One of the tenets of this blog is that nature is, or should be, the unquestioned authority for life on earth — 3.8 billion years of survival street cred! — and I’m always seeking to highlight individuals and groups whose actions seem to agree.

Hence, my delight to share news of Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, a high-level conference being conducted by the group Biodiversity for a Livable Climate over three days next month at Tufts University near Boston.

The conference lists over two dozen speakers, including Seth Itzkan, William Moomaw, and Hugh McLaughlin, as well as Jim Laurie and John E. Carroll, both of whom I’ve featured previously in these pages (here and here, respectively).

It’s difficult (or brave, or foolhardy), therefore, to generalize what their outlook is, but with that acknowledgement, here goes: An ideal place for sequestering carbon is in our soils, which not only removes it from the upper atmosphere but dramatically restores or enriches ecosystems while improving agriculture on those soils where it is practiced.

This is the second in a series of eight posts detailing concepts and attitudes for sustainable personal change. As one would expect of someone maintaining a 155-pound loss for more than 20 years, my examples have to do with food and weight, but their point is to provide both concepts and practical steps anyone can take to achieve and maintain healthy change. Today’s concept: “It’s never one thing.”

I've written about Good magazine's graphics before, mostly when a series was distributed by Starbucks before the '08 presidential election. This one is done in conjunction with 350.org — and to my way of thinking, nothing bad could come from a collaboration between those two entities.