Blessed Unrest- The Film

I hadn't realized that Paul Hawken's book Blessed Unrest: How the Lrgest Movement In The World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming might be made into a film. Looks like the film is behind schedule, but here's a 12 minute clip (parts of which have been incorporated into the Awakening the Dreamer seminar, or vice versa). The film draws heavily from Paul's Fall 2007 speech at Bioneers

You can watch the 12 minute film clip here ( & Paul's speech below):
http://www.paullussiercompany.com/add_htmls/blessed_unrest.html

Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest and WiserEarth

Nuclear Tipping Point (8 Min Trailer)

Suggested from an email by Professor Martin Hellman of Stanford, one of the co-founders of Beyond War in the 1980's, this video paints a picture of the reality and possibilities for our nuclear dilemma. Hellman's current project is Nuclear Risk. (I support this project, but aside from being on their mailing list, I am not affiliated with it.)

Nuclear Tipping Point Long Trailer

In the 1980s, people all around the world spoke up about nuclear technology. First, from 1975-'79, about nuclear power, in Germany, France and the United States; and then from 1979- '85, about nuclear weapons. In a Great Convergence of global unity, on June 12, 1982 and in October 1983, there were simultaneous demonstrations on the same day against the insanity of nuclear weapons.

The Transformation as Sandbox Syndrome

This controversial essay by leading futurist Michael Marien, adapted from a presentation at the Association for Humanistic Psychology Twentieth Annual Meeting in Washington (1982), is seen as an  initial probe into the vast and vexing  problem of why so little humane, transformational change actually takes place.
 
Summary
Belief that a social transformation is happening serves to keep it from happening.  Behaviors associated with the sandbox of political impotency include: pronouncement of actual or imminent success, confusion of goals and results, an acritical stance, hubris, an incapacitating dialect, pseudo holism, egalitarian blinders. and self-centeredness.  Upward growth to escape the Sandbox Syndrome is a necessary ingredient of any serious social change.

http://www.ghandchi.com/iranscope/Anthology/mm/sandbox.htm

Slouching Towards a Great Convergence

Transition Decade
The Transition Decade creates a campaign platform and a shared timeline
for action for the next ten years. (Australia, 10 group coalition, launched 2/14/2010, acknowledges debt to Lester Brown's 1990 suggestion of a "Transition Decade" in 1990.)
http://www.t10.net.au/node/13 Official homepage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transition_Decade

Transition (Town) Movement
Started in Fall 2005 in Kinsale, Ireland by Louise Rooney and Rob Hopkins, this movement attempts to build community-based efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our oil dependence and build community. 284 official initiatives as of April 8th, 2010. Third annual conference happened in June 2010 in Britain. Now based in Totnes, UK.
http://transitionculture.org/essential-info/why-transition-culture <-- early history http://www.transitiontowns.org <-- movement home page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns

Great Transition Initiative
Started in 1995, The Great Transition Initiative is a growing
international network of scholars and activists that
analyzes alternative scenarios and charts a path to a hopeful future. Based in Boston, MA . Has many monographs and thinkpieces.
http://www.gtinitiative.org Official home page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Transition

Four Years. Go
Dedicated to the notion that the planet is at a tipping point, this campaign stresses that the next four years will determine the course of the next thousand years. This effort comes out of the Pachamama Alliance. It was born out of an inspration of Lynne Twiss. Strongest on outreach, light on theory, the four years in question run from February 14, 2010 (Valentine's Day) to 2/14/14.
http://www.fouryearsgo.org
http://twitter.com/fouryearsgo
http://www.youtube.com/fouryearsgo
http://www.facebook.com/fouryearsgo

Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB)
Pronounced “mob”, this initiative was catalyzed by Paul Ehrlich, a MacArthur award winning senior biologist most famous for writing the bestseller The Population Bomb in 1968. While it has been around for a few months, it went public more loudly on April 6th, 2010 with the publication of an article in an online science magazine.

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000330
http://mahbsustainability.wordpress.com/about

Defusing the Nuclear Threat (Stanford Univ.)

Professor Martin Hellman, who helped build the anti-nuclear group Beyond War, is trying to start a Stanford University effort that will go global.
http://nuclearrisk.org

Charter for Compassion
A call to a principle embraced by every faith, and by every moral code. It is
often referred to as The Golden Rule.
Started by Karen Armstrong, a historian of religion. Announced February 28, 2008 when she won the TED Prize, and unveiled on Nov. 12, 2009. Well over 150,000 people from over 180 countries participated in the course of the six week discussion period.
Twitter: @TheCharter 3.346 followers
http://charterforcompassion.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_for_Compassion


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(Disclosure: I'm on-board with a number of these: I helped start Transition Town Asheville in December 2006 w/ two others; am recently part of the Great Transition Institute network; & am recently part of some Four Years. Go working groups. I also helped found the US Citizen's Network for the 1992 Earth Summit, and got started with all this by reading the Population Bomb in 1970 after the first Earth Day.)

The Growth of TEDx Jan. 2009 to April 2010

This image shows the growth of TEDx from the first month in 2009. The first TEDx was in Canada (TerryTalks) on Nov. 22, 2008, and is not included. The 2nd was in Feb. 2009 in Warwick, UK.

There are 393 on this list. There have been 30 each month since September 2009, except December 2009 & January 2010. The April 2010 number is an extrapolation. Compiled from list at http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/346

Film: The Turning Point- a return to community

The Turning Point: a return to community explores the vital importance of community in the 21st century and its role in helping us to create a life-sustaining society.

This 41 minute film takes an inspiring look at some of the sustainable community solutions that have grown up over the last 20 years around the Findhorn Foundation community in Scotland. This multi-faith spiritual community, ecovillage and international centre for holistic education aspires to foster a new human consciousness and to create a positive and sustainable future.

The filmmakers say: "Our intention is for at least 1,000,000 people worldwide to have seen The Turning Point: a return to community by the end of 2010."

This film will be of particular interest to anyone involved in the Transition Town Movement or similar initiatives.

Details

• Produced by Lisa Mead and Alex Page in 2009
• Film Running Time: 41 minutes
• Interviews: Approx. 70 minutes
• Format: PAL 16:9 Widescreen
• Language: English

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/The-Turning-Point-a-return-to-community/464064755550?ref=ts

Website:
http://www.theturningpointfilm.co.uk

Wordle of the Initiatives identified as part of the Great Convergence-- all urgency-based responses to the ecological crisis.

Welcome

This blog will be used to share thoughts about the convergence of the movements for peace, ecology, democracy & enough for all.