Charles Schweger considers Trungpa Rinpoche and then Thrangu Rinpoche to have been his teachers. Thrangu Rinpoche encouraged him to pursue eco-buddhism, and Touch the Earth Forum began in 2010 as a non-sectarian group for practicing buddhists. Charles has academic degrees in geology with lots of botany and has taught in Anthropology at the University of Alberta for 37 years. His work has centred on the paleo-ecology of the North, climate change and geoarchaeology. Charles loved doing field work throughout the arctic and is grateful for the opportunities to work with Indigenous people and to walk in wilderness. These experiences continue to feed into his buddhist practice, which in turn adds much to his experience of the natural world.