Our Future - Let's Keep Talking

... and listening, and doing

Activism is in the news this week - as activists clash with authorities all over the world in protest against injustice they perceive, or for what looks like liberation, or maybe just frustration they feel over the way everything seems to be falling apart.

I used to be an activist. I chained myself to logging equipment many years ago as a direct action to stop logging of ancient trees. Spent some time in jail, got sued, and went on to work for a forest protection group that sued and lobbied and got some policy changes that protected some old growth forests.

Then went on to see many of those forests burn up in catastrophic mega-fires.

We are in an era of great disturbance on every level, social, political, economic, and environmental. It can be hard to hang on to your sanity in these conditions. It really helps to have a guiding light and those who keep on keeping-on will rely on an ideology, a religion or some other belief system. I have realized that what keeps me going is my belief in the power of the Autotrophs.

Yes, the Autotrophs, aka, the plant kingdom. Those who photosynthesize and upon whom our entire existence depends. Every other kind of life, i.e., the heterotrophs, feeds off of the solar energy that the autotrophs harness to synthesize sugars and fats. Without plants, there are no animals. From the mightiest redwood to the tiniest chia seed: All Hail the Autotrophs!

I came to this conclusion when preparing for my talk at this week’s R-Future Symposium sponsored by Matt Powers - here is the link to register for free to hear dozens of great talks on regenerative agriculture and permaculture: R-Future 2026.

This is my second year presenting about biochar there and I am honored that Matt asked me to join once more. The title of the talk, which airs on Sunday, January 18, is Biochar Thermodynamics: Dissipative Structures, Trophic Levels, and Metabolic Quotient.

I talk a lot about Entropy. Entropy is the enemy, but it is also the source of life. To get theological about it, it’s like the need for the existence of Evil in order to be able to recognize Good.

Without entropy, there would be no energy gradient, and it is the dissipation of energy along a gradient that creates the ordered structures we call life. At the same time, the dissipation of energy also produces entropy. Because we live in an open system where we receive continuous energy from the Sun, the energy gradient is maintained, and we live.

However, we cannot afford to be too complacent and assume that life will always be sustained because we have the Sun. It is our benefactors, the Autotrophs who have orchestrated and nurtured fantastically complex ecosystems with billions of species, each occupying a particular niche that curates a quantum of energy, acting as storage for the system as a whole and feeding those on the higher trophic levels. Life is a marvel beyond comprehending and the only response I can have is worship.

Life has always faced disturbances that disrupt the balance, and indeed, too much energy storage can slow things down and choke off the higher trophic levels. That’s why a prairie explodes with new growth when a fire mows down the tall grasses, recycling their nutrients into new shoots that become rich food for grazing animals. Some disturbance is good and needed for renewal.

Pioneer species have evolved to seize on these opportunities and refill the trophic levels. Some species, like humans, have figured out how to create our own disturbance opportunities. Only we have gone too far.

Look at the diagram below. See how our croplands resemble deserts in their ability to store carbon and produce life. If we are not careful, we may end up converting most of the land surface to deserts, maximizing entropy and minimizing life.

Part of our problem is that we are using the wrong metrics to judge our success. Money and consumption have become more important than beauty and stability. Some nut named Kardashev had the idea that you could measure the advancement of a civilization by measuring the amount of energy it controls. By that metric, humanity is currently a "Type 0" civilization, as we don't fully control every bit of our planet's energy yet, but could reach Type I, which would mean consuming all of Earth's solar energy, possibly within centuries.

Yeah, and that would be a total disaster. The more energy we appropriate from the Autotrophs and their carefully organized trophic levels, the more entropy we create. Autocrats are NOT autotrophs. We need to get over ourselves.

Graphic by Darryl J. (DJ) Nicke II

How do you fight against this kind of lunacy?

The only way forward that I see is to keep our noses down in the dirt and restore, regenerate, and revive. My part of the Autotrophic Revival is to learn about biochar and share what I know with my community. I hope you will join the R-Future symposium and hear what many thoughtful folks are thinking and doing about this, and bring some new ideas back to your community of thinkers and do-ers.

I will also be talking with Hart Hagen next week at the Water and Climate webinar series on Wednesday, Jan 21st. Here’s the RSVP that will get you a link to join:

RSVP: Kelpie Wilson: Prepping with Biochar. Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 7:00 PM (Eastern Time)
We should have plenty of time for questions and discussion. Hope to see you there.

Also, I have some special offers and give aways during R-Future. So please attend and see if you can win one of the drawings. Here are all the deals on my Complete Biochar Toolkit: