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Monday, May 05, 2003
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Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D. writes: The Internet is a self-organizing, somewhat chaotic (and it must be chaotic to be self-organizing) system, it has the power of life, while most corporations are modeled on old mechanical systems which are not alive. Remember that Kevin Kelly just called even computers, our newest mechanical systems, "stupid." I will argue that the Internet, on the other hand, is alive and thus has the attractive power of life to pull in the corporations and change the way we're doing business, not to mention the way we're doing education, the way we're doing health care, everything. Once we have this big human conversation, we will experience real democracy -- which we haven't had yet. Remember Gandhi, who, when asked what he thought of western democracy, said, "What a good idea; they should try it." We are now trying it out. We are trying it through the Internet. The problem I encounter most in trying to talk about living systems to people is our society's failure to understand living systems. Why is it that our culture, which is made up of people who are alive (so presumably we are a living system), knows so little about living systems? The answer has to do with the coincidence of the rise of science and the rise of the Industrial Revolution, such that our scientific models were all taken from the heady new mechanics. (05/05/03) | |
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Bill Keller writes: A dozen years after the Soviet Union crumbled, nuclear weapons have not receded to the margins of our interest, as many expected. On the contrary, in this second nuclear age, such weapons govern our foreign policy more than they have in decades. We have been slow to wake up to this new order, but now we are in it with a bang. We just fought a war that began as a drive to disarm one tyrant with nuclear ambitions and to demonstrate America's resolve to others. There are so many ways to think about the war we have just concluded in Iraq that it is easy to overlook this one: it is the most audacious attempt to change the rules of arms control in half a century. Nuclear proliferation is at the heart of our confrontations with North Korea and Iran, two states for whom the message of Iraq was intended. Proliferation is a persistent irritant in our relations with Russia and China, has contributed to America's official disappointment with the United Nations and is intimately intertwined with the consuming issue of our time, terrorism. (05/05/03) | |
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Ocean Arks International was founded in 1981 by John Todd and Nancy Jack Todd. Our goal was to create an ecological design science and practice adaptable to both rich and poor regions of the world. Our motto is, "To Restore the Lands, Protect the Seas and Inform the Earth's Stewards". Since 1982 our publication Annals of Earth has chronicled the work of OAI and of our colleagues around the world. Over the past decade we have begun to explore linkages between ecology and economics, looking to create new kinds of work and enterprise out of environmental protection and restoration initiatives. We work on the premise that it is possible to create a sustainable society in the early 21st century. Such a society would be embedded with an Earth stewardship ethic. We believe it is possible to reverse today's loss of soils, forests and water quality as well as to slow or even arrest the wide spread loss of species. To accomplish such a turnaround will require a fundamental rethinking of the ways in which societies sustain themselves. In the words of R. Buckminster Fuller, "It will require a design revolution." There is evidence from our work and the analyses of others that it is technologically and socially possible to reduce the negative human footprint on the Earth by as much as ninety percent. To accomplish this will require a new way of thinking and designing, coupled with a commitment to recycling, conservation and the use of renewable sources of energy. Our projects are based upon the principles of ecology. Ecological design principles can work within a contemporary economic paradigm. Further, we intend to provide strategies and design perspectives that can be applied broadly internationally and across a variety of social and economic sectors within societies. (05/05/03) | |
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plaNetwork -- A Conference will be held at the Golden Gate Club in the San Francisco, Presidio on June 6-8, 2003. Amid accelerating crises across the globe, new social and technological forces are converging in a unique moment of opportunity. The Internet has enabled citizens around the world to mobilize with unprecedented speed and precision. On February 15th, millions of people world wide spoke out for peace. For the first time we could see our vast numbers around the world. Why stop there? NETWORKING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE will focus on the ways in which information technologies and the Internet can continue to play a key role in accelerating progressive change and establishing a peaceful Planetary Civilization. (05/05/03) | |
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Who says interest in recycling and grassroots action is declining? The website of the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN) passed the million-per-month hit mark for the first time in March. GRRN promotes Zero Waste as the new vision of the grassroots recycling movement, and cradle-to-cradle producer responsibility as the key to healthy, waste-free communities. (05/05/03) | |
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The Telegraph UK -- Dr. Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, a mathematician who was hailed as one of the foremost geometricians of his generation and whose ideas inspired the drawings of M. C. Escher and influenced the architecture of R. Buckminster Fuller, died on March 31 in his home in Toronto. He was 96. Dr. Coxeter, whose childhood fascination with symmetry led to his career in mathematics, was driven by the idea that beautiful explanations exist for all puzzles. Several mathematical concepts have been named for him, including Coxeter groups. (05/05/03) | |
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Environmental News Network -- A coal miner's daughter fighting to end a destructive form of mining and two Aboriginal elders working to block the construction of a nuclear waste dump in Australia were among seven winners of a top environmental prize awarded Monday. Other winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize include a Nigerian activist who won protections for his country's last remaining rain forests and a Peruvian woman who led a campaign to clean up Peru's fishmeal industry. "This year's winners have looked beyond themselves, often risking freedom or safety, to inspire their communities for environmental protections," said Richard Goldman, the award's founder. The Goldman prize, awarded annually to grass-roots activists from six regions across the globe, is often termed the Nobel prize of the environmental movement. Each regional winner, or group, is awarded $125,000. (05/05/03) | |
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WIRED -- Automakers are rolling out technology that will help people who drive everywhere -- even the four blocks to the video store -- do a little less damage to the environment. On Wednesday, Ford and Toyota announced new fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles that also reduce the amount of harmful pollutants. At the 2003 New York International Automobile Show, hybrid car pioneer Toyota introduced an upgrade of the Prius hybrid while Ford introduced an SUV that even Greens may tolerate. Hybrid cars complement an internal combustion engine with an electric motor that is used at lower speeds and to help with acceleration. By turning off the engine when stopped and relying instead on a battery-powered motor, hybrid cars can substantially increase fuel-efficiency. (05/05/03) | |
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New York Times: Environment -- With a single order, the Bush administration removed more than 200 million acres from further wilderness study, including caribou stamping ground in Alaska, the red rock canyons and mesas of southern Utah, Case Mountain with its sequoia forests in California and a wall of rainbow-colored rock known as Vermillion Basin in Colorado. By declaring an end to wild land surveys, the administration ruled out protection of these areas as formal wilderness — which, by law, are supposed to be places people can visit but not stay. Now, these areas, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, could be opened to mining, drilling, logging or road-building. (05/05/03) | |
5:21:53 AM 
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© TrustMark
2003
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
6/3/2003; 5:44:43 AM.
This theme is based on the SoundWaves
(blue) Manila theme. |
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is the pattern that results when