This conversation occurred in the depths of the pandemic... probably month 13 of the lockdown. Somewhat weary and deeply concerned about the political situation in the United States, I called upon my friend, Joe Costello, to give me some perspective. And so he did, and he took me all the way back to the Roman Republic. The conversation reveals strong parallels to the challenges we face today; and a subtle, deeper awareness of the dynamics of power and a degraded citizenry unable to function as it once had. I am very happy to share this conversation with you all. And if you want to follow Joe, go to his Substack: https://joecostello.substack.com/

About 100 years after The Colorado River Compact, when the flow of the Colorado River was divided up based on an anomalous wet period in the region, the American Southwest and its megacities and megasprawl are facing the consequences of that initial treaty. The treaty had the misguided assumption that the Colorado would have more water over time than it actually does. Now add the impact of climate disruption and the American Southwest is facing a permanent water crisis. Peter Gleick walks us through the history of the Colorado River and how the American Southwest must adjust to a new normal with much less water.

A warrior for peace passed August 30, 2022, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. Gorbachev was the architect of the end of the Cold War and had the audacity to think that peace between the former Soviet Union / Russia and the West was possible. We made a film about the conditions for peace the emerged at the end of the 1980s with Gorbachev and other Cold Warriors. Their message of peace was embodied in our film The Arrow of Time. http://www.n2k.world/thearrowoftime This statement by Gorbachev is his message to the audience at the premier of the film at the Zürich International Film Festival in 2017. Already ailing then, he left his doctors to issue this urgent message, a message that asked for international cooperation with the objective of peace. It is so prescient and hence why we republish it now. Russian with English voiceover, voiceover starts at :15 seconds.

The boldest move in the Nature Rights Movement to date is led by a young Inuit, Patricia Johnson-Castle, a Nunatsiavummiuk and Co-chair of the Social Justice Co-op of Newfoundland and Labrador. They are bringing the rights of nature to the Atlantic Ocean in the city of St. John, of Newfoundland & Labrador which means that they can bring suit if the Atlantic Ocean is impacted by pollution...like pollution that leads to climate disruption. Bold. Patricia Johnson-Castle is Nunatsiavummiuk (an Inuk from Nunatsiavut) as well as of British and German descent. She is the co-chair of the Social Justice Co-op of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the former Director of Policy and Planning for Nunatsiavut Government (an autonomous regional and ethnic Inuit government in Northern Labrador). Patricia is an incoming PhD student at the University of Minnesota in the Department of History.

Leila Conners interviews John Todd about the inspiration behind the water machine and how it works. John Todd was inspired by the interaction of the multitudes of life in the waters around Cape Cod, where he grew up. From that inspiration he invented the water machine, or the ecomachine...also known as a living machine. What the water machine does is use sunlight and a system of vats that contain plants, algae, bacteria, fish, snails...the multitudes...to cleanse polluted water. So in one end runs the polluted water, and out the other flows water free of metals, pollutants and is of the quality of drinking water.

In this video, Mathew Schmid speaks with Gary Lamb about social renewal. Gary Lamb is the director of the Hawthorne Valley Center for Social Research in upstate NY. He was a high school economics teacher and administrator in the Waldorf school movement, a magazine editor, and a lecturer and workshop facilitator on addressing social issues from the perspective of Rudolf Steiner's ideas of a threefold social organism. Gary has written and edited several books on economics, education, and social renewal. His most recent published books are, "A Road to Sacred Creation: Rudolf Steiner's Perspectives on Technology, Volume 1" and "Steinerian Economics." (both available from steinerbooks.org) His current thinking and work are devoted to the development of ethical technology in the 21st century, and more generally, to exploring ways to bring a wide spectrum of like-minded non-partisan social reform groups and movements into alignment around a common cause as a method to accelerate social renewal.

Yenny Vega Cardénas, President of Observatoire International des Droits de la Nature, tells us how she helped the Ekuanitshit Innu First Nation to protect their wild river, known in English as the Magpie River, by giving the river rights. The first law of its kind in Canada, Yenny brings us up to date on the international nature rights movement as well and how indigenous people are leading the way.

James Durocher walks us through the current battle to save rights of nature work in Florida. After passing an extraordinary law by 89% of the votes, from across the political spectrum, the state legislature preempted the will of the people and declared the law null and void. James details their back and forth and how they intend to save their work which protects Floridian springs, water and waterways.

Leila Conners speaks with Beatrice Fihn about the pathway to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Nuclear escalation was already underway prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and with the war in Europe, the issue of denuclearization is now more urgent than ever. Beatrice believes that a world free of nuclear weapons is possible if we stigmatize nuclear weapons and make it difficult to possess them. As Executive Director of ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Beatrice lead the way to the creation of The U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which passed January 22, 2021. ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.