John D. Liu

John D. Liu
December 1, 2019 Christina Mullin

John D. Liu is a Chinese American film-maker and  ecologist. Through his camera lens he underlines the importance of life, nature, and the earth in relation to humans. He documents land that has turned into desert and that years later, through eco system restoration, turn into a green oasis and fertile agricultural areas.

His career was first as a television producer and cameraman for CBS news, RAI and ZDF, and through working on a project in rural China for the World Bank, inspired him to study ecology.

In January 2015 John was named Visiting Fellow at Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. John is also Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2017 John Liu founded Ecosystem Restoration Camps, a worldwide movement that aims to restore damaged ecosystems on a large scale (read more about Ecosystem Restoration Camps in this issue).

His documentaries include Hope in a Changing Climate

 and Green Gold . In them, John D. Liu reframes the debate on global warming by illustrating that large, decimated ecosystems can be restored. Success stories from Ethiopia, Rwanda and China prove that bringing large, decimated areas back from environmental ruin is possible, and the results are key to stabilizing the earth’s climate, eradicating poverty and making sustainable agriculture a reality.

 Watch his TED talk, where he explains how it’s possible to rehabilitate large damaged ecosystems.