How Can We Use This Space to Collaborate?

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Permalink Reply by Garthh on February 10, 2008 at 9:13pm

You have put your finger on why I'm here! Everyday the ideas that fuel groups like Bioneers, become less like voices in the wilderness and more like profits of the future. Being part of the solution, is better than opting out. Opting out probably has more negative impacts. Making industrial cities better places for everyone, especially those that have less choices, is in capitolistic terms a value added product.

Issue fatigue is very real, even diversions seem to loop back around to more serious things & keeps us from the centering so vital to our mental health.
The road to a better future is paved with positive incremental change, which unfortunatly never as fast or complete as any of us would like.

But what do I know, I'm just a Guy with a wrench


More later
Garth

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Permalink Reply by Nurture Girl on February 10, 2008 at 10:36pm

Thanks for your post Kimberley..and your great reply Garth. Most of the questions resonate strongly with me too. I just read an interesting article in What is Enlightenment (which I picked up from someone--not expecting to like it). It talked about worldchanging and cradle to cradle and revealed a split I had not been conscious of: those who think our solution is to return to a more primitive way of living with the land as a way of being more ecological versus those who think our solution lies in being more creative and leveraging the development we have made to innovate solutions that enable us to be more ecological and thrivable. Hmmm, I don't know what to think about either path! Both feel full of pitfalls and also opportunity to me. Does going off the grid build community and enable change--or is it just an example that it is possible to live differently? I don't know, but I feel a whole sweep of questions coming to the surface, and I would love to have space to work on my own solutions with others in open appreciation of differences of opinion and respect that we each seek answers for our own and for a greater thriving. So I really appreciate the focus on asking questions--together. Thank you!

Jean

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Permalink Reply by Garthh on February 11, 2008 at 12:27am

I think it's going to take many different little solutions, which together will move us towards the more positive ways of being. I'm part of a group out of Bangalore, India. We are trying to bring the open source concept to Sustainable development. This may not be possible for the engineering projects, We are trying to develop. No idea see how far we can get. There are several billion people trying to emulate the western lifestyle. I doubt that there are many of us who would be able to forsake all of that lifestyle. Increasing efficency and reducing comsumption is inevitable. Innovation will have to be more than just technology, social organizations must evolve to reflect the massive changes brought about by the IT revolution.
We all may just be part of these changes. The comment you make to your blog, favorite forum, school board, planning commission, senator or president could change the course of history.
Most of the time it will just be an exercise in futility. That one time you are in the right place at the right time may just make all the difference!

Garth

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Permalink Reply by Nurture Girl on February 11, 2008 at 9:51am

Garth! love your post! And I hope you are right. I have been feeling lately like my little efforts won't make enough impact--we need to change the industrial systems. But I have been working, like you, on bringing open source concepts to a broader audience. My colleague, Nathan Cryder, at Global Gain built on an idea of ours to make adaptive blueprints of successful social entrepreneurial ventures. Ashoka India had him run a workshop for them. They loved it! And they are having him back for more. We are now working to get the process of making blueprints connected to a space for storing, tracking, and communicating around them--a database. There already exists a community solutions database available openly to the world at Catalytic Communities. So I am helping to bridge that connection. We all espouse open source values and want to take advantage of the principles of the nonprofit and social entrepreneurial sectors to build an open database for sharing proven solutions which can be adapted to the specific cultural and geographic conditions of other areas globally.

I would love to learn more about your effort! Can you post more here or message me?

Gratefully,
Jean

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Permalink Reply by Garthh on February 11, 2008 at 10:15am

I've posted an invitation in the Visionary Stewardship section
http://connect.bioneers.org/xn/detail/1233360:Comment:21283
& attached
I will contact some of the other resources you've mentioned.
I too am trying to be a bridge between the technical and social people. Our project will probably have to be a mix of profit & non-profit given the higher costs involved in engineering & implementing the systems we are proposing. One of the ways to get the powers that be to buy in, is to speak their languge & show them an effort to pay the bills. The higher price of oil is an opportunity to put into practice many good ideas that have been floating around for years!
Feel free to contact me @ AAPIX@Comcast.net

Attachments:

• Invite_letter8.doc, 155 KB

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Permalink Reply by Guy Perrault on February 13, 2008 at 9:28am

Indeed Garthh, you hit it dead on with "One of the ways to get the powers that be to buy in, is to speak their languge & show them an effort to pay the bills. "
Tom Friedman has wrote extensively about this. We in North America have endless economic opportunities if we begin to implement the many available technologies in energy and sustainable agriculture.
"Speaking their language" means showing them the money making possibilities. Otherwise, we are all tree hugging hippies in their eyes.
The investor's path of least resistance has been to invest in oil companies. For the last seven years, given that the President and his major cabinet members and advisors come from the energy sector, it has been a record breaking run for the oil giants, the true Welfare Queens of our economy. But with higher oil prices, a change of administration and the reality that China and India's demand for energy will explode in the next decade there will be opportunites for change. In fact if we don't change, we're truly in trouble.
The carrot gets waved in front of venture capitalists, other investors and industrialists. Show them the money!
The stick goes to the politicians, who are always docile and afraid to implement real change but could potentially face dire political consequences for their inaction.
There's opportunity here!

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Permalink Reply by Garthh on February 13, 2008 at 1:24pm

I'm trying hard to speak in the least inflamatory terms possible when dealing with the various good ol boys I have to deal with. We all have to have build trust & productive relationships with various groups & individuals. Start slowly, find the common ground & build on it!
Positive Incremental Change
No need to poke em with a pointy stick right off.
Everyone wants to be led by the hand, but not too forcefully.
The worst way to deal with your boss is to demand (s)he do their job & god[insert higher power of your choice]Forbid make them get out from behind their desk! Better to figure out how to do as much of their jobs for them as possible.
Build up a bit of political capitol, before you flip the script. I'm talking about building or doing things & not so much opposing or preventing things. I'm more concerned with increasing efficency & bringing sustainability to existing systems. Doing what I can with what I have.

To John:
I hope to do some of the face to face stuff, there is no substitute for building long term friendships/support systems.

More later
Garth

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Permalink Reply by John Coate on February 13, 2008 at 12:07pm

One way to help build up the strength of the Bioneers site as a place for collaboration could be for people who live in the same geographical areas to get together for in-person gatherings. There are lots of regional Bioneers events concurrent to the main one in Marin. Maybe people who attended some of those events might like to get some face time with each other, even if it's just to sort of party, hang out or get better acquainted.

In my experience, such gatherings really help the online social energy.

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Permalink Reply by Kim Ridley on February 14, 2008 at 5:45am

Wow, what a rich conversation!

Garthh, your description of Positive Incremental Change is wonderful.

One of the most powerful examples of this to me is Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathaai of Kenya's Greenbelt Movement. She has led women to plant more than 30 million trees turn turn back the desert, stop erosion, self-organize and now has a goal of planting a billion trees. (This is a gross oversimplification of her incredible story, which she tells in her autobiography Unbowed).

I love thinking about Wangari and that first handful of women planting their first few saplings 30 years ago in what must have been a very desolate patch of ground.

When the writer Terry Tempest Williams asked Wangari what she'd learned in 20 years, Wangari replied: "Patience."

You never know what will take root or not, but it seems to me that even the most sweeping change begins with small acts committed in community.

Which brings me to a couple of questions: how do we keep sight of the potential of small actions and incremental change in such urgent times? And how do we sustain our commitment to change, however we choose to engage in it?

I struggle with these questions and would love to hear everyone's thoughts.

I suspect that community plays a huge part in this, which goes right to John's great point about people getting together in different regions of the country. The satellite conferences provide these opportunities and folks have started a couple of local groups on this site, but it seems like there's huge potential. Any further ideas about how this site could help interested folks facilitate their own gatherings?

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Permalink Reply by Nurture Girl on February 15, 2008 at 1:35pm

Maybe it is just that I am a boundary spanner that I see the value, but I personally try to work to bringing people together--online and face to face--that share similarities but may have different associations. Where are there synergies with other organizations? Can we have green dinners that do not associate with a brand--even a brand as lovely as bioneers, that bring together people from different environmental and consciousness raising groups to be together? I think we need coalition building. Conversation fostered here, mentioned elsewhere...conversations elsewhere mentioned here...people weaving together from different spaces in shared interest? (I posted about green dinners on Wiser Earth--an idea I borrowed from Beyond Today, a nonprofit working for peace, social justice, and the environment in Chicago.)

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Permalink Reply by Alexander on February 18, 2008 at 2:20pm

Do not stare into the pool of brilliance here for too long without a good pair of UV sun glasses : ]
I am networking with a great group of people at Savetheworldfree.ning.com/ and we are into shearing our membership to all members who wish to do so.
We envisage a time when geographical locations will have the numbers to form local community focus groups formed with a view to build public kiosks (using recycled scrap) that inform and update the community with Eco trends and issues. For example . . .
Pollution Solar Power subsidies Greenhouse Gasses Ozone layer
Animal welfare Atmospheric warming Health care costs Habitat Conservation
Conservation Fundamentalism! Insurance costs Genetic Engineering
Marine Pollution Marine Mammals Heavy Metals World Government
Natural Diversity Protection Substance Abuse Education Justice for abused children User pays taxation Equal justice access Biodiversity Hazardous wastes Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Education Cost Tree clearing Organ Harvesting Phthalates
Endangered ecosystems Globalization Global Trade injustice W.T.O.
Endangered species Ocean Dumping G M O's Perchloroethylene
Amazon Forests New world order Genetically Modified food crops
Pollution, Precautionary Principle Nuclear testing Incineration Pesticides Higher education cost Arms Proliferation Stamp duty's Plutonium North American Forests
Nuclear Accidents unsafe Nuclear Reactors Commercial Fishing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Ocean environment Food labeling Radioactive Waste Corporate Mismanagement
Did I miss something?
What are your thoughts on each of us bringing in two new members as a pledge to the planet thing?
Regards
Alex

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Permalink Reply by Afriendof B on February 19, 2008 at 6:35am

One of the things I think this site could do (I'm not sure how) is to create a way to share and celebrate the small actions and mundane life style changes that people are making. These are the things that will really change the world. (There is a story about the 100th Monkey that illustrates this point quite well.) The big projects and magical solutions are great to think about and explore. I hope something comes of some of them, but hope lies in the thousands of little things we do every day. Sharing those things might help others take steps and it will certainly help keep people focused and perhaps provide the motivation to keep at it even when it is difficult and lonely.

The other thing I struggle with on this site is keeping track of all the things going on. I am a very non-linear thinker at times, so I tend to have multiple projects at various stages. I'm always looking for ideas in odd places and wanting to get involved in various conversations. Linking them all together to create some kind of synergy is a challenge for me.

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