This course considers what we can learn from a range of historic and contemporary cultures from across the globe that can help us navigate and mitigate our current environmental and climate crises. For example, how did the Chumash people – the inhabitants of Goleta and Santa Barbara prior to the arrival of European colonists – relate to their environment? What can they teach us about environmental stewardship and sustainability? Similarly, regarding the Buddhist notion of “interbeing,” which suggests that life on earth shares a single, interwoven being, how might we benefit environmentally by similarly reconceptualizing the relationship that we have with the various beings (including the human ones) with which we share this planet?