Speakers

Friday, October 17th

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse - Keynote Speaker

Restoring the EPA

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a passionate champion of the environment has argued before the Supreme Court for the protection of our public wetlands from development and sued to block the Bush administration’s efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act. He led the investigation into a devastating oil spill in Narragansett Bay and made sure the fine (the largest in Rhode Island’s history) was used for conservation. Senator Whitehouse has also pledged to protect our wild spaces from oil exploration.

gkisedtanamoogk - Invocation

Wampanoag elder, Teacher, and Indigenous Nation cultural advocate

An elder and teacher of the Mashpee Tribal Community of the Wampanoag Nation, a Nipmuc/Narragansett and member of the Otter and Turtle Longhouse gkisedtanamoogk teaches Native and Peace Studies as adjunct faculty at the University of Maine and as summer faculty at Bangor Theological Seminary. He has devoted his life to the work of restoring and strengthening aboriginal peoples’ rights, building cross cultural relationships, conflict resolution and as an advocate for preserving the social, political, legal and cultural traditions of the Indigenous Nation. He is an active ceremonialist.

Erica Fernandez

Si, Se Puede! (Yes, We Can!)

This remarkable eighteen-year-old environmental justice activist helped mobilize her diverse community in Oxnard, California to defeat the placement of a liquefied natural gas facility just offshore.

Erica Fernandez was born and raised in Michoacán, Mexico till the age of ten, where she became a remarkable young environmental activist in Oxnard, California. Initially motivated to fight air pollution because of her asthma, she helped mobilize her whole diverse community, from Latino youth to the Sierra Club, to defeat the placement of a liquefied natural gas facility just offshore, successfully resisting a multinational billion-dollar corporation.

Peter Neill

The World Ocean Observatory

All the waters of our blue planet are in truth one great ocean: this is the simple direct message at the heart of Peter Neill’s visionary work. The ocean unities us all in an integrated, global, social system that transcends conventional categories of species and habitats, freshwater and saltwater, climate zones, foodsheds, energy sources, trade, transportaton, public health, international finance and national economies, science and technology, governance and policy, coastal community development and cultural traditions – in short every aspect of human survival.

Neill created the World Ocean Observatory as an internet-based clearing house for Information, educational services and public discourse predicated on his deep understanding of the ocean as a single globally integrated system. W2O’s website offers comprehensive links to ocean issues and organizations through a news service, monthly letter, directory, catalog of online resources and interactive events on specific questions, responsible science and information to institutions, experts, students, teachers and curious citizens around the world.

Peter Blaze Corcoran

Kin, Kind, Kindle: Relationship, Care and Igniting Action with The Earth Charter

During the past few decades a growing number of academic leaders in the sustainability movement have emerged with real fire in the belly, none more so than Florida Gulf Coast University’s Professor of Environmental Studies Peter Blaze Corcoran. As an educator, researcher, activist and author with several books to his credit Corcoran ranks as a major trail blazer on the way forward to a sustainable future. He is currently working with several organizations at the local, national and inernational levels including the Sanibel-Captiva Conseration Foundation, the President’s Council of the National Wildlife Federation and the Earth Charter Initiative.

The Earth Charter is a statement of ethical principles for creating a just, peaceful and sustainable world that invites us to ecpand our ethical awareness of and accept responsibility for all our relationships --with ourselves, others, other cultures, other life forms and the Earth as a whole. Corcoran will speak of how The Earth Charter has inspired ethical action in diplomacy, education, international law, religion, business and many other fields.

Russell Libby

Our Next Agriculture

Just as healthy soil holds a balance of many different micro-organisms Russell Libby’s career as a visionary builder of local, organic food systems in Maine and beyond is balanced by many facets. He’s a farmer, a selectman, an economist and a poet. Since l983 he and his family have grown food for friends and family at Three Sisters Farm in Mount Vernon. Libby’s deep Maine roots date back to 1635, when his forebears settled in the colony. He was Research Director at the Maine Department of Agriculture for 10 years and has been the Director of MOFGA, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association since 1995. His connection with MOFGA was seeded at the first Common Ground Country Fair in l977 when he saw the connection between organic local food, at that time a hippy/back-to-the-land thing and a strong Maine economy. Libby got involved with the Consortium for Maine Food Self-Reliance in l979 and shortly after joined MOFGA’s Board of Directors. He has led MOFGA’s burgeoning growth and move to its permanent site at the Common Ground Education Center in Unity since then.

Libby will discuss how we’ve used sunlight that’s been stored for millions of years as the basis for our present economy. Now we must develop new strategies. Maine can be a leader in food and energy production and in building a sustainable economy in the courageous, enlightened world ahead.

Bridget Besaw - Slideshow

ART Activism

Through the language of stunning images acclaimed environmental photojournalist Bridget Besaw tells the story of human connection to the natural world. The primary inspiration for her work is the protection of the environment. This intention has led to large-scale photography projects for Maine Woods Forever, The Maine Farmland Trust and The Nature Conservancy.

Saturday, October 18th

Tom Linzey - Keynote Speaker

Local Self-Governance and Sustainability:  Stripping Corporate Rights and Recognizing the Rights of Nature

Thomas Linzey, is co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit providing free and affordable legal services to grassroots groups and municipal governments and seeking creative legal strategies for democratic control over corporations (especially in agriculture).

Linzey has run as an independent for state Attorney General, serves as coordinator of the Franklin County Coalition, is a resident lecturer for the "Democracy Schools" - weekend seminars held across the U.S. that seek to provoke critical thinking about the role of corporations, and is a frequent lecturer to groups and municipal governments across the country.

Mike Tetreault - Keynote Speaker

Maine as a Global Conservation Opportunity

Mike Tetreault,  Director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine got his start teaching wilderness leadership and environmental education at Teton Science School in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,  came East as a staff scientist for the Appalachian Mountain Club and joined TNC in l998.    He's directed successful conservation programs for The Conservancy from Colorado to Maine and will discuss how conservation here supports the preservation of Earth as a whole.  With its vast forests, pristine waters, productive seas and diverse species Maine offers extraordinary conservation opportunities that align with the global priorities TNC has identified as  crucial to the natural "worldwide web."

Deb Soule

Plants, Pollinators and People

Community herbalist, organic gardener, teacher and author of "A Woman's Book of Herbs,"  native Mainer Deb Soule has been gardening and studying the medicinal uses of herbs since she was 16.  During college Deb lived for a time in Nepal near Tibetan Monasteries and was deeply moved by the Tibetan peoples' commitment to easing physical, mental and emotional upsets with plants, prayer and other spiritual practices.  In 1985 she founded Avena Botanicals Herbal Apothecary in Rockport where she tends three acres of medicinal plants using organic and biodynamic methods.   In 2005 "People, Places and Plants" magazine named Deb one of the 50 most influential gardeners in the Northeast. Flowering plants are integral to the health of both pollinators and people.  Deb will share stories and images of her favorite medicinal plants and their pollinators and talk about the nutritive and medicinal qualities of these plants.

J. Carl Ganter

Circle of Blue

Photojournalist, writer, broadcast reporter and co-founder of Circle of Blue, a non-profit journalism, data and communications design project of the Pacific Institute that covers the global freshwater crisis  Carl Ganter's reporting has appeared in major magazines,  newspapers, on radio and television.   He currently serves on the "Navigating Peace" Water Working Group at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and is a longtime visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and lecturer at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism's Multimedia Bootcamp.   He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.As a member of this exciting international network of leading scientists, journalists and communications designers Carl will speak about the diminishing supply of fresh water on the Blue Planet and Circle of Blue's mission – to provide critical, timely, actionable data and reporting on the global water crisis in ways accessible to large, diverse audiences and to serve as a model for a unified approach to educating and informing on crucial issues through great journalism,  solid science and innovative communications.

Anita Sanchez

The Power Of Positive Change: Positive Image To Positive Action

At this moment in history we are moving into an utterly unique opportunity to be active changemakers.  Yet even the most committed and passionate can feel overwhelmed and even cynical about our individual and collective ability to respond positively to the magnitude of change needed.  Anita,  an international consultant in organizational development and societal change for businesses,  government and non-profit organizations will describe research findings about the power of positive change,  the strong effects of positive imagery on our bodies, mind and spirits that lead to positive action. A specialist in large systems change,  strategic planning,  executive coaching,  team building,  global diversity strategies and intiatives  Anita  is renowned for her strategic insights and creative interventions and her skill at bringing the wisdom of heart and mind together.  She is a Latina of Mexican-American, Aztec and Osage ancestry.