Articles from the bimonthly e-zine
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
It is a reality of relationships today that what used to be face-to-face connections have been replaced by “electronic, digital, wired, virtual, web, Internet, Net, online” links.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….
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…
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…
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, 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…
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…
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…
By Peggy Whalen-Levitt 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…
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,…
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…
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…