Today we're talking with one of the planet's most avid environmental advocates, Laura Turner Seydel. Laura works with and supports organizations that address urgent challenges affecting the health, functionality, and vitality of our life support system: Our air, water, land, food, biodiversity, and climate. She co-founded Chattahoochee Riverkeeper to help protect Georgians' drinking water, as well as Mothers & Others for Clean Air, which works to improve air quality for at-risk populations.
Laura also serves on the boards for Children & Nature Network helping children realize the benefits of exposure to nature, Project Drawdown, which focuses on the top scalable solutions to address global warming, the United Nations Foundation, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and she is the Chair of the Captain Planet Foundation and Director of the Turner Foundation.
In this episode, we talk about how her father, Ted Turner, instilled a love for the environment in her at an early age and how she's continued that legacy with her own children. She also tells us about what she's doing to teach all children about the environment and inspiring them to be Planeteers, and how we should all be coming together to to save our one and only home, Earth.
Mentioned In The Episode
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
Sally Bethea
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau
17 Goals of Sustainable Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Today we're talking with one of the planet's most avid environmental advocates, Laura Turner Seydel. Laura works with and supports organizations that address urgent challenges affecting the health, functionality, and vitality of our life support system: Our air, water, land, food, biodiversity, and climate. She co-founded Chattahoochee Riverkeeper to help protect Georgians' drinking water, as well as Mothers & Others for Clean Air, which works to improve air quality for at-risk populations.
Laura also serves on the boards for Children & Nature Network helping children realize the benefits of exposure to nature, Project Drawdown, which focuses on the top scalable solutions to address global warming, the United Nations Foundation, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and she is the Chair of the Captain Planet Foundation and Director of the Turner Foundation.
In this episode, we talk about how her father, Ted Turner, instilled a love for the environment in her at an early age and how she's continued that legacy with her own children. She also tells us about what she's doing to teach all children about the environment and inspiring them to be Planeteers, and how we should all be coming together to to save our one and only home, Earth.
Mentioned In The Episode
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
Sally Bethea
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau
17 Goals of Sustainable Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Monica Olsen (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of serenbe stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.
Monica Olsen (41s):
All right, now let's get back to Serenbe stories. Serenbe is a place where the innate connections humans have with nature and all living things is celebrated through work and play. And we're here to tell the stories of those who have been inspired by this biophilic way of life in our community and across the country. This is serenbe stories.
Monica Olsen (1m 23s):
Today we're talking with one of the planet's most avid environmental advocates, Laura Turner Seto, Laura works with and supports organizations that addressed urgent challenges affecting the health functionality and vitality of our life support system. Our air water, land, food biodiversity, and climate. She co-founded the Chattahoochee river keeper to help protect Georgia. Anne's drinking water as well as mothers and others for clean air, which works to improve air quality for at-risk populations. She serves on the board for children in nature network, helping children realize the benefits of exposure to nature project draw down, which focuses on the top scalable solutions to address global warming the United nations foundation, the nuclear threat initiative, as well as she's the chair of the captain planet foundation and the director of the Turner foundation.
Monica Olsen (2m 11s):
In this episode, we talk about how her father, Ted Turner instilled a love for the environment in her at an early age and how she's continued this legacy with her own children. She also shares with us the work she's doing to teach all children about the environment, inspiring them to be Planeteers and how we should all be coming together to save our one and only home earth. But first serenbe stories is brought to you by the, inn at serenbe. The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside, a bucolic ceremony where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserve forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, play on the croquet lawn swings and in-ground trampolines connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on the, inn grounds or within the community of Serenbe, book your stay at serenbeinn.com.
Monica Olsen (3m 2s):
Welcome back to Sarah bee stories. Today. We have Laura Turner Sydell with us. So I want to welcome her to Sammy stories.
Monica Olsen:
Hi Laura.
Steve Nygren (3m 10s):
So nice to have you with us today.
Laura Turner:
Good morning, Steve. It's great to be with you and Monica. Some of my favorite people. I love to hear that for a long time. Favorite people like my dad in society.
Monica Olsen (3m 30s):
Well, we've known each other for a really long time, and I appreciate that. Steve brought me into your orbit. I think when we did an enlightenment lunch with you years ago, so very, very honored to have you in the circle here.
Steve Nygren(3m 43s):
About the, the biophilic movement, Laura, and you have just been one of the key voices in the environment. I mean, you have, you have really stepped out there early on and you know, I know you're, you're, you're Ted's daughter, but that, that doesn't always mean that that's a natural thing. And you know, I think we all just owe you a huge debt of gratitude for speaking out and being out front when, when it wasn't necessarily popular and you continue to do that. So thank you. And looking forward to the conversation, to share with our listeners, some of the things you've done
Laura Turner (4m 18s):
Well, terrific. I, I think I probably have too many irons in the fire and, you know, but when I see a big gap, that's not being addressed, I try to bring other people and partners to helping solve the problem. And in every case of the things that we're talking about, I think we've been able to achieve, achieve that. But it's, you know, my passion really lies was our responsibility to our children and future generations to be a great steward, to pass along to them what the indigenous people pass through.
Laura Turner (5m 7s):
So many generations for us to have a functional life support system and you know, so that our children can be healthy and thriving and to have intact quality of life and, you know, a future, a promising future. And we have not done a good enough job. We've, you know, we've made a lot of progress on, you know, issues here and there, but we are as a country and as a world moving backwards at an unprecedented rate and I am quite fearful, but hopeful that we can really turn the Titanic around our children, expect us to like the great young Gretta Thunberg has, has implored us, all of us as grownups that have the ability to take action at the ballot box and otherwise to think about them when we vote and make sure that we vote for, for people who aren't just beholden to, you know, industries that are more about profit over people and to really vote for their future, the health and welfare and livability of, of our ecosystem, our planet.
Laura Turner(6m 42s):
And we know that our health and the health of the planet is inextricably tied. And a lot of people haven't figured that out yet. And that's why we're in the mess that we're in right now,
Steve Nygren (6m 55s):
Lauren, what's the first that you found your voice on the environment?
Laura Turner(6m 59s):
Well, the first cause was really that we solved for a big problem. What do they say? Think globally, act locally. My husband and I referred quite close with and friends with. We knew that we had a big problem with our beautiful Chattahoochee river that gives us our it's our lifeblood and not only our lifeblood in Atlanta, but all the way through Georgia, through Alabama, through Florida, to Apalachicola bay where their fisheries shellfish fisheries really important.
Laura Turner (7m 48s):
So what we do in Atlanta is really important to the health of the ecosystem and the ocean and the, and the golf. And we realized at that point that for a hundred years, our antiquated sewer system had been, you know, spewing out sewage, partially treated sewage. Our downstream neighbors were yelling and in doing all that they could to make Atlanta, to take responsibility, to listen up. We had, you know, mayor after mayor, after mayor that turned a blind eye and ignored the problem because it was very complex and a very expensive problem to solve.
Laura Turner (8m 41s):
But we started an organization with many different partners, river advocates, river rats, and we put our minds together and said, how are we going to solve this? And we learned about a model on the Hudson river keeper that had started in the 1960s based on, you know, fishermen coming together that were really upset about their declining catches and shad and other, you know, lucrative fish stocks because of polluting industries, primarily oil, and the tankers were going up the Hudson river and washing out their ballasts.
Laura Turner (9m 25s):
And the oil was pouring out into the Hudson and, and killing the fish. And we thought to ourselves, you know, that is a great model. Let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's go see what they've done. And we started with a Riverkeeper Sally buffet who was working at the Georgia Conservancy at the time. She was their water specialist and in a canoe with donated office space. So one computer, one volunteer and, and started really to, to work and, you know, raise the profile in our community with the media, to, for people to really understand what was happening because people just didn't know it wasn't talked about sewage is just not all that sexy.
Laura Turner (10m 14s):
Right? And, and, and before we knew it here, we were, you know, major players, you know, with downstream plaintiffs whose businesses and, and health and recreation opportunities were being ruined because of what we were doing here. And the city of Atlanta wouldn't work with that. It was so frustrating. And so we had to sue so a year after we got our nonprofit set status, and it's not what we wanted to do would have been much easier just to find solutions that work together, but that's not how it went down. We sued the city of Atlanta.
Laura Turner (10m 54s):
We won, we set national precedent. We protected in partnership with the trust for public land and many other partners, upstate funding, federal funding, and protected 90 miles of river corridor. And, and, you know, every, just about every street has been torn up pipes, replaced sewage treatment, plants built or expanded. They built a eight mile tunnel that you could drive a summit semi-truck through. That could hold the, the rain overflows and the sewage until the everything could catch up and that water could be treated.
Laura Turner (11m 36s):
And now we're seeing green infrastructure pop up everywhere. These natural ways to, to treat storm water, which saves a lot of money. We don't have to build new sewage treatment plants. And I, and, and, and really because of that, we were looking at sewer sewer hookup moratorium, which would have shut down. And this was in 1994, 95, when we were getting fined by the EPA, you know, $200,000 a day or something like that. And they were going to shut down any new development, but because of the settlement, the Riverkeeper and the city addressing this head on, and did the system being brought up to, you know, standards, we've been able to have a lot of development, billions and billions of dollars of development, all these buildings, but, you know, I, I'm really kind of afraid that we've, we're, you know, we've, we've really hit up against that, that wall, you know, how much development can we really have?
Laura Turner (12m 49s):
We've had a couple of drought situations. I'm sure you guys remember well, where we got very close within 30 days of running out of, of water in our impoundment, like like linear the army Corps of engineers and comments. And that is a very scary feeling. And if we were to have a severe drought again, could we support all this new development and all the growing population. So we really have to, as a, as a community and, and as a state, really take a hard look at this and figure out what is, you know, what the balance is because we could, you know, cross that line.
Laura Turner (13m 36s):
And, and, and I don't think it's far off in the future. I mean, obviously we've been getting a tremendous amount of rain when it rains. People don't think about these things, right.
Steve Nygren (13m 48s):
Well, you know, the entire city is certainly owes you a debt of gratitude, you and Rutherford and Sally, and, and being south down river. We really appreciate it down here, Laura, of all the work you did. And some of the, it seems natural now, but it was very unpopular at the time, as I remember you y'all were really out there, but, you know, it's, it's, it's, I mean, you were a young couple with a young family and you stepped out there. And one thing I've been impressed about is to see not only how you've stood up, but now your children are doing the same. And so here we have three generations of leadership and that's, that is not the average thing.
Steve Nygren (14m 29s):
How, w what's the culture within your family that you have been able to instill everyone to, to, to stand up?
Laura Turner(14m 36s):
Well, I, I think it, it's all, you know, what we learn on television and online really matters. I think we're a family where that, that example holds true. My dad, as you know, the media professional or media mogul, if you will, that he was sat on a top of a mountain, top of information, and he really made the decisions about, about that.
Laura Turner (15m 19s):
It was important to have responsibility and media and that it needed to be used as a platform for good, both socially and environmentally. And I think my dad always spot well. I know he did, even in Washington, DC, about responsibility and media and what children watched mattered and that they could be, you know, edgy, tamed by the right things. Or they could be polluted by the wrong things. You know, my dad was said, children should not be watching violence and sex on TV. And, and that was way before online media.
Laura Turner (16m 1s):
And he all, he, you know, it was like, he was very good friends with doc Cousteau and aired all his programming, the underwater adventures of doc Cousteau, and then national geographic Explorer. He funded a lot of documentaries and had the turnaround environmental division where, you know, a lot of his programming was focused on environmental issues. CNN of course, you know, putting war in people's living rooms, as it happened with the Gulf war for the first time, people could see the atrocities and the violence that that happened and the destruction of violence and of communities and families.
Laura Tuner(16m 49s):
And, you know, my dad has been an enormous advocate for peace, therefore, you know, donating an unprecedented about amount of money at the time, over 20 years ago, to the peacekeeping work and other work of the UN and very supportive of the sustainable development goals, 17 of them, which he is said is the business plan that this world needs to develop sustainable sustainably. And, you know, really growing up was with that opportunity to watch CNN, to watch all of this program programming, to be entertained, had a big impact on me and my three brothers and my sister who are all doing work in this space.
Laura Turner (17m 49s):
You know, my sister has her program that seen a 90 markets across the country, PBS called eco sense for living. And I encourage all of you who are listeners to, to tune in for that, because there are positive, great short segments that inform you and activate you around pitching in and making our world a better place starting right in your own backyard. And, and then, but anyway, I, I feel like that's what made the difference for me. And then of course, when you lead by example, as you have Steve or, you know, for your family, for your community, for the people everywhere who follow what you do and what you've been able to do with Serenbe, when you lead by example, that's very influential and your children are all working with you, very dedicated to the model that you set and the Chattahoochee Hills country at Serenbe.
Laura Turner (18m 55s):
And I've been thinking, you know, I really want to live there. I want to, I want to live there because you've taken this beautiful 1200 acres and I've been there many, many times. And 20% of it is high density development, but in keeping with, you know, a historic feeling and then the rest of it is love for nature and for the arts and for, you know, sustainable agriculture and for, you know, grazing of horses and other animals. And it's just such a Zen place. And as you mentioned, biophilia, how important that is if you were running the world at EO, Wilson would, you know, 80% would be preserved and 20% would be developed.
Laura Turner(19m 51s):
He's going for half earth, right? 50% set aside for nature because, and I'm on his half or of counsel and honored to be part of that. But, you know, we need nature's services, it's free services to us. And we don't put that on a, on, in, in our accounting system. We don't, we don't consider that we don't put it on the balance sheet and that's as ass backwards because you know, a fish is not worth anything until it's dead on our plate, you know, and trees aren't worth anything until they end up as lumber and home Depot, but all the services that it gives for all the creatures that live there, that, you know, it recycles cleans our air.
Laura Turner(20m 45s):
It provides shade and cools are urban heat islands. And what else provides us with, with, you know, that Zen that you get to the same kind of Zen that you get when you go to Serenbe, you know, there's the forest bathing. There's so many things that we know now that we didn't know just a couple of years ago about how important nature is to our mental health, our physical health, our overall wellbeing, and especially to our children.
Steve Nygren (21m 23s):
Tell us more about this council that EO Wilson has. Is that what you're saying? It's
Laura Turner (21m 29s):
It is a council and it's Mike Phillips who runs the Turner endangered species fund for the, for the family. And I serve on it together, but it's really, we get together every so often and meet and kind of share progress, obviously children and nature network, you and I serve on that together. And it's a lot of the things that we all are working on are very important to preserving nature and preserving those special places.
Laura Turner (22m 9s):
And so I, I go representing a number of organizations, but primarily my family, because, you know, dad has been trying to preserve land for conservation and has done a pretty damn good job. And it set this model for PRI private landowners. Like you've set, a model with serenbe that you can make profit and you can, you can conserve as well, conserve nature and, and habitat and species. And he's done that with, you know, over about 17 ranches in, in seven states.
Laura Turner (22m 52s):
And that adds up to 2 million acres. And, you know, he started with one little place in South Carolina with three bison, I think. And he grew that little herd, but when he was, when dad was a boy, he learned about the plight of the nickname of Americans, the plight of the bison, you know, that they had, you know, that they, they had, what is it called when you have something on your head? You know, the bounty, there was, there was a bounty bounty that the us government put on the, on the head of bison because it was, it was everything to the lives and welfare of the indigenous peoples.
Laura Turner(23m 42s):
And it was so, so sad that that happened. But there used to be 40 million bison along with elk and deer and all the other animals that roamed this country and restored the help of the kept the health of the Prairie's intact. And, and, and that's a one day, it was in the back of his head. You know, if I have this opportunity, this is what I'm going to do. So he started with three bison and now he's got 55,000 bison. And, and he is using the bison now to restore the health of the soil, the high intensive grazing techniques, the Allan savory touted, you know, a while back, I don't know, a decade and a half ago, he's got a great Ted talk out.
Laura Turner (24m 36s):
And obviously, you know, Peter Beck who made the series soil, carbon Cowboys, a lot of the solutions here and the drawdown book, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming by edited by Paul Hawkin written by our hometown hero, heroine, Katharine, Wilkinson, but you know, a third of those solutions have to do with, with nature and with, with how we raise our food and how we, you know, the high intensive grazing practices where general regeneration is Paul Hawkin would say in his new book, that's not out yet is titled regeneration.
Laura Turner (25m 28s):
But so we're trying to, a lot of some folks like will hear us another hometown, you know, will Georgia hero of white Oak pastures has been practicing these regenerative techniques and Vigo down there and see his place. You'll see the difference between all of his neighbors and what he's doing. You know, it was his neighbor's land. Even some of his family's land looks totally degraded, and it is degraded. And his he's managed to use domesticated animals, primarily cattle to bring back the life in soil.
Laura Turner (26m 10s):
So on Turner ranches, we're doing the same thing. We're not looking at how many head of bison there are, how many head of wildlife? Yes, there is a carrying capacity. And if you have a drought or, you know, you, you have to reduce the number of animals, but you can use them in the same with the same techniques. And we've been doing it for a couple of years on a couple of properties to prove the model and start transitioning. And a lot of his properties had mono culture's planeted. You can tell I'm passionate about this. You know, those monoculture grasses that were, you know, not indigenous or demic, they were actually monocultural grasses that were planted in the fifties and sixties.
Laura Turner (27m 4s):
And that's what most of the range land is in this country. And it's not very healthy for the animals. Therefore it's not very healthy for us to eat them. And anyway, I could, I could go on and on, but that's what we're doing on, on Turner ranches with Dr. Alan Williams of Joyce farms, he's our consultant. And may I suggest if you haven't already had him on your podcast, you need him on your podcast. One, just little, little thing. They're all these win-wins with regenerative agriculture. As you know, you bring back the native plants whose seeds have been laying dormant for 50 years, a hundred years, which is great.
Laura Turner (27m 54s):
The plants' roots grow long down into the ground. So the water, when it rains, doesn't run off it percolates down into the soil and recharges the, the, the, the water systems and makes that land more drought resistant. You get the native pollinators, small mammals, large mammals back. It's an access, a major carbon sink. It takes the carbon out of the atmosphere, puts it back into the ground, and that is the backbone of all life. But when you're talking to farmers and ranchers, what matters to them, their profits, right?
Laura Turner (28m 34s):
More than anything else. And according to Dr. Allen Williams, who is the expert, many different degrees. And he, his land in Georgia, Alabama, no, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, it's proof positive of this regenerative weight. Conventional farmer on average will make $11 of net profit per acre. That's nothing. How can you have, how can you afford to live much less invite your children and their families to stay on the property with you and work the land.
Laura Turner (29m 17s):
But a regenerative farmer can make a hundred, 150, 200 and upwards of net profit per acre, a regenerative ranch. Well let's conventional rancher will make $30 of net profit per acre, but a regenerative rancher. And especially if you combine it with the agriculture, you can make $250 net profit all the way up to $2,000 net profit. And in Dr. Allen Williams, he, he makes $1,200 of net profit per acre.
Laura Turner (30m 4s):
That is what it's all about. And then you can encourage your kids. It's fun to making, make a living like that. And, you know, and, and that's where we need to go to, instead of just having these people, walking a tight rope and living on the verge of bankruptcy,
Steve Nygren (30m 25s):
No, it, you know, the environmental movement, it it's, it's financial successful. It, it isn't, it, isn't something you have to sacrifice financially or anything else. And, and you, and I know that you touch on so many subjects, Laura, the way we, we could talk and talk. And of course, you know, next by the time this comes out, we will have cut the ribbon for the Rodale Institute here. And, and we'll be talking about that, but I want to come back to something you said about, you know, your dad really got some of his early commitments as a child, and I know you have seen how important it is to touch our children because you and the Turner foundation was an early funder of, of children, nature networks research, so that there's at children nature network.
Steve Nygren(31m 12s):
There is a one place that everyone can go to. And we, we thank you for that, but, you know, your, your, your dad saw early on and, and tell us about captain planet and launching that. And, and what you're doing with that now.
Laura Turner (31m 27s):
Well, I talked to you about edutainment of youth. My dad always thought it was super important to, to educate youth about global issues of importance. And his idea was to, you know, create this captain planet cartoon that would air Saturday mornings. And it started airing on Turner broadcasting. And then, you know, following seasons of it aired on cartoon network, which was another one of his brilliant ideas, 24 hour cartoons, and, and really show kids how, because there, there was captain planet, and then there were the five Planeteers that represented different elements of the earth.
Laura Turner(32m 24s):
And when these youth from all over the world, you know, represented every continent came together, they would combine their powers and then they could even achieve more. But when the job was to too tough, they, their combined powers would call on the superpower captain planet or divine intervention. That's how I like to see it in, in, you know, they were, these youth were able to combat every social issue, landmines aids, nuclear war, but also environmental issues.
Laura Turner (33m 8s):
Everyone that you can imagine was addressed. And, and that, you know, they would fight eco villains and, and beat the eco villains. Now we have an administration that looks a lot like to me, the eco villains and in captain planet and the Planeteers, I hate to say it, but, you know, people that denies the science at deny climate change is manmade. And that we have to take action. They're rolling back. And I think there are 101 different, hard fought, hard, won environmental protections, rolling those back 27 of them have to do with air quality and emissions.
Laura Turner (33m 57s):
And as you know, I, 70 blank and I co-founded mothers and others for clean air about 16 years ago now, because children are so vulnerable to dirty outdoor air, as it relates to burning fossil fuels. And although we've come, you know, we've cleaned up our air a good bit, a lot of the power plants, coal fire plants, the dirtiest of them were closed, or they transition to natural gas. But now we see rollbacks and, you know, it's more mining, more drilling and very special wild places like the Alaskan wildlife refuge.
Laura Turner (34m 45s):
We should not be opening that up for drilling, but just anyway, going back to captain planet and the Planeteers cartoon, that was 30 years ago, I can't believe that last month we celebrated the 30th anniversary of that cartoon. And it was seen in over a hundred countries in 23 different languages. And there is estimated to be 80 million youth that watched that program around the world. And next next year, we're going to be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the captain planet foundation, which has given just millions of dollars in cash grants to educators to support hands-on environmental projects for youth in every, in this country.
Laura Turner (35m 39s):
And in, in about 40 countries around the world, it is we've had a major impact. And one of my very favorite programs is the project learning garden, every child. And this is something that you advocate for Steve. I remember I was a girl scout troop leader for one of my two daughters troops. And we brought them to Serenbe to, to learn about sustainable agriculture. And it was so fun, but every child to be able to know how to plant seeds, to grow healthy fruits and vegetables, and to get over their fear, not only of eating healthy food, but also their fear of germs, dirt, bugs, et cetera, et cetera.
Laura Turner (36m 36s):
So that's been wildly successful. We've funded about 600 learning gardens. And what's great about it as is. They're kind of intense in certain markets across the country, Atlanta, we have 300 school gardens and we've transitioned a third of those, obviously with COVID, a lot of schools are doing virtual learning. We've transitioned a hundred of them and growing that number to project giving garden gardens. So we have urban certified growers going to the schools.
Laura Turner (37m 22s):
Each, each farmer is growing is taking care of about 10 schools in a time. And they're really production gardens. Now an Alice Waters is going to be thrilled to know that we've moved from tasting gardens and these schools to actual small production gardens. And just in the course of COVID, we've raised, produced about 80,000 pounds of, of produce, which those to the local food pantries in underserved communities.
Steve Nygren:
That's incredible.
Monica Olsen:
Yeah.
Steve Nygren (38m 1s):
Well, it's exciting to think, you know, that in 30 years, that means that that some people in their forties are that watch this, that are now coming into positions of decisions and politicians, and how incredible that possibly that cartoon will possibly really have its effect in the neck in the decade ahead is those people are in those leadership positions.
Laura Turner(38m 27s):
One person comes to mind just right away, but Jon Ossoff who's running for, for Senate is a big planet tear. I mean, he's very passionate about our health as is, as it relates to our environment, you know, and there's, Planeteers all over the world and yes, they are rising to, you know, to seats of power and decision-making, and it cannot happen fast enough, but it's also very important for us to, to edutain the next Kadri potential Planeteers and Leo DiCaprio bought the rights to captain planet to produce either a film or a series.
Laura Turner (39m 19s):
So we are waiting with bated breath for that to happen. That can, you know, we, we have, you know, we know how successful the, the superhero movies have been, but why don't we try one that's focused on real real world issues and villains instead of fictitious ones, and, you know, a lot of those, those, the superheroes actually destroy nature. It destroyed, you know, the story, the environment it's, it's not something that's eco-friendly at all, but, you know, I I'm, I'm very hopeful that we'll get this done.
Laura Turner (40m 5s):
And I, and I just wanted to touch on two additional things that we're working on at captain planet foundation, which, you know, I'm super proud of and that maybe the listeners would be interested in checking out, but in all of it, you know, all of our resources and curricula is open source on our website for our learning gardens. So you can do it at your church or in your backyard and, and it's all standard space. So it's especially with children being at home and doing a lot of virtual learning.
Laura Turner (40m 45s):
Some of these projects can be done to get credit in a standard spaced way through their schools with their teachers, but they've got a lot of teachers using our programs, but the project hero, there are like five quests that are already up and launched one as a freshwater fish, a quest one is related to large carnivores wolves in Colorado. One is about pollinators. And what does the other one? Well, the one that we're getting ready to launch is a longleaf pine Wiregrass ecosystem.
Laura Turner(41m 30s):
So, you know, those were important because it's web based platform of where youth can learn about the blight and of endangered threatened and declining species, right in their school yards or backyards and our communities and design solutions for them. A lot of it has to do with habitat restoration and, and help those species right, where they live. And I can tell you that there's no better antidote for depression and in, in some of what our youth are, are facing right now, then getting out and doing things to make a positive and lasting effect.
Laura Turner (42m 26s):
You know, I, I highly recommend taking action and do something about the problems. We know that that is really helpful as, as is getting out in nature. And just back to the library on the children and nature network website, which is open source, they're more than a thousand bodies of research studies, medical studies about how exposure to nature can, can make people healthier and, and more whole, all that social socio emotional learning, absolutely critical, but 300 of those thousand studies have to do with how nature affects a child's developing brain and their mental health.
Laura Turner (43m 19s):
So project based learning outside is, you know, you can do it for school to get your credits and you can do it because it's so healing. And then third program at the captain planet foundation, we started ocean heroes, ocean heroes, bootcamp, and we've got like a thousand youth from all over the world that now are part of the network. And we've been hosting these bootcamps. And the last one that we had was virtual 400 youth from about 50 countries participated.
Laura Turner (43m 59s):
And, you know, many of those youth are, are, are passionate about the issues related to our oceans and plastic pollution, which is an enormous plague for wildlife and our health and the health of the, the aquatic systems. But anyway, these youth are scaling their games, learning about how to be better activists. And, you know, anyway, they're shutting down this plastic pollution starting in their schools or school districts with businesses there, they're getting it done.
Laura Turner(44m 43s):
It's really amazing. And so I encourage people to take a look at that, but that's our change makers program, and we are scaling different ways to, to engage in educate and inform and activate use that, you know, that they can become the Changemakers that their communities and the world needs.
Monica Olsen (45m 9s):
Yeah, definitely. and We'll put a couple of those videos on our podcast website w with your ad, they're so phenomenal to see these kids and what they have advocated for is incredible. So, yeah, so, so Richard was such a big influence on Steve and obviously you too, and, you know, we've all been so happy to support children in nature network over the years because they provide so many great resources for kids and really help them learn more about the environment.
Laura Turner (45m 34s):
I, I would just like to say that, you know, Richard Lou, you know, just going back to biophilia, Richard Lewis has this book out his most recent book, "Our Wild Calling". And I listen to a good bit of it during COVID, as I drove from place to place. And it really is about how humans need that innate need and that connection to animals, both domestic and wild nature, domestic domesticated, and wild, really important for our, our spiritual health, our mental health, and, and, you know, it's just something that we take for granted that those animals, all of the amazing diversity of species are gonna be here.
Laura Turner (46m 37s):
Yeah. You know, through our lives and for our children's lives and our grandchildren's lives, but that is so wrong. We are experiencing the sixth great extinction. And it's because we are ripping up habitat, hand over fist, and there has to be a balance. I mean, Steve has been able to achieve that balance. If you go up there, it's a nature preserve and why every developer is not, you know, considering this before they just go and tear down every tree and, you know, put, you know, to every boundary of the property, you know, buildings without leaving any green space, any room for nature, God put us all here and, and doesn't want us to destroy nature.
Laura Turner (47m 36s):
We are in our connected, healthy, healthy nature, healthy planet. It is, it relates to us as being healthy individuals and having healthy children. So we need to really get to work and, and think about very seriously what we want our children's future to be like. And I think that the silver lining in the whole COVID during the, you know, tragic pandemic has been, that people realize more and are interested more in nature and getting outside and, you know, things that they didn't make time for before, you know, Americans are spending 80% of their time indoors, eight to 10 hours in front of a screen on average a day.
Laura Turner (48m 38s):
And obviously with kids now doing virtual learning and, you know, in their bedrooms or their homes, you know, that's probably increased. And it's, we have to find this balance is Wichard says, you know, we can't take people's technology away from them that will never happen. Then when youth can use technology to learn technology, to solve problems, you know, that is encouraged great and wonderful, but they also have to balance that with getting out in nature, not just, you know, soccer fields and football fields that does not count.
Laura Turner (49m 23s):
It is really getting out, you know, in nature the way God designed it. And, and, and that's what, you know, really my hope is my dream is that we can think like the native American people about how decisions that we make today affect affect the seventh generation, you know, but we don't even do a good job with the generation, the children that are here right now. And in fact, we are making them sick with so many different assaults, the chemicals and water, the air that they breathe, the food that they eat, the products that we women as chief consumption officers of our households make 80% of the decisions put in our shopping cart and bring home and then expose our kids to, and even this, this, you know, exposure to EMS, you know, that's something we need to take up much harder look at because there's a lot of evidence that that can be that exposure is harmful.
Laura Turner(50m 34s):
Sanjay Kuta reported on it from 2011 to 2017, very intensively. And there's all kinds of research and studies and the government's not protecting us. Telecommunication companies are not protecting us. And in fact, they're completely immune. They can put up a cell tower right next to your kid's school, and you can't do a damn thing about it and just make sure that your kids have wifi free zones at night when they sleep, that they're not sleeping with their phone on one side of their head on, on, or their computer on the other side, and getting, you know, these exposures and, you know, because their little bodies are developing and they're, you know, disproportionately adversely affected by it.
Laura Turner (51m 28s):
And then there's a new movie out that is a really very, very important movie, may part about it at premiered at Sundance last January. And it's called social dilemma, the social dilemma, Jeff Orlowski the filmmaker that may chasing coral, made this film. And that's really about the AI and algorithms that social media platforms that have, have taken over that, that make media on social media platforms, sensational.
Laura Turner (52m 11s):
And in a lot of cases it's addicting and our kids' eyeballs are worth money to advertisers. And, and the algorithms are set such that they want to keep the eyeballs on the screens. And it's, you know, they, they show how it has contributed. These online platforms have contributed, especially to girls, teen, girls, depression, and suicide, but every person should watch that and know what the pitfalls are and what has happened. And they have a lot of experts that work for these platforms for, for Google, Facebook, Twitter, and, and they they're telling the truth, you know,
Monica Olsen(53m 2s):
And it's interesting. I have heard from so many people, moms, a lot of them here at Serenbe that they have watched this. And it seems like it's the first time that they're, you know, we're so busy, right. And we're, well-educated, we care, but we're still busy. Right. So all of these issues are hard to kind of like, how can I engage with it? Right. But this was one of the first things that sort of a harder topic and it almost was a little bit of not quite edutainment, but it, it was so well done. And it's so important for us to recognize it. It kind of gives me hope, part of the waking up process, you know, that's happening with getting outside in nature and COVID, and we have a little more time.
Monica Olsen (53m 44s):
So I do think there's this opportunity to start having these, if you will, kind of harder conversations about how we can have impact. And I do want to just touch a moment on project, draw down because you guys just launched it in Georgia. And I think all of us, again, super busy, we want to have impact, how can we, you know, what can we do, you know, to participate? What can we do in our busy lives? And I know one of the things is the civic dinners. Can you talk a little bit about, like, how can any of us get involved in sort of this virtual time right now?
Laura Turner (54m 19s):
Well, project drawdown, you know, obviously there have been a lot of experts and the universities that have participated in doing a tremendous amount of research about what these hundred solutions that are, that are in the drawdown book, the solutions to global warming and what made the most sense for, for our state. And because we are a big agricultural state, the way we restore the health of our soil is absolutely critical and probably would have the largest impact of anything else that we do in, in, in disseminating that information.
Laura Turner (55m 12s):
But as individuals, there's a lot in there that we can do and, and talk about some of my, a couple of my favorite numbers, three is, is reducing food waste. And we throw a lot of food away and, you know, 40% of what's going to landfill is organic and compostable. So, you know, we can reduce how much we buy and don't use that. We end up sending it to a landfill that turns into methane. We, we can make sure we do better planning there, but if we are going to discard of it, either use compost, now that will come to your house and pick it up and they take it and compost it, and king of pops uses it to grow their fruits and vegetables for their pops.
Laura Turner (56m 10s):
It's just a great, you know, closed loop, or you can compost it in your own backyard. And which is what we do. We have right raised bed gardens here. And we amend our soil with our compost and it's just, you know, get one of those great barrels at Home Depot and, you know, make sure that you get the mix right though. You want to make sure you save those dead leaves that fall off your trees and, you know, the Woody, Woody residuals from your yard and, and make sure that you're putting that in with what's coming from your kitchen. So it doesn't get all slimy and icky that's, that's one thing.
Laura Turner(56m 52s):
But the other big thing is which is so incredibly different form for our health is eating a plant, rich, not plant-based, but plant rich diet. And if you add those two, two solutions together, they become the number one solution for, for drawdown. The, the, the reason why you want eat more plants, obviously you getting much more, many more phytonutrients than really dairy or meat and dairy and meat, depending how it is raised is inflammatory causes inflammation.
Laura Turner (57m 35s):
So, but if it's grass-finished, and that's not bad on the distillers distillers grain that right, or making corn ethanol, that throat totally throws off the omega six to omega three ratios. Yeah. Getting the phyto nutrients that, that animal as a middleman ate. So you're getting the benefit of, of, you know, you know, whether it's, you know, hunt, if you're a hunter and you eat deer, or you're actually eating, you know, beef from wider pastures, right.
Laura. Turner (58m 14s):
Actually the way they graze it, these animals on an endemic plants, Woody plants, the Forbes, which are weeds, but there that's what the industry that makes all the chemicals to kill the weeds called some, but they're really put there for a reason. And there, it turns out that they're medicinal for the animals and our anti parasitic and, you know, good. They have phytonutrients as well. And then, you know, planting lagoons is, is part of it. And all the plants phytochemicals from those animals that you eat, you get the benefit of.
Laura Turner (58m 57s):
So it's like this wonderful, wonderful, full circle of how we can make ourselves healthier and also reducing methane. You know, if the plants that the animal eats are Woody, then it reduces of methane that the animals submit that's Fred Provenza, who wrote a really important book called he in his research has, has, has discovered this. And that's another really important, but, but for those people who want to know what regenerative grazing and agriculture looks like, and it Russ restoration of, of, of nature, the biggest little farm as a film.
Laura Turner (59m 47s):
And, and then there's a new film that does premiered on Netflix on September 22nd, but it's called kiss the ground.
Monica Olsen:
Yes. Yes.
Laura Turner:
And it is very powerful, very, very powerful. Yeah.
Monica Olsen (1h 0m 2s):
That he was out here last fall for the attune festival
Laura Turner (1h 0m 8s):
Amazing, and captain planet, actually, that was the other project hero quest platform. It's soil health. I forgot that captain planet foundation, that we've rolled out across the country as part of a project learning gardens.
Monica Olsen (1h 0m 27s):
And we'll definitely put that up to, I would love to figure out how to get all the kids at all the schools down here involved in those quests. You know, Steve mentioned the Rodale Institute opening up their Southeastern organic research center. That's going to do side-by-side trials of conventional and organic, but regenerative is everything. You know, that they're talking about it. I didn't really understand, right. Again, I think of myself as being thoughtful and have a lot of knowledge. But when they started talking about this two, two and a half years ago about soil health equals plant health or food health equals our health. Just that statement, I, hadn't kind of connected that in my head. And that seems so obvious. And so that's something I talk about with people a lot.
Monica Olsen (1h 1m 9s):
So I'm, I love that you're bringing it up because it is so important,
Laura Turner (1h 1m 13s):
So important, so important. And if we can regenerate God's garden of Eden outside of us, then we actually will regenerate the garden of Eden inside us, our, in our, in our stomachs and the, what do they call that gut brain health? Everything's about the gut and the micro systems that live in our gut. And, you know, only then can we be fully health healthy, mentally, spiritually, physically.
Steve Nygren (1h 1m 56s):
Laura, you are such a voice on so many areas that, you know, we are also appreciative that, that you have a platform that people will listen to. You, you do have a voice and you're using it. And we're, we're just, I'm just amazed at your energy and your expansion of knowledge on all these things. It all comes together. You know, it's essential for us all to literally survive. Yeah. And you're pushing that it's each day. It, it makes a difference. I think more people are listening and COVID has certainly slowed people down to where they hear the birds and they notice the animals and they're starting to think about fresh air. And so hopefully this could be a real turning point.
Laura Turner(1h 2m 37s):
Well, it has to be because we're running out of time, you know, the big overarching, you know, challenge for us is will we get through this global warming bottleneck? You know, we've seen all of these horrific disasters, you know, from the millions of acres on the west coast that went up in flames due to severe prolonged droughts. The direct shows in the Midwest, that level millions of acres of, of food crops, which are inland hurricanes. And it turned out that the one that hit Iowa was 140 miles an hour just leveled the fields.
Laura Turner (1h 3m 23s):
And then obviously it's early in hurricane season and you have the most deadly hurricane starting with the category four hurricane that they named for me, Laura. No, I'm just kidding. And, you know, and they just keep coming, right? So we have got to make sure that, that our leadership in this country, because we can't really affect too much the leadership in other countries, but we certainly can get hours, right? Work, 5% of the world's population emitting 25% of the global greenhouse gases. We have to be responsible. We have to make decisions that help, you know, future generations and the least of these were mandated in every religion to do that and make sure that we set a great example with our leadership and, and responsible, you know, scientific based all of these senses.
Laura Turner (1h 4m 23s):
We've really got to have climate and environmental champions, health champions leading this country. We can't afford, you know, scaling up the oil industry and give them, you know, this what $700 billion and, and, and tax tax breaks. And, you know, and that's just, it's not right. It's not right. And we need to invest all of that money into scaling the clean energy economy, affordable, clean energy for all. And we need leadership who will do it. So our next big opportunity is early, early at the polls.
Steve Nygren (1h 5m 7s):
And, and we've talked a lot about local and, and national issues, but gosh, the United nations and your, your dad's funding there. And I know you work with him on that committee, do you want to talk anything about what's going on there?
Laura Turner (1h 5m 22s):
I am on the board and foundation, I just was elected to the board pretty recently, pre COVID. And of course that is a, an immense honor. I think that the most important thing is that we continue to support the work of the UN. We have an administration that does not value the work and has defended the WHO the world health organization at a time when the, WHO is so badly needed in the midst of a global pandemic.
Laura Turner (1h 6m 8s):
And, and we have, you know, we have a lot of opposition coming from one party. What is critically important, as I said earlier, earlier on is that if we want to be adjust and equitable, you know, inclusive world, then that means for, for all people and the sustainable development goals is, is a very detailed plan of how to get there. And it wasn't just from the most brilliant minds in the global north that came up with this plan.
Laura Turner (1h 6m 53s):
It was also the brilliant minds for the first time in the global south and, and these 17 goals. You know, obviously we're not getting a lot of news these days because it's all related, you know, to, to, you know, certain things that are happening, the violence, the, the politics, what have you, but it's, we really need to keep our eye on the prize and continue to invest because we will not thrive as a country. If the rest of the world does not cry, and we need to really figure out how to do that. And it's, as it is with the black lives matter.
Laura Turner (1h 7m 37s):
This is just like the tip of the iceberg of the overall conversation, global conversation about all lives matter in this country. You know, what's racism being systemic, you know, the way it is, we're having to address that as a culture, but we're also that way with people in other countries and in the developing world. And we're making decisions here that affect their health and welfare and the same for their children. And we need to need to help promote these goals and, and put them into, into place as quickly as possible.
Laura Turner (1h 8m 26s):
And I love the 17th one. It's all about partnerships. So captain planet and the Planeteers cartoon, you're very limited of what you can achieve if you try to do it by yourself. But if you work together with others, there is real game changing power in that. And so, and just to, to keep that in mind that we need to pull together to save our world and save our children. I guess that's what it boils down to
Monica Olsen (1h 9m 2s):
Beautifully said. And I'm thinking I'm gonna end it there. And unless there's anything else, Laura, you can just interview your style. Yeah, this was amazing. I just want to sit and listen to you for like another couple of days that you were here and thank you so much. Absolutely.
Steve Nygren (1h 9m 18s):
Thank you, Laura, for joining us for the conversation for all you're doing and, and you, you inspire me. And I know a lot of other people to do more, no matter how much we're doing, we can't come close to what you're doing. So inspired to, to close down here and go do a couple of more projects that I didn't think I had time for. S
Laura Turner (1h 9m 40s):
Have a, I have an idea for you. We should put our kids on a, on a podcast and have them talk about what they're doing, what their passion passions are, because I think that that might be really interesting for people
Steve Nygren (1h 9m 55s):
Be a good thing for the next season. Monica let's have the next generation and all that. That's great
Monica Olsen:
Done. It's on the list
Steve Nygren:
And Laura now we'll decide where your next house is going to be. We've got some lots we can show you.
Laura Turner (1h 10m 10s):
That it's sold out. I bet there's long lines of, of people like bidding against each other to have properties.
Steve Nygren (1h 10m 20s):
Really, if there's one thing that's, this COVID has done, it's, it's made people really think twice about where they live and where they're living with their children. And we have had an interim incredible influx of young families moving from, from west coast, east coast and Atlanta. And so it's very exciting. Yeah. Including
Monica Olsen (1h 10m 42s):
Our Sarah Milligan toddler, the CEO of children in nature network.
Monica Olsen(1h 10m 48s):
It's so great having her here. And it's amazing. A lot of influencers are actually here. Yeah.
Laura Turner (1h 10m 56s):
Right. Well, I'm come on down. All right. Thanks very much. So, appreciate it. Safe stay well.
Monica Olsen (1h 11m 13s):
Thank you for listening to Serenbe stories, new episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and visit our website to learn more about upcoming guests, episodes and everything by Ophelia at serenbe.stories.com. .