The Healing Earth

A true pioneer and respected elder in ecological recovery and sustainability shares effective solutions he has designed and implemented. A stand-out from the sea of despairing messages about climate change, well-known sustainability elder John Todd, who has taught, mentored, and inspired such well-known names in the field as Janine Benyus, Bill McKibben, and Paul Hawken, chronicles the different ecological interventions he has created over the course of his career. Each chapter offers a workable engineering solution to an existing environmental problem: healing the aftermath of mountain-top removal and valley-fill coal mining in Appalachia, using windmills and injections of bacteria to restore the health of a polluted New England pond, working with community members in a South African village to protect an important river. A mix of both success stories and concrete suggestions for solutions to tackle as yet unresolved issues, Todd's narrative provides an important addition to the conversation about specific ways we can address the planetary crisis. Eighty-five color photos and images illustrate Todd's concepts. This is a refreshingly hopeful, proactive book and also a personal story that covers a known practitioner's groundbreaking career.

Integrating the environmental movement with personal development and self-help psychology, this work explains that by developing a deeper bond with the natural world, people can find solutions to personal and intrepersonal struggles.

Valuing Lives, Healing Earth: Religion, Gender, and Life on Earth analyzes and amplifies advocacy for gender and ecological justice in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, focusing on women who embody commitments to healing the earth and valuing lives rendered vulnerable by problematic social systems. The volume features essays from leading scholars Ivone Gebara (Brazil), Aruna Gnanadason (India), Rosemary Radford Ruether (U.S.), and Sylvia Marcos (Mexico) among renowned, established, and emerging scholars concerned with religion, environment, gender, and the many intersections between them in real life. The volume highlights scholarship on practical work by women globally, who labor toward greater justice for a diverse humanity and biodiverse nature, exerting collaborative solidarity, grounded love, and realistic hope for the future. This timely book presents compelling arguments of the intimate connections between gender, ecology, colonialism, indigeneity, and Christianity from global perspectives. Pertinent case studies, rigorous social analyses, and sound theological reflections make this book a must read for scholars, activists, Christian leaders, and students. In the gloomy days of record temperature, wildfires, and tropical storms, the authors offer hope and vision to fight climate change. Kwok Pui-lan, Dean's Professor of Systematic Theology, Candler School of Theology at Emory UniversityRosemary Radford Ruether's contribution to ecofeminist theology cannot be overestimated. This signal volume, including voices from all over the world, is a fitting unfolding of the trajectory Rosemary set ... in her pioneering effort to value each living creature, human and otherwise, and to heal Earth of the wounds inflicted by a ruthless human(un)kind. These essays ... provide a partial roadmap for moving forward as a global community. From diverse starting points, the authors explore crucial issues that a great theologian projected. What a legacy, what a challenge! Mary E. Hunt, a feminist theologian, is co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) This timely collection is an homage to Rosemary Ruether's foundational work linking social and environmental justice. A collaboration of diverse feminist writers from both the Global South and the Global North, the book delivers a sophisticated and nuanced engagement with current critical issues involving climate, biodiversity, and human diversity in its complexity. The alleviation of human suffering and healing the earth emerge as important components of the pursuit of justice. Frida Kerner Furman, Professor Emerita, Religious Studies, DePaul University

As a child he was taught to respect nature by an Apache elder he called Grandfather, now as a bestselling author and master tracker Tom Brown, Jr., shares his secrets for nurturing and saving our planet. Tom Brown, Jr., is America's most acclaimed outdoorsman, tracker, and teacher. When he was eight he met Stalking Wolf, an Apache elder who taught the young man how to survive in the wild, and more importantly, how to value our place in the natural order. For more than three decades, Tom Brown, Jr., has shared these insights with the world through teaching, writing, and film. Now, for the first time, he has detailed actions that each of us can take to help heal our ailing planet.

We know there's a climate emergency but what does that mean we should do? What does a better future look like and how do we get there? Having spent over a decade on the frontlines of climate activism - organizing, campaigning, and holding the powerful to account - Tamsin Omond discovered first-hand that this crisis is too big for one group of activists to solve. It needs everyone. Do Earth is about collective action and community engagement. It's about healing our relationships with nature, each other and ourselves; and feeling inspired about what the next phase of human evolution might be. With practical guidance and gentle encouragement, Do Earth provides a blueprint for reimagining the world and reviving our beautiful planet. Totally brilliant. It's not just a handbook for activism but also a way to live. - Ed O'Brien, Radiohead If you read one book on climate change this year, make it this one. - Jack Harries, co-founder, Earthrise Studio A powerful guide to becoming active from one of the country's most respected and creative campaigners. - Caroline Lucas MP

Here is a trailblazing book on issues of vital interest to the future of humankind. Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth sheds light on humankind’s most serious health challenge ever--how to save our precious planet as a clean, viable habitat. As a guide for therapists, health professionals, pastoral counselors, teachers, medical healers, and especially parents, Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth highlights readers’strategic opportunities to help our endangered human species cope constructively with the unprecedented challenge of saving a healthful planet for future generations. Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth introduces readers to an innovative approach to ecologically-grounded personality theory, spirituality, ecotherapy, and education. The book shares the author’s well-developed theories and methods of ecological diagnosis, treatment, and education so professionals and parents, our most influential teachers, can rise to the challenge of saving our planet. Readers will find that the book helps them accomplish this goal as it: explores an expanded, ecologically grounded theory of personality development, the missing dimension in understanding human identity formation outlines a model for doing ecologically oriented psychotherapy, counseling, medical healing, teaching, and parenting describes life-saving perspectives for making one’s lifestyle more earth-caring demonstrates the importance of hope, humor, and love suggests how these earthy approaches may be utilized in a variety of social contexts and cultures A systematic theory and practice guidebook, Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth fills a wide gap in both the counseling and therapy literature and the ecology literature. It offers an innovative model for fulfilling the “ecological circle” between humans and nature with three action dimensions. These are self-care by being intentionally nurtured by nature; spiritual enrichment by enjoying the transcendent Spirit in nature; and responding by nurturing nature more responsibly and lovingly. The theories and practical applications presented in the book come together to explore long-overlooked issues at the boundary between human health and the health of the natural environment. Psychotherapists, health professionals, and teachers; pastoral counselors and other clergy who counsel and teach; laypersons who are parents and grandparents; and individuals and groups interested in environmental issues will find Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth essential for approaching the long-neglected earthy roots of the total human mind-body-spirit organism.

This pathfinding collection--by premier psychotherapists, thinkers, and eco-activists in the field--shows how the health of the planet is inextricably linked to the psychological health of humanity, individually and collectively. It is sure to become a definitive work for the ecopsychology movement. Forewords by Lester O. Brown and James Hillman.