This is a PowerPoint for a presentation I gave recently at CNU21, the annual gathering of the Congress for New Urbanism, in Salt Lake City. I was honored to serve on a panel presentation titled "Urbanism and the Land," with Susan Mudd of CNU and Laura Hanson of the Jordan River Commission. This presentation was intended to share with urban planners my expression of Nature's Role in Sustainability, and to outline my framework for what Father Thomas Berry called Earth Jurisprudence. He called on the legal profession to "articulate the conditions for the integral functioning of the Earth process." My Evolutionary Law framework describes the elements of the Earth process, including The Rights of Nature, sustainable Rights to Nature, Biopilia, Biomimicry, Cooperation, and Coherence (Quantum and Ecological). When those elements are implemented in a synergistic way, they lead to greater Biodiversity, Natural Resilience and Natural Happiness (indicators of the Integral Functioning of the Earth Process).

1. Urbanism And The Land
Nature’s Role In Sustainability

2. “Look deep into nature, and then you will
understand everything better.”
- Albert Einstein

3. My Connection To Sustainability
To achieve a viable human-earth situation a
new jurisprudence, Earth
Jurisprudence, must articulate the
conditions for the integral functioning of the
Earth process.
Father Thomas Berry

4. The Earth Process
Biophilia
Biomimicry
Rights Of Nature
Rights To Nature
Cooperation
Coherence
Resilience
Happiness
Synergy

5. Why Rights Of
Nature?

6. Problems vs. Predicaments
Problems Have Fixes Predicaments Require A Mindset Shift

7. Nature Deficit Disorder
Is The Cause of the Earth
Community’s Predicament

8. Rights Come From Existence
Thomas Berry, “The Great Work”
“The most absurd thing in modern
times is the idea that only humans
have rights.”

9. The Animals Have Rights

10. The Birds Have Rights

11. The Pollinators Have Rights

12. The Trees Have Rights

13. The River Has Rights

14. Beyond Ethics and Morality
Nature Will Restore Equilibrium
With Us Or Without Us

15. Rights Of Nature Are Here Now
Ecuador’s Constitution
New Zealand Grants Rights To A River
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
24+ U. S. Cities’ Rights of Nature Ordinances
U. N. Declaration on Rights of Mother Earth

16. Santa Monica Rights of Nature Ordinance
Pittsburgh Rights of Nature Ordinance
Cities Are Starting To Make The Connection

17. Sustainable
Rights To Nature

18. Nature Is Our Habitat

19. Violate The Rights Of Nature
Some Uses Of Nature

20. Fracking Threatens Land Use Controls

21. Biophilia

22. Biophilia is the “connections that human beings
subconsciously seek with the rest of life.”
Harvard Biologist E. O. Wilson
What Is Biophilia?

23. What Are Biophilic Cities?
"Biophilic Cities contain abundant nature;
they care about, seek to protect, restore and
grow this nature, and they strive to foster
deep connections and daily contact with
the natural world.”
www.biophiliccities.org

24. Green Everything

25. Emerging Biophilic Cities
Large:
Chicago
Small:
Boulder
West:
Portland
East:
Pittsburgh
International:
Singapore

26. What Would Nature Do?
Biomimicry

27. Green Infrastructure Is Biomimicry
The Basics: Rain Gardens

28. From Mushroom Communities

29. To Portland’s Eco-Districts

30. Cities Focused On Biodiversity
Chicago Wilderness
Portland Intertwine Alliance
Bay Area Biomimicry Network
Vancouver Greenest City 2020

31. U.N. Warns Of World Without Water
Quote from UN Secretary General on Urban Water Shortages

33. Preserving Biodiversity Is Key
"Biodiversity and the ecosystem services
it provides are central to achieving the
vision of a water secure world."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

34. Nature is a system based on cooperation, not competition.
Cellular Biologist, Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., Author of “Spontaneous Evolution”
Cooperation

35. “Nature has an inherent order, and we damage our
communities and ourselves if we don’t learn to live
within it.” Jordan River Commission

36. Ecological coherence is an essential
condition for healthy ecosystems.
European Commission on Green Infrastructure
Ecological
Coherence

37. When We Are In Nature We
Experience Coherence

38. Challenges of Habitat Preservation
Reconnecting
Habitat
Restoring To
Healthy State
Development
Impact
Managing
Public Access
Funding

39. Reconnecting Habitat Zones

40. Public – Private Partnerships
Boulder County
97,000 Acres
Open Space
Other
Communities
5,000 Acres
City of
Boulder
45,000 Acres

41. Conservation Easements

42. Protect Habitat Wherever You Can

43. Daytime on Boulder’s Open Space

44. Nighttime on Boulder’s Open Space

45. Natural Resilience
Healing Nature Deficit Disorder

46. Biodiversity Is Nature’s Resilience
Biophilia
Biodiversity
Resilience

47. Serenity In Nature

48. Suddenly
Nature
Resets

49. Who’s Going To Clean Up This Mess?

50. Nature’s Volunteers Will

51. New Forests Emerge

52. Animals Return

53. Natural
Happiness
The Pursuit Of

54. When Nature Is Happy

55. People Are Happy
Boulder Rated Happiest Community In The U.S.

56. Accountability
Score
EvolveMeasure

57. Synergy
Our Primary Task:
Create The Conditions For

58. "The universe is a communion of subjects,
not a collection of objects.”
Thomas Berry

59. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Albert Einstein

60. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and
rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.”
Rumi