- Closure
- Closure
Ceremonies: honouring, burying, letting go
- Rob
Hopkins
(leader of
Transition Towns Movement): "I feel
enormously grateful to have lived through the Age of Oil. Now is the
time to honour what it has brought us while we move forward. Loving and
leaving the Age of Oil."
- The Stories We Tell
Matter
- Rob Hopkins: "The stories we tell ourselves are
vital."
- World
Storytelling Day 21st March
- Awakening the Dreamer Symposiums
- The National Museum of Australia has launched Changing Places
to generate discussions about the cultural and
emotional dimensions of
climate change at the local and national level. You are invited to
upload contemporary or historic photos that show how anthropogenic
climate change is changing the places we know and love. How do you feel
about these changes?
- The energy available in 1 litre of petrol
is
equivalent to
the
work
that 132 strong men can do working for an hour.
- How are
we
going to
make it
into the future?
- a just and sustainable path
- in the midst of a daunting ecological crisis
- in the midst of a mass extinction crisis spasm faster than
when
the comet impacted the Earth and killed the dinosaurs 65milion years ago
- when we are altering the chemical composition of the oceans,
atmosphere and soil
- when we are taking chainsaws to the web of life
- a crisis so deep that it can have no other origin than our
fundamental world view, our understanding of who we are and what our
place in the Earth and the universe is
- The story of
creation, of
where
we come from and our place in the universe
- The universe was created 13.7 billion years ago. There was light.
For a long time it was all made of hydrogen, then in a cosmological
instant it transformed into 100 billion galaxies.
- In the centres of the stars in the galaxies, the hydrogen was
transformed into all the other elements that now make up the universe:
iron, nickel, cadmium, carbon, oxygen, gold, the whole periodic table.
- The stars grew old and went into supernovas, exploding and
spreading their contents across the universe. From this material, a
second generation of stars formed, and our solar system took shape.
- 5 billion years ago, the Earth formed as a molten orb, and for 1
billion years it was still a molten orb. From this molten lava, water,
oxygen and life emerged and became magnificently diverse, creating new
forms, new structures.
- The Earth that was once molten lava now sings opera. Every being
is sacred, worthy of reverence and respect.
- We are deeply connected to the whole universe. Our bodies are
made of star-dust. The universe is continuing to create and unfold.
- We are not isolated. Who we are really matters. Even the smallest
things are profound.
- While the universe is vast, there is also vastness at the nano
level. Of the trillions of cells in the human body, most aren't even
human! We are a vast community of beings.
- We are part of the tide of history. Our destiny is to make a
contribution through where our passion intersects with the needs of the
Earth. Every culture has 'the great work' to do. In Mediaeval
times it was to build cathedrals. In our times it is to create a human
civilization that fits into the self-sustaining systems of the Earth
floating through the universe.
- Everything that is on the Earth is the Earth. The Earth gave rise
to the first cell. The Earth sees, flies, writes poetry, dreams,
thinks, looks back through telescopes to the origins of the universe.
- We live subject to the laws of the universe, such as gravity and
entropy.
- There is immense creative invigorative potential.
- Poems
-
Hieroglyphic stairway
drew dellinger
©2003
it’s
3:23 in
the
morning
and I’m
awake
because
my
great great
grandchildren
won’t
let me
sleep
my great
great
grandchildren
ask me
in
dreams
what did
you
do while
the planet was plundered?
what did
you
do when
the earth was unraveling?
surely
you
did
something
when the
seasons
started failing?
as the
mammals,
reptiles, and birds were all dying?
did
you fill
the streets with protest
when
democracy was
stolen?
what did
you
do
once you
knew?
I’m
riding
home on the
Colma train
I’ve got
the
voice of
the milky way in my dreams
I have
teams
of
scientists
feeding
me
data daily
and
pleading
I
immediately
turn it
into
poetry
I want
just
this
consciousness reached
by
people in
range of
secret frequencies
contained
in
my speech
I am the
desirous
earth
equidistant
to the
underworld
and the
flesh of the
stars
I am
everything
already lost
the
moment
the
universe turns transparent
and all
the
light
shoots through the cosmos
I use
words
to
instigate silence
I’m a
hieroglyphic
stairway
in a
buried
Mayan city
suddenly
exposed by a
hurricane
a
satellite
circling
earth
finding
dinosaur bones
in the
Gobi
desert
I am
telescopes that
see back in time
I am the
precession of
the equinoxes,
the
magnetism of the
spiraling sea
I’m
riding
home on the
Colma train
with the
voice of the
milky way in my dreams
I am
myths
where
violets blossom from blood
like
dying
and rising
gods
I’m the
boundary of
time
soul
encountering soul
and
tongues
of fire
it’s
3:23 in
the
morning
and I
can’t
sleep
because
my
great great
grandchildren
ask me
in
dreams
what did
you
do while
the earth was unraveling?
I want
just
this
consciousness reached
by
people in
range of
secret frequencies
contained
in
my speech
drew
dellinger
drew@poetsforglobaljustice.org
I
Will Be a Good Steward of the Earth
With
will my mouth is open here to speak
My pen
is poised to carve each word with care
Uncurb!
my tongue to share what must be said
Breathe
forth! my soul, my mind and all my heart
My
courage! bear this truth for all to know.
Stop! Oh
passers-by. Yes you! Take heed!
Bring
your inmost selves to matters here
Grasp
with your ears and hearts a crucial truth
Think!
your minds. Confront and now decide!
Commit
with these few words to change the world:
“I
believe the world needs me to change.
I
will live simply.
I
will walk lightly on the Earth.
I
will be a gardener tending carefully.
I
will be a good steward of the Earth.”
alcemena12
-
What about the bees?
I ate my Weetbix while I read the threats
Of "Seven Terrors of the World" right now
The list was grim and awful to peruse
And full of stats that made me sigh alas!
But where's the bees?! The bees aren't on the list!
I check and sure enough No Bees are there
Just Climate Change and drought and flood and storm
Our food in threat, our water all but gone
Disease pandemic epidemic plagues
Wars big and little, terror, waste & mines
Even an asteroid tossed in to cheer us up
Organized crime on trillions' spending sprees
Our freedom, rights, democracy fast gone
But, where's the bees I ask? The bees!! Our bees!
Our buzzy little pollen spreading friends.
If bees are gone it all else matters nought.
- alcemena12
We're All in This Together
Greetings! Fellow canaries
Yellow in this mine
How go you this day?
Why do you sing not?
The temperature is rising
Towards boiling.
Oh, you frogs
How cook you today?
The thumbscrews
Are tightening?
Oh, tortured prisoners
Do you plead yet?
Oh, fattened calves
In the slaughter paddock
Are your bellows panic
Before your butchering?
You children of Pompei
Do you hear the volcano rumble
As you go about
Your ordinary business?
Shall we dance
In this Titanic ballroom
One more glorious waltz?
There are no lifeboats.
- alcemena12
Greed
Have another plasma TV
How about a couch or three?
Greed
Your footprint's bigger than you'll ever walk
Consuming the Earth
Consuming the Earth
How big your wheels are!
McMansions for all
Buy buy bye
Bye to the Earth
Goodbye to the Earth
Must have must do
Must fly
All of the Earth
Taking all of the Earth
From all of the Earth.
alcemena12
- What did we
use
energy
for today?
- Today we used
oil
to:
- Jokes
"That's the
thing about Mother Nature, she really
doesn't care what
economic bracket you're in."
—
Whoopi Goldberg
"If it weren't for electricity, we'd all be watching television by
candlelight."
— George Gobel
"As we head to war with Iraq,
President Bush wants
to make one thing clear: This war is not about oil. It's about
gasoline."
— Jay Leno
"The only two herbicides we
recommend are
cultivation and mulching."
— Organic Gardening
Magazine
"I think God's going to come
down
and pull
civilization over for speeding."
— Steven Wright
"Time is that quality of nature
which keeps events
from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working."
— Anonymous
"Man is a clever animal who
behaves like an
imbecile."
— Albert Schweitzer
"For 200 years we've been
conquering nature. Now
we're beating it to death."
— Tom McMillan
"Why should I care about future
generations? What
have they ever done for me?"
— Groucho Marx
"According to a survey in this
week's Time
magazine, 85% of Americans think global warming is happening. The other
15% work for the White House."
— Jay Leno
"President
Bush has a plan [to fight global warming]. He says that if we need to,
we can lower the temperature dramatically just by switching from
Fahrenheit to Celsius."
— Jimmy Kimmel
"Some folks believe that global
warming doesn't
exist and that the environment doesn't need any help. I tend not to
listen to them."
— Robert Wagner
"I hate the outdoors. To me the
outdoors is where
the car is."
— Will Durst
"Geography is just physics
slowed
down, with a
couple of trees stuck in it.
— Terry Pratchett,
The
Last Continent
"The magnificence of mountains,
the serenity of
nature—nothing is safe from the idiot marks of man's passing."
— Bill Vaughan
"It's hard for the modern
generation to understand
Thoreau, who lived beside a pond but didn't own water skis or a
snorkel."
— Loudon Wainwright
"Don't get me wrong: I love
nuclear energy! It's
just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that
there's an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles
from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8
minutes. And it's wireless!"
— William McDonough,
Fortune Brainstorm
Conference, 2006
"We don't want to start a
nuclear
war unless we
really have to, now do we Jack?"
— Group Capt. Mandrake
to Col. Jack
Ripper in the movie
Dr. Strangelove
– or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
"Mr.
President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do
say, no more than 10-20 million [US citizens] killed. Tops. Depending
on the breaks."
— General Buck Turgidson (Peter
Sellers)
to Col. Jack Ripper, commenting on the prospects for a pre-emptive
strike on the USSR, in
Dr. Strangelove
– or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
"If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all
you
are going to do is make the rubble bounce."
— Winston Churchill
"The
release of atom power has changed everything except our way of
thinking... If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
— Albert Einstein
"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth
when
it is clearly Ocean."
— Arthur C. Clarke
"Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate;
now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?"
— Will Rogers
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being
run
by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean
it."
— Mark Twain
"I cannot say that I don't disagree with you."
— Groucho Marx
"Should we force science down the throats of
those
that have no taste for it? Is it our duty to drag them kicking and
screaming into the twenty-first century? I am afraid that it is."
— George Porter, British chemist
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
— Walt Kelly (from "Pogo")
"We have found the sources of hazardous waste
and
they are us."
— US EPA, from "Everybody's Problem:
Hazardous Waste"
"Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds,
there
is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped."
— Sam Levinson
"USA Today has come out with a new
survey—apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the
population."
— David Letterman
"The sum of intelligence on the planet is a
constant; the population is growing."
— Cole's axiom
"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out
the
trees, then names the streets after them."
— Bill Vaughan
"The greenest house is the one that never gets
built."
— Whit Faulconer
"Most cars on our roads have only one
occupant,
usually the driver."
— Carol Malia, BBC Anchorwoman
"Sometimes
when I am driving I get so angry at inconsiderate drivers that I want
to scream at them. But then I remember how insignificant that is, and I
thank God that I have a car and my health and gas. That was phrased
wrong—normally you wouldn't say, thank God I have gas."
— Ellen DeGeneres, My Point and I
Do
Have One
"Everywhere is within walking distance if
you have
the time."
— Steven Wright
Why are blondes our best
chance for saving the Earth from Climate Change?
1.Blondes have a big multiplier effect on consumption of stuff.
Stop one and you're halfway there.
2.Once blondes understand the problem the climate change deniers
will follow
3.Blondes' bikinis consume less stuff
4.One blonde off bling saves the need for one coal fired power
station.
5.One blonde on the arm of one climate change scientist
raises the status of the science enormously
6.Blondes are only dumb. It's the climate change deniers who are
really dangerous.
7.Blondes know the meaning of 'hot'!
8.Anything that threatens a blonde's skiing holidays is
important.
Why are surfies our best chance for
saving the Earth from Climate
Change?
1.You can't surf all day and buy lots of stuff
2.Surfies are tree lovers, they need palm trees to relax under.
3.Tall buildings sticking out of the surf get in the way of a
good wave.
4.Surfies are experts in wave-power energy.
5.How many coal fired power stations does it take to surf all
year?
Why is going to work dangerous for the
climate?
1.Work takes a lot more coal fired power stations.
3. Sitting in traffic jams on the way to work generates a lot of CO2.
4. It takes a lot of coal and beef exports to generate money to
pay people to work.
Why are Africans our best
chance for
saving the Earth from Climate
Change?
1. Human life started in Africa, and after all this time they still
have by far the lowest Carbon Footprint.
2. They've perfected the art of living without stuff
How many politicians does it take to
solve Climate Change?
The theory that politicians solve anything at all is yet to be proven.
How many bureaucrats does it take to
solve Climate Change?
None. Without bureaucrats carbon levels in the atmosphere would reduce
sharply.
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