About this conversation
What if the greatest crisis of our time is not climate change itself, but the way we value the world? In this conversation, filmmaker and ecological restoration pioneer John D. Liu invites us to rethink the very foundations of our civilization. Drawing on decades of documenting some of the world’s largest ecosystem restoration projects, including China’s remarkable transformation of the Loess Plateau, he argues that healthy, functioning ecosystems are far more valuable than any material wealth we can accumulate.
Rather than offering another political or technological solution, John points toward a profound shift in consciousness: from extraction to regeneration, from ownership to participation, and from seeing ourselves as separate individuals to recognizing that we are expressions of one living planetary system. We explore ecological civilization, the limits of economic thinking, why people cannot simply be “taught” to change, and what it might take for humanity to rediscover its rightful place within the living Earth.
