John Andersen presented at Lake Bluff's 125th anniversary celebration which honored the spirit of Lake Bluff’s popular Camp Meetings of the late 1800s by hosting a “Chautauqua.” The theme of the Camp Meeting was Let Nature Be Your Teacher.
John shared lessons he learned from working across businesses, government, and scientific communities to conserve and sustain the natural resources and society.
- Life forms are nested within larger ecosystems forged by climate and geology;
- Water flows enable the web of life;
- Communication networks bind communities together for mutual benefit;
- Diversity yields resilience;
- Balanced systems promote health;
- Prevention and rapid response to address invasive species is critical;
- Nature doesn't waste - outputs from one source are used as an input for another’s benefit;
- Collective intelligence protects the commons;
- Connectivity is key to migration; and,
- Interconnections and interdependencies across natural resource systems can be beautifully confounding but are of great interest and importance.
Let's take these principles and lessons to restore and protect Earth. As stated by Aldo Leopold, "That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics."
Watch the presentation here.
