GRAHAM HILL
20 years in the making, The Carbonauts is the culmination of Graham Hill’s environmental career. One of Fast Co.’s “100 Most Creative People in Business”, Hill is sought after to speak about how to create a wealthier, greener, and happier planet. He has presented at many prestigious conferences including 2 main stage TED talks that have reached over 10M. Hill founded one of the earliest Internet consultancies in ‘95, the groundbreaking website TreeHugger.com in ‘04, and LifeEdited, a small living consultancy in ‘10. TreeHugger was the most trafficked green site for years, sold to Discovery Channel, and has served billions of Page Views.
3 words to describe Nature?
Foreign. Yet. Intimate.
3 things Nature taught you?
We are both tiny and huge.
If we can just shut up and listen, the answers are all around us.
If you were to pick any tiny part of nature, it's infinitely more elegant, sophisticated, and intelligent than anything humans have ever created.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The wall of a wave that I'm riding.
The oranges, pinks, and blues of an incredible sunset that I'm experiencing.
The moment of inter-species communication when I stare into the eyes of an animal.
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Excited
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Held
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Young
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Awe
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Small
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel…?
Nervous
Are you an OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, FOREST, or DESERT person?
Ocean and Mountain
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
8
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
My parents built an outdoor paradise for the 6 of us. A pond, diving boards, raft, trapeze, sauna, trampoline, bikes, and much more. We spent an infinite number of hours outside. One fun memory is when we roped two huge tractor inner tubes together, got inside them, and were pushed down the hill into the pond.
Loretta Whitesides
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides is a Founder Astronaut at Virgin Galactic, mother of two, wife to George T. Whitesides, and author of The New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring out the Best in You. Loretta studied astrobiology at Stanford and Caltech, did research on plant life in the Canadian Arctic with NASA, dove to the bottom of the ocean with Titanic Director James Cameron, and has floated weightless hundreds of times as a Flight Director for Zero Gravity Corporation. She and her husband are the Co-Creators of Yuri's Night, the annual Worldwide Space Party celebrating the dual Russian and U.S. space anniversaries on April 12. She currently teaches leadership and personal development for the space community through her SpaceKind Training Program which evolved from the New Right Stuff training program she led at Virgin Galactic for five years.
3 words to describe Nature?
Elegant. Closed-loop. Soul-filling
3 things Nature taught you?
Trees are incredibly generous
You don't need to "waste" anything
We need natural systems to thrive
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Redwood forests
On a rock next to a mountain stream
On a mountain looking down on a fog bank
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Fragile, insignificant, held (I believe the ocean holds are memories)
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Calm, grounded, loved
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Primal, powerful, grateful
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Blessed, full-hearted, quiet
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...? *
Excited, powerful, expansive
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel…?
Connected to my friend Andrew Hopping who loves the wind, hunkered down, humbled
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountains and forests
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was about 14, our girl's group at my summer camp was challenged to do a 24 solo- as though we were lost during a hike- just shorts and a t-shirt in Northern California. It was pretty demanding, alone, cold, hungry, but I survived and was SO PROUD of myself! I always push others to let kids do things that are hard and scary so they can have that experience that they can do more than they think.
Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist known for his kinetic sculptures. In 1990, he began building large mechanisms out of PVC that are able to move on their own and, collectively, are entitled, Strandbeest. His animated works are intended to be a fusion of art and engineering. He has said that "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds." A 2016 episode of The Simpsons, "The Nightmare After Krustmas", featured the Strandbeest and Jansen. He provided the voice for his cartoon character. The Strandbeest have been shown all over the world including at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Science Museum Kaohsiung in Taiwan, at Art Basel in Miami, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, the Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Peru, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Saporro Art Museum in Japan, the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany, the ArtScience Museum in Singapore, the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. You can watch his TED talk here.
3 words to describe Nature?
Sea. Sand. Dunes
3 things Nature taught you?
Modesty
Awareness
Beauty
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Sea
Beach
Dunes
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Being born again. A deep contact with our existence. I am amazed that we exist. I am amazed that I myself exist. That I landed in the body of an ape. I am an ape. And I look through this ape's eyes to the world.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Like I can breath
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
I don’t feel anything
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
I always turn my head away from the sun. I want to look at the landscape which is lighted by the sun with that orange light. I never understand why people spoil their eyes looking at the sunset.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Excited
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Warm in my bed. Reading a book with the curtains closed. Lovely!
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Of course, I am an ocean person!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a small boy I remember I was throwing a wooden shoe in the sea. And every time it was being brought back by the waves. At one moment it didn’t come back because it was behind the waves. Then I went into the sea with my clothes on. It was in the winter season. My body felt the cold water. And I felt very excited. This contact with the sea.
Mike Velings
Mike Velings is one of the managing partners and founders of Aqua-Spark, a global investment fund for sustainable aquaculture, combining a healthy financial profit with environmental and social impact. A lifelong entrepreneur, Mike has spent decades jumpstarting a range of successful businesses. Among other ventures, he co-founded Connexie, which has helped catalyze a professional employment industry across the Netherlands. Mike naturally combines his business background with environmental and social engagement. He understands the potential for business to create durable solutions to complex world problems. With this in mind, Mike founded A-Spark: an investment company that assists entrepreneurs across the globe in realizing their visions of a start-up with a world-changing element. Through A-Spark he has invested in a broad range of ventures over the years– both in the developed and developing world. Mike serves on several boards and is an active supporter of a range of non profits.
3 words to describe Nature?
Beautiful. Forceful. Unforgiving.
3 things Nature taught you?
Nature has an unparalleled capacity for efficient design
Resilience
The smaller parts are as important as the bigger parts
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Okavango Delta, Botswana
Southern Line Islands, Kiribati
Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Calm
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Fresh
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
In awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Calm
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Invigorated
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Alive
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
8
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
With my best friend lying in the park, in the bushes, studying the behaviour of ducks in the pond
Miki Agrawal
Miki Agrawal was named 2018 Fast Company’s “Most Creative People”, 2017 “Young Global Leader” by World Economic Forum, “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” by the World Technology Summit, “Top 20 millennials on a mission” by Forbes, and was one of INC Magazine’s “Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs of 2016.” That year, she made the cover of both Entrepreneur Magazine and Crain’s Magazine. She is the recipient of the Tribeca Innovation Award and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture in 2017 by the Brooklyn Magazine.
She co-founded THINX, a high-tech, period-proof underwear brand and led the company as CEO to a valuation of over $150 Million and to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2017, all while helping tens of millions of women period better.
She also founded TUSHY, a company that is revolutionizing the American toilet category with a modern, affordable, designer bidet attachment that both upgrades human health & hygiene as well as the environment from wasteful toilet paper consumption. She and her team are also helping fight the global sanitation crisis by bringing clean latrines to underserved communities in India through their partnership with Samagra. SNL covered TUSHY after its subway campaign was banned. Watch the clip here.
She is the founder of the acclaimed farm-to-table, alternative pizza concept called WILD with 3 locations in New York City, one in Guatemala and more on the way.
Additionally, Harper Collins published her first book entitled "DO COOL SH*T" on entrepreneurship and lifestyle design. Hay House published her second book “Disrupt-Her”.
3 words to describe Nature?
Alive. Present. Symbiotic
3 things Nature taught you?
That we are tiny specs of dust that are here for a short amount of time, so we must add more to nature than take away from it.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The Catskills
My backyard garden
Redwood forest in California
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Ever-present
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Meditative
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Powerful
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Rejuvenated
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Energetic
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Alive
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Going camping in Stowe with my family and climbing Mt Orford at 3 years old and feeling very accomplished :-)
Nicole Stott
Nicole Stott has explored from the heights of outer space to the depths of our oceans. In awe of what she experienced from these very special vantage points, she has dedicated her life to sharing the beauty of space ~ and Earth ~ with others. She believes that sharing these orbital and inner space perspectives has the power to increase everyone’s appreciation of and obligation to care for our home planet and each other.
A veteran NASA Astronaut, her experience includes two spaceflights and 104 days living and working in space on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). She performed one spacewalk and was the first person to fly the robotic arm to capture the free flying HTV cargo vehicle. Nicole was the last crew member to fly to and from their ISS mission on a Space Shuttle. She was also a crew member of the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-133.
Stott is the first person to paint a watercolor in space, which is now on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC.
As a NASA Aquanaut, in preparation for spaceflight and along with her NEEMO9 crew, Nicole lived and worked for 3 weeks on the Aquarius undersea habitat, the longest saturation mission to date.
Now retired from NASA, Nicole combines her artwork and spaceflight experience to inspire creative thinking about solutions to our planetary challenges, to raise awareness of the surprising interplay between science and art, and to promote the amazing work being done every day in space to improve life right here on Earth. She is the founder of the Space for Art Foundation and co-founder of Constellation.Earth.
She recently was featured in the National Geographic documentary series, hosted by Will Smith, about our planet called “One Strange Rock”, she is featured in the award-winning short film “Overview” by Planetary Collective, and she is a regular supporter of BBC radio and TV with a special focus on space exploration and our home planet.
3 words to describe Nature?
Peace. Life. Reflection
3 things Nature taught you?
Appreciation
Everything is connected
Respect
3 most treasured Nature spots?
On a space station in awe of the view of Earth from space.
Bari reef in Bonaire
My backyard
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
At one with something much bigger than myself.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Chilly and wanting to look up and appreciate the majesty of the trees surrounding me.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
A little bit of fear, total respect for the power and beauty and unpredictability, and like I should keep a very respectful distance.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Relaxed and in awe and with an increased awareness of the fact that we live on a planet.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like curling up on the couch with my dogs.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like a kid in Florida on the beach before a big rain.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All of the above. If I had to pick it would be ocean (surrounded by mountains, forests and desert).
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
On the space station we are traveling at 17500 mph or 5 miles per second, so we orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, which means that every 45 minutes we are presented with a stunning sunrise or sunset out the window. I loved to watch the Earth during the 45 minutes of "night". The glinting lights below outlined where the people were in contrast to the deep darkness of the oceans that cover most of our planet. The ever-changing weather moved above it all. The lightening of a thunderstorm in Florida whipped its way around the planet, flashing light over it like neurons firing across a brain. It was like I was watching all the beautiful action below me with the mute button on. It reminded me of thunderstorms from my childhood when I was growing up in Florida, and how I had imagined that the thunderstorm was happening only over my town, and when it was gone, it was gone. It had never occurred to me that the storm was zooming around the world, like the nervous system of a planet that looked alive. From space, I saw that lightning never exists in one place. It’s constantly on the move. This revelation led me to understand the life-changing truth of the undeniable interconnectivity of everyone and everything on Earth and that whatever happens in one part of the planet affects the whole. The reality check that we live on a planet, we are all Earthlings, and the only border that matters is the thin blue line of atmosphere that protects us all.