Commonwealth Club: Richard Louv on Noticing: Intimate Encounters with the Natural World

What does it mean to truly notice the world around you? In an age of distraction, climate anxiety, and accelerating disconnection from the natural world, author Richard Louv invites us to slow down, open our senses, and rediscover the living world just outside our doors, and to find in that connection a source of hope and a reason to act. Join Climate One and the Children & Nature Network for an evening with Richard Louv, the internationally bestselling author of Last Child in the Woods, in conversation with Jenny Park, executive director of Climate One. Rich and Jenny will explore the ideas at the heart of Louv's newest and most personal book, Noticing: Intimate Encounters with the Natural World. Together, they'll discuss what it means to cultivate what Louv calls "bioenchantment": a deeper, more embodied relationship with the natural world that can restore our sense of wonder, ground our sense of self, and offer hope in a time that sorely needs it. As our climate and the natural world suffer, it can be tempting to turn away. Louv makes the case for leaning in. We protect what we love, and we love what we know. When children and adults build a direct, lived relationship with nature, they develop a lasting stewardship ethic: a sense of kinship with and responsibility for the places and creatures around them. That connection doesn't replace climate policy or innovation. It's what sustains the will to pursue them, and it's one of the most powerful antidotes to despair. Drawing on neuroscience, Indigenous traditions, mindfulness, and personal essay, Noticing reveals how humans can tap into 30 or more senses to experience the natural world in ways most of us have never imagined. As naturalist Carl Safina, author of Alfie and Me, put it, the book is "a how-to manual for getting back your soul." This conversation promises to be equally rich: a meeting of two voices who have spent their careers building bridges between people, nature, and the future we all share. The evening will include a moderated conversation, audience Q&A, and a book signing.