M
Mike Vandeman
Guest
John Seed is a guy you don't want to miss! He's one of the strongest
voices for deep ecology.
Mike
From: "John Seed" <[email protected]>
Subject: Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment, John Seed's N
America roadshow April/May
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:03:15 +1100
This email is going to John Seed and the Rainforest Information
Centre''s N American email list. If you wish to be removed from this
list, please reply with "remove" in the subject line.
Friends,
Ruth and I are going hard on climate change and are about half way
through some 50 "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" events here
in Australia www.climate.net.au.
Next month I'll be heading to N America with more of the same in
Florida, Arkansas, Ontario, Western Massachusetts, New Jersey and New
York. You can find a description of "Climate Change, Despair and
Empowerment" below and my schedule at
www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/schedule.htm
I'll also be offering weekend experiential deep ecology workshops in
Miami and Ottawa.
My first few weeks are fully scheduled but there is the possibility
of taking on a few more "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment"
presentations within a couple of hours of Toronto, W Mass, New York
City and Ithaca NY.
If you know of any groups in these regions that are concerned about
climate change and might be interested in hosting one of the "Climate
Change, Despair and Empowerment" presentations, please let me know.
Here in Australia, Ruth and I are training several people to make
these presentations. If you'd be interested in receiving such training
while I'm in the NE please let me know.
for the Earth
John Seed
Rainforest Information Centre
Box 368 Lismore NSW 2480
Australia
02 66897519
[email protected]
www.rainforestinfo.org.au
www.climate.net.au
The "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" roadshow
www.climate.net.au assumes that most people attending have seen An
Inconvenient Truth and are somewhat aware of current news about the
climate issue.
The roadshow aims to:
* catalyse, invigorate and support grassroots climate study/action
groups
across N America.
* Address the hopeless despair that many people feel and provide
tools to
transform despair into empowerment and effective action. This will be
based on the Despair & Empowerment work of Joanna Macy and the
"Climate
Change, Despair and Empowerment" talk which John Seed gave in
Massachusetts earlier this year with Pullitzer Prize winning
journalist
Ross Gelbspan. (The 60-minute film made from this event is available
on
DVD for free to anyone who agrees to use it to educate their family,
friends and community.
* unveil the false and "business as usual", solutions being touted by
the
major political parties such as nuclear power and so called "clean
coal".
* raise awareness and inspire political action towards the real
solutions
that we, the people, must insist upon. (eg. end the US's $20 billion
a
year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industries, support energy
efficiency, solar, wind etc.)
* provide resources for the many things that we can all do to turn
the
situation around. www.rainforestinfo.org.au/climate/resources/
* Support a network of Climate Study/Action Groups across N America.
By the time the "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" roadshow
reaches the US next month, there will have been over 50 presentations
and
workshops in Australia.
www.rainforestinfo.org.au/climate/schedule.htm
The format consists of 4 or 5 evening "Climate Change, Despair and
Empowerment" presentations in a district or city on consecutive
weeknights followed by two 1-day Climate Change Despair &
Empowerment
workshop nearby on the following Saturday/Sunday.
The evening forums will include:
* a video presentation that includes footage of Al Gore speaking
about
the importance of grass roots response - leadership in the wrenching
changes that are necessary can only come from government and industry
once we the people have given them the mandate and the courage.
* Solutions to the climate crisis
* a discussion on the role of the denial of feelings of helplessness
and
despair in making us feel helpless, hopeless, paralysed, what can one
person do anyway, its too late etc etc. This addresses Gore's insight
that many people move straight from denial to hopeless despair about
this
issue without leaving any space in between for effective action. (see
www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/cabmourn.htm for a more general
version of this argument).
* Where no climate study/action group currently exists, the group
will be
invited to form one there and then. If one already exists,
representatives from the group will be invited to give an update on
their
group's direction, meetings etc. We will discuss the importance of
direct
democracy and grassroots and that each of us now needs to awaken
those
around us to the urgency of understanding and action. US Supreme
Court
Justice Brandeis, 1930: "The most important office of government is
citizen."
* A discussion on local initatives and local directions
* We invite people to host "house parties", invite their friends to
watch
DVDs, build the network, discuss solutions and spread word of the
climate
study/action groups.
* We invite people to attend the "Climate Change, Despair and
Empowerment" 1-day workshop at a nearby venue on Saturday or Sunday.
We're training others up to make the presentations and to facilitate
the
workshops.
One Day Climate Change Despair & Empowerment Workshops
In the one-day "Climate Change, Despair & Empowerment" workshops, we
will
be offering experiential processes that generate empowerment as
follows:
Day 1: Through Joanna Macy's body of work known as "despair and
empowerment" (see her book "Coming Back to Life",
http://www.joannamacy.net and
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/cabmourn.htm ) we allow
ourselves to recognise our feelings about what is happening to our
world.
By acknowledging this level of our being rather than just our
thoughts on
the subject, people around the world have found that feelings of
helplessness, hopelessness, "what can one person do anyway?", "It's
all
to late" etc are transformed into inspired and empowered positive
action.
Day 2: Through processes which nourish our vast ecological identity,
we
expand from the narrow confines of our social identity to experience
our
ancient ecological heritage, that every cell in our body is descended
in
an unbroken chain from the first cell of life. Then our kinship with
all
of life shines through the fog of civilisation and rooted in the
history
of Earth and in the living Earth itself, we seek wisdom and clear
thinking on our role as we and our fellow beings face the crisis of
global warming.
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
voices for deep ecology.
Mike
From: "John Seed" <[email protected]>
Subject: Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment, John Seed's N
America roadshow April/May
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:03:15 +1100
This email is going to John Seed and the Rainforest Information
Centre''s N American email list. If you wish to be removed from this
list, please reply with "remove" in the subject line.
Friends,
Ruth and I are going hard on climate change and are about half way
through some 50 "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" events here
in Australia www.climate.net.au.
Next month I'll be heading to N America with more of the same in
Florida, Arkansas, Ontario, Western Massachusetts, New Jersey and New
York. You can find a description of "Climate Change, Despair and
Empowerment" below and my schedule at
www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/schedule.htm
I'll also be offering weekend experiential deep ecology workshops in
Miami and Ottawa.
My first few weeks are fully scheduled but there is the possibility
of taking on a few more "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment"
presentations within a couple of hours of Toronto, W Mass, New York
City and Ithaca NY.
If you know of any groups in these regions that are concerned about
climate change and might be interested in hosting one of the "Climate
Change, Despair and Empowerment" presentations, please let me know.
Here in Australia, Ruth and I are training several people to make
these presentations. If you'd be interested in receiving such training
while I'm in the NE please let me know.
for the Earth
John Seed
Rainforest Information Centre
Box 368 Lismore NSW 2480
Australia
02 66897519
[email protected]
www.rainforestinfo.org.au
www.climate.net.au
The "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" roadshow
www.climate.net.au assumes that most people attending have seen An
Inconvenient Truth and are somewhat aware of current news about the
climate issue.
The roadshow aims to:
* catalyse, invigorate and support grassroots climate study/action
groups
across N America.
* Address the hopeless despair that many people feel and provide
tools to
transform despair into empowerment and effective action. This will be
based on the Despair & Empowerment work of Joanna Macy and the
"Climate
Change, Despair and Empowerment" talk which John Seed gave in
Massachusetts earlier this year with Pullitzer Prize winning
journalist
Ross Gelbspan. (The 60-minute film made from this event is available
on
DVD for free to anyone who agrees to use it to educate their family,
friends and community.
* unveil the false and "business as usual", solutions being touted by
the
major political parties such as nuclear power and so called "clean
coal".
* raise awareness and inspire political action towards the real
solutions
that we, the people, must insist upon. (eg. end the US's $20 billion
a
year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industries, support energy
efficiency, solar, wind etc.)
* provide resources for the many things that we can all do to turn
the
situation around. www.rainforestinfo.org.au/climate/resources/
* Support a network of Climate Study/Action Groups across N America.
By the time the "Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment" roadshow
reaches the US next month, there will have been over 50 presentations
and
workshops in Australia.
www.rainforestinfo.org.au/climate/schedule.htm
The format consists of 4 or 5 evening "Climate Change, Despair and
Empowerment" presentations in a district or city on consecutive
weeknights followed by two 1-day Climate Change Despair &
Empowerment
workshop nearby on the following Saturday/Sunday.
The evening forums will include:
* a video presentation that includes footage of Al Gore speaking
about
the importance of grass roots response - leadership in the wrenching
changes that are necessary can only come from government and industry
once we the people have given them the mandate and the courage.
* Solutions to the climate crisis
* a discussion on the role of the denial of feelings of helplessness
and
despair in making us feel helpless, hopeless, paralysed, what can one
person do anyway, its too late etc etc. This addresses Gore's insight
that many people move straight from denial to hopeless despair about
this
issue without leaving any space in between for effective action. (see
www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/cabmourn.htm for a more general
version of this argument).
* Where no climate study/action group currently exists, the group
will be
invited to form one there and then. If one already exists,
representatives from the group will be invited to give an update on
their
group's direction, meetings etc. We will discuss the importance of
direct
democracy and grassroots and that each of us now needs to awaken
those
around us to the urgency of understanding and action. US Supreme
Court
Justice Brandeis, 1930: "The most important office of government is
citizen."
* A discussion on local initatives and local directions
* We invite people to host "house parties", invite their friends to
watch
DVDs, build the network, discuss solutions and spread word of the
climate
study/action groups.
* We invite people to attend the "Climate Change, Despair and
Empowerment" 1-day workshop at a nearby venue on Saturday or Sunday.
We're training others up to make the presentations and to facilitate
the
workshops.
One Day Climate Change Despair & Empowerment Workshops
In the one-day "Climate Change, Despair & Empowerment" workshops, we
will
be offering experiential processes that generate empowerment as
follows:
Day 1: Through Joanna Macy's body of work known as "despair and
empowerment" (see her book "Coming Back to Life",
http://www.joannamacy.net and
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/cabmourn.htm ) we allow
ourselves to recognise our feelings about what is happening to our
world.
By acknowledging this level of our being rather than just our
thoughts on
the subject, people around the world have found that feelings of
helplessness, hopelessness, "what can one person do anyway?", "It's
all
to late" etc are transformed into inspired and empowered positive
action.
Day 2: Through processes which nourish our vast ecological identity,
we
expand from the narrow confines of our social identity to experience
our
ancient ecological heritage, that every cell in our body is descended
in
an unbroken chain from the first cell of life. Then our kinship with
all
of life shines through the fog of civilisation and rooted in the
history
of Earth and in the living Earth itself, we seek wisdom and clear
thinking on our role as we and our fellow beings face the crisis of
global warming.
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
