This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever be quested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland
Someone from Transition California emailed me a link to Paul's speech Tuesday night while I was researching my diary on green social networking... sheer synchronicity since Paul's nonprofit WiserEarth is my main squeeze these days. I putter around there passionately, a volunteer editor of their fledgling newsletter, a recently elected member of their first Advisory Council, and a primary promoter of my other pocket of hope ... the Transition Towns Initiatives.
Green Social Networks
Treehugger's Jaymi Heimbuch, who recently dubbed WiserEarth the ultimate green network, refers to Hawken's mega-experiment as "the green lovechild of Facebook and LinkedIn.
Wiser: Build it and they will come
Wiser's small staff and a dedicated group of volunteers have over the past two years compiled a commercial-free, free-to-use directory of over 100,000 organizations active in working towards ecological sustainability, social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental stewardship. The community recently chipped in to purchase Wiser's API, open source software which throws open the window on their organizations, resources, events, and jobs to any website.
Our effectiveness to prevent harm and institute positive change is undermined by our lack of collective awareness, duplication of efforts, and poor connectivity.
What has been missing is a map and directory of our network that includes the resources for communication and cooperation; in essence, an infrastructure through which to coordinate our efforts. WiserEarth provides this infrastructure.
The Transition Towns Initiatives
A transition towns conference
Using wikis, nings and blogs, the success story of the UK Transition Towns initiative has become an international phenomena since the movement started in the UK from the work of Rob Hopkins author of the Transition Handbook (here's a free, editable online version. The goal of TT is to "rebuild community resilience and self-reliance by bringing the head, heart and hands of communities together to make the transition to life beyond oil."
From the initial Transition Wiki:
"What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?
It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?
"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"
Note: Transition groups around the world have added economic sustainability at the local level to their mission statements since the global economic crisis last fall. The end goal of each individual transition initiative is to tackle the challenges of Global Climate Change, Peak Oil and economic instability to design its own Energy Descent Action Plan
An experiment in local currency: The Totnes pound is alive and trading in the world's first Transition Town in Totnes, UK
The first Transition Initiative in Totnes
Transition Boulder: the first official US network
The 12 steps to Transition
An afternoon romp through the 12 steps to Transition as part of the Lift Festival on the South Bank, London. Creating an Energy Descent Plan in one afternoon complete with unleashing and cake!
Transition Nings:
Transition US and while you're at it, browse through the social networking groups which have blossomed throughout the country.
Here's a sampling of transition nings from Kansas to New York ...
Transition California
Transition New York
Transition Idaho
Transiton Wisconsin
Transition Georgia
Transition West Virginia
Transition Kansas
Treehugger et al
It'll come as no surprise to any of us that Treehugger reigns supreme as the most delicious green social network, but one of its close competitors, Planet Green, (follow them on Twitter) does some fine significant reporting on green networking.
"One of easiest ways to use social media to help the environment is to engage the communities that have formed around websites like Planet Green, TreeHugger, Inhabitat, and others. Through these websites, you can learn about environmental issues and green living, but you can also help share and spread this knowledge with others.
With so many ways to learn about the environment and eco-issues, you will have plenty of knowledge to share. From Planet Green's How to Go Green series to TreeHugger's Green Basics, Inhabitat'sHow-to's to Ideal Bite's Daily Tip, there is a nearly endless supply of green information and advice. The Environment is already in your social network Planet Green"
Relocalization
Locavores buy, sell and barter food from local farms & gardens.
Ooooby – Out Of Our Own Backyards connects local food growers and locavores as it works towards a world of "food interdependence".
Oooobyites earn "roobys" currency through farming yields, which they use to buy things at participating local businesses. "Opods" or Ooooby pods provide users with even closer connections to specific locations. But then again, check out Hyperlocavore, a yard sharing network with a magnificent vision of "healthy kids who love the smell of dirt, blocks with foreclosed homes becoming vibrant neighborhoods, plates full of delicious safe food at costs we can all afford, and neighbors who become real friends."
Lunch from my yard: salad, flowers, eggs.
"Yard sharing is an arrangement between people to share skills and gardening resources; space, time, strength, tools or skills, in order to grow food as locally as possible, to make neighborhoods resilient, kids healthy and food much cheaper! The group can be friends, family, neighbors, members of a faith community
Yard sharing is a way to connect people who love to garden, people who love healthy fresh food and people who have yards! Often people who have yards have little time time for a vegetable garden. And sometimes gardeners have trouble finding soil to garden in because they rent an apartment! Sometimes older people lack stamina and are socially isolated, finding younger people to partner in growing food together works wonderfully for all."
And then, of course, there is the wonderful La Vida Locavore, Jill Richardson's blog "or anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!" Recent diaries here include FDA Investigates Spot-On Flea Control Products, Living La Vida Locavore (or Living Loca-voraciously, and How do you become a sustainable farmer. Fabulous blogroll!
City corn shares a slice of a sidewalk yard with a tree.
Barbados gardeners share recycled old treads ....
Freecycling
"One man's trash is another man's treasure"
With over 4,600 groups and 6,400,000 members around the world, the Freecycling community is thriving;and for good reason. It's an organization based on the idea that giving and receiving gifts for free is not only good for the obvious reasons (who doesn't love free stuff?) but it's good for the environment, too. By keeping all this stuff in a "freecycle" and transferring it from person to person, tons of items are spared from meeting a landfill-bound fate. In short, it's one of the greenest ways to get free stuff.
Remote viewing? The EPA in your neighborhood?
If you ask me, this one's a wee bit scary. All you gotta do is type in your zip code or address (or a longitude or latitude or radio frequency or electromagnetic field???) and the EPA's MyEnvironment beams you up with a precision that nothing short of feeling the pavement beneath your feet ... on the street where YOU live ... a mega datastream of the most up-to-date conditions on the street where you live ....
- air quality index
- pollutants
- cancer risk estimates
- streamflow
- UV, ozone,radon, and particulate matter indexes
- brownfields, watersheds,
- polluting industries
- cleanups
Fortunately, they haven't yet installed the requisite software to determine the range of your personal BO quotient and the impact of individual 'off gassing" but that's probably coming real soon.
Also Noteworthy
The Daily Green
"It's getting easier all the time to run your home on green energy: More than half of all electricity consumers in the U.S. have the option of purchasing some kind of green power product from their electricity provider. Find out how you can buy green power by visiting the Department of Energy (DOE) Website, which offers a state-by-state list of green energy providers, as well as information on making your own green energy, such as installing solar power, and tips on conservation.
Also visit your own utility's Website to check out its green energy options. Its site should also indicate how you might be eligible to install a solar or wind generator and operate in parallel with their electric grid. If your utility doesn't offer these options, use the Contact Us link on its site to let it know you want to power green."
Kudos to Earth911: for their powerful search feature which enables users to locate the nearest recycling center for plastics, batteries, motor oil, you name it.
Honorable Mention
Hot Town: Summer in New York City: 7 miles of car free roads
"I Love the Smell of Car-Free Roads in the Morning!
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with NYC DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, has announced that the Summer Streets initiative is coming back to the streets of NYC this August. Last year was a great success, with over 50,000 people joining the fun on each of the 3 days, and this year promises to be even better with 1,500 free activities and 13 new locations also closing streets over the summer. For more info visit the NYC official website.
Endnote
I'd like to close with a larger than normally acceptable excerpt from Paul's speech. It's beauty transcends boundaries....
"There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn't afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done."
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse.
What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description.
Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refugee camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums. You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.
Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisher folk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way. There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true.
Tag! You're It!
If you are interested in environmental issues, please join DK GreenRoots, a new environmental advocacy group created by Meteor Blades. DK GreenRoots is comprised of bloggers at Daily Kos and eco-advocates from other sites. We focus on a broad range of issues. We alert each other to important eco-stories in the mainstream media and on the Internet, promote bloggers at one site to readers at other sites and discuss crucial eco-issues. We are in exciting times now because for the first time in years, significant environmental legislation will be passed by Congress. DK GreenRoots can also be used to apprise members of discussions and strategy sessions happening in Meteor Blade’s Green Diary Rescue thread, which is also our workroom. |
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Schedule for DK GreenRoots - yesterday, today and tomorrow
All listed times are PDT. Full week’s schedule can be found here.
Wednesday July 1:
5am:
Beware the Silver Bullet ... by
A Siegel
9am:
Good Green Jobs: Moving from Rhetoric to Reality by
ChangeToWin
noon:
The Video that Could Save Your Life by
FishOutofWater
1 pm:
Go Ahead, NPS, Seize These Cal State Parks, Please! by
RLMiller
3 pm:
The Insanity of Bottled Water by
Asinus Asinum Fricat
5 pm:
Keep an eye out for bear - Shenandoah NP photodiary by
it really is that important
7 pm:
Marine Life Series: Responsible Shrimp Buying by
Mark H
9 pm:
Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region by
shpilk
10pm:
Green Transit and Hybrids: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles by
Vikingkingg
Wednesday Series:
Bookflurries: Bookchat: The Setting as Character by cfk
Siglines! Caring for the environment by Wee Mama
Green Diary Rescue by Meteor Blades
Thursday July 2:
11 am:
My Lake has Singing Sands by
Muskegon Critic
3 pm:
Poverty Near the "High Hazard" Coal Ash Sites by
Bruce Nilles
5 pm:
boatsie on social networking
7 pm:
rb137 on blood minerals
9 pm:
Jill Richardson on food
afternoon/evening:
Meteor Blades (whenever he’s ready)
Thursday Series:
Morning Feature: Wolves and Predators by NCrissieB
Labor Diary Rescue, 7/2/09 by djtyg
Considered Forthwith by Casual Wednesday
Thursday Night Health Care by TheFatLadySings
Top Comments by Elise
Write On! by SensibleShoes
Overnight News Digest by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
Green Diary Rescue by Meteor Blades
Friday July 3:
9am:
Turkana on beef (and more)
11 am:
Meteor Blades
3 pm:
TXsharon
7 pm:
Spirit of Brash Optimism by
Land of Enchantment
Friday Series:
Morning Feature by NCrissieB
Mojo Friday by rbutters
Frugal Fridays by sarahnity
Friday Night at the Movies by Land of Enchantment
Overnight News Digest by Oke
Green Diary Rescue by Meteor Blades
Plus there'll be music on environmental themes in
jotter's High Impact Diaries every morning, along with schedule updates. We can make more slots as needed - anyone who has an environmentally-related story they want to post this week, we’ll create a place on the schedule for you.