EarthAction

The Story of Stuff

Check out The Story of Stuff, a simple, straightforward illustration of the problems of our present consumption patterns.

Annie Leonard has also created The Story of Cap & Trade, which explains exactly what is wrong with Cap & Trade policies.

The Elders Project

In 2009 EarthAction became aware of a very important and time sensitive project regarding the transmission of sacred knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, and we became the sponsor of this project.

Norberto Torres (Mamo Sewkukuy), an Arhuaco elder about 90 years old, is recognized throughout the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta as "The Spiritual Geographer" for the manner in which he has dedicated his life to honoring his legacy.  It is said that he was “dreamed” or thought into existence by those living three generations prior to his birth. He has journeyed almost all of the Sierra Nevada by foot and knows it like the palm of his hand. Within his area of expertise, Mamo Sewkukuy has no equal and unfortunately no heir, due to the tragic death of his son whom he was training to carry on his legacy.

EarthAction 2009 Annual Report

EarthAction has released its annual report for the year 2009. Read it by clicking here.

Direct, Passionate, Startling, Graceful

The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009:

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful." No pressure there. 

Let's begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation. but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. 

".the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades." 

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air, don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken.

Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food-but all that is changing. 

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it

says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn't afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done. 

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums. 

"YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING." 

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way. 

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true.

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world. 

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots.

Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown - Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood - and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history. 

"Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich." 

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich. 

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable.

We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven." 

"We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells." 

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television. 

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. 

The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful.

This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it. 

.... 

Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.

Social Justice Map

One of EarthAction's supporters over the years has been ODTmaps, the alternative world map publisher responsible distributing the Peters Map in North America. The Peters Equal Area Map is the social justice map representing each country at its true size and proportion. The new 11"x17" desktop map comes with an explanation printed on the back of the color map. ODT is offering a two-for-one special on all desktop Peters Maps until December 5, 2009. And if you tell them you read about the map on EarthAction's web site, they will include a free set of map postcards with your order!

Order on-line at www.ODTmaps.com.

Chair of UN’s Official Climate Science Panel Endorses 350 ppm Target

The number 350--as in parts per million—is the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's official climate science panel, just personally endorsed the 350 ppm target.

350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand.

If an international grassroots movement holds our leaders accountable to the latest climate science, we can start the global transformation we so desperately need. To learn more visit: 350.org

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God

From the Ruth Group blog: "After several years of trying to bring about change from the inside, Jimmy Carter has announced that he’s severing his ties with the Southern Baptist church over its treatment of women. As I post this news, I find myself thinking of what Greenpeace activitists had to say recently, in a totally different context: 'America Honors Leaders, not Politicians.' Jimmy Carter used to be a politician. Since leaving office, he’s become a leader. At our present moment, we can only hope that leaving office is not a prerequisite for becoming a leader." Read more.

TAKE ACTION: Write to Jimmy Carter and thank him for his leadership! Here is his address:

James E. Carter, Jr.
Carter Center
453 Freedom Parkway NE
Atlanta, GA 30307

US Joins International Renewable Energy Agency

The United States today joined 130 other countries as members of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in an Assembly meeting held here in the seaside resort of Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

Ambassador Reno Harnish, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment and Science, signed for the U.S. government. He said: “The United States is extremely pleased to join IRENA. President Obama is committed to renewable energy to mitigate climate change, ensure energy security, create green jobs and lead a green recovery. Joining IRENA allows us to cooperate with 130 other nations to speed market adoption of renewable energy around the world.”

Read more of the ACORE Press Release quoted above.

No More Bull: Take a Position on the Economy!

Sign the CASSE position on economic growth.  Join David Suzuki, Chris Matthews, Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, and more than 3,000 others who support the transition to a better economy.

Growth, growth, growth.  It’s all economists ever talk about.  But a bigger economy isn’t necessarily a better one.  Our economy has grown for decades, and now we face the prospect of losing our jobs and our stable climate.  It’s time to show support for a new economic paradigm – one that meets the needs of all citizens and maintains a healthy planet.  A steady state economy is a true green economy that aims to stabilize population, consumption, and overall use of energy and materials.  It’s about development instead of growth and quality instead of quantity.

Take a position and help jumpstart the transition to a better economy!  Visit the CASSE website for more information, including other actions you can take to support a sustainable economy.

Want to volunteer in Kenya or Tanzania this summer?

Go with the World Computer Exchange and show community leaders and teachers how to use the Internet, make websites, and more! Both trips go from July 10-July 26. Learn more about volunteering in Tanzania or Kenya.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user eir@si, shared under a Creative Commons license.)