Michael D. Austin

Michael D. Austin is Producer and Journalist at Blue Planet Almanac™ and Cause-Related Marketer and Social Media Developer at Broadman Fine Arts. His essay on Gaia consciousness, Dreaming Earth, appears in Spanda Foundation’s Journal issue, “Consciousness & Development 2.0: An Operating Manual”.
 
Mike represents leading edge organizations in advancement of their revenue, technology and programs, having been a director, consultant or representative with organizations such as The 5 Gyres Institute • American Cancer Society • Bureau of Land Management’s California Desert Conservation Area Plan • Boston Red Sox Pitcher Tim Wakefield and Pitching In For Kids • Broadman Fine Arts • California State Polytechnic University & Foundation • City of Hope • Direct Relief International • Legendary football player Earl Campbell, the Pro Player Foundation and National Multiple Sclerosis Society • Yvon Chouinard’s Great Pacific Iron Works and Patagonia • Great American Ink vintage animation art • HealthyLife.net • Mono Lake Committee • New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees Dream Foundation • Sierra Club • United Way Los Angeles • Ventura County Star • Whole Life Times & Whole Life Productions.
 
A few of Mike’s favorite professional moments in development include when

• his marketing team negotiated Sierra Club’s first corporate sponsorship.
• his teams consistently exceed program and revenue benchmarks.
• in an Outward Bound Ropes Course for corporate team-building, he was first to climb atop a wobbly 75 ft. telephone phone — which swayed several inches under one’s weight. Then he dove into thin air to catch a trapeze eight feet away.

At University of California Santa Barbara and Riverside Mike read environmental studies, biology and comparative religion. At UCSB he was The Daily Nexus’ first environmental news feature writer. He also tutored college chemistry, math and did research on the Bionomics of Kestrels.
 
Growing up as an experienced, amateur naturalist, Mike hiked and biked in California’s coastal foothills and fished in its beautiful streams and rivers from an early age. Some of his favorite personal moments as an Earthling include when he

• had birds perched calmly on his hand like a Ring-Necked Dove, an American Kestrel, a Red-Tailed Hawk or a Barn Owl. Mike held Federal and California falconry licenses.
• saw first-hand the Chumash pictographs of Santa Barbara’s Painted Cave.
• backpacked in California’s Sierra Nevada, camped in Sequoia National Park, or fished in King’s Canyon National Park.
• was able to hold reptiles such as a Mojave Desert Sidewider, a 12 foot Reticulated Python, a Pickering’s Garter Snake or a Blue-Lined Skink.
• stood on skis atop California’s June Mountain.
• spoke at Federal Hearings about a liquefied natural gas terminal proposed for California’s Point Conception, near the Chumash Western Gate.
• found that among the oldest living things known on Earth are the unassuming, elegant Creosote Bushes of the southwestern deserts in western North America — about 12,000 years old — exceeding even the venerable and romantic Bristlecone Pines.
• realized that bacteria in permafrost are believed to be hundreds of millions of years old.

“Conserve Energy. Your Children Will Thank You!”
 
Watch Green T with Michael D. Austin of Blue Planet Almanac at Opportunity Green 2009. Read his LinkedIn profile. Follow his Twitter feed.