Make No-Nonsense Optimism the Spirit of 2019

Dear Friends,

2018 was a turbulent and haunting year.

The US was added to the list of nations where journalists face deadly threats.
Extreme climate impacts continued to intensify, with record-setting losses, a year-round fire season in California, and threats to life and property around the world.
Thousands of families were torn apart by a sadistic, extralegal U.S. border policy.
Geoversiv took a stand against child internment camps and family separation and demanded the full restoration of equal protection and the rule of law.
We called for action to uphold the humanity of every person.

Climate Intelligence

In the face of deepening political darkness, we stayed the course on inclusive imaginative no-nonsense future-building.

We developed a process for measuring local, cooperative and/or global action toward ocean neutrality.
We again provided Lunar level sponsorship for the Dawn of Private Space Science Symposium, at Columbia University, and outlined a strategy to connect Earth systems science to finance.
We joined the Climate Chain Coalition to support and facilitate the development of climate intelligence-building applications of distributed ledger technologies.
We entered into a collaborative partnership with Madison River Group, to support state-level climate services and science-based decision-making.
We created a strategic development planning process to facilitate the building of a true multiscale climate service.

In support of the transition to 100% climate-smart finance, we provided technical support to the Resilience Intel climate-smart finance information service.

We launched and now curate the Signals Brief on Flipboard, at ResilienceIntel.news.
We input into Resilience Intel submissions to the Talanoa Dialogue for the Spring 2018 and Fall 2018 submission periods.
We helped create the Acceleration Dialogues outcome The Path to 100% Climate-Smart Finance.
We supported the development and release of the Resilience Intel Charter.
We shaped Resilience Intel guidance to G20 and COP24 ministers.

We also brought Resilience Intel and generative economics work to a series of high-level convenings, to shape policy in 2019 and 2020.

Looking ahead to 2030, Senior Advisor for Whole Earth Civics Myra Jackson represented Geoversiv at the first Supranational Democracy Dialogue in Lecce, the International Rights of Nature Symposium in Quito, and the World Forum on Urban Forests in Mantova.

We joined the launch of the Global Commission on Adaptation at the Hague, as a contributing observer organization, and began working to integrate Ocean Neutrality and Resilience Intel insights into structured guidance to the Commission.

We input into Citizens’ Climate analysis of high-level policy discussions in U.N. Climate Change negotiating process, at COP24 in Katowice, Poland.

In partnership with CCE and ICDP, we built on the Acceleration Dialogues with technical support for a high-level Climate Congress on Day 2 of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Oslo.

Incubating a Bold Clean-Energy Start-up

Our Living Future Strategies program had its greatest success to date, with the launch of Liberate Energy — an independent commercial start-up aimed at developing and delivering the ingredients of an integrated decentralized clean energy economy.

The company will lead, coordinate, and support radical innovation toward sustainable business through at least four channels:

Liberate Energy is now working toward development of new high-efficiency photovoltaic materials, energy information systems, amplification and storage technologies.
Liberate Science will coordinate research and intellectual property across a community of institutions, to speed discovery and innovation.
Liberate Enterprise will provide strategic business intelligence services, building on Geoversiv generative economic analysis and Liberate Energy future market guidance.
Liberate Finance will advise investors and decision-makers about future clean market dynamics, while helping to develop critical innovations such as soil ecology finance.

Explore the Liberate.energy website for news and updates, and inquire here about partnership opportunities or to learn more about the overall business strategy.

Geoversiv Films

Geoversiv Films had several critical breakthroughs:

We formed a production planning team and mapped out early Geoversiv Films expeditions.
David Thoreson’s travels to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge produced a wealth of footage, interviews, documentary photography, and personal testimony, that will provide a vital core of content for early Geoversiv Films released in 2019

In his initial reports, David notes:

Where the caribou go and what happens to the Gwich’in culture are dependent upon decisions made far away from the remote Arctic. While these policy battles settle, there is a last stand being mounted, in a last place. A red line has formed, wilderness versus oil. At stake, the sacred place where life begins.

We initiated conversations about production partnerships and funding strategies, and will be expanding these discussions in 2019.

Through our partnership with Madison River Group, we began planning for an independent studio aimed at producing feature-length documentaries.
Our first priority is to establish a trusted voice and a venue viewers understand will deliver facts and sound reporting on sustainable actions for the future.
In 2019, we will work to establish that foundation and expand to providing regular climate-related reporting.

The Challenge Standard

Geoversiv is supporting the development of what we call the Challenge Standard, in collaboration with legendary investigative journalist and broadcast news anchor Don Shelby. The Challenge Standard will be a short list of action principles for journalists, to make sure no report ever lets a lie stand.

We presented the Challenge Standard as part of a talk about upholding our democracy, at the American University of Paris, in October.

By refocusing on this goal, we hope to:

expand the space for fact-based reporting,
cultivate more reliable critical thinking from readers and viewers, and
counter the questionable quest for false ”balance”, which turns even issues of clear fact into political controversies, giving wiggle room to bad actors who should not be welcome at the table in any honest debate.

In 2019, we will expand this work to include events and curricular collaboration, as well as an evolving evergreen publication to highlight difficult cases and excellent work by investigative journalists and reporters.

Geoversiv Work in the New Year

Donor relations — In 2019, we will convene our first Geoversiv Strategy Summit for Major Donors. The Summit will invite key collaborators—some already on board, some preparing to join—to get involved in long-term strategy work and provide input, insights, and resources, to Geoversiv programs and partnerships. We will hold preparatory meetings throughout the year and plan for the Geoversiv Strategy Summit to happen in the fall of 2019.

Macrocritical economics — One of our last publications of the year was a note about the emerging systemic risk in our financial system.

The article was a comment on the Treasury Secretary’s mysterious announcement that he had verified the 6 largest US banks have enough money to lend and to fill holiday withdrawals and spending.
It was also an update to one of our first articles of 2018, “Income Inequality puts Everything We Value at Risk”, which forecast imminent corrections in financial trends.
In 2019, Geoversiv will go deeper into these stories of macrocritical influences (climate, inequality, energy) that shape the overall health and direction of our economy.

The work of building resilience intelligence includes not only scientific observation of Earth systems dynamics, but also interactive analysis of progress toward all of the Sustainable Development Goals. In collaboration with Liberate Enterprise and partners in the Resilience Intel coalition, we will be consciously working to deliver generative economic insights to key leaders and institutions.

Acceleration Dialogues — We will continue to support critical action outcomes through high-level thematic dialogues, in 2019. Refer to AccelerationDialogues.org for the latest news about the planning of these events, and look for finance-related outcomes to appear on the ResilienceIntel.org site.

Thank you for all you do to make the world smarter, more sustainable, and more just. 2019 must be a year of no-nonsense optimism, and we plan to hold that ground, whatever the way of the world.

Happy New Year, and onward!

Joseph Robertson
Founder and President