Field Notes

When A Rocha began back in 1983, environmentalism was considered a slightly geeky niche interest by the world at large, and in the Church, if considered at all, as a distraction from ‘The Gospel.’ A Rocha is now a rapidly growing family of 25 organizations with a wonderfully diverse and inspiring network of over 30 other Christian groups working on creation care around the world. As coordinator of this network, Júlio has a deep well of moving, intriguing, encouraging and sometimes profoundly sad stories to tell. We hope you will enjoy hearing some of them as much as we did. 
Find out more at arocha.org/en/about/friends-of-a-rocha/

In a time of mass ecological collapse, the ecological concept of refugia offers a lifeline of hope and gives meaning to even small-scale effort. First coined in the mid-19th century by naturalist Edward Forbes, it describes how entire landscapes can recover from surviving pockets of habitats and their creatures. In this episode we talk with Debra Rienstra, author of Refugia Faith: Seeking hidden shelters, ordinary wonders and the healing of the Earth about how we can become people of refugia, finding and nurturing places of safety and health for biodiversity, human culture and faith. 
Debra is professor of English at Calvin University, where she has taught since 1996, specializing in creative nonfiction, early British literature, and environmental literature. She and her husband have three grown children. She lives in Michigan in the Grand River watershed. Find out more at https://debrarienstra.com/

Dr Simon Stuart is one of the world's leading conservation scientists, best known for leading the development of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species into the world's most authoritative assessment of species' extinction risk. Awarded the prestigious Blue Planet Prize in 2020 for his contributions to global biodiversity conservation, he has spent more than three decades advancing species conservation internationally, including as Executive Director of A Rocha International. We were honoured to have time with him and the chance to mine him for wisdom, stories and reasons to stay hopeful.

What is it like to be in your late 20s and making major life decisions in today’s world? Studies show young people understand themselves to be living in a highly unstable world where biodiversity collapse, climate change and economic uncertainty have direct impacts on daily life. Sociologists note long-term planning around the linear milestones of previous generations - education, career, marriage, mortgage, children, retirement - has been replaced by a strategy of resilience based on community, mobility and immediate environmental action.

In this episode of Field notes we talk to Flo, a masters student in London studying societal and environmental psychology planning her wedding, and Autumn, Writer and Content Creator at A Rocha International who gave birth to her first baby in the midst of extreme wildfires in her home city of LA. They are bright, full of integrity and courage, and are each in their own ways building lives which shine as beacons of hope.

For many people, a close encounter with an insect leads to a quick departure by one or both or a summary execution, most often of the non-human party. If you recognise these scenarios from your own life, you may find this interview transformative. Insects have a powerful advocate in James Khoo. A passionate and committed entomologist from Singapore, James lives with a large number of tiny creatures and is quite mesmerising in his descriptions of their superpowers and beauty. Listen in and learn more about “bio-mimicry,” the joys and challenges of science communication, the plight of insects globally and what we can all do to help.