Episode 8

On Being - The Intelligence of Plants with Robin Wall Kimmerer

In this episode of The Carbon Connection, we discover the Intelligence of Plants with Krista Tippett and her guest Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Robin Wall Kimmerer's blend of indigenous wisdom and scientific exploration and her calm, kindly delivery have nurtured many. She shares her perspectives on plant wisdom and encourages reflection on the natural world and our relationship with it.

This guest speaks of the interconnectedness of all things, which speaks to the urgency of looking after all things. We particularly liked her explanation of mosses "sharing limited resources and making the most of what they've got."  

As a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer joins science's ability to "polish the art of seeing" with her personal, civilizational lineage of listening to plant life and heeding the languages of the natural world. She's an expert in moss — a bryologist — who describes mosses as the "coral reefs of the forest." And she says that as our knowledge about plant life unfolds, human vocabulary and imaginations must adapt.

Learn more about climate change at TheCarbonAlmanac.org.

CONTRIBUTORS

Special Acknowledgment: 

Robin Wall Kimmerer, "The Intelligence of Plants," from On Being with Krista Tippett; first broadcast in February 2016; onbeing.org

Episode Producer: Jenn Swanson

Show Notes: Jo Petroni

Editor: Tania Marien

Production Team: Steve Heatherington, Jo Petroni, Mary Paffard

Senior Producer: Tania Marien

Supervising Producer: Jennifer Myers Chua

Music: Cool Carbon Instrumental, Paul Russell, Musicbed

Episode Art: Jennifer Myers Chua

Network Voiceover: Olabanji Stephen

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Carbon Almanac

When it comes to the climate, we don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action.

The climate is the fundamental issue of our time, and now we face a critical decision. Whether to be optimistic or fatalistic, whether to profess skepticism or to take action. Yet it seems we can barely agree on what is really going on, let alone what needs to be done. We urgently need facts, not opinions. Insights, not statistics. And a shift from thinking about climate change as a “me” problem to a “we” problem.

The Carbon Almanac is a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between hundreds of writers, researchers, thinkers, and illustrators that focuses on what we know, what has come before, and what might happen next. Drawing on over 1,000 data points, the book uses cartoons, quotes, illustrations, tables, histories, and articles to lay out carbon’s impact on our food system, ocean acidity, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, extreme weather events, the economy, human health, and best and worst-case scenarios. Visually engaging and built to share, The Carbon Almanac is the definitive source for facts and the basis for a global movement to fight climate change.

This isn’t what the oil companies, marketers, activists, or politicians want you to believe. This is what’s really happening, right now. Our planet is in trouble, and no one concerned group, corporation, country, or hemisphere can address this on its own. Self-interest only increases the problem. We are in this together. And it’s not too late to for concerted, collective action for change.