Thank you for sharing that. It was very inspiring, as you said! I could really relate to the "Why is it largely ignored?" question: Earth Day Ithaca 2007: 40 volunteers 67 exhibitors 2000+ attendees 1 picture with caption in the Ithaca Journal.
Tony Del Plato <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Sigrid: Thanks for sending out this awesomely beautiful commentary by Hawken. Tony Del Plato On 5/10/07, Sigrid Kulkowitz wrote: > > /Published on Monday, May 7, 2007 by Orion Magazine > /*To Remake The World > Something Earth-Changing is Afoot Among Civil Society > > by Paul Hawken > > > *I have given nearly one thousand talks about the environment in the > past fifteen years, and after every speech a smaller crowd gathered to > talk, ask questions, and exchange business cards. The people offering > their cards were working on the most salient issues of our day: climate > change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, > human rights, and more. They were from the nonprofit and nongovernmental > world, also known as civil society. They looked after rivers and bays, > educated consumers about sustainable agriculture, retrofitted houses > with solar panels, lobbied state legislatures about pollution, fought > against corporate-weighted trade policies, worked to green inner cities, > or taught children about the environment. Quite simply, they were trying > to safeguard nature and ensure justice. > > After being on the road for a week or two, I would return with a couple > hundred cards stuffed into various pockets. I would lay them out on the > table in my kitchen, read the names, look at the logos, envisage the > missions, and marvel at what groups do on behalf of others. Later, I > would put them into drawers or paper bags, keepsakes of the journey. I > couldn't throw them away. > > Over the years the cards mounted into the thousands, and whenever I > glanced at the bags in my closet, I kept coming back to one question: > did anyone know how many groups there were? At first, this was a matter > of curiosity, but it slowly grew into a hunch that something larger was > afoot, a significant social movement that was eluding the radar of > mainstream culture. > > I began to count. I looked at government records for different countries > and, using various methods to approximate the number of environmental > and social justice groups from tax census data, I initially estimated > that there were thirty thousand environmental organizations strung > around the globe; when I added social justice and indigenous > organizations, the number exceeded one hundred thousand. I then > researched past social movements to see if there were any equal in scale > and scope, but I couldn't find anything. The more I probed, the more I > unearthed, and the numbers continued to climb. In trying to pick up a > stone, I found the exposed tip of a geological formation. I discovered > lists, indexes, and small databases specific to certain sectors or > geographic areas, but no set of data came close to describing the > movement's breadth. Extrapolating from the records being accessed, I > realized that the initial estimate of a hundred thousand organizations > was off by at least a factor of ten. I now believe there are over one > million organizations working toward ecological sustainability and > social justice. Maybe two. > > By conventional definition, this is not a movement. Movements have > leaders and ideologies. You /join/ movements, study tracts, and identify > yourself with a group. You read the biography of the founder(s) or > listen to them perorate on tape or in person. Movements have followers, > but this movement doesn't work that way. It is dispersed, inchoate, and > fiercely independent. There is no manifesto or doctrine, no authority to > check with. > > I sought a name for it, but there isn't one. > > Historically, social movements have arisen primarily because of > injustice, inequalities, and corruption. Those woes remain legion, but a > new condition exists that has no precedent: the planet has a > life-threatening disease that is marked by massive ecological > degradation and rapid climate change. It crossed my mind that perhaps I > was seeing something organic, if not biologic. Rather than a movement in > the conventional sense, is it a collective response to threat? Is it > splintered for reasons that are innate to its purpose? Or is it simply > disorganized? More questions followed. How does it function? How fast is > it growing? How is it connected? Why is it largely ignored? > > After spending years researching this phenomenon, including creating > with my colleagues a global database of these organizations, I have come > to these conclusions: this is the largest social movement in all of > history, no one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious > than what meets the eye. > > What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and > not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and > incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, > and beauty to this world. > > CLAYTON THOMAS-MÜLLER SPEAKS to a community gathering of the Cree nation > about waste sites on their native land in Northern Alberta, toxic lakes > so big you can see them from outer space. Shi Lihong, founder of Wild > China Films, makes documentaries with her husband on migrants displaced > by construction of large dams. Rosalina Tuyuc Velásquez, a member of the > Maya-Kaqchikel people, fights for full accountability for tens of > thousands of people killed by death squads in Guatemala. Rodrigo Baggio > retrieves discarded computers from New York, London, and Toronto and > installs them in the /favelas/ of Brazil, where he and his staff teach > computer skills to poor children. Biologist Janine Benyus speaks to > twelve hundred executives at a business forum in Queensland about > biologically inspired industrial development. Paul Sykes, a volunteer > for the National Audubon Society, completes his fifty-second Christmas > Bird Count in Little Creek, Virginia, joining fifty thousand other > people who tally 70 million birds on one day. Sumita Dasgupta leads > students, engineers, journalists, farmers, and Adivasis (tribal people) > on a ten-day trek through Gujarat exploring the rebirth of ancient > rainwater harvesting and catchment systems that bring life back to > drought-prone areas of India. Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, who exposed > links between the genocidal policies of former president Charles Taylor > and illegal logging in Liberia, now creates certified, sustainable > timber policies. > > These eight, who may never meet and know one another, are part of a > coalescence comprising hundreds of thousands of organizations with no > center, codified beliefs, or charismatic leader. The movement grows and > spreads in every city and country. Virtually every tribe, culture, > language, and religion is part of it, from Mongolians to Uzbeks to > Tamils. It is comprised of families in India, students in Australia, > farmers in France, the landless in Brazil, the /bananeras/ of Honduras, > the "poors" of Durban, villagers in Irian Jaya, indigenous tribes of > Bolivia, and housewives in Japan. Its leaders are farmers, zoologists, > shoemakers, and poets. > > The movement can't be divided because it is atomizedsmall pieces > loosely joined. It forms, gathers, and dissipates quickly. Many inside > and out dismiss it as powerless, but it has been known to bring down > governments, companies, and leaders through witnessing, informing, and > massing. > > The movement has three basic roots: the environmental and social justice > movements, and indigenous cultures' resistance to globalizationall of > which are intertwining. It arises spontaneously from different economic > sectors, cultures, regions, and cohorts, resulting in a global, > classless, diverse, and embedded movement, spreading worldwide without > exception. In a world grown too complex for constrictive ideologies, the > very word movement may be too small, for it is the largest coming > together of citizens in history. > > There are research institutes, community development agencies, village- > and citizen-based organizations, corporations, networks, faith-based > groups, trusts, and foundations. They defend against corrupt politics > and climate change, corporate predation and the death of the oceans, > governmental indifference and pandemic poverty, industrial forestry and > farming, depletion of soil and water. > > Describing the breadth of the movement is like trying to hold the ocean > in your hand. It is that large. When a part rises above the waterline, > the iceberg beneath usually remains unseen. When Wangari Maathai won the > Nobel Peace Prize, the wire service stories didn't mention the network > of six thousand different women's groups in Africa planting trees. When > we hear about a chemical spill in a river, it is never mentioned that > more than four thousand organizations in North America have adopted a > river, creek, or stream. We read that organic agriculture is the > fastest-growing sector of farming in America, Japan, Mexico, and Europe, > but no connection is made to the more than three thousand organizations > that educate farmers, customers, and legislators about sustainable > agriculture. > > This is the first time in history that a large social movement is not > bound together by an "ism." What binds it together is ideas, not > ideologies. This unnamed movement's big contribution is the absence of > one big idea; in its stead it offers thousands of practical and useful > ideas. In place of isms are processes, concerns, and compassion. The > movement demonstrates a pliable, resonant, and generous side of > humanity. > > And it is impossible to pin down. Generalities are largely inaccurate. > It is nonviolent, and grassroots; it has no bombs, armies, or > helicopters. A charismatic male vertebrate is not in charge. The > movement does not agree on everything nor will it ever, because that > would be an ideology. But it shares a basic set of fundamental > understandings about the Earth, how it functions, and the necessity of > fairness and equity for all people partaking of the planet's life-giving > systems. > > The promise of this unnamed movement is to offer solutions to what > appear to be insoluble dilemmas: poverty, global climate change, > terrorism, ecological degradation, polarization of income, loss of > culture. It is not burdened with a syndrome of trying to save the world; > it is trying to remake the world. > > THERE IS FIERCENESS HERE. There is no other explanation for the raw > courage and heart seen over and again in the people who march, speak, > create, resist, and build. It is the fierceness of what it means to know > we are human and want to survive. > > This movement is relentless and unafraid. It cannot be mollified, > pacified, or suppressed. There can be no Berlin Wall moment, no > treaty-signing, no morning to awaken when the superpowers agree to stand > down. The movement will continue to take myriad forms. It will not rest. > There will be no Marx, Alexander, or Kennedy. No book can explain it, no > person can represent it, no words can encompass it, because the movement > is the breathing, sentient testament of the living world. > > And I believe it will prevail. I don't mean defeat, conquer, or cause > harm to someone else. And I don't tender the claim in an oracular sense. > I mean the thinking that informs the movement's goalto create a just > society conducive to life on Earthwill reign. It will soon suffuse and > permeate most institutions. But before then, it will change a sufficient > number of people so as to begin the reversal of centuries of frenzied > self-destruction. > > Inspiration is not garnered from litanies of what is flawed; it resides > in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, recover, > reimagine, and reconsider. Healing the wounds of the Earth and its > people does not require saintliness or a political party. It is not a > liberal or conservative activity. It is a sacred act. > /Paul Hawken is an entrepreneur and social activist living in > California. His article in this issue is adapted from Blessed Unrest, to > be published by Viking Press and used by permission. > > > /(c) 2007 Orion Magazine > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- I am against using death as a punishment. I am also against using it as a reward. - Stanislaw J. Lec _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org --------------------------------- Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
