Today is Blog Action Day

The theme is water; and I'm too crammed this week to write something deeply intelligent or detailed.

That said, this day itself-- a loosely coordinated effort to get a group of people all over the planet to blog
• on the same topic, of urgent concern
• on the same day

is an example of our growing convergence and ability to cooperate.
http://blogactionday.change.org

This year's topic? Water

Number of participants? 4,815 in 136 countries.
(with a combined readership of 37,594,285 Readers--
about half a percent [ 0.5%] of the world's population,
which is equal to about 9% of the world's college educated population)

Here's a first person account by the founder of how it happened:
http://northxeast.com/building-momentum-how-blog-action-day-got-going

"Today – October 15th, [2007] is the very first annual Blog Action Day. As the international dateline passes over the world, over fifteen thousand bloggers will be waking up to prepare and post about the environment on their blogs. Three months ago “Blog Action Day” did not even exist."

Transition Documents- A Short Review

Here's a short, partial braindump of a few influential Eco-Transition documents--
all of which lay out either
a vision of how to create a sustainable society, or
detail what it would entail
(describing the endpoint of the journey is not the same as a roadmap.
All but California Tomorrow are free & online in full.

Four Changes
by Gary Snyder, San Francisco, CA, August 17, 1969
Published in Mother Earth News in January 1970
& republished countless times in the underground press in the days of loose copyright.
Short Manifesto that which ends in a call for transformation, with guesses as to what might be strategy points. It is remembered by Worldchanging author Alex Steffen in his essay Four Freedoms, Four Changes and the Earth Charter.

Soft Energy Paths: The Road Not Taken
by Amory and Hunter Lovins
First published as "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" in Foreign Affairs, in October 1976.
Lays out two scenarios-- the Hard Path, in which we stress uranium-based nuclear power and fossil fuels until both are depleted; vs. the Soft Path, which ends up with none of those energy sources and stresses renewables, efficiency and smart design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amory_Lovins

California Tomorrow Plan
Driven by California visionary Alfred Heller, this 120 page booklet was conceived in 1969 and published in 1971. It starts with the present (Plan Zero- California in 1970) and lays out two futures: One, business as usual; and Two, a holistic eco-plan. It is hard not to think that this format heavily influenced Amory Lovins as he wrote his two scenarios in the early 70's.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3823569 Unfortunately behind an academic firewall, this seven page backgrounder shares the history of the Plan.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt92903742

Blueprint for Survival
1972, UK
Printed as a special issue of Ecologist magazine, this went on to be a best-selling book (375,000 copies).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint_for_Survival
http://www.theecologist.info/page34.html Full text

Transforming Our Industrial Society:Steps towards overcoming Unemployment, Poverty & Environmental Destruction
West German Green Party
September 1986
Passed at national convention, but never found much resonance among party or public. Was a rare public statement of eco-transformation in the eighties.
http://www.archive.org/details/UmbauDerIndustriegesellschaft untranslated German

Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment & Development
1987
Also known as the Brundtland Commission report, and sometimes as the UN Commission on Environment and Development, this report was commissioned by the UN in 1983, as fears of nuclear omnicide were at an all-time high. In light of those fears, it was little noticed when released [although Thomas Berry took note of it in his 1988 The Dream of the Earth] in March 1987, but became more noticed after the Dec. 1987 INF Nuclear Treaty and James Hansen's June 1988 Congressional Climate testimony. It helped inspire and lead into the June 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, aka "Earth Summit") in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The report is heavy on generalities and light on specifics, but nonetheless turned out to be the right report at the right time. Its definition of sustainable development--
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
-- has now become a much cited viral meme.
http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-a2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future

Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead
by Paul Raskin, et al
2002
Written by the a group associated with the Global Scenario Group, a think-tank that is a project of the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute, this document sketches out three basic scenarios: Conventional, Barbarism & Great [eg. Green] Transition
http://www.gtinitiative.org/resources/gtessay.html Free 111 page PDF


Totnes (Ireland) Energy Descent Action Plan
2005
Written by students in Rob Hopkins' year-long permaculture design class as a class exercise, this vision of how one town might transform itself has helped to spark a worldwide movement (crucially assisted by Hopkins charismatic, upbeat community organizing & presentation skills via blog, Youtube and the Transition Handbook).
http://transitionculture.org/essential-info/pdf-downloads/kinsale-energy-descent-action-plan-2005

I welcome suggestions for other documents to include.
[Addition] The Art of Rapid Transition
2010
A series of five extraordinary events hosted by nef (new economics foundation) at the UK Hay Literary Festival in 2009. Dealing with peak oil, climate and economic collapse & looking back at Britain in World War II.

http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/The_Art_of_Rapid_Transition.pdf

Greening the Earth From Below

It is fascinating, and uplifting to see the emergence of a global loosely coordinated "compassionate intelligence from below"
that echoes Teilhard de Chardin's notion of a Noosphere- a global brain- through ostensibly one-shot events.

Here's a chart of the emergence of some (mostly) low-budget voluntary, decentralized world-changing events. Because many of the events do a loose global census, or have stopped counting on their website, these figure reflect early spring 2010.

1. Green Drinks
   Since 1989 in London (701 cities)
   http://www.greendrinks.org
2. ICLEI-affiliated cities
   Since 1990 (1107 cities)
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICLEI
3. Critical Mass bikerides,
   Since 1992 in San Francisco (300 cities)
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass
   
4. Pecha Kucha
   Since Tokyo in 2003 (316 cities)
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_kucha
5. Awakening The Dreamer
   presented to perhaps 60,000 people by 2,200 facilitators since 2005 or so, San Francisco. [Added via suggestion]
   http://awakeningthedreamer.org
   
6. Transition Towns (AKA "Transition Movement")
   Since Jan 2006 in Totnes, UK (~300 cities, 60 in the US),
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns
7. Earth Hour
   Since March 2007 in Sydney, Australia (4000 cities)
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_hour
8. TEDx
   Since Jan 2009 (353 cities)
   http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/344
9. Twestival
   ( 200 in Feb 2009; then 175 in Feb 2010) from London
   http://twestival.com/about-twestival-global-2010
10. 350 Day
    All on 10/24/2009, planned since spring 2008 from Burlington, VT. (5200 cities)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/350.org
11. Ignite
    Six continents, 60 Cities, 600 Talks so far , since 2006 in Seattle, WA
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignite_%28event%29

Global Brain Reading List

References on the Global Brain
/ Superorganism

a collection of basic references, grouped by author, that
explore the idea of the emerging planetary organism and its global
brain, in the chronological order of first publication

Recommended by Ross Dawson in a comment in an essay on this topic.

How to Start a Movement

This video of Derek Stivers explanation of "How to Start A Movement" has been viewed 350,000 times or so on Youtube, and likely many times more on the TED site. It is relevant to our times, and relevant to this blog.

Derek Sivers: How to start a movement

Thanks to Janaia Donaldson at http://www.wordpress.peakmoment.tv/journal/?p=146
for pointing me to yet another blog that had this video.

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


***********************************************
(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.