Thank You for this. Although I have reservations about the "abundance" approach, a perspective su h as this provides a real antidote to despair which can have such a paralyzing effect. Another example of the bleak could be Ross Gelbspan's latest article, linked below:
Beyond the point of no return It's too late to stop climate change, argues Ross Gelbspan -- so what do we do now? http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/12/10/165845/92 Or perhaps the two articles taken as a pair point up the vital necessity of the sustainable way. I would like to read Lappe's longer article. I know Greenstar has a lot of magazines of this type: I'll check and see if they have Shambhala Sun. The link to the magazine which unfortunately does indeed NOT link the Lappe article is http://www.shambhalasun.com/ Jeanne -----Original Message----- From: Elan Shapiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 12:30 pm Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Upbeat Climate Change article by Francis Moore Lappe -----Original Message----- From: Elan Shapiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 12:30 pm Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Upbeat Climate Change article by Francis Moore Lappe Climate Change, Courage & Celebration by Frances Moore Lappé http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2117 (Note: her longer article on "Natural Abundance" n the Jan 2008 issue of Shamballa Sun magazine, ink unavailable, goes into more depth about her ritique of the Energy Descent mindset.) 'd been preparing for a speech by devouring iterature about the global environmental atastrophe-50 species disappearing daily and ice aps melting way faster than experts had redicted. The messages were tough: Hey, you Americans, the arty's over. Be more responsible and less reedy. Give up your toys and wake up to the isaster happening around us. "Power down" and top trying to get your status from acquisition. emember, you've had it easy compared to the rest f the world. Inside I'd felt tight, frightened, and guilty. Then I got a call from Helen Whybrow, host of the ad River Valley, Vermont, event at which I'd een preparing to speak. All she really wanted as reassurance that I understood the nature of he event. "Each fall our Center for Whole ommunities puts on a Harvest and Courage elebration," she explained. That was it. All it took were these few words, nd my body eased and heart lifted. In my mind's ye, I could already see hundreds of Vermonters among whom I will always count myself, having een one during the '90s) filling a huge barn to hare steaming bowls of soup, homemade bread, and ies. Together, we'd dig deep for answers to our lobal crises and take strength in our common earch. I've spent much of my life focused on learning hat, in regard to world hunger, fear and guilt on't truly motivate systemic change. Sometimes hey have the exact opposite effect. Telling eople "no" can intensify our craving, our rasping for even more before it's all gone. Yet many impassioned, well-intentioned nvironmentalists believe that now we must sound he shrillest possible alarm, for Americans are sleep-unaware of the now near certainty that nless we cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 050 or earlier, the consequences of climatic isruption will be catastrophic. But what if many of our messages are themselves rapped in mechanistic and moralistic thinking hat helped get us into this mess in the first lace? And what if, to make this historic turn eem possible-even compelling-we changed the way e talk and think about it? Instead of scolding people for being wasteful, we ncourage ourselves and others to shed a belief ystem that denies us power and happiness, and eeps us on a treadmill wasting the Earth's lenty. In that inefficient system, only 6 ercent of the material extracted and processed ctually ends up in products we use. Rather than power down" we can offer ways to "align with the arth's answers." After all, the sun provides aily doses of energy 15,000 times what we urrently use from fossil sources. The message ight also shift from "simplify" to enrich and iversify as we make new connections in our heads nd in our communities, as we learn new skills nd ways of being. The challenge becomes less bout restriction and more about trusting our ommon sense and curiosity. For its event, the Center for Whole Communities inks "harvest" with "courage" with celebration." For me, the three words capture it ll: We can harvest the abundance that is our ome if we have the courage to break away from he dominant culture of waste and destruction and o walk with our fear of the unknown and of being ifferent. These natural fears are the dark side f our beautifully social nature; but we can tame ur fear of separation as we make new connections n communities of common purpose-instead of ommon purchases. Then we can celebrate. For-who nows-we may just be able to make this historic urn. Frances Moore Lappé is a YES! contributing editor nd author of many books, most recently Getting a rip. -- lan Shapiro ustainable Tompkins Program Co-Chair ustainable Living Associates, Principal rog's Way B&B 11 Rachel Carson Way thaca, NY 14850 07-275-0249 "We must be the change we want to see in the world" Mohandas Gandhi ______________________________________________ SS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ttp://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins ree hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
