Note: Ignore the typos. I’ll clean them up later. Also, everything is paraphrased, because while I can type fast, I can’t type as fast as humans speak – heck, sometimes I can’t hear as fast as some humans speak. 🙂
What is the Beaming Bioneers VT Conference?
In 2010 Terry Youk and Ann Youk were invited to present their documentary film “Numen: the Nature of Plants” at the national Bioneers Conference, an event that has been going on for 20 years, now. The national conference showcases people whose small actions have blossomed into movements – large and small, to bring about economic justice. The speakers were so inspiring, Terry and Ann decided to bring Bioneers to Vermont, with the goal of creating an ongoing movement in Vermont to bring about ecological justice in Northern New England. With that in mind, they will be donating the Savoy Theater space for monthly meetings at which community members, businesses, and other organizations can work and plan together.
To follow the conference on Twitter use these hashtags: #beaming #bioneers2011
Facebook page:
Web site: www.beamingbioneersverming.com
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Beaming Bioneers Conference, Montpelier, Friday, October 14, 2011
Welcoming Remarks
Housekeeping
Governor Shumlin has canceled.
– Schedule is pretty tight. Try to be prompt to arrive.
– Capitol Grounds providing free coffee, VT Center for Integrative Herbalism providing free tea.
-Bagitos provided forms to order bagels for the break, which will be delivered here.
– Reception this evening – 5-6pm.
– Will send out an online survey after event.
Last year we were invited to Bioneers conference to show our film. We’d interviewed many of the people involved, but had never been to one. We were blown away by the presenters. Hard to capture how affected I was – so many deep, wonderful presentations. One of the most powerful: 16 yr old Alex gave the most inspiring speech in my life.
Taking simple steps in a powerful way and over time making a difference. We’ve all been to conferences then gone home and the momentum erodes. After 2 floods in 3 months, this came to the forefront again, so we signed up to bring the conference here. And here we are.
I heard what Obama said about Steve Jobs, and thought it really fit with the Bioneers.
Steve was among the bravest of American Innovators. Brave enough to believe he could change the world and courageous enough to do it (****get actual quote***). Many of us are finding the courage to think differently about how we live on this planet (examples: Occupy Wall St., etc) Effect change for our children and grandchildren. We have the power to create change in whatever movement we put our minds to.
Our friend Rosemary Gladstar said something that really stuck with me in one of the interviews: There’s a lot of toxicity. Everything you touch, in the news, clothes plastic, everything we deal with on a daily basis has some kind of toxin. She has been making a conscious choice to listen to her own heart and embrace the beauty she can see and touch, the beauty in your children’s face, in the nature around you. This is our time.
We’re going to offer the space for citizens companies, organizations to come together to share resources and network. To try to have a larger impact.
Sponsors:
VT college of Fine Arts – morning workshops space for free
Goddard College – (Suzanne Richmon, a mighty force)
Dadra design – web site. Gabe put site together free of charge
Organic Valley – major sponsor for parent conference
Hunger Mountain coop.
Capitol Grounds.
Couldn’t have managed this without:
Katherine Ceruli, incredible organizer who put lovely sophisticated touch on everything.
Anne Youk:
“Hieroglyphic Staircase” by Drew Dellinger
(is this creative commons or other open license?
We were listening to NPR two years ago, and they were discussing global warming. My daughter who’s 13 now looked at me and said “those changes won’t happen in my lifetime, will they?” I had to look away. How do I answer my 11 year old? Her question haunted me. How do I respond to my child in my life, with the life that I’m living – the choices I make.
At the bioneers conference, I expected to feel bad about how little I’m doing, but instead I came back with great inspiration for what I can do. When I got back, I knew what changes I wanted to make, but got overwhelmed with the enormity of the task, and ended up not starting anywhere.
Saw Paul Stamets talk about the mycelium – the threads underneath the soil and how it relates to community.
Suzanne Richmon helped put together program, we started with the mycelium and threads, we tapped into the connections we had and built from there. But anyone here can speak, can take an action, make a difference.
We can do what we’re called to do and look our children and grandchildren in the eye and tell them we made a difference.
Kenny Ausbuel and Nina Simmons
(get national sponsors list)
Add webcast link.
Bioneers is not a spectator sport. If you’re not involved, you will be soon. Dont be shy, just go say hello. It’s a friendly group.
Joanne Campbell (welcome prayer), Melissa Nelson (intro)
Joanne is a (***spelling*** cos miwauk) elder, revitalizing culture, language, and basket weaving traditions of her people.
Good morning, on behalf of my people, I welcome you to this land. We were once thousands of people. There have been many intrusions in our history. At one time in 1800s, we were 14 people. Now we are 1,300 people and every one traces their heritage back to those 14. We’ve now got federal recognition, we were granted our land last year, and had our first members meeting in tents last weekend.
Prayer: (in native language)
Music: R. Carlos Nakai (Canyon records) – reintroducing the world to the sophistication and beauty of native flute music
I’m standing here thinking what am I going to do next. i think we’re here to have one voice and to think about what our futures may be. I want you to join me in a chant. Direct it toward the intention of why we are here this weekend.
(beautiful, resonating vocal hum, w/flute overlaid)
Nakai plays a piece in which he makes one distinct note play before the next ends, for a rich, layered sound.
(****name****)
This is about you. About each one of your unique abilities to transform inspired commitment into action. Allies and leadership to create a thriving just regenerative future.
This year has 23 partner sites embodying local grassroots action. This is our longest standing program – focused on local action.
We began supporting org of local conferences, broadcasting speakers you’re about to see. Local cities have nurtured into fruition – bringing bioneers to 60 cities 40k people.
Live conference webcast to make as accessible as possible the main stage. Partners build upon the platform as a launching pad for local effective solutions. Solutions for own local regions neighborhoods cities states. Building social capital among disparate groups.
Join the network of passionate folks who are already committed to doing this. We need your input, your engagement and your support to make this possible. If inspired or enlightened, join us to learn more. your visions and contributions will make this evolution possible.
8 beaming sites tuned in live right now: 10 yrs: travers city mi, ancorage AK, Turlock CA, louisville KY, St. Louis Obispo, CA; Telluride CO; name – weepy city?, WA; Montpelier vt. (w/french pronunciation: Mont Pell Yay)
To be done a little later: Boulder, Logan UT, Detroit, New Bedford, MA; Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Madison WI, Houston, and Santa Fe NM. (and 6 more this year)
Kenny Ausbuel
Bioneers Eye-view of the world, new and emerging work.
We’ve been acting like a rock start rashing a hotel room. The room is planet earth, management may vote us off the island. We can no longer e
Honey we shrunk the planet.
Illusion that we’re apart from rather than part of nature,
Prior civilzations habve failed by cutting down trees, bulding where water ran out. When Jared Diamond looked at Myan failire
Their attention was focused on short term concerns of enriching themselves, conducting wars, and building monuments while taking as much from the poor as they could extract… (get from “Collapse”) See Jared Diamon’d TED talk on Collapse. http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html
Preferences are not easily adaptable. Societies slide into crisis when struck by multiple crises rapdily. If we wanted to destroy as much life as possible we could be no more effective than to dig up an burn hydrocarbons. When people talk of saving the earth we’re really talking about saving ourselves.
Real health creation is based on investing in our communities and workforce. Every dollar we spend on pre-disaster risk management will displace 7 dollars in recovery later. The revolution has begun, it’s the sunrise of a just ivilization. As economics is powering the destruction, it can power the ****
Efficiency alone can reduce emissions by 50% by 2050 with no net cost.
The defense industry is prioritizing climate disruption. Peace on earth can be acheived only when justice is acheived. Those societies that take advantage of the talents of all of their adults, ntjust half of them have pulled away from the rest.
Why smart people can eb so stupid – the opposite of smart isn’t stuid, it’s wisdom.
Winston Churchill: Got to succeed at doing what’s necessary.
Hanson in 1998 testifies to congress: climate is warming.
Seeds of Change raised environment as of mother of all issues. Solve the whole problem approach: premise: solutions are largely present, inspired by nature’s operating instructions. Education. communications and media. When people find out that viable options exist it leverages pressure to implement them.
Moved to SF Bay, operated as volunteer operation. Facing 10k shortfall got a 5 yr 1 mil grant. Treated as seed capital to finance 2.0. Grew to 3k attendees. Fewer than 10 young people at conference, launched youth program, now 100s of young people.
Launched suite of communications and radio products and channels. 400 stations, US market coverage (***get #s).
Community conferences at 5 sites with several hundred people, Now 60 sites, 40k people. Launched
“Provided consulting to “The 11th Hour Film. Ongoing source of experts. Launched women’s leadership training program.
Redesigned to 3 program areas
Education (bBioneers net media platform and media catalog [greatest hits], formation of national education for actionnetwork – identifying key leverage points for action within the ed system); Study guides and lesson plans (action based) being developed. With support from Google, working with Google earth team, mapping practical potential for solar on Navajo Nation land – enough solar on one corner of the land to support entire US electrical grid. We could end coal in the next decade if we use it.
Formal mentorship program to mentor gifted young and emerging leaders from diverse backgrounds to launch in 2012.
As groucho marx said: why should we bother about the next generation, theyve never done anything for us? This is the keyhole from break to breakthrough. The next 5 or 6 years will be most important in entire history of human civilzation.
Choice between resignation and hope. There is profound hope in the healing power of nature and the people with heart courage and imagination. As David Orr puts it, “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.”
[] Women’s leadership is going to to be the key.
I’d navigated most of my pro life by relying heavily on my masculine attributes. Decided to integrate those parts of myself I’d previously undervalued. What behaviors I associated w.each gender sought balance in myself.
Saw same imbalance everywhere I looked. Impact on society and ability to live respectfully and sustainably with the earth. Life a dance of complementary parts. Promoting women’s leadership belonged at the heart of bioneers. Created plenary “restoring the feminine” – scholars, scientists, healers, activists to explore this complex topic. Opened wellspring of exploration.
Created a retreat : unreasonable women for the earth. Envision broad womens movement with the earth at its heart. Code Pink founded 4 months later. Then aluched radio show with women’s voices and perspectives. In 2006 co-created women’s leadership intensives. 6-days exploring difference from traditional male models, learn to overcome internal limitations. 200+ women so far, eduring impact. Wrote “Moonrise, the power of women leading from the heart.”
Through this engagement with women’s leadership, came to see how these issues are essential. Our social system negatively
Women’s leadership is essential and on the rise. Most effective strategy to shift our course to an earth-honoring and healthy future.
Evidence shows investing in women benefits the entire environmental and social system. Social health, crime and violence reduction, social justices, sustainability and more. The greater the power of women in a nation, the greater the economic success.
This year’s nobel peace prize awarded to 3 women this year. Well-being of women and girls, sat in our living room and wept as chair of nobe committee said: we cannot eacheive lasting peace in this world unless women achieve the same levels of acomplishment as ment o influence all levels of society.
In US only 21% of stories in news, 3% ofcoprorate CEOS, 17% of US house and senate (no change since 1972). Globally, even more problematic. 2/3 of world’s work x% of income. 70% of people in poverty are women.
We can no longer devalue any segment of our population. We cannot denigrate, waste, or discard people of color, women, or the earth. Not only right, or necessary, or most strategic. Though it is all of those. it’s also the most healing, authentic and revitalizing thing we can do. I believe this is what Dr. Martin Luther King said about ***ecstatic?*** community. I feel ecstatic as we reclaim our fullest capacities. We can reclaim the soul of our humanity.
Proactively and energetically support women, while also supporting the healthy masculine in our society. Treating every aspect of life as sacred. Won’t you join me in restoring the full range of our health, resilience, and balance?
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Restoration Writ Large: Unleashing the Potential of Nature and People for Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration, John D. Liu
Kenny (intro): Our bodies have a profound capacity for self repair or healing. Tapping the healing force of nature, we can heal nature. John illustrates transforming the most wounded landscapes into productive fertile land.
Global climatic stability, pollination, etc. eco-services determine the quality of our life on our planet and the thing from which value is derived. Movement to put a price on the priceless by creating eco-service valuation methods.
We need to restore ecosystems on a large scale while supporting livelihoods.
Rwanda has adopted an ecological program based on John Liu’s demonstration project.
John L: “Oh Dear, I’m not a young person, I’m not a woman. I must be indigenous somewhere.”
My journey here began high in the Himalayas, In chian Hai inTibetan Plateau there is a river known as the mother river. This is in the Lus plateau in the upper reaches of the Yellow river. Lus is a soil deposited on the plateau below by the yellow river. It’s a rich mineral soil that requires organic matter to be fertile. This is the birthplace of the Han Chinese race.
The most populous race on the planet. If you go southwest to Seschuan, you find a flly functional forest ecosystem If you go to the northeast, you find grassland ecosystem. There’s evidence of humans and their ancestors (1 million and ahlaf years) knwonto be second place on earth where settled agriculture began. A tremendous civilization grew heere. They sowed the seeds fo their own destruction and ultimately collapsed. By 10000 years ago, the plateau was no longer the center of national agriculture.
If ound a fully degraded ecosystem. It was surprising to me that the largest civilzation could be from a place so degraded. People described it as a desert. I explored what happened: they cut the trees, then tried farming on the hillside, then raised goats and cheep that ate everything down to the roots. It created a cycle of poverty and ecological destruction. Each generation lost more. This was passed from generation to generation. Then we realized this place was analagous to every other cradle of civilzation. Studying this place is a study of th ehistory of humanity.
Ecologically causes tremendous impacts to the hydrological cycle. If you change the plant cover, you cause erosion, and loss of fertility and productivity. You find huge amounts of sedmintation going into the river. This makes it easy for the river to flood. 1500 times, the Yellow has flooded. THis is the effect of 1.6 billion tons of sediment going into the river. This is what causes the dust storms that blow across Asia and the world.
Chinese government decided to try to fix it. Mapped every watershed in the plateau. Used enterprise software to track every intervention. Then used software to engage local people into the project. Took several years to analyze what to do. Everyone could see the problem, but not how to solve it. Eventually decided to divide the ecological and economic land. They looked at the landscape and said these places are useless for productivity. The ecological function is more valuable than production here. Released larege wareas from the economy, concentrated ag in smaller areas.
Not everyone agreed: One villager: “What about next generation? They can’t eat trees!”
Eventually engaged the local population, partly by paing them. Evolved from neolithic agriculture to a modern culture.
Terraced the land, infiltrated water, planted trees. Transitioned people to modern economy very rapidly.
In 1995, was a desert. In 15 years converted it to a healthy, recovering mixed forest and grassland.
Multi-systemic approach (hydrology, biotic communities, etc.) was so effective.
In geologic time, the earth had no atmosphere. Water was very different. Over evolutionary time, earth has changed to a magnificent garden. It’s done this through natural processes of evolution. Photosynthesis is the driver. We’ve built up huge proportions of biotic fertility. This is a biochemical photoreactive process we can’t duplicate. It’s created a huge extraordinarily beautiful world.
I’ve now had the opportunity to go everywhere in the world. look at still-functional areas and realize humans only began to alter these ssytems 10s of 1000s of years ago. Maybe we became good hunters and took out top of food chain about 40k yrs ago. Then 10k yrs ago, developed slash & burn settled agriculture. This depleted fertility rapidly. This kind of agriculture is still taking place now in many parts of the world. I can tell you what this does to soil moisture, micro-climates, etc. It’s devastating. Why are we doing this> It leads to collapse of the ecosystems. Every society that has done this has suffered collapse. So this is pretty much scientifically understood. So why do we keep doing this? Why are we repeating history again and again?
There is clearly a link between our behaviors/motivations and hte outcomes. In traveling around and looking at amazing biodiversity and found we have somehow devalued biodiversity – decided it has no value, because our economy is based on the production and consumption of goods and services. The fact that the goods and services comes from functional ecosystems is wrong. We’ve based the global economy on a mistake. A mistake that even a camera man can see.
So what can we do about this? How can we address this? We’re in a situation where we have devalued the things that provide our air water and energy. We have manufactured things that turn into junk and they are more valuable than water, air, etc. Do we really believe that and if we don’t believe that, then why is this the case? I’ve been puzzling, because the more I go to pristine and degraded areas, I see there are only two states, functional and dysfunctional. If you are moving toward dysfunction, you will collapse.
What China did made an intervention – a paradigm shift that determines whether we survive.
Scientific implications: hydrologicical function is related to the total biomass (etc. can I get slide?)
It’s possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems. WHy arent we doing that? If we did that, what would happen? We are feeding 7 billion people, and there are 2 billion hectares of degraded land we can restore.
What’s stopping us from restoring the planet? My conclusion: Groucho was right, Karl might have been wrong. Karl was talking about state capitalism (not communism at all – state capitalism).
3 reasons
Creates perverse incentive to degrade the ecosystem
It’s impossible to have continuous growth
It’s immoral
The total sum of money on the planet (GDP) is based on total goods produced. But the ecosystem is vastly more valuabe.
We have imposed the concept that wealth comes from the production of goods and services on the poor. What the indigenous people have been saying forever is correct.
WHat is money? What is this thing? Now we say “Money comes from production and consumption of goods and services.” It’s wrong, it’s immoral and it leads to poverty, disparity, and ecological destruction. What if money were based on ecosystem function? Suddenly everyone’s work would be going toward conserving and restoring ecological function. If we make that the basis of our economy, we will survive.
Revolutionizing K-12 Education with Sustainability in Mind, Karen Brown
Intro by Zenobia Barlo, co-founder and Exec Dir of Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkley, CA
I grew up in a society that didn’t include the ecosystem. Where I learned about the future and ecology, was Tomorrowland at Disney. I didn’t drink orange juice growing up, I drank TANG. I drank TANG because that’s what the astronauts drank and I had to condition my body for space travel. These messages affected my love life. THey came straight into my classroom with books that told me step by step, how Id get to the moon. I got assigned reading about how we would solve the earths problems. And the way these books taught me to solve these problems was by leaving and colonizing outer space.
We did send a few people into space. But they all came back to earth.
When I was grown p, looking out the windw of my high school i was looking at fas lines. And thinking for myself about how to solve problems. Pilulation.
What might have been a better education for me to learn how to live on and solve the problems of earth? Our mission: Education for sustainable living … on EARTH.
We teach about the things real people do to focus on solving problems. One example we teach about: a school in England where students designed small-scale wind turbines using recycled cans. It got the students thinking about problems of scale. The ones we’re used to are big, and centrally located.
Smart by Nature principles. If you notice in nature, nature doesn’t create one great big wildflower centrally located, and say “wanna pollinate something? Pollinate this, I’m done.” Nature does not do this.
This year the kids started networking their wind turbines.
90% of energy in Hawaii is imported in the form of diesel fuel. When you turn on a light in . They use diesel because it’s lighter than goal. They have run out of landfill space in Hawaii. They are trying to ship their garbage to continent for land-filling, but can’t because continental cities don’t want it.
So these wind turbines were really popular: they re-use trash and don’t
It turns out a lot of kids today kind of sort of don’t know what a hammer is. We’ve encountered kids who don’t know what end of the wheelbarrow to use. They suffer
Even though they can type with their thumbs, they are showing losses in concrete problem solving, spatial relationships, etc. These hands on projects have a value beyond the academic learning. Today 1% of Americans farm. This is true due to the massive amounts of energy put into the food production system. Average age of a farmer in the US is 63. One person growing food for the other 100 in every community. A big transition is going to be required around agriculture.
I’m going to show a school making the most of the opportunity:
Troy H. Middle School in Belfast Maine has student greenhouse farmers. Got a small grant to learn to design, build and run a solar, inexpensive greenhouse everyone in the community could afford. It integrates curriculum. They use math class to determine how to orient the garden to maximize solar absorption.
Rooted in a deep knowledge of place. You can custom tailor solutions to fit the place you live. Places that are well known tend to be deeply loved. Their compost has seaweed as an amendment because they’re in Maine. The kids learned about history of why seaweed was used, and when it was replaced. Unearthed misconceptions the students have. For example: on carbon emissions, they’ve come to see carbon as a poison, but participating in the carbon cycle, they get a much better understanding.
The garden is self-supporting. The kids sell organic produce and run a pizza cafe. They use non-gmo non-hybrid seeds and save them for next year’s crops. Hand gathered open-pollinated heirloom seeds adapted to local soil and climate conditions. They also make their own seed packets. The use their bodies, grow their muscles, but also learn to be tender and caring of the new life they’re generating.
Also a economics program. They develop business plans, present to a real bank, and go through the plan. Is this something the community might need or be interested in? If so, develop a viable local business – in 7th grade.
Sustainability is a community practice, not a solo act.
Midland School La Salinas CA:
Needs and wants is a through=-line that carries through there. What do I need and what does the school need vs what we desire or want to have. Decided they really did need high speed internet, and decided you did not need a cell phone. Decided they were wants, not needs.
2800 acre campus. Buildings are not painted They realized that if you don’t paint, you don’t need to re-paint. Not having to repaint leaves more time for other things. Every year, the kids have worked with experts to build and expand a solar farm.
Assignments include needs and wants, as well. Students had to make a model of the native insects, and were given NO materials. They got creative: coming up with materials including foods, moss, little bits of wire, etc.
Have you noticed that the astronauts had to say about space travel:
This planet is not terra firma. It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for. It’s lonely. It’s small. It’s isolated, and there is no resupply. And we are mistreating it.Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we’ve got.” – Scott Carpenter, Astronaut
And we need children who are strong and powerful when they need to be strong and powerful and know how to be tender and caring when they need to be tender and caring.
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Blue and Green: Working Together to Secure a Sustainable Future, Roxanne Brown United Steel Workers
Intro: The top 1% increased from 8% of income to 23% of the income from 1973 to today. (Looting of the American Middle Class by Les Leopold)
CEO pay from 42x average worker’s pay to 343x in 2010.
Things are really bad and won’t get better just because of a cycle. It’s not a coincidence that things started to get bad as union representation fell. Right wing corps and their power friends first went after the unions and are now coming after everyone else. I don’t know about you, but I’m not on his side (Eric Cantor)
“People could starve” quote.
It’s not a coincidence when the percentage of people represented by aunion started falling. But things may be getting better. There are people in the streets, occupying wall st. and other places.
“There was much in it that I did not understand in some ways I did not even like it but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for.” – George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (Spanish Civil War)
I’m ready to fight, are you ready to fight?
Roxanne Brown:
A bioneer is an innovator whose key purpose is to serve human ends w/o harming the web of life.
Guided by the principles of kinship, biodiversity, symbiosis, and … all with the goal of leaving a legacy for future generations.
The Blue Green Alliance and United Steel workers have a common goal of leaving a legacy for future generations. I pinch myself – can’t believe how lucky I am to be part of two absolutely critical movements. First the labor movement and second the movement to make the world a safer place for future generations.
I am from Jamaica. My family decided to move to the US, specifically to NYC and spend years assimilating to the new country. Watching my family make this transition was my education in sustainability – specifically economic sustainability. Ensuring there is some means for Americans each day to earn a living no matter what job you do, there should be some way to allow you to put food on your amily’s table, send your kids to school, and maybe, just maybe to retire one day This is still the American dream. Its what brought my family here and what most families hope for.
I come from a family of women. while there are some men, the matriarchs decided to come to the US. Very strong willed Jamaican women who my husband lovingly refers to as the Generals. They were housemaids, etc. and made the decisions to come ti thi country to give their children a legacy. These women are my innovators.
Each day I have the distinct privilege to represent people like the women in my family.
We see the deck is slanted against the average.
The number of discouraged workers is 1 million – people not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.
Construction saw a minor bump, wages are stagnant, foreclosures are
We are a nation staggering out of the deepest recession since the great depression. The last 3 years have been added misery to the last 10 years. All of this is made worse by trade policies that take jobs from american workers and the continued attack on public sector employees.
What we’re seeing is the stubborn determination of americans around the country standing up and refusing to take it. We saw this AM thousands of union members stand up and tell Mayor Bloomberg to take a hike.
We will not be moved.
We saw DC block a long-overdue jobs bill.
We say enough is enouhg. Enough.
We are also seeing broad sweeping attacks on the rules that protect our air and water – this at a time when we’re seeing the effects of climate change.
We’re also seeing attacks on clean energy technologies. Attacks have reached a frenetic level as the claims that the green sector jobs are fallacious. The continued call to leave behind the innovation the leadership and the jobs in this sector – ceding them to foreign countries.
Green and Jobs: We will have both, or we will have neither.
We strongly believe well-crafted environmentally sustaining policies can live side-by-side with jobs, and in fact can create them.
We view the joint challenges of high unemployment and climate crisis as a time to turn crisis into opportunity.
All of us together unite more than 14 million people across the country (list of unions). We are united in our quest for good jobs and a clean environment. Our union, the nation’s largest manufacturing union – wants to ensure the tech used here are built here using the parts made by our members every single day.
A clean energy economy means installing weatherization around the country, for SEIU it means safer chemicals for their environment and their workplaces. For electrical users, it can make
We are focusing on local policies – JOBS21 to create millions of jobs for 21st century clean energy economy. Brings sustainable clean energy jobs discussion to town halls. (http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/jobs21)
I remember Dave Foster and I meeting on the Hill (in DC) to introduce the alliance to Congress. The tensions that have historically existed among blue and green around issues such as coal and nuclear, the alliance allows us to put the discussions on the table to help understand where we all stand. We all leave the table eager to work together on the things we all agree on.
Employee free choice act, labor law reform bill – Sierra Club decided to advance the bill with us. Covered their entire building on the hill with a huge banner and lobbied on why they supported the act. Congress members stopped gaping about why the Sierra Club would lobby on this (“what does the Sierra Club know about working people?”).
Not only is our union willing to fight, but the alliance and all the 14 million people we represent are ready to fight. The question i have for you guys is” Are you?
We won’t back down from the American dream, the promise of family sustaining jobs, and a green energy future.
This isn’t an audience of steel workers but I get the feeling you can be rowdy like us. Our convention theme was “stand up, fight back.” Showed a conference video. Video page: http://www.usw.org/resources/conferences/video
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Google Earth-eye View: Mapping a Future Environment of Hope, Rebecca Moore
Intro: 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change are from tropical deforestation. It’s greater than all transportation in the world. If we can make trees worth more alive than dead, we can [missed this].
Tribal members travel the rainforest with GPS tools to map more than 40 million acres of forest in S. America. They’ve developed a 40 year program with payments for ecosystem services. The Surui are the first indigenous tribe to be paid for keeping trees alive. As a result, attempts on the life of the current Chief Almir have intensified. So far 11 leaders have been assassinated for standing up to illegal logging.
Googe cloud enables scientists to study the rainforest and its implications.
Rebecca:
Started in 2005. Bioneers has supported my work every step of the way. I’ve now been all over the world with this work, and must say the Bioneers is my favorite conference.
Shows map of the earth.
Seeing is believing. The arguments often come from lack of basic facts of what’s happening on the ground. By dispelling a level of ignorance, showing what’s happening on the ground, you can elevate the conversation.
I did a search on monarch migration. A school in Minnesota did a study, mapping where monarchs were sighted.
A close-up on where they butterflies go shows that the biosphere region is surrounded by clear-cut regions that make it nearly impossible for them to reach the place they need to be.
Coral Reefs in AUstralia – there was a proposal for oil and gas exploration in one bay. But a new Google Earth image became available, and a man in Australia took a look, and discovered a rare type of fringing reef. It’s now in discussion to be preserved as a protected area.
How my activism started:
Opened the mail – notice of intent to harvest timber appeared in the mailbox. It was a map. The key said that black lines = non-industrial logging areas. Very unclear – the map was ALL black lines. So I decided over the weekend to extract and map in full 3-d satellite imagery in Google Earth. So I did. It turns out, they were planning to log a 6 mil swath along a watershed.
Then created a virtual flight up the canyon You could see how the drinking waterhsed for 100k people in Silicon valley. Then mapped all the helocipter landing areas Would be incredibly close to schools, daycare centers, etc. You get a much better understanding of the plan with the google-earth eye view.
The land was privately owned by a utility company. Snuck in with a camera. In the plan, claimed not to cut any “late successional forest” (aka old growth). But, oh btw we’ll cut the defective trees. A “defective” tree was defined as any tree with a split top. The area wasn’t logged in the 1800s. Then the loggers in the 1920s left the split trunked trees. Took photos of split-topped trees. We were able to prove it was not only a bad idea, but legally did not qualify (those “defective” trees were almost all old-growth).
Tutorials available on (earth.google.com/outreach)
I got a phone call “Hey Rebecca, this is Woody.”
“Woody Harellson?”
“Yeah. So can we take what you did in google earth to stop them blowing up mountains?”
“Yes.” We taught them how to use google earth to show what was going on.
Found an example of a site with an elementary school at the base. If the dam for the sludge pond failed, the school would be buried in sludge.
Kentucky coal company called it “cheating” because the group was using google earth for shock value. The local response was “Yeah, it’s shocking, but what’s shocking is what you’re trying to do.
Almir was the first of his tribe to go to university He flew to his home. He could see the illegal logging incursions into the land. Asked for help putting cultural info on google earth so people could learn about the culture in that place. The icons you pick for your maps represent what’s meaningful to you (such as the sacred jaguar, sites of historical battles)
Students in the tribe are literally measuring and mapping all the trees. If they see a threat to a forest location, they can report it immediately – document the state of the forest last week vs this week. The info goes to the chief and other leaders, who can walk to the area with a smartphone, document it, upload the data and begin a law enforcement procedure against the illegal loggers.
When Women are People … and Corporations are Not: Why the First Inequality will also be the Last, Gloria Steinem
I’m here for the 1st time. now I have 22 ears worth of things to say to you. I have here notes that, if you poured water in them could become 100 books.
I am touched, moved and glad to be here with my sisters and brothers on this fragile spaceship earth. I want tot alk about an imbalance that affects everything. It has led to gov by ranking rather than linking. it has led to worshipping gods that look suspiciously like the ruling class. It has led to destroying the planet, in part due to religions that
Division of humanity into cults of masculinity and femininity. We are socialized into it when very young in the home. It normalizes later divisions. If we can internalize that some cook, some work on cars, etc. then how hard is it to internalize.
Least democracy in public life have greatest division in family life. You can’t have a democracy without the female half of the country. Courses on family are feminine, foreign policy masculine. Inequality at home normalizes it outside of the home. Violence at home normalizes it in public.
We have no idea what would be possible if we raised one generation without violence. Ranking is killing us. It’s certainly killing females, since femicide is the most prevalent form of murder. But it is also killing males by training them in attitudes that lead to shortened lives.
It is important for the unseen to self-name. But labels can get in the way of connection. For instance, it is impossible to be a feminist without also being anti-racist. If women are imprisoned by ideas of race, all women are imprisoned. Our freedom is limited as women so we will reproduce race. Reproductive freedom is a fundamental human right.
All movements are weakened when they are not connected.
How did we get into this jam? It began when men took control of reproduction out of the hands of women.
Olf Palme, former Prime Minister of Sweden said “Gender roles are the deepest cause of violence on earth —they normalize subject and object, dominant and passive, and group judgments in general.”
We all come from a common embryo, but why isn’t that publicized. Why do men have nipples? Whey do we not know that clitorises have the same nerve endings as penises? Testosterone levels are lower when men raise children. Men raising children and becoming whole people is the key to world peace. I bet we’ll find that testosterone is raised in women when we have to fight to protect our children.
Men and women have similar degrees of physical strength and other skills. It’s something to name, but something else to build this into hierarchy. We all share the same origins in Africa with only minor changes in response to climate.
What happens to men is called politics, what happens to women is called culture. God may be in details, but I think the goddess is in connections.
We’re discovering that early languages did not have pronouns. How did we get so mixed up as to give genders to tables and chairs.
The circle was the paradigm not the pyramid or hierarchy.
I have sat through meetings in which men from indigenous cultures sat through hours of meetings and only spoke when they had nothing to say. Traveling down the Nile, you can see the evolution in which the gods and goddesses are depicted in everything – butterflies, etc. Then you see the mother and son, then you see mother shorter than son, then you see son as pharaoh and mother only as a representation of source of power. Then you see no depiction of goddess.
In supposedly equal cultures we still must choose will we give birth to ourselves or to someone else. We should be able to do both. We need to work in patterns not made for parents. This is the only country in the world that does not make work pattern adjustments for parents. Many of us have not learned for ourselves that women can do what men can do and vice versa.
Religions have become more and more like politics in the sky. As some historians of religious architecture, we build churches with interesting form.
In churches – men symbolically take over the power of giving birth. They have created a space with two entrances (labia majora, labia minora), a vaginal column down the center, two curving ovarian structures on either side, and the altar in the center which is the womb where the miracle takes place. … Where men dressed in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over your head and say you were born of woman, an inferior creature, but if you obey the rules of the hierarchy you can be reborn into the better eternal life by men.
It is very dangerous that we have this cult of belief in doomsday – in these times of weapons.
Corporations became persons in the 1880s while women could still not sign contracts without their husband’s permission. Last year the supreme court allowed corporations to have unlimited ability to fund campaigns.
If corporations are people, some of them should be in jail. I don’t believe in corporal punishment
They shouldn’t be allowed to have subsidiaries they can’t care for. Corporations should be forced to care and support for 18 years at least any subsidiary desired by someone who sneaks in there with a successful business plan.
IN the mean time, women in this country have more unplanned children than any other industrialized country due to the loss of
It would take an act of congress to overturn the damage done by Citizens United. We can support the buffet rules – millionaires and billionaires pay taxes at the same rate as everyone else. The republican party has been taken over by people who are not republicans. Instead of a 50/50 choice, we have a 70/30 choice. This is very, very dangerous. This country is now more polarized into rich and poor than at any time in the last 100 years.
Occupy Wall Street is doing amazing things.
Restrictions always create art, because they were forbidden amplification, a person speaks on the platform for a sentence or two, then the first couple rows repeat it, then the next rows, etc. until it propagates. It creates poetry
In this country we’re all worried about the degree of violent rhetoric and record number of gun sales, rise in number of people joining neo-fascist and racist groups, the proposal of laws legalizing murder of abortion doctors because its a form of self-defense.
The model for violent situations is the family. When a woman is escaping a violent home, it’s the time she’s most likely to be murdered, because she’s escaping control. I think that’s what’s happening – our country is escaping control. We turned against the people who believe in ranking not linking.
The people who believe in ranking not linking are losing control. Two things to keep in mind- it is a time of maximum danger and we have to look after each other and be aware of the danger. And We’re not going to turn back. We would never tell a woman to stay in an abusive home and we will not stay in the old way of ranking and injustice.
Indian country, not Greece was the source of democracy.
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
If we choose every day to do the best we can, to act with kindness, to say I am neither more nor less important than anyone else. If we do it with joy, poetry, music, sex, and humor, then we will have joy, poetry, music, sex, and humor at the end of the revolution.
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