and the planet. Many of the most powerful mitigation approaches, like agroforestry and perennializing food production (which are familiar to permaculture practitioners), also have impressive adaptation benefits to address flooding, drought, extreme heat, etc.
Session 4: Community Design for Adaptation (November 17)
In small groups, participants work on a design with regional projection tools and adaptation responses suitable to their region and scale. Participants explore how they might garden or farm differently given the potential changes ahead, what approaches would be accessible on a limited budget, and how to increase resilience through community efforts.
Presenters
Eric Toensmeier is the award-winning author of “The Carbon Farming Solution” and other books. He is a Senior Fellow with the Global Evergreening Alliance and a former Senior Fellow with Project Drawdown, where he modeled the global mitigation and economic impact of agricultural and ecosystem climate solutions. Eric lectured on agriculture and climate at Yale University for seven years. His work today focuses on climate change mitigation and adaptation through the increased adoption of perennial crops and agroforestry systems.
Bonita Eloise Ford is the author of the book “Embers of Hope: Embracing Life in an Age of Ecological Destruction and Climate Chaos” and of the new book “Climate Care” (coming in 2027). Her work supports people in coping with and addressing eco/climate breakdown. She is Climate Mental Health Network’s Gen Z program lead and she has mentored facilitators at Youth Climate Lab. Bonita has taught permaculture and Nonviolent Communication and has facilitated groups around the world for over 20 years.
Registration is now closed.
Please stay tuned to purchase access to the workshop recordings.