CES published CES Musings, an online magazine, from 2007 to 2017.
Access articles published in CES Musings by clicking the links below.
To obtain citations for these articles, refer to the Index of Articles.
The Chronicle
CULTURE A revived interest in religion in China has inspired environmental activism. In recent years hundreds of millions of people have turned to religions like Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, and as they do they are starting social service organizations to oppose polluters, and citing their faith to protest plans to build factories and power…
Abundance
Editor’s Note: We repeat this article annually during gardening season. There is so much to learn in a garden. This week was explosive. My garden produced cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes and the first cherry tomatoes. I was overwhelmed and since I can’t share the fruits, I share the reflections. I am not sure there…
Thrice-Born: On the Transformation of an Expert Dufus
James Peacock, PhD, is a member of the Board of Directors of CES. He is Kenan Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as President of the American Anthropological Association. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences…
On Ecovillages and the Universe Story
In a piece in the last Musings on “Does Thomas Berry Provide a Foundational Set of Principles for Ecozoic Societies?” I reported on and agreed with a way of viewing paradigms for a sustainable future based on ecocommunalism and a new sustainability paradigm. The latter saw the future as still being urban, technological and global,…
We Need A Much Bigger Leap! John Bellamy Foster on Naomi Klein’s ‘No Is Not Enough’
NO IS NOT ENOUGH Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need By Naomi Klein Haymarket Books, 2017 Editor’s Note: John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and a professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. This review first appeared on June 13, 2017, in the Monthly Review Online…
For Climate Cause, Trump’s Withdrawal from Paris Accord Just One Hurdle among Many
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in ProPublica, on June 2, 2017, and is reprinted with permission under a Creative Commons license. Revkin provides an analysis of economic forces beyond the reach of the Paris climate accord, forces that are at work regardless of the US or other nations are committed to the Paris…
Remembering Wm. Theodore De Bary
Wm. Theodore de Bary, a renowned scholar of Asian thought, died on July 14 at his home in Tappan, New York, at age 97. He taught at Columbia University and finished his last class in May of this year. He was a close friend of Thomas Berry, and Mary Evelyn Tucker did her doctoral studies…
The Chronicle
CLIMATE Climate action continues. “As the federal government abdicates its role on this important issue, it is critical for states to fill the void,” said Virginia’s Governor Terry McAuliffe as he issued an executive order on May 16, 2017, instructing officials to begin crafting regulations to “abate, control, or limit” emissions from power plants in…
Changes Coming in CES
When we begin our CES Service Group meetings we begin by reciting We are about the Great Work . . . the Work of moving on from a terminal Cenozoic, to an emerging Ecozoic era in the history of the planet Earth . . . which is the Great Work! We firmly believe this…
CES-Led Symposium with David Orr on the Long View in Addressing the Ecological Crisis
On April 1, 2017, EcoCiv and CES convened a major symposium at the home of Steven Knapp, President of George Washington University in Washington, DC. Participants included leaders of environmental organizations, policy experts, scholars, and activists. The symposium provided attendees an opportunity to step back from their day-to-day efforts to construct and implement sustainable policies…
Amazing the Tree
Silently progressing towards her, Crying unexplained tears, We inched our way towards Her elegantly dressed grace. Greeting us with every branch’s spring growth, Draped elegantly in Spanish moss, We bowed and she smiled; We threw her kisses and honored her. “Wow, she must be old, very old,” “Oh, oh my, she’s grand. Look at her….
Does Thomas Berry Provide a Foundational Set of Principles for the Transition to Ecozoic Societies?
Author’s Note: For the first time I have combined in one article what I see as Thomas Berry’s guiding principles for ecozoic societies. I have also described the need to, and difficulty of, applying these principles in a real world context, namely that of an urbanized, globalized world. This article will appear in the…
Being Dreamt
Sometimes dissonance sneaks up on you like a shy child wanting a hug, but at other times, the child gleefully turns a spurting hose on your shocked and screaming face. After reading Martin Shaw’s notion of being actively dreamt by the Earth[1], I knew I’d been soaked to the soul, but the shock arose from…
An Empire of Things: An Ecological Response
Editor’s Note: Roy Morrison’s latest book is “Sustainability Sutra: An Ecological Investigation.” [1]Morrison argues for a transition to ecological civilization using market mechanisms and pursuing a global growth strategy with a focus on sustainability. He proposes ecological consumption taxation, new market rules, fiscal and monetary policies, and investment strategies. Morrison’s website is EcoCivilization.info. Is…
My Country ‘Tis of Thee
Events of past months have stirred me to a patriotism I never thought I’d feel for my nation. From childhood my allegiance has been universal. I fell in love with the one-world concept when, in Camp Fire Girls, during summer camp we sang these words to the tune “Finlandia:” My country’s skies are bluer than…
What To Do about Trump
Sustainability involves both nature and human societies. In our view there are three criteria for sustainability: The human community must live within Earth’s carrying capacity. According to the Ecological Footprint Network we humans are now at 150% of the carrying capacity of Earth and rising; Within the human community there must be justice, equity, respect,…
The Chronicle
ENERGY The new administration is pro-oil and pro-coal, but nevertheless momentum is with sun and wind. Solar ranked as the number one source of new US electric generating capacity additions in 2016. It represented 39 percent of new capacity additions across all fuel types. greentechmedia.com Solar is also the largest employer in the US electric…
A Sampling of the Indivisible Movement
Editor’s note: The November election has brought thousands of people into the activist role who never thought they’d be making almost daily calls to their elected officials, or regularly joining public protests such as “Trump Tuesdays.” In the days following the election more than one in three Democrats said they planned to become “more involved…
In Unsettled Times Poem and Prose
1 A plant’s way of sensing itself at home is sidling or seeding its way to nurturing soil, neighbors, sun and water. Our plant selves find our way to nurturing beliefs, stores of food and sources of water, and feel safer. 2 An animal’s way of sensing itself at home is scanning for relevant signals…
Trump Is a Dangerous Anomaly
Donald Trump is an anomaly in that he presents a unique danger that would not be presented except for his highly unlikely election as President of the United States and his conduct in that office. Consider these questions: What were the odds that Trump would run against 17 Republican contenders and win nomination by receiving…
The Arts: Key to a Full and Fulfilling Cultural Life
The evidence is overwhelming and convincing. If we want to live a full and fulfilling cultural life, make the arts a fundamental part of it. When the American psychologist Rollo May asked many years ago, “What if art and culture are not the frosting at all, but rather the fountainhead of human existence?” he put…
People’s Climate March, April 29, 2017
Join the People’s Climate March in Washington DC on April 29 or one of the sister marches on the same day. Here’s the announcement from peoplesclimate.org: On the 100th Day of the Trump Administration, we will be in the streets of Washington D.C. to show the world and our leaders that we will resist attacks…
The Chronicle
CLIMATE Scientists gathering at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco on December 13, 2016, expressed concern about what one speaker called the “Trumpocene.” More than 20,000 researchers from the Earth, atmospheric and space science communities attended the annual meeting, and in references subtle and overt, speakers referred to the unsettled atmosphere in…
Resisting the Trump Agenda: Public Policy Defenders
A majority of people in the United States and many elsewhere are worried about the agenda proposed by Donald Trump as he comes into office. Today the leader of a women’s chorus wrote in an email, “I am particularly grateful for our community of heart-song during these post-presidential-election times. I have needed the healing that…
Trump and the Climate: His Hot Air on Warming Is Far from the Greatest Threat
Editor’s Note: The following article which is reprinted with permission from ProPublica provides a very thoughtful analysis of the likely impact of the Trump administration on US greenhouse gas emissions and puts this in the context of the larger “super-wicked” issue of global emissions. This html coding is required by ProPublica as a condition…
A Psychiatric Clinician’s Analysis of the US Elections: The Last Embers Of Patriarchal Self-Confidence
I am writing a brief response to Herman Greene’s recent letter, “Are Ecozoans Now at War? Should They Be?“, and his essay, “We Now Live in the Cabaret: Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler!” Our world is a confusing and dangerous place which we humans have coped with by developing illusions of control through intellectual mastery…
Understanding Possible Futures in an Increasingly Insecure World: Review of Paul Raskin’s Journey to Earthland: The Great Transition to Planetary Civilization
Editor’s Note: Felix Dodds is one of the world’s most informed writers on intergovernmental efforts toward sustainable development. He has written three books giving the history of the UN’s sustainable development process, his latest (written with Ambassador David Donoghue) being “Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals: A Transformational Agenda for an Insecure World.” Felix is…
Want a Collaborative Distance Learning Master’s Degree in the Great Work? Look No Further than Endicott’s Master’s Program in Integrative Education. Entering Students May Begin in March 2017
The Institute for Educational Studies (TIES) at Endicott College, Beverly, MA, is offering a collaborative distance learning M.Ed. in Integrative Learning that begins in March 2016. Questions that contextualize the course of study include: How does integrative learning create a context for exploring one’s Great Work? What is a learning community and what capacities…
Women’s March on Washington, January 21, 2017
On January 21, 2017, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to march in Washington, DC, and in other cities in the United States and around the world. For more information here is the website on the event, and here is the facebook page. This is the statement of the mission and purpose of…
New Year’s Day Statement on Hope and Resistance by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President of the North Carolina NAACP
Many of us, not knowing what to do, face 2017 with uncertainty and anxiety. Rev. Dr. Barber, who has become an important prophet for justice in our time, made a powerful statement on hope and resistance in a January 1, 2017 interview of him by Michel Martin on NPR’s All Things Considered. You may listen…
I’m Joined Inextricably with This Web He Means to Plunder
Discouraging, appalling, dreadful—leaving me full of dread: the 2016 election results struck me down, as they did many others. I had spent some time preparing for the outcome, however, with my darkest day arriving a week before November 8 when I read two news articles in sequence. The first named a dozen or more elites…
The New and Dangerous Period of Social History: Statement from the President of Pax Romana/Cmica-usa, 9 November 2016
It seems that Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, will promote greater fossil-fuel dependency, and weaken environmental regulation. ~Herman Greene, Center for Ecozoic Societies We are now beginning a new, difficult, and dangerous period of social history for the people of the United States of America, for the entire human family, and for…
Playing the Odds
For over twenty-five years I have been predicting that the human species has a twenty percent chance of surviving fifty or one hundred more years. While it doesn’t sound like it, I am an eternal optimist. But our species is attacking everything on this planet that we are dependent on. We are changing the air,…
We Now Live in the Cabaret: Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler!
The elections hit me hard. I have never been directly affected by war or a major catastrophe such as an earthquake, the direct hit of a tornado, major flood or drought, a tsunami or a major volcanic eruption that buries cities and darkens the skies. I’ve never lived under a dictatorship or endured torture or…
Abstention 2016, a Post-Mortem Reflection
What happened? What happened is that ninety seven million eligible voters underestimated the danger and did not exercise the most basic right and duty of democracy. Some may call it a mortal sin of omission. How have things changed? We have not even seen the beginning of it yet: regression on all fronts and for…
The Next Four Years Will Be a Difficult Challenge for the Nation and the World
The election of Donald Trump is very puzzling and troubling, both nationally and internationally. His failings as a leader, businessman, husband and person are legion. He has never held elective office, has never served in the armed service, is contemptuous of the law and international treaties, insults anyone who disagrees with him, and is ill-…
When Magic Fails
Since the election most of the “what now?” articles I have read seem to be stuck in the old paradigm: Go on policy defense in DC backed by street action, build the party, and win next time with a better message and a better candidate. This is a failure of imagination that greatly underestimates what…
Earth Morning
There are a few beings I love so very deeply that even the thought of them being harmed, suffering, or lost is totally unbearable to me. I instantly feel my heart ready to sob without restraint. One of those beings is Earth. My feelings upon first readings of the new administration’s attitudes and objectives regarding…
2016 Post-Election Haiku
I. Let’s go to the mat To wrestle and to meditate Peace in the struggle. II. Take consolation In love, music, trees, the sea. The spirit rises. III. As I plant spring bulbs, Tears drench my face and the earth. Beauty might save us.
Examining the American Character
This man is a loose cannon barreling about the deck in stormy times and predictions can easily be way off the mark. As San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic John King wrote departing from his usual mainly esthetics-based criticism of infrastructure design in our region, we are facing “a future where all bets are off.” With…
The Moon that Brought a Trump Victory
I live in a red part of the biggest, bluest state, California. My representative in the US House is on Donald Trump’s transition team. A few kindred spirits gathered at my house on the first Sunday after the election, November 13, to celebrate the full moon, as usual, but this gathering felt like a funeral….
Fireflies in the Darkness of Trumpism
There is a dearth of meaning in American life rooted in the lack of a story, a story that truly liberates the human from limited forms of identity, from seeing ourselves as mere consumers, or even as mere Americans (or any of the sub-identities within our nationalist identity).… Americans tend to equate freedom with individualism…
The Deal Maker May Make Deals
We do not know if a Trump administration will be globally catastrophic, or tend to revert to the neoliberal mean, or move in surprising directions. It is business as usual that has already set us on the path toward global ecological catastrophe: billions of poor, wars without end, and an ever expanding national security…
Current
Part I Mama left us girl eggs with instructions: Paddle your way across the sand to the sea. I did that, mama! Swim out as far as you can, as fast as you can. Farther. Faster. Slip away from the ones that try to hurt you. I did that, mama! When you have eggs, come…
Not the US Government Now But Our Work Together
The United States Environmental Protection Agency will be decimated on January 20, 2017. There will likely be an agency still in existence with the name, but it will do nothing to stand in the way of the fossil fuel interests that have just taken over the United States federal government. It will for all practical purposes…
Downhill Tromp
Though a journalouse and a wordsmutter myself, I, Padrollian Bassoonius, have read and listed to too many analusters about the Downhill Tromp insistering they know what the man is triumphing to say. Taking himcondon at his warps to be the chump of the working mad, I deciphered to cut to the cheese and call up…
Civility Lost
December 2016, Mariana Islands. I was at my neighborhood store getting their 13-year-old who just came from China to speak English, and I’d shared all the pedagogical tricks I knew. She can retain words and speak the language, like naming the goods on display at her store, and pronounce all the words she can read….
More Exploitation Than Repression
Commentators like Timothy Snyder* miss the mark when claiming that a Trump presidency will equate with totalitarianism. We should beware, of course, that there will be assaults on some human rights, the wage gap will continue to expand, and current environmental regulations will be replaced. But the Trump era, like the neoliberal era, will be…
Toes
11/27/2016 Toes pointing into black depths—face and arms arch, I scream inwardly—air bubbles blowing past my ears. Ten thousand things I want to shout, twelve to do. Dance, laugh, and pray—to ease the shame, To bear the distaste inside my throat. Cry and lie down by a cool rock—grasping dirt, Stroking moss,…
In Gaia’s Light We See Light
In an effort to cope with the anger and fear aroused in me by the election, I have turned to Holocaust literature for models of strength in crisis. I’m now reading the memoir And There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran, a Frenchman who was blinded in a schoolyard accident when he was seven years old,…
Before a New Day
On the morning of November 9, 2016, people around Planet Earth awoke to the realization that Donald J. Trump had been elected President of the United States. For some this was the answer to a prayer, for others the foreboding of impending disaster. Some were confused and dismayed, still others were just relieved that a…
It Is Time to Gather Together
Donald Trump as our next president! I think I woke up the day after the election in an alternate universe! I keep on hoping tomorrow it will be different, but no, this is the reality we live in now. My biggest fear is for Earth. Even without Trump, so much is endangered, so much is…
My Political, Ecological, and Spiritual Commitments
After the cruelty and violence of his campaign, the worst I have experienced in my lifetime, I still feel aghast, unbelieving that my country chose Donald Trump to be its president-elect. I feel that so many barriers to protect civility and decency, diversity and justice have been breached. The result is that no one on…
An Aussie Reflection on the US Election
I have, I suppose, more emotional feelings about your election legacy than most Aussies. I lived in the US of A twice during impressionable years of my life. Now I am eighty, very healthy in body and mind, and I feel it important to say something! In 1960 I lived in a black ghetto in…
Both USA and Brazil
I’m considering the past presidential election in USA and the democratic crisis we undergo in Brasil. Both, I take, are determined by a capitalist economic model where power locally and internationally is the most pervading criteria adopted as its core element—its concept and bureaucratic management strategy. I am foreseeing, imagining, a basic dialogue comparing interconnected…
A Perilously Difficult Birth of the Ecological Age
As Norman Cousins wrote in the 1980’s in the introduction to Earth at Omega, “Global civilization must come into its own [in these latter days of the 20th century]or mankind’s magnificent experiment in self-awareness and socialization will abort in titanic catastrophe. A new organism is in the process of being born and will be born…
We The People – An Election Journal
After the 2016 election, I found myself going back over my own writings at the time of previous elections. My interest was always in who “we the people” really are and how we are striving (so imperfectly) toward a “more perfect union.” DECEMBER 2000: Two Consciences At millennium’s end, the hotly disputed Election of…
The Chronicle
CLIMATE Despite President-Elect Donald Trump’s stated intention to withdraw US participation in the Paris agreement on climate change, US Special Envoy for Climate Change Dr. Jonathan Pershing went to Marrakech, Morocco, to take part in the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP), held November 10-18. The State Department communication said, “The United States goes to…
Are Ecozoans Now at War? Should They Be?
Note: An “ecozoan” is one who believes there are two primary ethical questions: (1) Does this promote the flourishing of life on Earth? (2) Does this promote full human development? In the wake of the November 8, 2016, US presidential election, much has been written about how we need to listen to each other and…
Letter to My Daughters, November 2016
Dear daughters, Though we can’t know what will happen, it is likely there will be much turmoil in our future days. Policies and laws will be put into place that bolster the ways in which capitalism harms our planet, and therefore our survival as a species. These laws will be motivated by the desire of…
Pilgrimage Stories: The Farmer Fairy’s Stone
One of the primary intentions of our recent six-week pilgrimage, first to Scotland and then to Ireland, was to visit EarthSpirit sanctuaries in these ensouled landscapes. We hoped to find portals to the Otherworld in order to contact renewing, healing, transformative energies for us all, and especially for some friends with cancer. I wanted to…
Cyber Monday
It is a reality of relationships today that what used to be face-to-face connections have been replaced by “electronic, digital, wired, virtual, web, Internet, Net, online” links. Worse, “social media” hides an actual person. Four construction workers from China, setting up electrical and water systems, and finessing doors, windows, and floors, wanted to speak English….
Wealth, Demographics, and the Transition to Ecological Civilization
September 25, 2016 Human beings must move into ecological civilization. There is a subtext to this. Civilization began with Neolithic villages 10,000 years ago. Early civilization was based on agriculture and it continued this way until the industrial revolution. During this period, the period of Agricultural Civilization, the classical civilizations arose—the Sinic, the Indic, the…
Values and Worldviews for an Ecological Civilization
Editor’s Note: This talk was given at the conference on “Alternative Futures: Pathways Toward Ecological Civilization” hosted by Toward Ecological Civilization, Claremont, CA, October 28-29, 2016 To talk about values and worldviews for an ecological civilization in one presentation is a tall order. I’ll take this on by speaking to you about some elements of…
Go Out and Buy David W. Orr’s New Book The Dangerous Years
Just released this month (November 2016) David W. Orr’s new book, Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward, provides the best contemporary guidance to the situation humankind is in and what is needed for a viable future. Written before the end of the 2016 US presidential election, his analysis covers the…
Dirk Spruyt – October 15, 1925 to November 16, 2016
Dirk Spruyt, who was an active member of CES for many years, died peacefully at age 91 on November 15, 1925. He grew up in California, Holland, Washington, Long Island, Massachusetts and Vermont. He went to college at Swarthmore (PA), earned an MD from the University of Rochester (NY) in 1954, and then went to…
The Chronicle
CLIMATE More than three billion people watched as rising carbon dioxide levels and consequent flooding of low-lying areas were depicted during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics: Amsterdam, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Florida, Shanghai, Lagos, and Rio de Janeiro were shown disappearing under water due to a warming climate caused by human…
Abundance
Editor’s Note: This is one of our favorite articles. We usually repeat this article once a year during gardening season This week was explosive. My garden produced cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes and the first cherry tomatoes. I was overwhelmed and since I can’t share the fruits, I share the reflections. I am not sure…
Thomas Berry’s “Communion of Subjects”: Awakening the “Heart of the Universe”
Communion at the Heart of Reality In The Dream of the Earth, Thomas Berry writes: At present…we are in that phase of transition that must be described as the groping phase. We are like a musician who faintly hears a melody deep within the mind, but not clearly enough to play it through. This is…
2016 World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature – Summary
Sometimes many of us feel isolated and wonder if anything is going on that matches the challenge of the ecological crisis. We can take heart from the work of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and what has just occurred at their 2016 World Conservation Congress. The Congress, titled “Planet at the Crossroads,…
Fall Programs Announced by the Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain, The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World, and The Center for Human-Earth Restoration
Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain (Chapel Hill, NC) The Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain is offering a full schedule of fall programs, including Wisdom of the Elements: Fire (Sept 17) The case for permaculture (Sept 17) Energetic Outdoor Yoga (Sept 17 and 24) Principles of Design (Sept 24) Building from Our Surroundings (Oct 22) Wisdom of the…
Free Yale University Online Classes—”Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times” (Two Courses); “The Worldview of Thomas Berry”; and “Living Cosmology”
In the fall of 2016 Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, Senior Lecturers and Research Scholars at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, will offer four six-week online courses. These will be featured as a specialization under the theme of “Journey of the Universe: A Story for our Times.” This will include two courses on Journey of the Universe, a course…
Video Replay Available of Webcast with Mary Evelyn Tucker on “Living Cosmology: Dwelling within the Journey of the Universe”
We are living in a time of immense challenge on every front—socially, politically, ecologically, and spiritually. As Thomas Berry suggested, we need a new story to reorient and ground ourselves to meet these challenges. Mary Evelyn Tucker tells such a story—an epic of evolution—that has the potential to bring together the best of modern science…
Climate Year Program to Have the United States Commence a World War II-Scale Mobilization to Restore a Safe Climate
CES has received this invitation, which we pass on to you. Allies, We are thrilled to announce our new Climate Year program. As part of our strategy to ensure that the US federal government commences a WWII-scale climate mobilization to restore a safe climate by July 4, 2017, we are looking for brilliant, talented, dedicated…
The Chronicle
By Alice Loyd It’s All About Pollution This Time More than 80% of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The WHO update issued in June 2016 finds the worst exposure in low- and middle-income countries, where 98%…
Why Do We (CES) Do What We Are Doing?
Excerpt from a recent letter by Herman Greene I feel CES is needed because I don’t think people are thinking about the magnitude of change that would be needed to be sustainable. Sustainability must meet three criterion: (1) the human community lives within Earth’s carrying capacity—according to the Ecological Footprint Network we humans are now…
Grief and Gratitude
By Bill Peck Humans gain insight by Linking trillions of cells Within each brain, stretching a Mirror vast and complex enough to Catch the entire universe Reflecting its amazing Beauty and wonder We need one another All seven billion of us To weave by our cultures The interlocking segments of Vision that together As if…
Eco-Restorative Design: An Evolutionary Process toward Care for the Greater Community of Life
By Tim Watson, Principal, TLW Architect, Hillsborough, NC And God blessed them, and said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish Earth, and care for the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moves upon Earth.” —Genesis. 1:28 (paraphrase). While pushing wheelbarrows on the community renewal…
Announcing the Second Edition of Matthew David Segall’s Physics Of The World-Soul and His Just Completed Dissertation on Cosmotheanthropic Imagination
Matthew David Segall is one of the brightest young philosophers around. He recently earned his PhD from the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program of the California Institute of Integral Studies. He was a student of Brian Swimme and fortunately will continue as a member of the CIIS faculty. He is taking a leading role in…
Brian Swimme’s Podcast on “Why We Study the Universe” and Announcement of Online Graduate Program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies
By Herman Greene Few of us have the opportunity to hear Brian Swimme lecture. Here’s a fine 40-minute lecture by him on “Why We Study the Universe” of April 20, 2016. Brian teaches that cosmology is an inward desire and intention, we are one with the universe, and (of course) much more. Many of us…
Free Yale University Online Classes: “Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times” (Two Courses); “The Worldview of Thomas Berry”; and “Living Cosmology”
Announcement by The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale In the fall of 2016 Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, Senior Lecturers and Research Scholars at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, will offer four six-week online courses. These will be featured as a specialization under the theme of “Journey of the Universe: A Story for our Times.” This…
Conference on Care of the Earth and Climate Change
By Thomas Keevey COME, spend a weekend with Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si and the Wisdom of Thomas Berry, Passionist, sponsored by the Passionist Community to be held at Immaculate Conception Parish, Jamaica (Queens), New York September 9 & 10, 2016 Friday Evening: 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm General invitation to free showing of the…
The Chronicle (through May 10, 2016)
CLIMATE—Crossing 2oC and 400ppm April 2016 was the warmest April on record for the planet, and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records. data.giss.nasa.gov According to data released on May 14 by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the global temperature departure in April was 1.11 degrees Celsius above the…
CES: A Wider and Deeper Association; and CES News
A WIDER AND DEEPER ASSOCIATION In the January-February issue of CES Musings, we described CES as an association of people dedicated to research, education, art and action for the transition to ecozoic societies. Then we spoke of our associates as being “people who, including members of CES, are supported by the work of CES, see…
Does the US Presidential Election Matter in the Big Picture?
Ecozoans operate out of a big history. Thomas Berry said that our present situation is not like any other period in human history because, for the first time, the human species is undergoing a transition in geo-biological eras—from the terminal Cenozoic to the emerging Ecozoic era. This, he said, is not like a disturbance in…
The Church of Economism and its Discontents
Two centuries of explosive economic growth have radically altered our material and ideological worlds. With human activity now the major driver of geological change, the industrial era has come to be called the Anthropocene. This inquiry instead adopts the term Econocene, underscoring its ideological foundation: economism. The concept of economism, the reduction of all social…
Toward Ecological Civilization—An Important New Nonprofit and Movement
Toward Ecological Civilization, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation (EcoCiv), emerged out of the vision of John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Theology (emeritus) of Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA, a 501(c)(3) organization (CST), and the work of the Center for Process Studies (CPS), a center within CST. Under the leadership of Cobb, CPS…
Introduction to Quantum Polarity
On Stillness (A Message from the Tree of Life) “Have you ever experienced stillness?” “I don’t mean quiet!” the tree said to me. No, stillness is something else. In fact, I suspect I have avoided stillness Much like I avoid a cobra or a tarantula. For stillness has a bite to it, That can…
The Chronicle (through February 29, 2016)
THE POWERS In January 2016 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 1074 corporate chief executives or company chairs and more than 40 world leaders gathered to socialize, hold conversations, and spark ideas about the issues they currently face: the refugee crisis, climate change, rising interest rates, and many other problems that concern…
Morning Prayer for Pink
Messenger of morning, sign of the sun coming, let it live on our bodies as well as the waking sky, let it be the sudden blush, the shade of the tongue which colors our speech let it appear as the pale skin of the palm, any palm, as with the luster of meadows,…
Innovation In Solar Technologies
Introduction Photovoltaic cells (PV) Batteries and storage Wireless transmission Concentrating solar power (CSP) Conclusion Introduction Each day the news about climate change grows more disheartening, and the most disheartening aspect is that it didn’t have to happen. Energy sources able to supply power for human activities without wrecking the planet and altering its atmosphere have…
A Guide to the New Thomas Berry Website: It Will Not Disappoint
The new Thomas Berry website, http://thomasberry.org/, will not disappoint, be you a veteran scholar or a new disciple. It is a good tool for understanding Thomas Berry, his contribution, and his influence. The site has a number of parts and functions: book store, summary of his contribution to our current moment, original source audio-video library,…
Spring’s Promise
Editor’s Note: Mary Southard will be one of the leaders of the April 29-30, 2016, event on “Living the Creative Life: Art, Beauty, Ecology.” She will give a talk on “My Creative Life as an Artist” and will lead a workshop involving drawing with pastels. Her art is inspired, beautiful, heavenly. Both originals and prints…
Ecozoans and the US Presidential Election
Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” comes to mind when I think of the US presidential race. If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs . . . If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way…
In Memoriam: Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (4 March 1973 – 3 March 2016)
Berta Cáceres was a Honduran environmental activist and leader of the Lenca people. She organized a grassroots campaign to prevent the building of dams on the Gualcarque River. The Lenca engaged in the dangerous fight against the project because of the harm it would cause to the environment, their access to water, food and medicine,…
Living the Creative Life: Art, Beauty, Ecology
CES EVENT: “LIVING THE CREATIVE LIFE: ART, BEAUTY, ECOLOGY” APRIL 29-30, 2016, Church of Reconciliation, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Sandra Lubarsky, PhD; Mary Southard, CSJ; and Marcus Peter Ford, PhD Adult workshops on art, poetry writing, singing, movement, and poetry reading All-Day Saturday children’s workshop with Cely Chicurel of www.celyshouse.com Adult Programs – For more…
CES Event: Living the Creative Life: Art, Beauty, Ecology
Living the Creative Life: Art, Beauty, Ecology Friday, April 29, 2016 (7-9 PM), and Saturday, April 30, 2016 (9 AM to 3:30 PM) Church of Reconciliation, 110 North Elliott Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Sandra Lubarsky, PhD; Mary Southard, CSJ; and Marcus Peter Ford, PhD
The Chronicle
By Alice Loyd (through December 31, 2015) CLIMATE The much-anticipated 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21), was held in Paris, France, from November 30 to December 12, 2015, with 196 nations participating. The adopted version of the Paris Agreement will become legally binding if joined by at…
What Is Different About CES? What Are the Next Steps for CES?
By Herman Greene, Founder and President, Center for Ecozoic Societies We invite your comments and questions on this article. Please send them to ecozoic.societies@gmail.com. I was recently asked, “What is different about CES?” My response was, “Our Ideas.” So how does that make CES different? There are many organizations concerned about ecological well-being, but there…
Two Poems: Enlightenment, Phrases Strong and Perfect
By Therése Halscheid Therése Halscheid has been an itinerant writer for more than two decades, living simply on the road as a house-sitter. She writes, “A nomadic lifestyle has allowed me to connect with the Earth and understand more deeply the interconnectedness between nature and human nature.” Regarding the lotus, they have their beginnings…
My Magic Manifesto
By Katherine Savage Katherine Savage lives next to the same patch of woods in which—as a child—she played, dreamed, and learned about being wild. Though this patch is thin now, the woods continue to speak; and she, in love with listening, keeps paper and pen with her at all times. She translates what she hears…
CES Event: Ecology Beauty Art
CES EVENT: “ECOLOGY, BEAUTY, ART” Featuring Sandra Lubarsky, PhD; Mary Southard, CSJ; and Marc Ford, PhD Includes workshops on art, music, and poetry April 29-30, 2016 Chapel Hill, North Carolina The importance of beauty and of art for ecologically-minded people is underrated, or at least seldom discussed. “Aesthetics,” while remaining as a subject matter of…
Become a Member, Make a Donation, Volunteer
Your support of CES through becoming a member or making a donation is important. Benefits of membership include a subscription to our print publication, The Ecozoic, and discounts to CES events. Membership is on a calendar year basis. Memberships received after November 1 of a calendar year count as membership for the following calendar year….
The Chronicle (through October 31, 2015)
THE POWERS It is increasingly understood that our age is dominated by corporations and by the most wealthy families and individuals. In the past, we have noted that income inequality is a growing concern worldwide. With this issue we begin tracking news that is specifically about the “one percent” and the business organizations US…
Five Years of Drought Now Rain–Three Rivers, California, A Country Village in the Foothills of the Sierra Mountains–I am Earth
October 16, 2015. Coffee in hand, I wander in predawn darkness through my candle-lit living room. The outside doors are open to the sweet, fresh smells of wet soil from last night’s thunderstorm, a brief respite from our five-year drought. I let my dog out to sit on his deck bed where he can…
2015: The International Year of Soils
2015 happens to be the International Year of Soils,[1] and yet the year has been passing without much attention paid to this most important mixture of weathered rock, decayed organic matter, mineral fragments, water, and air. As George Monbiot wrote last spring, “Even if everything else were miraculously fixed, we’re knackered if we don’t…
The Sacred Activism of Sunderlal Bahuguna
George Alfred James received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Religion from Columbia University in 1983. He is author of Interpreting Religion, and Ecology is Permanent Economy: the Activism and Environmental Philosophy of Sunderlal Bahuguna. He is also edited the volume Ethical Perspectives on Environmental Issues in India. Over the past 25 years…
Uncompromising Sustainability: How the United Nations’ New Sustainable Development Goals Will Transform Our World
The Center for Ecozoic Societies in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is one of many organizations grounded in the work of Thomas Berry. Thomas Berry was[1] a self-described “geologian,” a lover and student of Earth. He has been credited with beginning the spiritual ecology movement. With respect to the relation of ecology, religion, and culture,…
The Chronicle (through August 31, 2015)
POLLUTION Two massive explosions took place in the port city of Tianjin in northern China on August 12, 2015. The death toll has now reached 114, with 95 persons listed as missing. More than 720 people were hospitalized, with nearly 60 of these either critically or seriously injured. Officials have said it is not…
A Prayer of Thanksgiving
Dear world, I want to say “thank you” for the privilege of the joyous journey of life on this planet. Each day is an adventure to learn more and see more of the splendid gifts in nature that surround us, if only we open our eyes and other senses to perceive them. Amen
Cosmology and Wisdom: The Great Teaching Work of Thomas Berry
For each thing in its nature is good, but all things together are very good, by reason of the order of the universe, which is the ultimate and noblest perfection in things. —Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 2, 45:10 (1264) So you see, I do ask of you things greatly surpassing the human:…
The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change
The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change was published by Islamic leaders from 20 countries at the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul on August 17-18, 2015. The Declaration presents the moral case, based on Islamic teachings, for the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims and people of all faiths worldwide to take urgent climate action….
Creativity, the Universe, and a Pomegranate Seed
For much of my life I’ve been fascinated with a variety of subjects and authors that seemed to have no relationship to the work I was doing or to each other. Periodically I would go to a library or bookstore for some unstructured research, generally with no thought that I would ever do anything with…
The Ecological Crisis: A Moral Problem
Editor’s note: On June 18, 2015, Pope Francis issued his encyclical letter Laudato si,’ On Care For Our Common Home. On the evening of June 17, a racially-motivated shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. During the following weekend, services in many faith congregations throughout the world reflected the…
The Chronicle (through July 18, 2015)
The Chronicle (through July 18, 2015) CLIMATE The pope has spoken. On June 18, 2015, the much-anticipated papal encyclical on climate change was officially presented with fanfare to the media behind the walls of Vatican City. Published in at least five languages, the 192-page document focuses on our shared moral responsibility to address the impact…
Re-Imagining Civilization as Ecological: Report on the “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization” Conference
The conference was highly anticipated. The invitation read: Some 1,000 presenters from more than 30 countries and 80 fields of specialty and are coming together for the most ambitious trans-disciplinary event ever held on behalf of the planet: “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization.” June 4-7, 2015, Claremont, CA. The conference is for everyone…
Agreement Reached on Outcome Document for the UN’s Post-2015 Development Agenda; UN Conference on Financing for Development Completed
AGREEMENT REACHED ON OUTCOME DOCUMENT FOR THE UN’S POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA; UN CONFERENCE ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT COMPLETED As reported in CES Musings in our immediately preceding issue, 2015 is a signal year for sustainability with these highlight events: June 4-7, 2015 – Conference on “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization,” Pomona College, Claremont,…
Pope Francis and the Culture of Care
POPE FRANCIS AND THE CULTURE OF CARE Editor’s Note: To celebrate Pope Francis’ new encyclical “Laudato Si’”: On Care of Our Common Home,” the Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi in Raleigh hosted an Interfaith Prayer Vigil on June 28, 2015. People from 20 different faith communities, including Jewish and Muslim leaders, participated in…
Pope Francis and Integral Ecology
POPE FRANCIS AND INTEGRAL ECOLOGY By Sam Mickey Editor’s Note: This article was first published on the blog Becoming Integral: Coexistence in the Planetary Era and is reprinted with permission. Dr. Mickey teaches at the University of San Francisco in the Environmental Studies program and the Theology and Religious Studies department The new encyclical by…
Religion, Ecology, Race, and Cultural Evolution
Editor’s Note: This article was posted on June 23, 2015 on the blog Footnotes 2 Plato. Matthew David Segall is a doctoral candidate in philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. He recently chaired the session on “Late Modernity and Its Re-Imaging” at the conference on “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an…
The Chronicle (through May 4, 2015)
ENERGY The biggest energy event in the past 30 days may have been Tesla’s announcement that a small, low-cost, high-storage-capacity solar battery is ready to go into production. The lithium-ion Powerwall, which can capture and store up to 10kWh of energy from a solar panel, is 68cm by 1.3m in size (only a little…
CES News: A Reconciliation—Unity Within the Thomas Berry Community
This picture (see pdf) of Thomas Berry taken late in his life is a reminder of the spirit of this great man and of the legacy he left with us. June 1, 2015 will be the sixth anniversary of his death. Thomas was a Catholic. The day that is celebrated for a Catholic saint is…
CES News: James Peacock Announces His Re-Firement
On May 7, 2015, a reception was held honoring Professor James L. Peacock of the Anthropology Department of the University of North Carolina of Chapel Hill (UNC) and Member of the Board of CES. He is pictured here at that event in front of a plaque marking one of his many achievements—the establishment of…
2015 Is a Signal Year for Sustainability
As we celebrate our personal experiences of the natural world this spring, and lament the declining state of the global environment, we should also pay attention to the really significant events that will take place this year relating to sustainability. It could well be that we look back on this year as a turning…
Reflections on Earth from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Jaime Vergara lives in Saipan and is a columnist for the Saipan Times. Born in the Philippines, he became a naturalized US citizen in 1984. He has lived and worked all over the world, including in the Philippines, Nigeria, Tonga, Jamaica, Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Venezuela, Korea, and in the United States, Chicago, Dallas,…
The Chronicle (through March 31, 2015)
CLIMATE In 2014 for the first time in 40 years, annual worldwide CO2 emissions did not rise. On March 13 the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that annual global emissions remained at 32 gigatonnes in 2014, unchanged from the previous year. The agency reported that except for 3 years when major economic downturns affected…
CES News: Law Track of Ecological Civilization Conference
I am the co-organizer of the law track in the Ecological Civilization conference described in the events section of this Musings. This track illustrates the kind of work that will be done in each of the 83 tracks in the conference. It is also illustrative of the work CES is doing and will continue to…
Two Poems: The Briefing and Will Justice Come
THE BRIEFING You are new here and have been given the keys. I’ve been asked to lay out the big picture Of how the world works – from our point of view Without the feel good bullshit. You are being paid too much to need that. First, understand that it is all related And it’s…
The Colder Winter Anomaly
Was it weather or was it climate? The colder winter anomaly in the Eastern United States For those of us in the eastern part of the United States, the shortest month was long and hard. About the time we recovered from one severe cold front, another moved in. February 2015 continued a trend James Hansen…
Thomas Berry’s Sense of the Sacred
Editor’s Note: Thomas Berry often wrote about spirituality, the sacred and the divine. Here are three articles related to Thomas Berry’s sense of the sacred. The third article on the “Interspiritual Movement” did not come out of the Thomas Berry community as such. It is presented as additional new spiritual/religious movements will be presented in…
The Chronicle (through January 11, 2015)
ENERGY As we enter 2015, we celebrate progress in clean energy technologies achieved in 2014, highlighting just a few advances. An emissions-free, natural gas power generation plant has reached the demonstration stage. A 50MWt (megawatt; one megawatt-hour is 1 million Watt hours) plant that will be built in Texas in 2016 will validate the…
CES News
CES to co-sponsor conference on “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization,” Claremont, California, June 4-7, 2015. The Center for Ecozoic Societies is now an official Co-Sponsor of the conference “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization,” Claremont, California, June 4-7, 2015. Herman Greene to co-lead Law Track of conference on “Seizing an…
Three Poems: February, At the Gate, and Addressing the Masses
February (February 17, 2015) What was a prodigious bower of tendril, leaf, and pod, snaps under my fracturing fingers as I tidy the guide wires to which they cleaved in summer. Dreams of immortality are only for humans who separate soul from the stuff of which we are all made. And I am to practice…
Two Poems: Psalm After the Holocaust and Lying Fallow
PSALM AFTER THE HOLOCAUST (December 2013) How can anyone make a joyful noise Praising the mysterious power that Guides the universe, depth calling unto Depth, when so much fear pervades our time? The first word can only be Silence Profound and unutterable— Dark as the unbelievable pain The second word is resilience…
Poem: Winter’s Wrap
Winter’s Wrap (February 21, 2015) Snow Freezing rain Rain frozen Now a sheet of ice More snow Lubricating the ice Down I go On my tail Do I have a tail? Dogs slipping Cars slipping Children sledding And slipping New snow A winter wonderland Evening falls Wind blows Snow flies from…
“The earth,” “earth,” or “Earth?” What Should We Call Our Planet?
Should we call our planet “the earth,” “earth,” or “Earth”? Generally our planet should be called “Earth.” Like the other planets, it should be capitalized and generally not be preceded by “the.” When earth refers to soil, it should not be capitalized. We don’t say, the Mars, and certainly not the mars, or the Venus…
Imbolc
Thomas Berry calls for intimate rapport with Earth community and for celebrating the grand liturgy of the universe. He says that no viable mode of human presence on the planet will take place until this happens. We look for ancient and new ways to accomplish this. For many Celtic spirituality has become a primary resource….
Imbolc 2015 Reflections
Hakima Betty Lou Chaika is Coordinator of the Ziraat Circle, Rose Heart Sufi Community At Imbolc we call back the sun and call forth the transformative flame of Brigid, the Celtic Goddess of healing, inspiration and creativity, as the natural world begins to awaken from its dream of hibernation. Embodied ritual opens us to the possibility…
Celtic Cycles as a Mandala for Individuation
Sunday Salon: February 1, 2015 Presented by Ann Loomis Reviewed by Marilyn McNamara Groundhog Day can be a reminder and an invitation to all of us that facing one’s shadow can be a winter task of importance. Seasoned workshop presenter and author of a new book, Celtic Cycles: Guidance from the Soul on the…
Celtic Cycles: Guidance from the Soul on the Spiritual Journey
Ann Loomis is the author of Celtic Cycles: Guidance from the Soul on the Spiritual Journey. This book realigns the soul’s wisdom with the rhythms and creatures of the natural world. As with some animals, the soul is in danger of extinction if we do not find a way to listen to its guidance. Writings…
The Chronicle (through December 7, 2014)
Consumption With this issue we introduce the category of Consumption, a topic that becomes especially conspicuous at this time of the year. Consumption is the corollary to Pollution and Climate Change; you can’t have one without the other, at least not in the Economic-Industrial model. We offer two December stories on the subject. The first…
Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Thought and Related Ideas in the Works of Teilhard De Chardin, Brian Swimme, and Thomas Berry
Alfred North Whitehead was a British mathematician, logician, and philosopher. His early work, as a student and professor at Cambridge University, was on mathematics and logic. The second period, 1910-24, when he had appointments at University College London and Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, he concentrated on the philosophy of science. The…
What Is Process Philosophy and Why Is It Important to the Ecozoic? Questions and Answers
What Is Process Philosophy? A process philosophy is one that understands the universe as continually becoming. In the Greek tradition Heraclitus said than no person ever steps into the same river twice. He was in the process tradition. Daoism and Buddhism are also in the process tradition. The opposite of process philosophy is not ontology,…
Introduction to a Remarkable Essay and a Remarkable Young Philosopher: Matthew David Seagal
The following essay would be a stunning accomplishment by a person of any age. It is even more remarkable that it is by Matthew David Segall, a man in his twenties. Matthew undertakes with aplomb the task of making sense of modern science and evolutionary theory in light of Whitehead’s philosophy and also a vision…
Physics of the World-Soul
Editor’s Note: Alfred North Whitehead was a British mathematician, logician and philosopher. His early work, as a student and professor at Cambridge University, was on mathematics and logic. The second period, 1910-24, when he had appointments at University College London and Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, he concentrated on the philosophy of…
The Importance Of Thomas Berry (A CES Foundational Paper)
Thomas Berry (1914-2009), was a cultural historian, philosopher, human ecologist, and a self-described geologian. He was among the first to observe that the effects of human activity have become so great that Earth is undergoing a change in geo-biological eras. He identified the “Great Work” of our time as the task of moving on from…
The Chronicle
CLIMATE It’s all about climate. On Sunday, September 21, New York City saw what is being called the largest mobilization against climate change in the history of the planet. The crowd, estimated at 400,000 people of all ages and from around the world, filled midtown Manhattan streets to demand action to avert catastrophic climate change….
The Anthropology And Political Ecology Of Climate Change
THE ANTHROPOLOGY AND POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF CLIMATE CHANGE (Course Syllabus – Fall 2014, Anthropology 490, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Professor Arturo Escobar Course Description This course is intended as an upper division seminar devoted to a study in contemporary anthropology and new directions in research or applications. There are few topics in…
Thomas Berry, 100-Years Of Wisdom And A Birthday Gift Of My Universe Story
Excerpt from one of Thomas Berry’s Riverdale Papers: The Spirituality of the Earth I am not speaking of a human spirituality with special reference to the planet Earth. I am speaking of a quality of the Earth itself. Earth is the maternal principle out of which we are born and whence we derive all that…
IS THOMAS BERRY’S NEW COSMOLOGY THE SAME AS THE UNIVERSE STORY?
IS THOMAS BERRY’S NEW COSMOLOGY THE SAME AS THE UNIVERSE STORY? IS THE NEW STORY THE SAME AS THE UNIVERSE STORY? By Herman Greene Within the Berry community three terms are used almost interchangeably: “the New Cosmology,” “the Universe Story,” and the “New Story.” I have concerns with this when people (1) use them…
SIGNS OF THE ECOZOIC
SIGNS OF THE ECOZOIC By Alice Loyd (through August 31, 2014) A great number of people are working to create a more livable future, and their activities have recently been given a new name—the anti-apocalyptic movement. Here CES Musings highlights some of the positive, life-serving collective actions that may lead to an Ecozoic future….
ISSUES AFFECTING CONTEMPORARY PHYSICAL COSMOLOGY
ISSUES AFFECTING CONTEMPORARY PHYSICAL COSMOLOGY By Timothy E. Eastman, Ph.D. (Space Plasma Physicist) A full consideration of issues in contemporary physical cosmology requires a treatment that includes philosophical presuppositions, scientific method, political and sociological issues, data and data analysis, basic science questions, and the consideration of viable alternatives. Brief notes on such considerations are…
OH EARTH! EARTH’S ACT OF FAITH AND SOCIETY
OH EARTH! EARTH’S ACT OF FAITH AND SOCIETY By Meera Chakravorty, Ph.D. (Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Jain University, Bangalore) Earth is in need of a little redemption if we set out to provide it, making it a moral and civic obligation since we ought to know how unique an investor Earth is in…
The Chronicle July-August 2014
The Chronicle By Alice Loyd (through August 31, 2014) CLIMATE We begin this edition with the warming of Gaia. June 2014 was the hottest June we’ve ever had, and was the 352nd hotter-than-average month in a row.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on July 21 that June’s average global temperature was 16.2C…
The Chronicle May-June 2014
The Chronicle By Alice Loyd (through July 2, 2014) Social Justice: Immigration Communications: Privacy Climate Change Pollution Shorts SOCIAL JUSTICE: IMMIGRATION The wave of immigrant children flooding Texas Border Patrol facilities calls our attention to a human dilemma that is bound to increase as climate change worsens, resources become scarcer, and governments lose ground to…
CES Musings May-June 2014
In this issue: ARTICLE Free Thomas Berry by Herman Greene The Chronicle (May-June 2014) by Alice Loyd o Social Justice: Immigration o Communications: Privacy o Climate Change o Pollution o Shorts
FREE THOMAS BERRY!
FREE THOMAS BERRY! By Herman Greene I realize that the title of this article and the accompanying picture are provocative. Further, I understand they imply Thomas Berry has been restrained by someone or some group. I began this article under several other titles, but continued to come back to this one. I felt it…
CES Musings – May-June 2014
AT A GLANCE The Chronicle (May-June 2014) by Alice Loyd Social Justice: Immigration Communications: Privacy Free Thomas Berry by Herman Greene
The Chronicle March-April 2014
The Chronicle By Alice Loyd (through April 30, 2014) CLIMATE Story 1: IPCC Working Group Reports on Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate Change Released Perhaps the most important news event of spring 2014 was the release of two new reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Working Group II (Adaptation – this…
THE WHITEHEADIAN CENTURY: A LOOK AHEAD
THE WHITEHEADIAN CENTURY: A LOOK AHEAD By Herman Greene This paper was originally presented as a plenary lecture at the Ninth International Whitehead Conference in Krakow Poland on September 10-, 2013 Those involved in the founding of the International Process Network (IPN) in 2001 warrant a place in the history of process thought.[1] IPN…
CONSIDERING THE LEGACY AND FUTURE OF THOMAS BERRY’S WORK ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH
CONSIDERING THE LEGACY AND FUTURE OF THOMAS BERRY’S WORK ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH By Herman Greene It seems there are multiple ways to appropriate the work of Thomas Berry. Common ways are in terms of the Universe Story, meaning the scientific account of the evolutionary development of the universe; eco-communalism, meaning…
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD’S PROCESS PHILOSOPHY IN RELATION TO DE CHARDIN, BERRY AND SWIMME
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD’S PROCESS PHILOSOPHY IN RELATION TO DE CHARDIN, BERRY AND SWIMME By Herman Greene Thomas Berry and Teilhard de Chardin, who greatly influenced Berry,[1] have been impressed by the story of the universe as narrative, and from this narrative have drawn conclusions about the nature of the universe. Their reflections were based…
THOMAS BERRY, WHITEHEAD, DE CHARDIN, BEING, BECOMING, PROCESS AND ONTOLOGY
THOMAS BERRY, WHITEHEAD, DE CHARDIN, BEING, BECOMING, PROCESS AND ONTOLOGY By Herman Greene Not always appreciated is the fact that Thomas Berry was the consummate scholar. As a Catholic Priest and a member of the Passionist Religious Order he received a classical education in philosophy and theology and earned a doctoral degree in history…
CES Musings – March-April 2014
AT A GLANCE The Chronicle (March-April 2014) by Alice Loyd Climate Pollution Communications – Privacy Shorts ARTICLES by Herman Greene Considering the Legacy and Future of Thomas Berry’s Work on the Fifth Anniversary of His Death Thomas Berry, Whitehead, De Chardin, Being, Becoming, Process and Ontology Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Philosophy in Relation to De Chardin,…
The Chronicle January-February 2014
The Chronicle January-February 2014 From Alice Loyd and Herman Greene Inequality CES shares a growing concern about the increasing economic inequality in the US and the world. We included The Earth Charter among the foundational statements of our organization when we first began our work—at about the same date as the publication of the Charter…
THE MULTIPLE FACES OF SCIENCE IN ETHICAL ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING
THE MULTIPLE FACES OF SCIENCE IN ETHICAL ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING By Herman Greene This paper was originally presented as a plenary lecture at the “Bounds of Ethics in a Globalized World” conference held at Christ University in Bangalore, India. There were over 500 participants in the Conference from 47 countries. This is an essay on the…
We Who Would Live the True Life of Nature
WE WHO WOULD LIVE THE TRUE LIFE OF NATURE By Alice Loyd I live wedged between the canyon walls of this culture. Beyond them I sense—I swear I’ve seen—the green light Of the world where I belong. We who would live the true life of nature Only view it now through the cracks Scratched…
The Chronicle November-December 2013
The Chronicle By Alice Loyd (through December 31, 2013) At the end of 2013, we review recent news stories reflecting the shrinking world humans have made. The planet seems smaller due to gains and losses: information and transportation technologies on the one hand, and species and habitat loss, including ice melt, on the other. But…
Why 2014 Is a Special Year in Relation to Thomas Berry
Why 2014 Is a Special Year in Relation to Thomas Berry The year 2014 has two special anniversaries related to Thomas Berry: June 1, 2014, will be the fifth anniversary of his death, and November 9, 2014, will be the 100th anniversary of his birth. CES is not focused on Thomas Berry, but we are…
Upcoming Events
BARBARA MARX HUBBARD PUBLIC LECTURE AND WORKSHOP—FEBRUARY 21‐ 22, 2014, UNITED CHURCH OF CHAPEL HILL World renowned futurist and social visionary Barbara Marx Hubbard will be giving a public lecture on Friday, February 21, 2014, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at United Church of Chapel Hill followed by a full day workshop on Saturday,…
CES Musings April 2011
In this issue: “Garden as if Your Life Depended On It, Because It Will,” by Ellen LaConte “Excerpts on Gardening, Humans, Humus and Spirituality: Thomas Berry On Gardening and Children, Mary Oliver on ‘The God of Dirt,’ Humans, Humus and Gardening in Genesis, and ‘In the Garden’ (a gospel hymn),” selected by Herman Greene…
The Universe is Made of Stories, Not of Atoms
By Mike Bell I always remember when people asked [Thomas Berry] how they should go about creating a mutually enhancing relationship between humans and Earth, he would say, “Tell them the story.” Since then I’ve always been extremely interested in the concept of story, especially in its cosmological dimensions. Recently I came across from an…
The Problem with Omnipotence
By Alice Loyd Recently I heard it again. I heard someone asking, “Why did God let this bad thing happen?” I assume the speaker and most of the listeners were considering the problem of evil in the world, as in “Why do bad things happen to good people?” For me, though, the concern is…
What’s at Stake in Barbara Marx Hubbard’s Conscious Human Evolution?
What’s at Stake in Barbara Marx Hubbard’s Conscious Human Evolution?* By Marilyn McNamara Barbara Marx Hubbard lectured on “Conscious Evolution” in Chapel Hill on February 21, 2014, a presentation co-sponsored by CES, the C.G. Jung Society of the Triangle, Emerson Waldorf School, the Fenwick Foundation, Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute and United Church of Chapel Hill. The…
DOUGLASS HUNT LECTURERS FOR THOMAS BERRY COLLOQUIUM
DOUGLASS HUNT LECTURERS FOR THOMAS BERRY COLLOQUIUM The Douglass Hunt Lecture Series of the Carolina Seminars program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) has invited five distinguished lecturers to present at the “Colloquium on the Work of Thomas Berry: Development, Difference, Importance, Applications,” to be held on the UNC-CH campus, May…
ACADEMIC COLLOQUIUM CRITICALLY ASSESSING THE WORK OF THOMAS BERRY
ACADEMIC COLLOQUIUM CRITICALLY ASSESSING THE WORK OF THOMAS BERRY, MAY 28-30, 2014, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL On May 28-30, the Center for Ecozoic Societies and the Relationality Seminar of Carolina Seminars of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) will co-sponsor a “Colloquium on the Work of Thomas Berry:…
THOMAS BERRY
THOMAS BERRY* By Michael Colebrook Of all the writers and thinkers to have shaped what we now call GreenSpirit, by far the most influential was Thomas Berry. Thomas Berry, C.P. (November 9, 1914 – June 1, 2009) was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian (although cosmologist and geologian –…
A Prophetic Voice: Thomas Berry
A Prophetic Voice: Thomas Berry By Marjorie Hope and James Young Introduction Whenever Thomas Berry looks out over the Hudson River from his home at the Riverdale Center for Religious Research, he experiences anew “the gorgeousness of the natural world.” The Earth brings forth a display of beauty in such unending profusion, a display so…
CES Musings – November-December 2013
In This Issue: POEM We Who Would Live the True Life of Nature by Alice Loyd The Chronicle (November-December 2013) from Alice Loyd Story 1: Fukushima Is Not Old News Story 2: Destruction of Syrian Chemical Weapons Story 3: The U.S. Farm Bill Story 4: Environmental Assessment in China Story 5: Global Climate Change—Warsaw UNFCCC…
The Chronicle (September-October 2013)
The Chronicle (September-October 2013) Our readers are invited to present their own reports of what they are paying attention to in the transition from economic-industrial to ecological-cultural societies. From Alice Loyd Looking back at the past month’s news stories in light of ecozoic priorities, the lead story must be the Fifth Assessment Report of…
Passage of Brother Conrad Federspiel, C.P.
PASSAGE OF BROTHER CONRAD FEDERSPIEL, C.P. (Born May 28, 1924, Professed April 3, 1952, Died October 6, 2013) By Tom Keevey Brother Conrad Federspiel was a member of the Passionist Religious Order, as was Thomas Berry. He worked in many monasteries including years at the foundation in Port Burwell, Canada, where he cared for the…
Horticulture and Human Culture
HORTICULTURE AND HUMAN CULTURE By D. Paul Schafer Dr. Schafer lives in Markham, Canada, and is the Director of the World Culture Project. This summer, I watched a particular plant in our garden, a monkshood, to see if it would bloom. It had been a long, hot summer with very little rain, and this fascinating…
Report on Peter London Workshop: “Artists are Not Illustrators, Rather Art is a Work of Relationship”
REPORT ON PETER LONDON WORKSHOP: “ARTISTS ARE NOT ILLUSTRATORS, RATHER ART IS A WORK OF RELATIONSHIP” By Alice Loyd CES, featuring the leadership of artist and master teacher Peter London, held its first artists’ workshop on September 27 and 28, 2013. From the first lecture through the closing exercise, the sessions were marked by…
AUTUMN
AUTUMN I love autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for The beauty of it. ~Lee Maynard Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance ~Yoko Ono
CES Musings – September-October 2013
In This Issue: Autumn The Chronicle (September-October 2013) From Alice Loyd Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report Summary; Climate Panel’s Fifth Report Clarifies Humanity’s Choices; Climate Panel Cites Near Certainty on Warming; What 95% Certainty of Warming means to Scientists; Politics Is Poorly Suited to Address Global Warming; We Need Climate Change Risk Assessment; Anger…
PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO AGE WELL
PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO AGE WELL By Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (found among Brother Conrad’s possessions) When the signs of age begin to mark my body, and still more when they touch my mind; When the illness that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without or is…
CES Musings – July-August 2013
In This Issue: A Walk in the Woods of Piedmont North Carolina, by David Otto Walking to New Hope Creek: Landscape History And Ecological Change, by Norman Christensen, Ph.D. Intuition, Logic, Ego, Sustainability, by Steven Lambeth Become a Member
A Walk in the Woods of Piedmont North Carolina
Dave Otto worked as a neurotoxicologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is now a historian, naturalist, photographer and activist living in Carrboro, North Carolina. He is on the events and publishing committees of CES. Each of the events in the natural world is a poem, a painting, a drama, a celebration. -Thomas…
Walking to New Hope Creek: Landscape History and Ecological Change
Norman Christensen was the Founding Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University where he continues to work as a research professor. He is also past President of the Ecological Society of America. The text below was given as a speech at United Church of Chapel Hill in January 2013. I was…
WALKING TO NEW HOPE CREEK: LANDSCAPE HISTORY AND ECOLOGICAL CHANGE
WALKING TO NEW HOPE CREEK: LANDSCAPE HISTORY AND ECOLOGICAL CHANGE By Norman Christensen, Ph.D. Norman Christensen was the Founding Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University where he continues to work as a research professor. He is also past President of the Ecological Society of America. The text below was…
INTUITION, LOGIC, EGO, SUSTAINABILITY
INTUITION, LOGIC, EGO, SUSTAINABILITY By Steven Lambeth Steven Lambeth graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2013. He is beginning an internship at Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute near Carrboro, NC. This is an abridged edition of a paper he wrote in his final semester for an anthropology course. All living beings,…
CES Musings – June 2013
In This Issue: 2014 Colloquium and Conference on Thomas Berry’s Legacy and Promise Naming a New Geological Era: The Ecozoic Era, Its Meaning and Historical Antecedents The Chronicle Alaska to Africa: It’s Hot (June 20, 2013), by Jim Heck Moral Mondays in North Carolina, by Herman Greene Become a Member
NAMING A NEW GEOLOGICAL ERA: THE ECOZOIC ERA, ITS MEANING AND HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
NAMING A NEW GEOLOGICAL ERA: THE ECOZOIC ERA, ITS MEANING AND HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS By Allysyn Kiplinger* 1. Introduction The universe gropes its way forward in fits and starts, progressing by trial and error through a multiplicity of attempts and efforts, moving in many directions as it looks for a breakthrough to leap forward in evolution…
Jim Heck – Alaska to Africa: It’s Hot (June 20, 2013)
Jim Heck* – Alaska to Africa: It’s Hot (June 20, 2013) I’m on my way to Africa, to 0 degrees latitude. Right now in Arusha it’s 15C (59F). When Bill Zanetti went swimming yesterday in Prince William Sound, at 60N, the water temperature of the ocean was 68F! (20C) I flew over the North…
Herman Greene – Moral Mondays in North Carolina
Herman Greene – Moral Mondays in North Carolina For the last nine Mondays, the NAACP of North Carolina has led “Moral Monday” protests at the North Carolina legislative building. At first small, the rallies have grown to over 2,000 people per gathering. Further, over 600 people have been arrested for civil disobedience. I have been…
2014 COLLOQUIUM AND CONFERENCE ON THOMAS BERRY’S LEGACY AND PROMISE: MAY 28-30 AND MAY 30-JUNE 1, 2014
2014 COLLOQUIUM AND CONFERENCE ON THOMAS BERRY’S LEGACY AND PROMISE: MAY 28-30 AND MAY 30-JUNE 1, 2014 The year 2014 will be the 100th anniversary of Thomas Berry’s birth (November 9, 1914) and the fifth anniversary of his death (June 1, 2009). Thomas Berry’s work is significant because of the work it has inspired, but…
CES Musings – May 2013
In This Issue: Meeting of the Ethics and Spirituality Initiative for Sustainable Development, New York City, May 14, 2013, by Herman Greene Culture: Key to Sustainable Development, Hangzhou (China) International Congress, May 15- 17, 2013 The Hangzhou Declaration: Placing Culture at the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies Great Transition Stories for Becoming a Global Eco-Civilization,…
The Chronicle – May 2013
The Chronicle – May 2013 Our readers are invited to present their own reports of what they are paying attention to in the transition from economic-industrial ecological-cultural societies. Herman Greene – 2052: What Do We Ask of the Future? I hope for a future that will be good for me, my children and…
THE HANGZHOU DECLARATION: PLACING CULTURE AT THE HEART OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
THE HANGZHOU DECLARATION: PLACING CULTURE AT THE HEART OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICIES (Adopted at the World Cultural Forum in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, on May 17, 2013) We, the participants gathered in Hangzhou on the occasion of the International Congress “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” (15-17 May 2013), wish to express our gratitude…
CULTURE: KEY TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
CULTURE: KEY TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HANGZHOU (CHINA) INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS, MAY 15- 17, 2013 This conference was announced in this way: The International Congress “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” will be held in Hangzhou (China) from 15 May to 17 May 2013. This is the first International Congress specifically focusing on the linkages between culture…
BUILDING AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION
BUILDING AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION (Plenary address to World Cultural Forum, Hangzhou China, May 17, 2013) Roy Morrison We are in the midst of an epochal transition in human civilization. A new civilization, an ecological civilization, is emerging out of industrial business as usual. Our century, the 21st century, offers the opportunity for humanity to…
GREAT TRANSITION STORIES FOR BECOMING A GLOBAL ECO-CIVILIZATION
GREAT TRANSITION STORIES FOR BECOMING A GLOBAL ECO-CIVILIZATION Duane Elgin Humanity’s Journey to Great Transition In recent speeches, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has described our world as moving through a time of “Great Transition”: Throughout the ages, people have said that the world is in the midst of big change. But the…
MEETING OF THE ETHICS AND SPIRITUALITY INITIATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 14, 2013
MEETING OF THE ETHICS AND SPIRITUALITY INITIATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 14, 2013 Herman Greene Every once in a while, a meeting stands out as being of potentially great significance. Such was the meeting of the 20 people, listed below, who gathered in the Forum 21 Research Institute’s Green Building in…
The Lurking Inconsistency
The Lurking Inconsistency[1] By Herman Daly Ecological economics of course has roots in ecology and biology as well as in economics. Most of ecological economists’ and steady-state economists’ time has been well-spent correcting economics in the light of biology and ecology. And there is still more to do in this direction. However, we should…
We Cannot Act Effectively in the World Without an Adequate Understanding of the Nature of the World
We Cannot Act Effectively in the World Without an Adequate Understanding of the Nature of the World[1] By Herman Greene How we understand the nature of the world is our philosophy whether we use the term philosophy or not. We cannot act effectively in the world without an adequate understanding of the nature of…
Thoughts on Reading Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear
Thoughts on Reading Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear By Alice Loyd Those of us past denial about the planet’s condition and the future of the industrial economic model tend to be well-informed about the ecological, economic and social possibilities. We’ve read James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency (Grove/Atlantic 2005), Paul Gilding’s The Great Disruption…
The Chronicle – April 2013
The Chronicle Our readers are invited to present their own reports of what they are paying attention to in the transition from economic-industrial ecological-cultural societies. Herman Greene – The Sacred and Sustaining Values Alice Loyd’s article in this issue made me think of sustaining values that would take us through difficult periods of transition related…
CES Musings – April 2013
In This Issue: • Thoughts on Reading Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear, by Alice Loyd • We Cannot Act Effectively in the World Without an Adequate Understanding of the Nature of the World, by Herman Greene • The Lurking Inconsistency, by Herman Daly • T h e C h r o n i c l…
The Supreme Court and Equal Rights for Gay Couples
The Supreme Court and Equal Rights for Gay Couples By Del Morrill The United States Supreme Court in the current session will address whether to uphold the part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that prohibits same-sex, legally-married-under-state-law couples from obtaining federal benefits. Personally, I can’t see how that law, which, to me,…
Twelve Understandings Concerning the Ecozoic Era (a CES Foundational Statement)
The Nature of the Universe 1. The Unity of the universe. The universe as a whole is an interacting community of beings inseparably related in space and time. From its beginning, the universe has had a psychic-spiritual as well as a physical dimension. The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of…
Resilient Sustainability
Resilient Sustainability By Mike Bell In 1972, the book Limits to Growth[1] was published. It was the result of a research project commissioned by the Club of Rome and developed by a team of scientists, many of them from MIT. The prime author was Donella Meadows, and her husband, Dennis Meadows, was the Project…
Perspectives on Limits to Growth: Challenges to Building a Sustainable Planet
Perspectives on Limits to Growth: Challenges to Building a Sustainable Planet 1 March 2012 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. The Club of Rome and the Smithsonian Institution’s Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet hosted a one-day symposium on March 1, 2012 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launching of Limits to Growth, the first report to the…
The Chronicle – March 2013
The Chronicle (March 31, 2013) Our readers are invited to present their own reports of what they are paying attention to in the transition from economic-industrial ecological-cultural societies. Herman Greene – Are We Entering a Period of Uncontrolled Decline? Thomas Berry would often speak from the template of where are we, how did we…
CES Musings – March 2013
In This Issue: Twelve Understandings Concerning the Ecozoic Era (a CES Foundational Statement Resilient Sustainability The Supreme Court and Equal Rights for Gay Couples The Chronicle Become a Member
The Determining Features of the Ecozoic Era* (a CES Foundational Paper)
By Thomas Berry Earth is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. Earth exists and can survive only in its integral functioning. It cannot survive in fragments any more than any organism can survive in fragments. Yet, Earth is not a global sameness. It is a differentiated unity and must be sustained…
Meaning of “Ecozoic” (a CES Foundational Statement)
By Herman Greene Ecozoic is based on two Greek words—oikos meaning house, and zoikos meaning of animals (zoikos is based on the Greek word zoion meaning living being). More simply said, ecozoic is based on eco meaning house and zoic meaning life. Putting these together, ecozoic means “House of Life.” Ecozoic shares the same root…
CES Musings – February 2013
In this issue: The Chronicle Meaning of Ecozoic (a CES Foundational Statement) The Determining Features of the Ecozoic Era (a CES Foundational Statement) by Thomas Berry The Problem with Omnipotence by Alice Loyd The Universe Is Made of Stories Not of Atoms by Mike Bell
Bringing Climate Forward in Conversation
By Alice Loyd President Obama didn’t mention climate change during his run for re-election last fall, but he’s not the only one staying silent on the most important problem in human and non-human affairs. A small group has made the subject contentious in order to preserve its own financial interests. Politicians walk on tiptoe around…
The Chronicle – February 2013
The Chronicle Here we begin the “chronicle” portion of this online magazine, the chronicle of what we believe is a global transition from economic-industrial to ecological-cultural societies. In each issue of Musings authors will share their reflections on what they see going on in relation to this transition, both good and bad. We invite our…
Call for Ecozoic Societies (a Foundational Paper of CES)
Call for Ecozoic Societies (a Foundational Paper of CES) By Herman Greene* We need to bring into being Ecozoic Societies! The challenge is set forth in The Universe Story by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry: The future of Earth’s community rests in significant ways upon the decisions to be made by the humans who have…
CES Musings – January 2013
2013, twelve years after we began publishing, we begin anew with the next stage of CES Monthly Musings. We of CES have had to ask ourselves what we can contribute that will be beneficial when there are now so many other email newsletters and blogs covering all aspects of environmental awareness and sustainability. We have…
CES Musings – September 2012
IN THIS ISSUE VIDEO • Our Story in Two Minutes CES NEWS • Publication of The Ecozoic to Resume with Issue on “What Is Ecozoic?” PERSPECTIVES ON THE ECOZOIC • Glocal (Not Global) • Should Ecozoans Be Concerned About the Banking and Money System? • Saving the Post Office and Serving the Unbanked and Underbanked…
CES Musings – July 2012
IN THIS ISSUE VIDEO • Isn’t this What the Ecozoic Is All About? – Abundant Life! REVIEW OF MATTHEW FOX’S EVENT IN CHAPEL HILL AND DVDS • Eco-Spirituality: A Weekend with Matthew Fox (April 27-28, Chapel Hill, NC), reviewed by Marilyn McNamara • DVDs of Matthew Fox Weekend on Eco-Spirituality Are Available REPORTS ON RIO+20 •…
CES Musings – June 2012
IN THIS ISSUE • ¿Qué Pasó? CES Monthly (?) Musings • Rio+20: Third UN Earth Summit (June 20-22), Sustainability Dialogues (June 16-19), and People’s Summit (June 13-23, 2012) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • Is “Sustainable Development” an Oxymoron? • The Ethics and Spirituality Initiative for Sustainable Development in Connection with Rio+2 • Rio+20 and the Earth Charter • The Wisdom of Youth: Children’s Sustainable Development Goals
CES Musings September-December 2011
IN THIS ISSUE MUSE “CES 2012,” Herman Greene “Economic Problems, Cultural Solutions” D. Paul Schafer “Powered with Compassion: Joanna Macy and the Work that Reconnects,” Hope V. Horton REVIEW Ervin Lazlo and Allan Combs, eds., Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the Father of Environmentalism (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2011),…
CES Musings August 2011
IN THIS ISSUE MUSE CES’s New Logo and Motto Publications of the Center for Ecozoic Societies The Age of Austerity NEWS World’s First Ecozoic Cuisine Website Death of Lou Niznik – Chronicler of the Ecozoic Death of Peter Berg–Father of Bioregionalism Keystone XL Pipeline, Consequences, Mass Protests and Arrests Climate Change Causes Migrations Increase…
CES Musings – July 2011
New Name The Center for Ecozoic Studies is now the Center for Ecozoic Societies. The purpose of CES is to foster ecozoic societies; ecozoic studies is a means to that end. New Mission Statement CES’s mission is to advance new understandings and ways of living for an ecological age. We do this through publishing, education,…
CES Musings June 2011
IN THIS ISSUE: “July Issue of CES Monthly Musings: New Format, and Focus on Reframing CES” “Identity and Difference: On Being Hungarian, American, Christian and Buddhist,” by Les Muray “Mutually Enhancing Relations: Buck the film, and the Orangutan and the Hound,” by Herman Greene
CES Musings May 2011
In this issue: “The Ecozoic University: A Proposal,” by George Bortnyk
CES Musings March 2011
In this issue: “Zen Calmness” by Jaime Vergara “To Life: Reflections on the Vernal Equinox, March 20, 2011, 7:21 pm, EDT,” by Hope Horton “Last Year’s Leaves,” by Maria Termini
CES Musings February 2011
In this issue: “Definition of Ecological Democracy,” “The Theory of Building an Ecological Civilization: Postulates and Corollaries,” and “The Practice of Building an Ecological Civilization: Renewable Energy Super Grids, Ecological Consumption Taxation, and Global Catalytic Dynamics,” Each by Roy Morrison
CES Musings January 2011
In this issue: “Living in Accord with the Rules of Life: A Review of Ellen LaConte’s Life Rules,” By Herman Greene Ellen LaConte has worked freelancing articles, essays and stories for magazines including The Sun, East/West Journal, New Perspectives, Odyssey, Country Journal, Countryside, Convergence and Gaia: A Literary & Environmental Journal, and…
CES Musings December 2010
In this issue: “Environment and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations: Turning China from Unsustainable Modern to Ecological Civilization” by John B. Cobb, Jr.
CES Musings October & November 2010
In this issue: “Is Growth Possible? The High Cost of Growth in the Industrial Economy and Ecological Civilization in an Ecozoic Age” by Herman Greene
CES Musings September 2010
In this issue: “De-Linking Growth from Sustainability” by Herman Greene “Green Doesn’t Go Far Enough” by Tim Toben “De-Growth” by Herman Greene
CES Musings August 2010
In this issue: “Earth Lives,” by Mary Elizabeth Clark, SSJ; “Dawn” by Patricia Webb “The Story of the Hummingbird,” sent to CES by Youngmin Song
CES Musings July 2010
In this issue: “Our Way into the Future: Guides from The Great Work by Thomas Berry,” by Center for Ecozoic Societies
CES Musings April 2010
Climate justice as equality and as dignity are on a collision course. Equality calls for postponing action on climate until the conditions of equality of development are satisfied. Dignity demands action immediately unless the future of, for example, the Maldives is to be sacrificed. The important core is human rights—the right to have a decent and gracious life.
CES Musings June 2010
In this issue: “The Importance of Thomas Berry,” by Center for Ecozoic Societies “Celebrating Thomas on EAARTH,” by Angela Manno “The Most Succinct Presentation of Thomas Berry’s Ideas,” by Thomas Berry “Is It Ethical to Ride on Airplanes?,” by one of our readers
CES Musings May 2010
Scientists in the former Soviet Union called for an ecological civilization in 1984. The idea was taken up in China by Ye Qianji in 1987. The Chinese as a whole rejected a separation of man and nature in the sense that one could become whole without the other. This aspect of Chinese traditional culture had a great impact on Thomas Berry’s thinking. Robert Woolf prefers the term “culture,” the necessarily local way a group of people have learned to live in balance with each other and with their local environment.
CES Musings March 2010
We have entered in a completely new horizontal historical dimension, where the simultaneous transmission of facts, disrupts each order of succession between past and presence, while the bombardment of information causes confusion and disorientation in the thought. Nobility (ever set on excelling oneself) underlies civilization; each generation has to reproduce it afresh based ideas from the past.
CES Musings February 2010
“The Ecozoic” is a vision and a summons, a planetary embryo in gestation, the Bride’s Song. Earth marries air, air marries fire, and fire marries the sea.
CES Musings January 2010
Many human civilizations have come and gone. An ecological civilization will have the capacity to endure, being built on spiritual understandings of biological systems and organizing itself to follow natural patterns.
CES Musings December 2009
For many, the experience of Thomas’s thought was a sudden, powerful opening to a hitherto unsuspected major and life-altering reality. That reality might be expressed as the unity of a sacred Earth community in which humans are [but] the climactic part in a unified, divinely revelatory, evolutionary enterprise.
CES Musings November 2009
The universe is so vast it will answer any cosmological question we put to it. Newton asked: “What are the principles of motion and action?” Einstein asked: “What are the meanings of time and moving frames of reference?” It is now time to ask the universe a new cosmological question: “What is love?”
CES Musings October 2009
In this issue: Partial Correction—The Ecozoic #3 on “What is Ecozoic?” – Invitation for Submissions, by Herman Greene; Reflections on the Thomas Berry Award and Memorial Service: Earth Is Primary, the Human Derivative, by K. Lauren de Boer.
CES Musings September 2009
To bring into being the Ecozoic Era means building an ecological civilization, moving from a human-centered to an Earth-centered norm of reality and value. In this issue we call for ecozoic writing to be published in The Ecozoic #3; honor deceased ecozoic author Edward Goldsmith; and offer two poems by Therése Halscheid.
CES Musings August 2009
Herman Greene honors the passings of herbalist, teacher and botanical explorer Frank Cook, and British biologist and author Brian Goodwin; Jordan Vilchez gains understanding of the world through Thomas Berry’s writing, as Elizabeth Ayres does through kayaking.
CES Musings July 2009
Herman Greene reports on the awesome country of China, its environmental issues and its interest in ecological civilization
CES Musings June 2009
Thomas Berry passed away on June 1, 2009. He is being remembered in many places across North America and around the world. This issue records how students and friends of Thomas have gathered to honor the life of this remarkable teacher, writer, and sage.
CES Musings May 2009
In a visit with Thomas Berry near the end of his life, I was grounded by looking down at his familiar shoes. I had once washed mud from them, and at another time, in a moment of spiritual vertigo, I had studied his black shoes steady on the floor under the table.
CES Musings April 2009
A public protest on April 20, 2009 in Charlotte, NC, called attention to the Cliffside coal plant, a symbol of the suicidal momentum now driving collective human conduct. Cliffside is well-named in this respect, since burning coal is one of the most dangerous features of the pattern that has put us at the edge of the cliff. 44 people risked arrest through civil disobedience, stepping over an orange line drawn around Duke Energy headquarters. Attendee Alice Loyd and arrestee Lib Hutchby report their reasons for participation.
CES Musings March 2009
Christianity in its origins and in the foundational doctrine of the Trinity provides a starting point for an
ecological theology.
CES Musings February 2009
Invitation for the International Symposium on Ecological Civilization Institute of Hominology, Peking University
CES Musings January 2009
I’ve seen people return with slightly glazed eyes. I’d heard about them, those “huddled masses,” “those who live on less than a dollar a day,” “the bottom half.” Most people. But I hadn’t really seen them until I went to India. Now I understand in a new way that humans are part of nature.
CES Musings – December 2008
In this issue: “The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Lord of the Flies,” by Jaime Vergara.
CES Musings -November 2008
In this issue: “Living in a Culture Built on Exploitation with Restlessness and Mercy,” by Alice Loyd.
CES Musings – October 2008
In this issue: “Don’t Bail Out, BUILD OUT of our Present Economic Debacle”, by Richard Register.
CES Musings – September 2008
In this issue: “The Future of the Center for Ecozoic Studies”, by Herman Greene.
CES Musings – August 2008
In this Issue: “The Dangers of Stuff,” by Denise Cumbee Long.
CES Musings – July 2008
In this issue: “A Report on Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology Conference,” by Drew Dellinger; “Photo gallery of Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology Conference”; “Report on Awakening the Dreamer Symposium” by Nathan Rollins.
CES Musings – June 2008
In this issue: “Where We Are with the Cosmology Edition of The Ecozoic“; “A Time to Pay Tribute to Thomas Berry: The Thomas Berry Edition of The Ecozoic”; and “CES Membership Dues”, each by Herman Greene.
CES Musings – May 2008
In this issue: “May Day,” by Denise Long; “A Songaia May/Earth Day,” by Fred and Nancy Lanphear.
CES Musings – April 2008
In this issue: “Nathan Rollins’ Graduate Program in Environmental Social Science“ by Nathan Rollins, and “Report on Thomas Berry,” by Herman Greene
CES Musings – March 2008
In this issue: “Report on Thomas Berry’s Healing” by John Cock and Herman Greene and “Celebration of the Wisdom of Women,” by Wendy Burkland.
CES Musings – February 2008
In this issue: “Thomas Berry’s Hip Fracture” and “Building Community: Artists and Writers for the Ecozoic (AWE)” by Herman Greene.
CES Musings – January 2008
In this issue: “Comparing Thomas Berry’s “Twelve Principles of the Universe” written at the Riverdale Center (before 1994) with the “Twelve Principles of the Universe” in Evening Thoughts (2006),” by Herman Greene; “Dave Cook’s Book Events,” by Dave Cook and Joanna Haymore “CES in 2008” by Herman Greene.
CES Musings – December 2007
In this issue: Looking Back at 2007, by Herman Greene Here are some highlights of 2007 that come to mind. If you have personal highlights send them to us and we will pass them on: – The Ecozoic Reader on “How Do We Get There?” was published in August. Many thought this was our best ever. – The “Wisdom…
CES Musings – November 2007
In this issue: “The Imminent Demise of Civilization” by Kwok-Yin Chan The Imminent Demise of Civilization – Global warming, natural resource exploitation, pollution, and their impacts to China, the world and humanity
CES Musings – October 2007
In this issue: “China, Marxism and Ecology,” by Herman Greene.
CES Musings – September 2007
In this issue: Report on WOW Edition of the Reader; Call for Papers for The Ecozoic on Cosmology; and Artists and Writers for the Ecozoic (AWE).
CES Musings – August 2007
In this issue: Poor America by Herman Greene; Letter from Ken Rose on ‘Living the Promise of the Ecozoic’; Report on Current Reader and WOW Edition; and Announcement of September 15 CES Volunteer Meeting (News and Resources section will resume in the next Musings).
CES Musings – July 2007
This issue is devoted wholly to a statement concerning the next phase in the life of CES. This statement is being sent to all members of CES along with a copy of the new Ecozoic Reader on “How do we get there?”
CES Musings – June 2007
In this issue: “Living the Promise of the Ecozoic,” by Herman Greene; Invitation for Submissions to the first issue of The Ecozoic on “Cosmology,” Reports on CES and its Members, News and Resources, and Announcements.
CES Musings – May 2007
This month’s musings cover An Invitation for Submissions Musings; Reflections on the Ecozoic: “Why CES?” by Herman Greene; Reports on CES and its Members, News and Resources, and Announcements.
CES Musings – March 2007 (4)
Herman Greene – Further Thoughts on the April 21 Service Group Meeting of CES This issue of Musings will be a disappointment for the new members of the list, especially those who are not in the Raleigh-Durham Area of North Carolina. The next Musings (April 7 edition) will move back to the general topics this publication is…
CES Musings – March 2007 (3)
We welcome Jean Haines to our email list who writes, “As I see it, a huge part of the entire picture right now is the economic collapse that I believe is coming. I don’t think they can spin it too much more. If you have any interest, this is a site that I found through my reading…
CES Musings – March 2007 (2)
This week’s musings cover Ellen LaConte on the Great Transition, Thomas’ Earth Jurisprudence and CES, Marc Dreyfors on Thomas’ Earth Jurisprudence Principle 6, Herman Greene on Marc Dreyfors’ Thoughts on Principle 6 of Thomas’ Earth Jurisprudence, Richard Reiger in gratitude and praise for CES, and Herman Greene on an April Service Group meeting for CES and next steps.
CES Musings – March 2007 (1)
This week’s musings cover Herman Greene’s report on the March 1, 2007 CES Coordinating Council Meeting, Herman Greene’s analysis of how Thomas Berry’s “Principles of Earth Jurisprudence” in Evening Thoughts differs from his earlier version, and Heloise Lynn’s reflections on CES.
CES Musings – February 2007 (4)
Alice Loyd In his Feb. 3 Musing, Herman Greene wrote, “While not insignificant, oo-ing and aw-ing over pictures of galaxies taken from the Hubble telescope is not going to . . . bring us into the Ecozoic . . . If we are going to talk about cosmology, it’s more than awe and more than a…
CES Musings – February 2007 (3)
Herman Greene What is CES was kind of like a serious hobby with us, rather than an organization and we were a large group of spirit (ecozoic) friends? I hope I am not violating confidences in sharing musings from Tim Watson and Heloise Lynn about the articles I sent out on Earth Jurisprudence and Business.
CES Musings – February 2007 (2)
Here is a question I have that stems from my reading Thomas Berry’s (and Mary Evelyn Tucker’s) book Evening Thoughts. On. p. 45, Berry writes “Humans as a planetary presence are currently terminating the Cenozoic era of Earth history and entering the Ecozoic era. This geological shift is marked by the fact that the sixth extinction spasm is…
CES Musings – February 2007 (1)
Herman Greene I have three things on my mind this morning, all of which seem of some immediate importance to me. They are (i) relation of CES to Berry-ites and consciousness-ites, etc., (ii) the status of the Reader, contributions, and contacting CES members, and (iii) the events next weekend in Durham, NC, involving CES, Eno River Unitarian…
CES Musings – January 2007 (2)
Herman Greene For two years I met with an executive coach named Stan Goldman. I learned many things from him that may be applicable to CES today. One learning was that communication takes place in conversation. I invite an ongoing conversation about CES and on subjects related to our common concerns and work.
CES Musings – January 2007 (1)
Herman Greene This is intended to be a weekly email containing my thoughts and yours on CES. An accompanying email will provide weekly resources for the ecozoic.