ALBERT BATES On Where Activism Meets Counterculture /10
Albert Bates next to a Dry Composting Toilet at the Farm Ecovillage, Summertown, Tennessee, March 2003; Photo by Joel Sternfeld
Albert K. Bates works on a Kaypro-10 computer from his home at The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee, in 1981; Wikipedia.
Albert Bates has been the director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology since 1984 and the Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm in Tennessee since 1994 where he has taught sustainable design, natural building, permaculture and restoration ecology to students from more that fifty nations.
Albert regales us with his charisma, discussing the miracle of biochar, which can trap carbon while building soil and reversing desertification. We tie carbon farming into the wider climate movement and talk about breaking the cycle of climate denial. Albert goes everywhere from the nuclear reality to the importance of celebration amid the madness.
♫ Music featured in this episode is "If A Revolution Comes To My Country" by Pete Seeger, "10,000 YEARS AGO" by Odetta and Larry, and "Freedom Death Dance" by Eugene McDaniels.
For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.