2 environmental movement giants to lecture Sonoma at Praxis Peace Institute live event

The experts will discuss how the local community can make a positive change.|

The Praxis Peace Institute is hosting a live event with environmental activists Randy Hayes and Andrew Kimbrell.

Hayes and Kimbrell are two giants in the environmental movement. At this live event, the duo will present a deeply probing, thought-provoking charting of how the community can get from where we are today to an ecologically sustainable civilization.

Hayes was the founder and executive director of Rainforest Action Network. He has been described in the Wall Street Journal as “an environmental pit bull.” Today, he works in Washington, D.C., with Kimbrell at Foundation Earth, a think tank where he is the executive director.

The challenge for Foundation Earth is to help develop the big picture of a new human order, including economic models, legal/governance systems, educational programs and health care systems that work within the larger order of the planet’s life support systems.

Hayes is a veteran of many high-visibility corporate accountability campaigns and has advocated for the rights of Indigenous peoples throughout the world. He served for five years as president of the City of San Francisco Commission on the Environment, and for 2 1/2 years as director of sustainability in the office of former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown.

He holds a master's degree in environmental planning from San Francisco State University, and he was one of the original set of inductees in the National Environmental Hall of Fame.

Kimbrell is an American public interest attorney and author, as well as an advocate for sustainable agriculture and an opponent of industrial agriculture. He is the founder and executive director of the Center for Food Safety and the co-founder of Foundation Earth.

As an attorney, Kimbrell has successfully challenged federal agencies in several historic court cases. He initiated the court challenge that resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court victory forcing, for the first time, EPA regulation of greenhouse gases and their impact on climate change. He also pioneered the legal strategy that led to the Supreme Court ruling that DNA is not patentable due to being a "product of nature."

His legal work has also helped maintain the integrity of organic standards. He has testified many times before the U.S. Congress and has been a featured speaker at dozens of colleges and universities around the country. In addition to his legal degree, Kimbrell has a graduate degree in psychology and has often written about topics in the field, including in his book, "The Masculine Mystique."

The event will take place in the Secret Garden inside Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa St. in Sonoma, on Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for the general public and $20 for Praxis members. There will be a reception after the event that costs $50 for the general public and $45 for members. Tickets can be purchased at praxispeae.org.

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