We know what must be done: cut emissions, restore ecosystems, and regenerate the living Earth. But the question remains: how do we get from here to there?
“Thrutopia,” as Rupert Read has called it, is not about imagining a perfect utopia or resigning ourselves to dystopia. It is about creating route-maps—practical, collaborative, adaptive pathways through crisis toward a livable future. Each pathway is partial, incomplete, and sometimes experimental. Yet taken together, they point us toward the possibility of a world restored.
In this Part, we explore those pathways. We begin with communities, because regeneration is rooted in place and people. We look at bioregional frameworks, which provide a map for aligning human economies with ecological realities. We examine the role of emerging technologies, not as saviors but as tools that must be subordinated to ecological principles. We turn to governance and policy, where decisions at scale can accelerate—or obstruct—transition. And we conclude with culture and imagination: the shared stories that shape how we see ourselves in relation to Earth.
These are not abstract possibilities. They are the seeds of a new civilization, already germinating in projects and movements around the world. The work is to nurture them, connect them, and scale them in time.
Chapter 7: The Pathways (Part 1)
This chapter introduces the idea of multiple, simultaneous “thrutopian” pathways—local, regional, and global strategies that move us step by step through climate and ecological crises. Rather than one grand blueprint, we examine a constellation of approaches emerging from communities, innovators, and social movements. These include cooperative economies, grassroots resilience hubs, climate-smart infrastructure, and bottom-up decision making. The chapter establishes the key insight that transition is already underway in thousands of small, distributed experiments, each contributing to a mosaic of regenerative possibility.
Chapter 8: We Are Far Off Track — Pathways (Part 2)
Continuing the analysis, Chapter 8 confronts the uncomfortable truth: despite decades of warnings, we remain dangerously out of alignment with planetary boundaries. This chapter assesses why current pathways are failing—political inertia, economic lock-ins, social fragmentation, and the lure of techno-optimism without systemic change. Yet it also highlights where course corrections are possible, drawing on examples of rapid transformation during crises, citizen-led political shifts, and the accelerating growth of regenerative practices. The message: if we know we’re off-track, we can still choose a new direction.
Chapter 9: Bioregionalism — A Better Model
Bioregionalism offers a map for rebuilding human systems within ecological limits. Here we explore what it means to organize economies, governance, and culture around watersheds, foodsheds, and local ecosystems. The chapter illustrates how bioregional thinking strengthens resilience, fosters community self-reliance, and restores people’s sense of belonging to place. Case studies—from water commons to regional food networks—show how bioregional frameworks create a coherent structure for regeneration, linking grassroots action to larger-scale transformation.
Chapter 10: Rethinking the Economy—from Extraction to Regeneration
This chapter examines the transition from an extraction-driven economy to one rooted in reciprocity, circularity, and ecological restoration. We explore emerging models such as Doughnut Economics, true-cost accounting, community wealth-building, and post-growth frameworks. The focus is on how to redesign the rules of the economic game so that regenerative practices become the default rather than the exception. The chapter argues that thriving economies must treat natural systems not as resources to be consumed, but as partners to be renewed.
Chapter 11: Ecorestoration — the Critical Work of Our Time
Ecorestoration is presented as both a practical necessity and a cultural calling. This chapter details the global imperative to restore forests, grasslands, wetlands, watersheds, and degraded soils at unprecedented speed and scale. It highlights breakthrough restoration projects—from rewilding landscapes to community-led watershed repair—and the scientific principles that make them effective. Beyond techniques, the chapter emphasizes restoration as a path to social cohesion, meaningful work, and renewed relationship with the more-than-human world.
Chapter 12: Biomimicry — Learning from Life’s Genius
Biomimicry teaches us to design not against nature, but with it. This chapter explores how ecosystems solve problems elegantly and efficiently—and how human systems can emulate these strategies. We look at examples from architecture, materials science, energy systems, and organizational design. Biomimicry is framed not as a technological fix, but as a profound shift in perception: understanding Earth as teacher, and innovation as a process of listening to nature’s 3.8 billion years of research and development.
Chapter 13: Recovering Indigenous Ways
This chapter highlights the essential wisdom of Indigenous cultures—ways of knowing that center reciprocity, kinship, ceremony, and long-term stewardship of land and water. We explore how Indigenous governance, food systems, and cosmologies offer living examples of sustainable societies. Rather than romanticizing or appropriating, the chapter emphasizes partnership, learning, and the necessity of supporting Indigenous sovereignty. These teachings provide crucial foundations for regenerating Earth in ways that honor both cultural and ecological continuity.
Chapter 14: Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture
Permaculture and regenerative agriculture offer grounded, hands-on pathways for healing land while feeding people. This chapter outlines core principles—designing for abundance, closing nutrient loops, valuing diversity—and shows how they manifest in farms, gardens, and whole landscapes. Techniques such as agroforestry, no-till soil building, and perennial polycultures demonstrate how food systems can sequester carbon, rebuild biodiversity, and increase resilience. The chapter positions these practices as stepping-stones toward a wider regenerative transformation of rural and urban environments alike.
Chapter 15: The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth
Building on the work of Joe Brewer, Bill Reed, Daniel Christian Wahl and others in the regenerative design movement, this chapter uses Brewer’s framework and cultural; scaffolding to synthesize the lessons of the previous chapters into a coherent design philosophy. Regeneration is framed as an iterative, place-based, participatory process—one that harmonizes ecological science with cultural creativity and systems thinking. The chapter lays out the design pathway: observing ecosystems, identifying potential, co-creating with communities, and cultivating feedback loops that reinforce ecological health. It offers a practical, hopeful roadmap for how humanity can transition from an extractive species to a keystone species for planetary thriving.