Leah Lamb

A few years ago my brother and his wife gave me a gift that came in the form of a donation to the Heifer International.

On one hand it was an incredibly considerate gift and reflected some of my values. But lets get real. I didn’t jump for joy ~ because it wasn’t attached to a personal issue I’m passionate about, and to be frank, it lacked the “cool” factor.   I’m all for green gifts removed from the in-the-process-of-being-improved supply chain. But they should still be things that make you jump for joy and ignite a spark of excitement. So for those of you hunting for the perfect gift for your ocean/water loving friend~ are you in luck~ check out these thoughtful green gift ideas for water lovers.

Become a Lord of the Oceans

Lets begin by dedicating a small plot of the ocean to your loved one through the Ocean Registry. The Ocean Registry ^® is a gift giving program designed to promote ocean awareness. The program offers a virtual ocean experience (using google ocean) where you can plot a piece of the ocean as a commemorative location registered to someone as a unique gift. 50% of proceeds are donated to ocean conservation.

Give the Gift of Story

This holiday season I would like to suggest that you give one of the most powerful, long lasting, impactful, influential gifts of all time:  The gift of story.

Become a media mogul, and take part in producing the stories that have the potential to influence and shape our culture and relationship to the natural world.  Here are three worthy film projects that are in production and are addressing water issues through a variety of stories. You (and your loved one) could be a part of bringing these movies to the big (and small) screen.

Elemental

This feature-length documentary explores three very different lives, each of which has been transformed, in some way, by water. In India, the effervescent “Water Gandhi,” Rajendra Singh, brought seven Rajasthani rivers back to life and now turns his attention to the greatest of Indian rivers, the Ganges. In Canada, indigenous activist Eriel Deranger struggles to save her people from the genocide wrought by living downstream from the world’s largest industrial development: Alberta’s Oil Sands. And in Australia, inventor Jay Harman draws on his lifelong obsession with water to attempt to halve the world’s energy use. Depending on how much you contribute you can get a signed copy of the DVD, tickets to the pre-release in the bay area, or your name in the credits.

Patagonia Rising

Over the past century more than 45,000 large dams have redefined the course and health of the planet’s rivers with disastrous impacts that continue to unfold. Tracing the hydrologic cycle of the Baker from ice to ocean, Patagonia Rising brings voice to the frontier people caught in the crossfire of Chile’s energy demands. Juxtaposing the pro-dam business sector with renewable energy experts, the documentary will bring awareness and solutions to this global conflict over water and power. Patagonia Rising finished production in December 2009 and now seeks post-production support.

People and the Planet: Healing with Whales

(Full disclosure, that’s me! I’m producing People and the Planet)

This multi phase media project  launches with a 24 part online video series. The series is designed to invoke your curiosity while telling extraordinary real stories about people healing in the presence of the natural world. Our first story is about a woman who heals people in the presence of whales. When you donate, we’ll put your picture in our video (scroll to bottom of the post for the example).

Books:

Sea Voices

Sea Voices is a coffee table who’s who of the ocean activism world. The book features prominent people from around the world who care about our environment and want to help protect our world oceans and includes interviews with oceanographers, artists, Authors, Photographers, Environmentally Conscious Celebrities and Musicians, filmmakers, and surf industry leaders.

Games:

Rowboat card game

Rowboat is the fun, award-winning, family card game of mind bending strategy and mind boggling suspense! This beautifully designed ocean-themed game is  ideal for travel and game nights! If you like bidding or trick-taking card games like Spades, Euchre, or Bridge you will love Rowboat! (and…While this is not EXACTLY a green gift (they are working on their packaging) the creators of Rowboat are giving half the proceeds purchased through the above link to People and the Planet~ double hitter!).

Sponsor an Ocean Advocate
Because behind every great leader, there is a mountain of supporters. Here are two ocean stars who have mastered the social network space and are prolific and spreading the message of ocean conservation by sparking interest, intrigue, adventure, and pretty pictures. (Just think of the good you could do by sponsoring them).

Wallace J. Nicols: The People’s Scientist
I first met J at Bioneers a few years ago and was inspired by his efforts to protect the turtles. J is a speaker, mentor, ocean advocate, author, and a true “people’s scientist”. He inspires people to stay engaged with ocean conservation offline and online, and was one of the first to inform the general public about the affects of the BP spill on Turtles. I was so inspired by his Blue Marbles campaign (a play it forward game in the ocean conservation world), that I sent a marble to all of the donors of People and the Planet. J is unique in that he is a scientist who is working out side of the field of academia, which provided more freedom of expression. J recently started a Blue Angels Campaign; a team of independent supporters who make a monthly contribution to support his ability to travel and campaign on behalf of the oceans.

Roz Savage: Ocean Rower
I met Roz during a skype video interview when I covered the Copenhagen Climate Talks. Over the course of the week I interviewed over 15 people but she was the darling who won people’s hearts and minds. (Ok, 350.org’s dancing penguins were a hit as well). Roz Savage is a British ocean rower, author, motivational speaker and environmental campaigner. She has rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean and is attempting to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. A latecomer to the life of adventure, Roz Savage was previously a management consultant and project manager at an investment bank, before realizing in her mid-thirties that there might be more to life than a steady income and a house in the suburbs. In 2005, she competed in the 3,000-mile Atlantic Rowing Race, the first solo woman ever to compete in that race and the sixth woman to row solo across an ocean.

What’s happening next? See Eat Pray Row – the Indian Ocean, starting in March 2011, and The Homecoming Row, launching May 2012. Roz has a quite the shopping list of things that are needed to make this last row the best one yet.

Alright~ so there are a few suggestions for you~ if you have additional ones~ please feel free to tell me~ I’ll be happy to add them to this post.

There is a disease that is infiltrating our society. It’s permeating our imaginations and infiltrating our ideas via movies, news stories, even video games~ it’s the vision of our future. You know what the vision looks like: People have destroyed the planet, we are completely dependent on technology, and we are longing for the natural world (which we destroyed, btw). Ok~ that’s fine~ who doesn’t love a little science fiction? But where are the stories that counter this possibility? Where are the images, movies, books, and video games made about what a thriving future looks like once we have figured out how to live in a world where we reclaimed our relationship with the natural world, reclaimed our relationship to energy, and reclaimed our relationship to consumerism?

Some might say that we are living on earth during one of the most incredible moments in history, that we are living in a time with the consciousness that we can create (manifest if you use that lexicon), our realities, and that we are inherently responsible for our own happiness. So mix that with the never-ending stories about dooms day, and Houston, we have a problem.

I don’t know about you, but when the BP spill happened, I hit a breaking point. Reason being I would be inside, reading news on my computer, and I would feel that “the environment” is a thing that is separate from myself, that it is broken, sick, and downright screwed up. In a moment of frustration, I closed my lap top and went outside. I smelled the ocean, and my mood changed because of the effect of the negative ions, I watched as the gulls surfed the wind, my hair was tussled by the breeze, my skin was warmed by the sun, and in that moment, I knew that I was a part of the environment. I experienced it as beautiful, as satiating, as nourishing. And I got to thinking, what a strange dynamic we’ve created: every time I read the news I feel guilt, shame, or obligation to take care of the environment, and that’s not the kind of relationship I like to have with my friends or family, so why would I want to engage in that kind of relationship with the environment? As Jacque Cousteau says, “We protect the things we love,” and I don’t know about you, But I’d much rather act from that place than any other.

And yet, we are teaching our children, and convincing ourselves, that people are bad for the planet. When I ask why, I believe it’s because we are letting ourselves off the hook. Here’s why: if we believe that the world is screwed and going to hell in a hand bucket, it doesn’t matter what we do. But if we believe that a sustainable future is possible, than we have to hold ourselves accountable and actually change the way we are living our lives.

While we think about the changes we might want to make, the economy is changing without our approval, and as we seek answers and solutions for how to thrive on a planet under attack, we are also trying to find happiness in a changing economy. Where is the training manual that these things are not separate, but equal, and interconnected?

Buckminster Fuller said, “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”

Scientists, architects, and health practitioners are continuing to demonstrate that the natural world provides all the tools we need to thrive, the only problem is, we don’t know how to use all of them. But what if I told you that there is an army of people out there who are figuring out how to use those tools? That dolphins and whales can heal people, that mushrooms can address pollution, that fish can inform us on how to build fuel efficient cars, that trees can solve the flooding issues in LA? What if all of the tools and cures for how to live healthy and happy lives are right here, right now, and we just haven’t learned how to use them (yet)?

In this moment of global reckoning, each and every one of us has the opportunity to dig deep and ask ourselves, what part do we play? As parents, are we guaranteeing our children’s health and protecting them from environmental toxins? As homeowners and renters, are we choosing how and where we consume our energy? As designers, are we creating sustainable products? As consumers, are we choosing to support sustainable technologies? As friends, are we cooking organic for our communities? As the most influential species on the planet, are we insuring that that our planet is habitable to all creatures, great and small?

I don’t know about you, but people are inspiring me left and right; from Alec Loorz who is mobilizing the youth climate movement, to urban artist JR who is transforming decrepit cityscapes into reflective statements in Shanghai, to John Warner who invented the concept of green chemistry, to Ashel Seasunz Eldridge, who rewrote the Sex and the City theme song (which I loved by the way) into an anti plastics anthem (see below); people around the globe are taking action. So what’s my part you’re thinking to yourself? (I know you are.) For me, as a media maker, the big question is, “How are my stories impacting people?” And my answer, is to bring you People and the Planet~ a series of stories gathered from around the world about people who are using the tools found in the natural world to achieve health and wellness.

Now don’t get me wrong, because we need the stories about where things are going wrong, and the journalists and bloggers who dare to live in the trenches of those stories should be treated like champions. But lets never forget that is only part of the larger story of our time; we also need the stories of our successes to go side by side with the stories about our failures. Visionaries can imagine a sustainable future, but most people need to see in order to believe. If People and the Planet succeeds, the online videos series will surface individuals and organizations who are paving the path to a sustainable future and are flying under the radar. The hope is that the videos will raise awareness, create opportunities to financially support the featured individuals and organizations so they can continue to proliferate, as well as encourage people to get out into the great outdoors. I’m assembling an army of angels to back the initiative and identify stories that need to be told. The invitation to join is yours.

Greetings good people~
In this update you will find: News about inspiring climate initiatives, enviro news worth noting, and why I DIDN’T write, “This could be your last chance to save the whales” in the subject heading.

At the time of writing this, I have 28 hours to go before People and the Planet takes her first steps into the world. I figured what better time to give homage to a few other inspiring initiatives that are answering the call and addressing the climate crisis in refreshing ways…

10/10/10 is nearly here…

I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to 350.org’s global work party: A day to celebrate climate solutions… Or you can participate in One Day on Earth~ they are claiming it will be the largest global media event in history~ a global film project that will become a video time capsule.

Small is sexy!

Or so claims TreeHugger’s founder, Graham Hill. To prove his theory, Graham is launching LifeEdited, a tiny competition…I mean, a competition to design tiny, sexy, living spaces to reduce our collective carbon footprint.

Scientists and students were arrested outside the White House

Ok, so it wasn’t the most creative action on the planet, but worthy of mention: Activists rallied in front of the White House last week calling for the Obama administration to take more aggressive action against mountain top removal. If you want your “I was at the climate action” fix, here’s some video of the day.

Tree Hugging Soldiers

Pakistani soldier, Muhammed Yousuf Jamil, brought a whole new meaning to the term tree hugger when he broke the Guinness World Record by planting over 20K trees in under 19 hours.

Youth Claim Role in Environmental News Production

I’m looking forward to seeing what Project Survival Media produces, a youth led initiative dedicated to telling under told stories about climate issues from around the world.

Losing Your Marbles?

While people are organizing online, and taking action offline, Wallace J. Nichol’s is provoking people to lose their marbles…Blue Marbles that is… It’s a play it forward game where you give a blue marble to someone who is showing initiative and taking care of the planet (I think this is so fun and nifty I’m sending one to all of our backers).

People and the Planet

So while trying to come up with that edgy subject title that would make you look, I considered using “This is your last chance to save the Whales” to remind people that there is just 28 hours before 8:16pm on October 5th to donate and get your face in our first People and the Planet video (it’s about people healing in the presence of whales).

I didn’t use the “Save the whales” lingo because…that’s the antithesis of what this initiative is about. It isn’t about using the language of saving, securing, or conserving, it’s about using the language of love (you read that right). As Jacques Cousteau says, “We protect the things we love.” Hence, we are using the language of love to carve our path of language, story, and the online strategy for People and the Planet. I hope you join us, and reap the benefits (that’s right~ and this is when the bribery begins) and get some gifts when you donate:

Including: a signed copy of the poster above by world renowned whale photographer, Bryant Austin; post cards from our shoot in the Dominican Republic; dinner with Bryant, your name in our book,  and your photo in our video (check out a little example below). (If you want to see how it will look in the actual video~ here is a mock up).

If you support the project, you’ll also get to see the inside scoop on the next story we are producing, along with news about a foundation we are working with, and other little goodies.

Thoughts? Questions? Answers? I love hearing from you.

All the best,
Leah

So I need to confess something to you, when I first came up with the People and the Planet project…I was imagining a series of simple short stories. Simple being the key word. Minimal Budget. Butta-Bing-Butta-Bang. I’d been relentlessly harassing Rebecca Goff to let me tell her story for months, and by the time we finished an Olympic worthy game of phone tag that confirmed I could join her next trip, I had three weeks to raise the money. So I put the project on Kickstarter, thinking that there would be plenty of people who would want to support these kinds of stories.

And then the project just…kind of exploded. People got excited about it, and the next thing I knew I had Bryant Austin on board (incredibly talented photographer) and then micro docs came on board, and then we got our first sponsor, and then I was approached by a foundation who helps launch large scale projects, and then…well…here we are. I am now designing a 3 year, decent budget, multi-media initiative. Just. Like. That.

I’m still dreaming that people from around the world will add their names, faces, and dollars to this project so that at the end of the day, we can say that WE were the ones behind shifting our cultural narrative to that people can be good for the planet…just let us show you how…

Below is an example of what it might look like when we feature all of the people who donate and help produce these films. Remember, this is just a proof of concept…a little something to show you how the brain is working. I would love to hear your feedback.

Now I’m rushing to research grants to fund our February launch and looking for businesses I can sell advertising space in our videos. But the truth is….my heart remains in the foundation of what this project was born from…that I think our modern mythology is broken and that it’s time for all of us to reclaim the way the media talks about our relationship to the planet. It feels like there is an endless supply of stories about how people are destroying the planet. There are not enough stories about how people are healing the planet. And I believe in my heart of heart that there are a LOT of people who want to hear THESE stories, who want to be apart of building a bridge of information about how people are healing from and with the planet.

Here’s a little update on what’s shaking:

What’s that you say?? You want to join our band and play along, well you have 7 days left to donate (and get your photo in our video).

This is a moment for reflection.  As I write this, the kickstarter campaign I launched has 1 hour to go, and I have not achieved the goal of 10K. That means that the 1,800 raised so far will disappear into the ethers. It was like playing the stock market.

The experience provides an opportunity to explore how to better serve this project, the funders, and myself, as I launch it. Truth be told, normally I would keep all of these thoughts to myself and my inner circle of friends and family. But I went public with my campaign to fundraise, and so I feel like I owe it to the people who have supported this first step to understand the impact.

The goal started out as ridiculous~ I reached Rebecca, the person I have been dreaming of doing a feature piece on for over a year and a half now, but didn’t establish the solidity needed to raise funds for the piece until 3 weeks before she said we could come shoot. The whales are there (and they move).

Even though it seemed like a crazy task, put together a talented crew & raise 10K without established contacts, I believe anything is possible if you put your mind to it. (I’m such a believer, that I even put that title on my card.) For better or worse I have a history of making big things happens in small amounts of time (extra stress always included). And these past experiences makes me explore the concept of sustainability~ and puts me in a place of questioning if our desire to rush things, life, projects, development, isn’t at the core of the sustainability issue our planet is facing. So with that, I have to question if it is wise to rush.

But then I think about rivers, and the rush they use to garnish momentum, and look what they do, they shape our land, and nourish our bodies.  And I consider the whales, who are will be featured in a new way in this first video. I think about how the majority of the stories we have in the world are about how people have been killing whales, and how this story will be able to infuse a new story into the public consciousness, that whales have the ability to heal people. I wonder what impact that might have on protecting these species, and start to wonder if my line about not rushing things is just the easy way out the back door of hard focused work.

When I said yes to jumping off the platform of reason and by trying to raise 10K in 2 weeks, it’s because I saw a certain kind of momentum I’ve learned to trust. I believe in following the yes’s. When one of the world’s most successful whale photographers jumped on board for no cost; I saw a yes, and when the talented crew of videographers and editors of the microdocs team came on board, I saw a yes, and when the tourism board of Tonga came on board and said they would help offset travel costs, I saw a yes. So….I followed suit, and said yes.

It’s a funny thing when you dream big. You start to see how it can threaten people. I started to hearing from people I trusted that it was an impossible goal. It made me realize that when you aim hi, it creates a reflection for others to see where they aim lo.

Meanwhile, backers started arriving. People I knew, and people I didn’t know. I ended up in conversation with potential funders who are interested in the long term project, and I ended up coming into conversation with a lot of people who believe in the vision, that we need more stories designed to reconnect us to the planet, to inspire a sense of hope, and offer clear direction. While we need people to point out what is wrong, we also need more people to show us how to do it right, our world is ripe and ready for these stories.

So there is still 7 days to go before we will have the potential to fly to the Tonga to catch the whales and Rebecca working with them this season.  I look at this as a game~ doing this kind of work ~ fundraising for something I believe in. I think of it as building a Kingdom of Allies; you never know where the next step will take you, who will lead you to the next story in the series, or who will provide a great idea or insight, or who will give the right kind of advise and emotional support, and will bring the funds that are required. I’ve learned that the most important rule is that you need to trust. It puts my in a constant state of being open, and being generous. (After all, you can’t ask people to give unless you are willing to give yourself).

So I’m starting a new kickstarter campaign. The goal is lower, which insures that people who want to be involved can be, and the length of time is longer. While I am off speaking with funders, I still love the idea of building a groundswell of backers out there who want to influence the kind of media they consume on the Internet and be part of the team in charge of sharing it on the Internet. I can’t help it, I will always love the power of grass roots organizing at the end of the day. Until the next post….

Greetings friends and allies~

Let’s take the bull by the horns and implement an online media strategy that infuses the world with stories about people healing through contact with the natural world and wild animals. (That’s right, lets counterbalance all of the stories out there that tell us how bad people are for the planet, with some stories that remind us that we are connected to the planet).

A series of short videos that features healers using elements in the natural world to heal people. The stories are….fascinating, intriguing, and inspiring.

We are bringing together an extraordinary team, and are thrilled to have Bryant Austin on board to take the still images for the book that will eventually be produced (he is the only person who takes life sized photos of whales and then takes those images to whaling nations). The opportunity to film aqua cranial sacral healer Rebecca Goff working with the humpback whales in the Kingdom of Tonga just came up quite suddenly, and we are hot on the hunt for backers to help us cover the 10K expenses to get us there on Sept 7th (the whales will be leaving as will she soon after).

We know that the video has excellent potential to go viral online, and that our sponsors will get great exposure via the video and our articles in Huffington Post, Planet Green, and other major outlets. We hope you join us, and join our team by becoming a backer, sharing with your friends, or passing along to businesses or funders who might take particular interest.

GO TEAM!

All the best,
Leah

I have a dream of creating stories that reconnect people to the planet, and reclaim the way we tell stories about the environment. What? You say. Reclaim? Yes. Reclaim. Let me tell you why.

For the past 5 years I have been actively trying to crack the code. You know the one, it’s the special sauce in a good story that engages people to protect the planet. I have studied that stats about what people like to consume online, and learned what we like looking at pictures of kittens, pandas sex, and yes…whales.

After nearly two years of consuming and producing environmental video and blog content for Current’s Green Channel, I nearly crawled away in a deep depression about the state of the world. I suffered from too-much-eco-news-itis. So I sublet my house, and retreated to a cabin perched on a cliff on the Lost Coast to complete my novel (and escape the world as we know it). I unplugged from the Internet (as best I could), and plugged into the planet. I spent the last three months walking in the woods, walking by the ocean, and consuming information from a different source: the natural world. I’ve never been happier.

What happened is that I started to see a huge disconnect between my experience in the environment, and the news I consume about the environment. And then I started thinking about the key reasons about why I went into producing media: to motivate, mobilize and inspire people to be stewards for our planet.

Houston. We have a problem. Because I don’t know about you, but everything I read about the environment these days sucks. I am overwhelmed by the amount of bad news. So much so, (incoming: true confession), I don’t want to look. I don’t want to take in more news about the BP spill, endangered turtles being burned, or mountain top removal. (Please don’t misunderstand, because I deeply respect the journalists that dedicate their time to telling these stories. Because these are the stories that should be mobilizing people into action. Right??) After reading the news, I’m beginning to feel like it’s game over, the planet is screwed, and it’s just a matter of time until the bottom drops out. And then I started to think~ HOUSTON. WE HAVE A REALLY BIG PROBLEM. Because when people start thinking it’s over, it’s over grover.

And then I am reminded about that story of the kids whose school bus was hijacked and buried in a coal mine. Some of the kids, against all odds, fought to get out. Some of them saw that it was hopeless and quit. Many years later they did psychological analysis on all the kids, and guess what? The kids who fought against all odds were the ones who ended up living fairly normal lives. The ones who didn’t, you guessed it: permanently traumatized. Why~ because they took action on what they hoped could happen, rather than give up because of what they feared might happen. The very action of taking action, is what saved their sanity in the end.

So. The moral of this blog post: after all of these thoughts going around in my head I starting really thinking about what kind of stories motivates people to take action and mobilize? And how can I, as a producer of media make a meaningful contribution?

And hence, People and the Planet was born. A series of stories that take place all over the world about people who are healing in the presence and assistance of wild animals and the natural world. I know. It sounds crazy. But stay with me.

Here’s a little video that explains the vision:

Our first story takes place in the kingdom of Tonga and is about a woman who practices aqua cranial sacral healing in the presence of humpback whales. I know. It sounds…crazy..I mean…fascinating. She checks out. I want to tell you how she heals people, and the role of these wild animals and the ocean in her healing process. I am excited to make this the first story we tell in this series: Why? Because I have done a lot of research on whales: and the majority of information about people slaughtering whales. But if this animal is out there making contact with people and helping heal us…we need more of those stories. And the next time you read horrific news, or some plea to protect the ocean, rather than think, “just more bad news, can someone turn on South Park?” Maybe an image from our short documentary will surface, or a line from the story we be remembered, and you will be reminded why you care for this plant and want to protect it.

Alright~ I’m going to sign off for now. If you believe that we need more of these stories in the world, we need you. Seriously, we can’t do this without you and we hope you’ll join our team. Either way: I want to hear your thoughts and ideas: What motivates you? What mobilizes you?

Ok folks~ I just launched People and the Planet on Kickstarter. I also mailed this little email to everyone I could think of:

Hello Good People!
Did you hear the news? It’s national “Lets makes good things happen together Day.”

I wanted to put an exciting project on your radar~ it’s called People and the Planet~ and chronicles 12 stories from around the world about people using the natural world and their relationships with wild animals to heal. Our first story is about a woman who heals people in the open ocean in the presence of whales.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I get overwhelmed by the amount of news that delivers the message that people are bad for the planet. Our modern mythology focuses on how people have exploited, pillaged, and polluted our planet. And lets face it, we need those stories. They motivate people. But are those the stories that mobilize people?

We are missing the stories about how the planet is healing, satiating, and nourishing people. We need more in-depth stories that feature positive relationships with the natural world so we can counter balance and nourish people and remind them why they love and want to protect our planet.

Is this beginning to sound like a pitch to you? (YOU WIN!) That’s because it is. We just launched our fundraising campaign for the first story (about a woman who heals in the open ocean in the presence of whales) on Kickstarter. For people who donate, we’re offering copies of the book, signed posters, dinner with whale photographer Bryant Austin, an opportunity for your face to be in our video. The opportunities are endless.

So we hope that you join us, share this with everyone you know (and don’t forget your mother), and tell us more about what kind of stories you believe we need to mobilize people to protect the planet. GO NOW. Producers, writers, and photographers are waiting for your call at 1 800 (just kidding). But seriously, we’re anxiously awaiting your comments, thoughts, and of course, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

All the best,
Leah