Panels & Presentations

Global Earth Repair Convergence Modus operandi

 Our goal is to compile the world’s most comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of nature-based solutions for climate stabilization and planetary regeneration.  What contributions does each of these solutions hold for the global whole and how do the solutions interact. 

This will be accomplished through a compilation of all the solo presentations, intra-disciplinary panels and Inter-disciplinary panels which are recorded and put online for the world to view. After the Convergence we will publish a transcript which lists all of them in a categorized fashion.

A) Solo presentations by esteemed experts in their field of Earth repair solutions.

Each person (drawing on their expertise) can give their advice to the world on what humanity needs to do at this time.  What are their most up-to-date recommendations? They are not just addressing one sector of society (eg. policy-makers, politicians, governments, Indigenous people, subsistence villagers of The South, and so forth. They are addressing all of humanity.  What is their message to humanity at large.

As of January 2025 we had 86 people signed up to present. Most of them experts in their field.  We are just starting a new drive to line up more presenters by the end of 2025. We will publish a list of additional world experts we are inviting in early December.  Here is where you can view the Bios of the 86 current presenters. https://globalearthrepairfoundation.org/gerc-presenter-list/

B) Intra-disciplinary panels of experts. Intra-disciplinary refers to work or study that occurs within a single academic discipline. 4 to 6 people per panel. At the end of this article is an initial list of 53 proposed panels. This is just a start. Social as well as physical topics. There will likely be multiple panels on some topics.

C) Inter-disciplinary panels of experts. Representatives of intra-disciplinary panels can meet to look for synergies and collaborative efforts. How can these various solutions work together inasmuch as possible?  We expect exciting synergies will come out of these inter-disciplinary panels.  

Some panels would be in-person, some online and some hybrid.

D) Most of these solo presentations, intra-disciplinary panels and Inter-disciplinary panels will be recorded and put online for the world to view.

Full speed ahead on all of these solutions at the same time. If we move forward on all fronts that is much better than focusing on one or several solutions to save us. 

This will be in English language, but we need to look into the current best programs for translating and sub-titling in multiple languages.  This is one of the main reasons GERC needs funding.  Recording all this and getting it online will take people with expertise. 

Our goal is something along the lines of 200 solo presentations, 100 in-person and 100 online.  40-50 intra-disciplinary panels and 20-25 inter-disciplinary panels. Time will tell, depending on the response we get to this call and the funding we receive.

Presenter applicants should tell us whether they are available for being on a panel.  We expect that intra-disciplinary panels will nominate members to be on an inter-disciplinary panels (as well as having some pre-selected people).

Panel Moderators: We will need moderators for these many different panels.

Ideally, moderators know a lot about the panel topic(s) plus are good and tactful moderators.  Keeping things on track and giving everyone an opportunity to contribute. Some of the moderators may also sit on other panels and/or give solo presentations.  Some may moderate more than one panel. I have started a list of possible moderators and this will expand with further research and recommendations from speakers and Vision/Advisory Council members.  This is a frequently asked question?

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

GERC 2 Panels

This long list of potential panels (52 this edition) gives you an idea of what we are trying to accomplish. Each one of these facets already has (or should soon have) conferences devoted to that sole topic. However, our goal is to bring representatives from all of these angles together at one time so that synergies, syntheses and collaborations can result.  A goal of the panels should be to highlight how their piece of the puzzle contributes to overall planetary regeneration

I have taken the liberty here to propose which of our current 2026 speakers might be on particular panels and people who I plan to invite to participate. We currently have about 90 people who have agreed to participate but they have not have all been confirmed lately. I have included some speakers from our 2019 and 2022 events (over 80 speakers at each event). I have about another 100 people on my list of who to invite. This is just a start. Once we ask all them, we will have a bigger pool of speakers and we can start nailing down who will be on which panels.  Also we expect to get quite a few speaker recommendations over the next several months.  Who will be on which panel will be increasingly fine-tuned as we get closer to the convergence.

The Convergence’s goal is to compile the world’s most comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of nature-based/biological solutions for climate stabilization and planetary regeneration.  

Panel Nominations for the Convergence

As of November 25th - Under Review & Subject to Change


• Whales and their roles in ocean ecosystems and how to revitalize their populations.
— Peggy Oki, Jill Silver

• Coral reefs’ roles in the oceans and maintaining coral refugia until the climate cools down.
—Thomas Goreau

• Seaweed panel. How seaweed fits into the global picture.
—Brian von Herzen, Tim Visi

• Phytoplankton. Their roles in oceanic and planetary biospheres and climate. How to increase them. 
—Peter Fiekowsky, Russ George, Russ Speer

• Mangrove Forest Restoration State-of-the Art and next steps.
—Alfredo Quarto, Neal Spackman

• Birds and their roles in the biosphere and how to revitalize their populations.
—Nelda Swiggett

• Forest and ecosystem management to increase primary forests and to reduce wildfires.
—Hart Hagan, Chad Hansen

• Insects and their roles in the biosphere and how to revitalize their populations.
—Eric Lee-Mäder

• Bioaerosols role in climate and how to increase them. (short for biological aerosols). Particles released from terrestrial and marine ecosystems into the atmosphere, phytoplankton, seaweed, and plants. Fungal spores are one of the most abundant and important bioaerosols.
—Brian von Herzen, Paul Lynn

• Bringing back the beavers. What potential exists for beavers to rehydrate landscapes and sequester carbon.
—Brock Adams, Jakob Shockley, Julie Vanderwahl, UK Rewilding person

• Regenerating soils

• The Biotic Pump
—Anastassia Makarieva, Antonio Donato Nobre, Rob de Laet, Alpha Lo

• The Small Water cycle.
—Michal Kravčík, Jan Pokorný, Zuzka Mulkerin

• The roles of fungi in the global climate and ecosystem functioning. 
—Paul Lynn, Reishi Strauss, Raskal Turbeville, Paul Stamets

• Grazing animals and grasslands sequestering carbon. Regenerating drylands with ecological grazing practices.
—Precious Phiri, Rodger Savory, Doniga Markegard, Judith Schwartz, Courtenay White

• Agroforestry  for increasing food production & ecosystem health.
—Michael Pilarski, Bryce Ruddock, Dan Halsey

• Regenerative agriculture
—Vijay Kumar, Dan Kittredge, Hunter Lovins

• Rehydrating the land
—Zach Weiss, Andrew Millison, Darren Doherty

• Permaculture’s role in/contributions towards global earth repair

• Reforestation
—Alan Watson Featherstone, Wout Hoff

• Role of soils in planetary carbon and how to double and triple carbon stored in world soils as quickly as possible.
—Walter Jehne, Didi Pershouse, Gabe Brown, David Yarrow, Dan Kittredge, Elaine Ingham

• Boreal Forests role in global biosphere
—Anastassia Makarieva

• Halophytes for Earth Repair and crop production in salted soils and arid regions. 
—Neal Spackman

• Grassroots Mass Movements for Earth Repair. Examples, and how to encourage and enable more.
—Tony Rinaudo (FMNR), Vijay Kumar Thallam (Andra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming), John D. Liu

• Communal land stewardship.  Models from around the world
—Coakee William Wildcat,  Chrys Ostrander

• Rights of Nature
—Elizabeth Dunne (Earth Law Center), Karie Crisp (Earth Law Center), Laura Valdés Kuri (Bosque de Agua)

• Financial mechanisms to reward Indigenous people, subsistence farmers, pastoralists, and rural communities to protect ecosystems and do Earth repair. Such Rob de Laet (ARARA for the Amazon), Bru Pearce (Envisionation).
—Samantha Powers, Jamaica Stevens

• Financing Global Earth Repair
—Samantha Powers, Jamaica Stevens

• Restoration Festivals
—Indyrishi Singh, Paul Majid, Greenpop, Replant the Forest Festival

• Spiritual re-awakening to Nature, Intelligences in Nature


Africa Program: Looking for African leadership to build this out.

• Francophone Africa Caucus, in French.

• East Africa Caucus

• Agroforestry in Africa.
—Peter Goebbels, Dennis Garrity, Warren Brush

• Agroecology for Africa

• Local Economic Systems in Africa.
—Will Ruddick

• Refugee Camps and slums. Climate amelioration, water supplies and how to maximize food production (with nutrient density) in small spaces.
—Marius Iragi, Warren Brush, Rosemary Morrow

• Ending colonialism and neo-colonialism: Pathways to True Sovereignty.
—Million Belay

• Restoration of Savannah and grassland ecosystems

• Pastoralist Cultures, Earth repair and culture repair.

• Africa Caucus at Fort Worden In-Person.

Indigenous Track, looking for Indigenous leadership to build this out.

• Indigenous leadership.
—Ilarion Merculieff

• Indigenous stewardship/ethnoecology. Humans living in symbiosis with the land mutually beneficial.
—Nancy Turner, Lyla June Johnson, Kat Anderson, Jewel James, Winona LaDuke,

• Ecosystem restoration in tropical forests: An Indigenous perspective. 

• Indigenous stewardship in the Salish Sea Bioregion.
—Paul Cheoketen Wagner, Jewell James,

• Indigenous Caucus. Not recorded

• Indigenous Caucus. Recorded Message to the world

• Messages from Indigenous elders
—Ilarion Merculieff,

Inter-disciplinary Panels

• How the biosphere works to regulate global temperatures and climates. 

• How to increase cloud cover.

• Gaia as a single metaorganism interconnected as one through the mycorrhizal networks and many other systems.
—Coakee William Wildcat

• Atmospheric panel. An expert in bioaerosols along with experts on the biotic pump, transpiration, jet streams, radiation to space, etc.

• Terrestrial hydrology. A panel which brings expertise on things like Beavers, wetland restoration, water harvesting, ground water, etc.

• Global systems panels. Experts on atmospheric science, oceans, terrestrial, small water cycle, birds, etc. 

• Ocean panel includes experts on topics like seaweed, phytoplankton, whales, mangroves, sea grass meadows, marine protected areas etc.
—Brian von Herzen, Tom Goreau, Jonathan Waggoner,

What are some panels you would like to see?

 One thing alone will not turn the tide, but all of them working together will.

Every part of the globe can contribute to Earth repair.  We can sequester more carbon on every parcel of land that humans manage: gardens, farms, forests, etc. Every bit of degraded land. Every city. Almost all landscapes. Every bit of the oceans. The world is a giant carbon sink waiting for human cooperation.  It knows how to do it and now, so do we.  Maximizing life maximizes carbon drawdown. Putting that pesky, extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere somewhere where it can do some good.  We need carbon in soils, in living biomass and in grand old forests.  We need carbon sinking to the bottoms of oceans.  It wouldn’t really take that long to draw-down the atmospheric carbon dioxide to a pre-industrial level. 25 years is what the most respected experts I know say.

In 25 years I believe we could have worldwide food security and sovereignty based on local food production.  This is not an idle guess.  I have been a serious student of regenerative agriculture, permaculture, agroforestry, agroecology and horticulture for 50 years and have been a small-scale farmer since 1972, mostly with hand tools, so I know what is possible with low mechanized farming.

Let’s get on with it!

The Global Earth Convergence brings together some of the world’s most renowned experts on global repair -- by that we mean the people who understand the existing soil  - plants - trees - water interactions and how the naturally existing regeneration processes literally heals the planet from the climate damage that exists. The Global Earth Repair Convergence can be thought of as a giant think-tank. How do we extend it into the future?

Have you seen what happens when the world’s experts on a topic are in a room on a panel in front of an engaged audience? When you hear the current science, learn indigenous practices, explore what is theoretically possible and what has been tried in the past, moments of brilliance emerge from the conversations that take place. This is what the Global Earth Convergence did in 2019 and 2022. This is what we intend to do again on May 7-11, 2026.

Earth repair is already a global movement with millions of people involved in efforts within their local ecosystems and cultures. Not everything will be done in our lifetime, but the Global Earth Convergence exists to advance the science, advance the sharing of best practices, and create the energy to keep spreading these practices. 

 

Each person can be part of the solution. The science of how the earth heals itself is well-established. The healing practices are already underway. The Global Earth Convergence coalesces these grassroots efforts, empowering the participants to learn more and implement solutions in their own soil, their own air, their own local plants and trees.