Sound Of Sirens

Today the Burning Man Festival starts in Nevada/US. Not that I have been there, but I heard quite a bit and recently read an article about it in the Guardian. This years’ art theme is ‘American Dream’:

In 2008, leave narrow and exclusive ideologies at home and carefully consider your immediate experience. What has America achieved that you admire? What has it done or failed to do that fills you with dismay? What is laudable? What is ludicrous? Put blame aside, let humor thrive, and dare to contemplate a larger question: What can America contribute to the world?

Would be quite interesting to see what people come up with, wouldn’t it? Last years theme was ‘Green Man’. So they are really in tune with what’s happening zeitgeist-wise. Some people also call it ‘the only sane place left in the US’…I personally guess/hope that there will be more and more of this all over.

burningman.com

The ANH is an a-political, non-ideological and plural initiative promoted in 2003 by ten founding members and presided by Deepak Chopra. Today, it is a group constituted by people from all over the world with a common goal in mind: to create and reinforce a more sustainable, pacific and empathic humanity.

www.anhglobal.org

From the 7th until the 9th of November the ANH organizes its first forum/conference in Barcelona. There will be a lot of high scale speakers and a lot of people interested in:

To create an alliance of people based on the awareness of humanity’s interconnectedness. We believe that if enough people share the value of peace, war can be brought to an end. If enough people shift their awareness toward social justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability, then injustice, oppression, and the destruction of the ecosystem can be stopped.

Such a shift is already occurring - now it needs critical mass, which in turn needs organisation. The Alliance aims to connect individuals, caring communities and groups at a global level.

Unity isn’t fought for and won. It is realized one person at a time.

www.anheurope.org

‘It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth, but find out for themselves, for truth is not told, it is realized.’ - P. Joseph

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Zeitgeist, produced by Peter Joseph, was created as a nonprofit expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are.

James E. Hansen ist ein US-amerikanischer Klimaforscher. Er ist Direktor des Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) der NASA und Professor für Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften an der Columbia University. Bekannt wurde Hansen besonders in den 1980ern als einer der ersten Wissenschaftler, der eindringlich vor den Gefahren der globalen Erwärmung warnte.

Soviel von Wikipedia.

Mr. Hansen hat kürzlich erklärt, dass der ‘Tipping Point’, dh der Punkt von dem aus es kein Aufhalten mehr für drastische, immer schnellere Klimaveränderungen und ihre Auswirkungen gibt, eigentlich überschritten ist. In Zahlen ausgedrückt: Er beziffert eine ’sichere’ Menge von CO2 in der Atmosphäre, das heisst eine Menge, die ausgeglichen werden könnte (durch Aufforsten, alternative Landwirtschaftsmethoden etc), mit 350ppm (parts per million). Der aktuell gemessene Wert beträgt bereits 385ppm und dieser Wert steigt jährlich um 2ppm. Das heisst wir haben mit drastischen Auswirkungen in absehbarer Zeit zu rechnen und es geht darum, das Wissen um den Schaden, der entstehen wird, zu integrieren, weil es kein Zurück und kein ‘Vermeiden’ mehr gibt.

Hansen appelliert an Politiker und Meinungsbilder, die wie bei seinem Statement vor 20 Jahren, nicht dafür sorgen, dass die Öffentlichkeit entsprechend informiert wird. Er kritisiert Öl- und Special Interest Lobbys. Er schreibt Briefe an Japanische Präsidenten und hält und veröffentlicht Powerpoint Vorträge. Letztlich wendet er sich an uns Bürger direkt und hält uns zum Handeln an: ‘If politicians remain loggerheads, citizens must lead.’

Umweltschutz – das Wort deutet es ja schon an, bedeutet Schutz der Umwelt im Sinne einer von uns abgegrenzten Umwelt.
Unser Problem heute - nach 30 Jahren Umweltschutz – ist, dass wesentliche Grundannahmen des Schutzes der Natur und der Landschaft philosophisch und wissenschaftstheoretisch möglicherweise falsch gelegt worden sind. Die Gegenthese zum Umweltschutz wäre das Konzept der Ökologie oder des ‘Mitweltschutzes’.

Der Unterschied zwischen einer Anthropozentrik und einer ‘Ökozentrik’ ist, dass jemand, der anthropozentrisch denkt, in der Natur eine Funktion erkennt, z.B. als Ressource oder auch als Ort der seelischen Erbauung, während der Ökozentriker von einem so genannten Eigenwert der Natur ausgeht. Er hat die Vorstellung, dass der Mensch als integrierter Teil der Natur auch nicht das Zentrum der Welt ist und es in seinem Bewusstsein schaffen muss, fuer die Natur mitzudenken.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Bosselmann gilt als einer der wichtigsten Denker einer ökologischen Rechtsordnung, die den inneren Wert aller Lebewesen auch verfassungsrechtlich garantieren soll.

check this out:

www.earthjurisprudence.org

And so for sunday we continue with some music. To be exact: with the liner notes from Bill Evans for Miles Davis’ ‘Kind of Blue’, Comunbia Records, 1959:

There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are impossible. These artists must practice a particular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.
The resulting pictures lack the complex composition and textures of ordinary painting, but it is said that those who will see will find something captured that escapes explanation.
This conviction that direct deed is the most meaningful reflection, I believe, has prompted the evolution of the extremely severe and unique disciplines of the jazz or improvising musician. …

Get the link to Systems Thinking and the basis of understanding for sustainable living?…‘The universe self-organises and evoles. It creates diversity, not uniformity. It is dynamic, spending its time in transient behaviour…’ (check out ‘Dancing with Systems’, Donella Meadows)

So whenever you are spontaneously improvising, you might just be quite in tune with the whole thing in these moments… Please enjoy how Bird and Dizzy argue about that!

‘Art, Ecology & Education provides pathways to an integrated and sustainable way of living. We participate in the development and integration of an ecologically conscious and systemic worldview.
Using a holistic and transformative approach in our work, we support individuals and groups in the process of transition towards a life sustaining society.’

Upcoming workshops (in german and english):
12+13 July CHANGE - a different worldview for sustainable living
20-24 August ‘EFTERFESTEN Gathering for Sustainability’, Sweden
3-7 September SHIFTING TERRAIN - dancing new ways of perceiving
20+21 September PERMACULTURE - the Basics

Next AEE Evening at the HUB, Berlin:
9 July, 8pm, CSA / Community Supported Agriculture - Conscious consumption one step ahead

Art, Ecology & Education (www.art-ecology-education.org) works as international, intercultural consortium based in Berlin.

Participate in shifting the paradigm / feel free to get in touch!

Potsdam, Germany, August 8-17, rerun in Berlin, September 1-8.

‘At the Globians Festival we like to know and show more about cultures of the world, which in our understanding is more than just an exhibition platform for ethnological films. The need for a global understanding of regional issues may give birth to a new type of individual lifestyle…’

This is an amazing, beautiful festival!!

Check it out:

www.globians.com, youtube

Meadows ist Wissenschaftler und Mitautor des Buches ‘Grenzen des Wachstums (1972). Das Interview findet ihr hier. Es wurde von einem Redakteur der ‘Welt’ geführt und dort am 22. Juni auch veröffentlicht. Mittlerweile gibt’s zu dem Artikel eine lebhafte Diskussion in den Kommentaren…

Mein persönlicher Eindruck: Ich mag Meadows. Für mich macht er klare und nachvollziehbare Aussagen. Und die Kommentare der (deutschen Welt…) Leser finde ich - sehr vielfältig und deshalb interessant. Bin gespannt ob / wann sich hier mehr selbst organisiert wird…

Hier sind noch ein weiterer Sound Of Sirens Artikel, der sich mit dem Thema von Meadows’ Interview auseinandersetzt: ‘Enjoy life while you can’? (Interview mit James Lovelock) … sowie ein Artikel aus dem Guardian: ‘World carbon dioxides levels highest for 650.000 years, says US report’ (Mai 08). Any Meinung?

Biodiversity is the diversity of life at various levels of organisation,ranging from genes, species, ecosystems, biomes and landscapes. As far as we can tell, the Earth just before the appearance of modern humans was the most biodiverse it has ever been during the 3.500 million years of life’s tenure on this planet, … We are haemorrhaging species at a rate up to 1.000 times the natural rate of extinction, or, more prosaically, every day we are losing 100 species, mostly in the great tropical forests because of our endless desire for petroleum, timber, soya, palm oil and beef. …

Stephan Harding in ‘Animate Earth’

Today, on the 21st of June 2008 we have an estimate of the world population of the human species of 6.704.922.712 people - growing momentarily at a rate of about 15.000 people every ten minutes. Check: (World Population Clock Projection)

Also: There is no habitat on earth that has not been seriously degraded by humans. More than 50% of wild habitat has been destroyed in 49 out of 61 Old World tropical countries.

I do not intend to play out ‘good’ against ‘bad’. But I would like to emphasize and support a radical shift in our perception of the world, since:

This devastation (and development) is currently being protected and fostered by legal and political establishments that exalt the human community while affording no protection to the non-human modes of being. …

The well-being of each member of the Earth community is dependent on the well-being of the Earth itself. Within this context, the following principles, expressed in terms of rights, should be recognised in national constitutions and in courts of law.

This is an interview with Chris Johnstone, a psychologist, specializing in the psychology of change.
It was held on the day of the unleashing of Transition Town Lewes in England. Johnstone feels inspired by communities creating their own energy descent plan and gives an insight into the Transition Towns Initiatives and its larger context.

Find the other parts of the interview.

Find more Sound Of Sirens articles connected to Transition Towns.

It is obvious that some kind of shift has to happen, will happen.

Observing and understanding the corporate world, the global economy, politics and society are crucial components to realize where we are at. But this won’t give us the keys to change, I don’t believe in changing from ‘within’, sticking to the old paradigms.

There is a lot coming up concerning the shift of paradigm, the shift of consciousness. One of the voices is Stephan Harding, Co-ordinator of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College, where he is also Resident Ecologist and a teacher. In his book ‘Animate Earth’ he explores how Gaian science can help us to develop a sense of connectedness with the ‘more-than-human’ world. His work is based on a careful integration of rational scientific analysis with our intuition, sensing and feeling.

Read an exerpt of the first chapter:

Are you ready, then shift along…

This first one is from 2006, created by Karl Fisch and