I just returned from two weeks in Europe, designing the Renaissance2 Great Shift Conference in Perpignan France for October 22-26; and workshopping Integral City in the Netherlands with Centre for Human Emergence NL, EnlightenNext NL, The Hub, the Integral Institute for Sustainability and Danslab. Europe is in a much more positive frame of mind than [...]
Thanks to Amy Hartman and Don Beck for passing along a very clear message from a New Orleans Catholic School who has a whole system meshwork for educating kids. Check it out here at Principal Moran's of Archbisop Rummel HighSchool. The fervour of the Principal's message affirms the values of healthy Blue, while designing the school's [...]
I just followed a link to a beautiful musical creation. This is a very purple song to the core -- or maybe this way, produced by a mobile recording studio that spanned the globe -- maybe it's Turquoise??? The producer has recorded very talented buskers and a host of back-up musicians from around the world, [...]
Mayors need a framework appropriately complex to respond to the emergence of zoonotic diseases (ie. diseases that cross over from animal populations into human populations) (Sapient Circle, 2004). These threats make demands on emergency response systems that are not merely complicated, but are complex. This means that the interconnections of animal and human health systems, through diseases such as SARS, West Nile Disease, BSE, E-Coli and Avian Influenza, create exponential levels of complexity. It appears that zoonotic bio-emergencies are more dynamic and subject to sudden jumps in severity, than non-bio-emergencies, because the underlying viral/biological elements are capable of learning or adapting to their human environments/life conditions. Thus they require complex non-linear approaches to develop successful response strategies.
Flow is the story of water (rights) being privatized by Big Biz – esp. Suez, Vivendi and Nestlé (interestingly enough all European). These companies are all portrayed as vulture captilalists who are buying up water properties around the world and privatizing water as a commodity that is being re-sold at prices higher than oil. [...]
The Story of Stuff, is Annie Leonard’s impassioned plea for people to understand that the Earth is a closed system. That the cycle of harvesting/pillaging natural resources; manufacuturing; distributing; using; trashing is an ignorant failure to understand the natural cycles of life on earth. That the trash is going nowhere, and it is time [...]
Thank goodness for youth and student activists. I had the pleasure of enjoying this week, the UFV Film Festival sponsored by the International Development Club and the Students for Sustainability Club. Here was their movie line up: The Story of Stuff The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil Flow – the [...]