Gaiarcadia Summit 2028
August 19, 2026
Gaiarcadia · Humanity & Our Future
The Gaiarcadia Summit Returns in 2028
There are some gatherings that are really conferences, in the familiar sense of the word, and there are others that try to create a space in which people from quite different fields can meet around a question that is still unfolding. The first Gaiarcadia Summit in April 2024 was very much in the second category, and the next Summit, planned for 16–17 April 2028, gives us an opportunity to continue and deepen that conversation.
Second Gaiarcadia Summit
16–17 April 2028
Explore the developing 2028 Summit
Over two days in 2024, the inaugural Gaiarcadia Summit moved across subjects that are usually discussed separately: climate and renewable energy, regenerative agriculture and permaculture, sustainable cities and ecovillages, education, psychology, consciousness, artificial intelligence and the larger question of how humanity might learn to understand itself as part of a living Earth. That breadth was not accidental. It reflected the idea that the challenges facing us cannot be understood adequately when ecology, technology, economics, culture, education and human consciousness are treated as unrelated worlds.
For me, that is one of the reasons Gaiarcadia remains so interesting. The environmental crisis is obviously about what is happening to climate, water, biodiversity, soils, forests and oceans, but it is also about the assumptions through which human beings understand themselves and their relationship with the rest of life. If we continue to imagine ourselves as somehow separate from the living systems upon which we depend, even very sophisticated environmental solutions can remain trapped inside the same worldview that helped create the problem.
From Gaia to GaiaSelf
One of the most distinctive conversations at the first Summit was Our Cosmic Journey to GaiaSelf. It brought together ideas concerned with cosmogenesis, ecological identity, Gaian consciousness and the possibility that our understanding of the self can expand beyond the isolated individual towards a deeper experience of participation in the living Earth.
That is a large idea, but it does not have to remain abstract. If we begin to experience rivers, forests, oceans, soils and other living beings as part of the wider community of life to which we also belong, then care for the Earth becomes something more than an external environmental responsibility. It begins to become part of how we understand ourselves.
Explore “Our Cosmic Journey to GaiaSelf”
Climate, carbon and regenerative technology
Other Summit sessions approached the same wider transition through much more practical questions. Climate, Carbon, Renewable & Regen Tech explored what needs to change in the ways we produce and use energy, design technologies, shape policy and organise everyday life.
The interesting thing about placing these conversations within Gaiarcadia is that renewable technology is not treated as though it exists in isolation. Technology becomes part of a larger question about ecological limits, regeneration and the kind of civilisation we are trying to create.
Explore “Climate, Carbon, Renewable & Regen Tech”
Regenerative agriculture and permaculture
The session Regen Agriculture: Retrofitting Permaculture moved the conversation into food, land and the practical regeneration of ecological systems. Permaculture, regenerative agriculture, regrarianism, agroforestry and related approaches all invite us to think differently about the relationship between agriculture and the landscapes within which it takes place.
Instead of asking only how much food a piece of land can produce, regenerative approaches encourage us to ask what is happening to the soil, water, biodiversity and long-term resilience of the whole system. That is the kind of shift from extraction towards regeneration that runs through much of the Gaiarcadia conversation.
Explore “Regen Agriculture: Retrofitting Permaculture”
Sustainable cities and ecovillages
The same questions arise at the scale of the places in which we live. The Summit session Sustainable Cities & EcoVillages explored how settlements and communities might be redesigned around ecological limits, resilience, social connection and human flourishing.
This is where many subjects that can appear separate on paper begin to meet in practice. Housing, energy, transport, food, water, sanitation, community design and local economies all influence one another. A genuinely sustainable settlement therefore cannot be created by solving each of these questions independently and hoping that the pieces will somehow add up to a coherent whole.
Explore “Sustainable Cities & EcoVillages”
Gaiarcadia Academy
Keeping the conversation alive between Summits
The Gaiarcadia Summit is an important gathering point, but the work does not need to wait four years between events. Gaiarcadia Academy provides an ongoing educational setting in which ecological understanding, human development, systems thinking, sustainability and Gaian consciousness can increasingly be explored together.
Looking towards 16–17 April 2028
The second Gaiarcadia Summit is planned for 16–17 April 2028. The programme will develop over time, and that gives us an opportunity not simply to announce another event when the date approaches, but to allow the journey towards it to become part of the conversation.
Between now and April 2028, Whole Life Times can revisit some of the most important ideas from the first Summit, introduce people whose work may contribute to the next one, and explore emerging questions through the quarterly magazine, WLT Dialogues, the WLT Blog and Whole Life Times Connect. Gaiarcadia Academy can provide another place in which those ideas are developed more fully and brought into relationship with one another.
I like the thought of approaching the 2028 Summit in that way because it means the Summit itself becomes more than a two-day event. It becomes a point on the horizon towards which an evolving field of inquiry, learning and relationship can grow.
From waking up to showing up
There is also a connection here with a theme that has become increasingly important across both Gaiarcadia and OneSelf Discovery: the movement from waking up to showing up. Deeper ecological awareness matters most when it begins to influence how we live, what we create, how we participate in community and what we are willing to help restore.
That movement can take many forms. It may involve regenerative agriculture, restoring ecosystems, redesigning communities, developing new technologies, rethinking education or working towards economic systems that better reflect ecological reality. It may also involve something quieter but equally important: a gradual change in the way we experience our relationship with the Earth and with one another.
The strength of Gaiarcadia, I think, lies in making room for these different pathways to meet rather than insisting that transformation belongs to only one discipline, profession or worldview.
Explore Gaiarcadia
You can explore the first Gaiarcadia Summit, its programme and the developing plans for 2028 through the Gaiarcadia website. As the second Summit approaches, Whole Life Times will continue to follow the people, ideas and possibilities emerging around it.