by Summer Marsden, Sustainability Analyst with Atlantic Packaging
Last week, the A New Earth Project team gathered in Laguna Beach for three inspiring days during the Coast Film & Music Festival, centered around the fourth annual Coast Summit. Through conversation, films, music, and storytelling, we explored this year’s theme, The Intelligence of Nature, and a simple yet profound question: what if the natural world already holds the blueprint for how we live better together?
To explore this theme, we invited adventurers, photographers, musicians, Indigenous leaders, and business leaders who have spent their lives learning from nature. What I tuned into over the three days was a common message: nature is not a backdrop to our lives, but a teacher – and the more closely we listen to it, the closer we are to living in harmony with it, and with each other.
A Dinner Dedicated to The Changemakers
To kick off the three days, we gathered for the annual Changemaker’s Dinner at the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center (SHACC) in Laguna Beach – it’s hard to imagine a better location. Even as a non-surfer, it was impossible not to feel a sense of awe as I entered a space dedicated to showcasing how history has changed surfing, and surfing has changed history, with boards lining the room from the first Polynesian surfboards to those used at the 2020 Olympic debut.
Over a farm-to-table meal, we enjoyed live music from A Brother’s Fountain and Ron Artis II, and watched I Am Salmon, which which featured an evocative poem by Duncan Berry detailing the miraculous journey salmon take throughout their life cycle. Salmon were a perfect embodiment of this year’s theme: animals that find their way home to the very streams where they were born, guided by something no human technology has ever matched.
Amy Royster Bridger, Senior Vice President of Environmental Advocacy and Marketing at Cox Enterprises, and Evan Marks, founder and owner of The Ecology Center, followed the film with a conversation about salmon as a species at risk, encouraging us to see this problem as an opportunity to change the future – in this case, by removing ocean-farmed salmon from our plates. Amy’s message was clear: we are not condemned to a future that is worse. As I watched Ron Artis II invite his daughter on stage for a final performance, one idea stayed with me – one of the places we can best influence change is within our homes.
A Fully Immersive Coast Summit Day
Adelia Sandoval, a member of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation, set the tone with a traditional land acknowledgement, accompanied by Ron Artis II’s performance of “We Are Not Machines.” As we sat with those emotions, a large swarm of birds began flying circles around our heads in what felt so clearly like a reciprocation of acknowledgement from nature to us. A powerful moment which led us into a powerful day.
The Summit was kicked off with an immersive performance by double bassist and composer Garth Stevenson, accompanied by footage of his journey to Antarctica, where he performed for his ‘largest’ audience yet – a pod of humpback whales. Using hydrophones to carry their sounds to his earphones, he cultivated what may be one of the first true “call-and-response” experiences with this incredible species.
In a very real sense, it was a lesson in the intelligence of nature: when we quiet our own noise and tune in to the non-human world, music becomes a bridge between species.
Redefining Value and Regenerative Design
This practice of listening carried into conversations about value and design. Wes Carter, President of Atlantic Packaging and Founder of A New Earth Project, emphasized that what sits at the center of the connection between humanity and nature is intimacy. For far too long, industry has defined value as what we can extract from the land; Carter envisions a future where it is defined by our intimacy with nature. He left us with a message that stayed with me – “We have the capacity to create beauty and abundance. We have an equal capacity to destroy. Which path we take is up to us.”
Nicole Miller, CEO of Biomimicry 3.8, carried this idea into her presentation on biomimicry – an intentional practice of looking to nature as a resource we can learn from rather than one to extract. Nature has existed for billions of years in a perfectly circular system, and “waste” is a purely human phenomenon. By emulating nature’s genius, Miller argued, we can create products and environments that are regenerative rather than exploitative.
Art, Adventure, and the Science of Awe
The next sessions explored how storytelling, adventure, and immersive encounters with nature awaken our desire to protect it. We got the chance to witness the introduction of QUOIA, a new initiative bringing artists and conservation together through the power of music. Founded by an alliance of conservation-minded private industry leaders — Cox Enterprises, Atlantic Packaging and Eleven — QUOIA invites artists into wild places to create original music, connect audiences to nature and inspire action to protect it.
The first-ever session took place at Flóki Studios in Iceland where QUOIA assembled an all-star group of musicians from Goose, Dawes, Lettuce, Soulive and other celebrated acts who have now formed a supergroup called Rainbow Body. This band - which includes Rick Mitarotonda, Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, Eric Krasno, Ross James and Adam MacDougall – represents a physical and musical embodiment of intimacy with nature. In their first public appearance together, the musicians celebrated how QUOIA lets them make a difference beyond the music. You could hear nature’s intelligence working: music written in conversation with the places that inspired it.
Continuing the exploration of how immersive experiences awaken our desire to protect nature, the next session was a panel on the wisdom of wild places – awe, exploration, and the responsibility to protect – moderated by Ted Reckas, with Peter Hillary, Alexander Hillary, Mike Dawson, and UC Irvine’s Paul Piff, whose research revolves around the psychology of awe. Again, I was reminded how intimacy with nature can reawaken an innate instinct to protect it. Awe became the vessel through which nature’s intelligence reached them, reminding us that we are all part of something far larger than ourselves.
Building on the panel’s reflections on awe, National Geographic Photographer Andy Mann shared a very personal story about how his search for adventure led him to a purpose intimately connected to nature. Adventure, humility, and awe – the perfect recipe for sparking change. His story was a reminder that the same curiosity that pulls us toward wild places, when met with humility, can become a commitment to protect them.
Cultural Flow: Indigenous Stewardship and the Delta
The last panel of the day brought together Josh “Bones” Murphy, director of Cultural Flow; Nadina Gardiner, founder of Sakesiw; Amy Royster Bridger; and Wes Carter. It was clear that the spotlight was reserved for Nadina, whose history, humility, and quiet enthusiasm make her the exact kind of person who should be leading these conversations.
The day could not have ended on a more meaningful note than an intimate private screening of Cultural Flow, which tells the story of the Cumberland House Cree Nation’s efforts to protect the Saskatchewan River Delta. The passing of Nadina’s father – the epitome of a true steward of the land – juxtaposed with the continuing decline of the delta left me and others in a pool of tears.
But through the tears, I was left with an almost tangible urge to do something – anything – for the cause. For Nadina and her community, stewardship is a lived tradition – a reminder that the intelligence of nature is found not only in laboratories and data, but in the knowledge of communities who have lived in relationship with the land for generations.
Rainbow Body at the Irvine Bowl
What’s a better way to end this experience together than with the premiere of a new band, surrounded by all the inspirational and inspired people who have become part of your conservation community? Rainbow Body, born from the inaugural QUOIA session in the remote landscape of Iceland, took the stage of the Irvine Bowl with special guest Nicki Bluhm.
Nothing could have prepared me for such a moving experience. Music transcended into a language that could only be spoken by these incredible artists, but could be understood, felt, and enjoyed by everyone who witnessed it.
As I stood there, I allowed the music, the landscapes, the panels, and the energy cultivated throughout the entire week to flood over me. What it all added up to was an overwhelming feeling of love, gratitude, and intimacy with the people and place around me.
Our time together did exactly what it was meant to do. Every experience pointed to the same truth: nature knows exactly what it is doing. Its intelligence is there in the migration of salmon, the songs of humpback whales, the circular systems of ecosystems, and generations of Indigenous stewardship.
Nature’s intelligence is not something to merely analyze or explain – it must be felt, shared, and lived. Meaningful conservation begins when we listen and cultivate intimacy with the living world. Everyone in attendance left with a desire to be part of something bigger than themselves.