Great Turning Times July
2007
The Great Turning
Times – a free email
newsletter about
finding our power to
respond to global
crisis. Bringing
together ecology,
psychology,
spirituality and world
issues, it lists
events, news and
resources to support
the shift towards a
life sustaining
society. See our
website at
http://www.GreatTurningTimes.org
for past editions,
relevant events and
additional resources.
This is the UK
edition. The
international edition
is the same but
without the UK events
listings. If you’d
prefer to receive
this, please email
dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk
with CHANGE TO
INTERNATIONAL in the
subject header.
July 2007.
HIGHLIGHTS
(3) Joanna Macy’s UK
visit, 2008
(5) The Work That
Reconnects DVD review
(8) Free Carbon Coach
Dear Readers,
I’m sorry this
newsletter is late
again. When you’re
suffering from
overload, as I have
been recently, a good
slogan for
sustainability is
‘less can be more’. So
from now on, the Great
Turning Times will be
coming out less often
(three rather than
four times a year), so
that it may become
more punctual. Expect
the next edition in
October, and please
send me anything you’d
like included by the
end of September.
When people ask me
what the Great Turning
is, I describe it as a
positive vision for
what can happen in our
times. Confronted by
disturbing trends of
global ills, the Great
Turning is way of
thinking about, and
participating in, a
constructive response.
All our small steps
can add, interact and
weave together to
create a much vaster
turning towards a life
sustaining society.
But when you’re in
the middle of such a
large-scale historic
process, it can be
difficult to recognise
the bigger whole made
of many smaller parts.
So people often ask,
“what’s the evidence
The Great Turning is
happening?” I’d like
to tell you about two
steps forward, one
step back and a
practical tool you can
use to promote forward
motion.
The first good news
concerns plastic bags
in the English town of
Modbury. Britain gets
through eight billion
bags a year, while the
world as a whole uses
1.2 trillion. But
since May 1st this
year, Modbury has
become a plastic
carrier bag free zone.
All the shops,
including
supermarkets, have
stopped supplying
them. See
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,2080653,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=29#article_continue
for the inspiring
story of how this
happened. There’s more
information at
http://www.plasticbagfree.com/
Positive examples like
this help counteract
the ‘it’s never going
to happen’ blues. And
looking closely at how
such shifts occur can
inspire us to use
similar methods in our
own communities. We’ll
need all the
inspiration we can
get, for we are living
at a crucial period in
human history – the
last decades of the
oil age. Will it end
with a crash? Or with
a transition to a
sustainable way of
living? That second
option is the goal of
the Transition
movement currently
taking Britain by
storm. Back in last
September’s edition, I
mentioned the work of
Rob Hopkins in Kinsale,
Ireland, and in
Totnes. When I spoke
with Rob about nine
months ago at the
launch of Transition
Town Totnes, there
were two transition
towns. Now there’s a
network of 17
established projects,
with a further 70 or
more in development.
See http://www.transitiontowns.org/
and
http://transitionculture.org/2007/06/26/transition-towns-going-virally-viral/#more-709
for more about this.
The transition
approach starts by
asking: “what would we
like our
community/town/city to
be like after the oil
age?” At the moment,
industrialised
societies are so
dependent on fossil
fuels that it is quite
a jump to see how we’d
cope without them.
Developing a positive
vision of our
preferred possible
future is the starting
point. Then we can
backtrack from there,
looking at the steps
needed to move from
where we are to where
we’d like to get to. A
Transition Town or
City is one that has
started that journey.
Beginning before peak
oil hits helps prepare
us for the energy
famine we’ll see in
the coming decades.
But what’s so
attractive about this
approach is it brings
communities together
in developing a
positive vision we can
start living from now.
When I see what’s
happening with the
different Transition
Town and City
initiatives I’ve
visited, I see
evidence that The
Great Turning is here.
And it’s spreading
too.
Wonderful adventure
stories usually have
backward steps as well
as forward ones. I
think one occurred on
British television in
March. Channel Four
screened its antidote
to Al Gore in a film
called “The Great
Global Warming
Swindle”. Here’s what
it had to say:
“We imagine that we
live in an age of
reason. And the global
warming alarm is
dressed up as science.
But it’s not science;
it’s propaganda. …
We’re just being told
lies; that’s what it
comes down to.”
People previously
concerned about
climate change were
told they didn’t have
to worry anymore: the
scientists had got it
wrong. What’s so
disturbing is that
many people were taken
in by it. Channel Four
had over four times as
many people praise the
film as complain.
There is a very clear
point-by-point
description of how the
film misled people at
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/0313pure_propaganda_the.php
It is worth reading,
because there’s a need
to counter the
arguments used to
suggest that the
global warming scare
has been disproved.
However just
presenting the facts
will never, by itself,
be enough. This is the
lesson of the
addictions field, that
when we’re hooked on
something, we tend to
resist information
that threatens our use
of it. The approach of
motivational
interviewing, as I’ve
discussed in previous
newsletters, is used
in addictions
treatment as a way of
working with such
resistance. The
guiding principle is
that people become
more motivated when
they hear themselves
make their own
argument for change.
In my book Find
Your Power, I’ve
presented a self-help
version of this
approach that we can
use to enhance our own
motivation. The
Work That Reconnects
applies similar
methods in a groupwork
setting. But is it
possible to apply
motivational insights
more widely when
addressing planetary
concerns?
Last year, Rob Hopkins
and I spent a day
discussing this with
Professor Steve
Rollnick, co-developer
of the Motivational
Interviewing approach.
Inspired by our
conversation, I’ve
since been weaving
motivational
strategies into public
meetings I’ve spoken
at. The traditional
model for an inspiring
talk is having a
charismatic speaker
talk to a relatively
passive audience,
pumping them up with
inspiration and
convincing argument.
With motivational
interviewing, it is
the ‘client’ who does
much of the talking.
So is it possible to
have an ‘inspiring
talk’ where the
audience does some of
the talking? The
open-ended sentences
used in Work That
Reconnects
workshops is an ideal
tool for this, and
I’ve included this in
a range of recent
public meetings, some
of them with hundreds
of people.
I ask people to join
in pairs, with one as
listener, the other as
speaker. The speaker
has two minutes of
listening time for
each of the following
open sentences.
“When I look at what’s
happening in our
world, concerns I have
include…”
“My positive vision
for what I’d like to
see happen is….”
“Steps I can take to
move in this direction
include…”
Whenever the speaker
isn’t sure what to
say, they come back to
the opening phrase and
see what naturally
follows. The person
who isn’t speaking
aims to be an
‘inspiring listener’
by giving their full
attention to whatever
is being said. The
roles swap after the
three sentences, so
that everyone gets a
chance to speak. Using
this simple tool takes
about twenty minutes
and can help transform
the energy of public
meetings. It works
particularly well
after presentations
transmitting
disturbing
information. You can
also try a self-help
version of this, by
writing or speaking
for two minutes on
each of the sentences.
When we express our
concerns, we talk
ourselves into
addressing them. When
we give voice to our
visions, we identify
the destinations we
want to move towards.
And by describing the
steps we can take, we
prepare ourselves for
action. This simple
tool is an example of
a ‘motivational
nudge’. Try it and see
what happens.
With you in this
adventure of earth
recovery
Chris Johnstone
Editor, The Great
Turning Times.
email:
dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk
http://www.chrisjohnstone.info
http://www.GreatTurningTimes.org
P.S.
If you appreciate this
newsletter, please
send it to others who
might like it too. If
it has been forwarded
to you and you’d like
it regularly, email me
(dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk)
with SUBSCRIBE in the
subject header. To
stop receiving it,
please email me with
“REMOVE” as a subject
header. It comes out
three times a year,
with editions planned
for October, February
and June/July. Copy
date for entries is
last day of month
before next edition.
Please let me know of
events, news,
resources etc you
would like included.
Please also keep
entries short, ideally
about 100-300 words.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) THE GREAT
TURNING TIMES WEBSITE
AND INTERNATIONAL
EVENTS LISTINGS
At
www.GreatTurningTimes.org
This introduces the
Great Turning, has
past newsletters,
offers an inspiring
web-links page, and
has an international
events page allowing
you to enter events so
that other people can
find out about them.
The events page has
five geographical
fields. Choose your
part of the world to
find out about
workshops on The Work
That Reconnects, Deep
Ecology,
Eco-psychology and
other events
supporting the shift
towards a life
sustaining society. If
there aren’t many
events currently
listed (it may take a
little while for this
to catch on), then
please do enter some!
Here’s how to do this.
If the event supports
or expresses The Great
Turning, go to Events
in the top bar, and
then select 'Add New
Event' from the pull
down menu. Choose the
part of the world the
event is in, (banded
to UK, North America,
Australia, Europe and
Other), and then fill
in the details,
according to the
fields given.
Please put the
duration of the event
in the details bit.
When it is
complete, click on
'Save Details' at the
bottom. All that
you've written should
then disappear without
a trace. Then if you
email me (dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk)
to let me know you've
entered something, I
can authorise it so
that it goes up on the
site. There may be a
bit of a time delay
before this happens.
If you have any
problems with this,
let me know.
One of the purposes of
this events listings
is to publicise
workshops in The Work
That Reconnects, so if
you’re doing these in
any part of the world,
please do enter your
event in these
listings.
The events listings
outside the UK have
been a bit slow to
take off, but as this
facility gets known
about, its use will
increase.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) WHAT IS THE
GREAT TURNING?
Joanna Macy didn’t
coined the phrase ‘The
Great Turning’, but
she has certainly has
popularised it as the
story of change
required in our times.
A recent interview
with her is viewable
at the Permaculture
Magazine website at:
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/mag/Articles/The%20Great%20Turning.html
Other useful web
resources include:
An interview about the
Great Turning at
http://www.yesmagazine.org/pdf/Macy_Great_Turning.pdf
An article about The
Great Turning is
viewable at
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Ongwhehonwhe/MacyGreatTurn.htm
There is
more material on
Joanna Macy’s website
at
http://www.joannamacy.net
For details
of her workshops, see
the schedule listings
at
http://www.joannamacy.net/html/schedule.html
To hear her tell the
Shambhala Warrior
prophecy (followed by
an interview with
Chris Johnstone),
listen at
http://www.planetaryvoices.org.uk/from_overwhelm_to_engagement.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) Joanna Macy
speaking at UK
conference on Climate
Change, Findhorn,
March 22-28, 2008
POSITIVE ENERGY,
Going Carbon
Neutral
An exploration of
creative community
responses to Peak Oil
and Climate Change in
the company of some of
the world’s
leading thinkers,
activists and
practitioners
Speakers to include
Joanna Macy, Richard
Heinberg, Richard
Olivier, Richard
Lochhead,
Dorothy MacLean, Megan
Quinn, Rob Hopkins and
Jonathan Dawson
As we move into the
uncharted waters that
lie before us, we need
to draw upon all the
resources at our
disposal and to engage
head, hands and heart.
The week begins by
encouraging us to open
to our creativity.
Joanna Macy will lead
a two-day exploration
of deep ecology while
Richard Olivier will
lead a one-day
workshop on Green
Leadership using the
themes in
Shakespeare’s As You
Like It. We then
transition in the
second half of the
week to look at the
many positive
responses that are
already emerging from
communities around the
world.
The conference will
take place at the
Findhorn Foundation
ecovillage in the
north of Scotland.
The community was
recently found to have
the lowest ecological
footprint ever
measured in the
industrialised world –
just half the UK
national average.
There will be
workshops based on the
Findhorn experience
and that of other
conference presenters
and participants in
community-owned
renewable energy
systems, organic
community-supported
agriculture, ‘Living
Machine’ waste
water-treatment
systems, community
currencies and banks,
eco-buildings and so
on.
Cost if booked
before January 21,
2008
Low income £495,
Medium income £555,
High income £645
(If booked after 21
January: Low £525,
Medium £585, High
£675)
To book:
bookings@findhorn.org
For
further information:
jonathan@gen-europe.org
http://www.findhorn.org/positiveenergy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) Live streaming
inspiring video boosts
at
http://www.big-picture.tv
Recommended dose –
one speaker a day,
choose from the
following:
Ray Anderson, Don
Beck, Janine Benyus,
Kai Brand-Jacobsen,
Michael Braungart,
Lester Brown, Helen
Caldicott
Colin Campbell, John
Cavanagh, Deepak
Chopra, Tony Colman,
Paul Connett,
Hans-Peter Dürr, Adam
Davis, Frank Dixon
Amy Domini, Richard
Douthwaite, Nicholas
Dunlop, Mike Eckhart,
Tewolde Egziabher, Tim
Flannery, Christopher
Flavin
Lynne Franks, Gil
Friend, Johan Galtung,
Ela Gandhi, Ashok
Gangadean, Bernward
Geier, Susan George,
Herbert Girardet
Olivier Giscard
D'Estaing, Jane
Goodall, Amy Goodman,
Jonathan Granoff,
Prabhu Guptara, Sir
Peter Hall, Mark Halle
Thom Hartmann, Randall
Hayes, Richard
Heinberg, Hazel
Henderson, Julia
Butterfly Hill,
Mae-Wan Ho, Patrick
Holden
Vyvyan Howard, Bill
Joy, Tony Juniper,
Robert F Kennedy Jr,
Martin Khor, Yasuhiko
Kimura, Takashi Kiuchi,
Naomi Klein
Satish Kumar, Ervin
Laszlo, Annie Lennox,
Erika Lesser, Amory
Lovins, Caroline
Lucas, Wangari Maathai,
Nelson Mandela
Jerry Mander, Manfred
Max-Neef, Bob
McChesney, William
McDonough, Bill
McKibben, Michael
Meacher, Aubrey Meyer
George Monbiot,
Frances Moore Lappé,
Robert Muller, Wally
N'Dow, John Nichols,
Helena Norberg-Hodge,
David Orr
John Perkins, Ann
Pettifor, Mohau Pheko,
Paul Rice, Karl-Henrik
Robert, Dame Anita
Roddick, Marshall
Rosenberg
Wolfgang Sachs,
Jeffrey Sachs,
Elisabet Sahtouris,
Danny Schechter,
Hermann Scheer, John
Schellnhuber CBE
Eric Schlosser,
Vandana Shiva, Matthew
Simmons, Sulak
Sivaraksa, Bruce
Sterling, Terry
Tamminen, Majid
Tehranian
Terry Tempest
Williams, Robert
Thurman, Sir Crispin
Tickell, John Todd,
Michael Totten, Mary
Evelyn Tucker, Desmond
Tutu
Lynne Twist, Vijay
Vaitheeswaran, Sim Van
der Ryn, Ernst von
Weizsäcker, Mathis
Wackernagel, HRH
Prince of Wales
Lori Wallach, Neale
Donald Walsch, David
Wasdell, Beate Weber,
C.G. Weeramantry
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(5) Joanna Macy’s
DVD on the Work That
Reconnects – a brief
review
This DVD set offers an
excellent introduction
to Joanna Macy’s work.
You not only get a
guided tour through
the main concepts she
teaches, you also
taste what it is like
to attend her
workshops and get a
sense of her as a
person as well.
Chapters vary from
short snippets to
longer expositions. I
particularly like
“Gratitude as a
Revolutionary Act”. In
just 5 minutes forty
two seconds, Joanna
expresses with
passionate clarity why
gratitude can
powerfully transform
our world. The
conceptual shifts
offered by systems
thinking are unpacked,
the ecological self
explained and deep
time work introduced.
But as well as the
ideas also come the
exercises, with
workshop processes
like The Truth Mandala,
The Milling and
Breathing Through
presented. This DVD is
incredible value, as
you get over four
hours of material on
two DVD’s. It is
highly recommended for
anyone who wants
experience Joanna
Macy’s teaching and
find out about The
Work That Reconnects.
For people who wants
to facilitate this
work in any setting,
this DVD set offers an
essential resource.
For US and Canadian
orders, please contact
New Society
Publishers, web
details at
http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3961
This DVD is also
orderable from amazon,
where it is available
at a highly discounted
price.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(6) IPCC 4th
assessment report,
summaries now
available for download
The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) was
established by WMO and
UNEP to assess
scientific, technical
and socio- economic
information relevant
for the understanding
of climate change, its
potential impacts and
options for adaptation
and mitigation. It is
currently finalizing
its Fourth Assessment
Report "Climate Change
2007", also referred
to as AR4. Over 800
authors spent more
than 6 years
contributing to this
assessment. The
reports by the three
Working Groups provide
a comprehensive and
up-to-date assessment
of the current state
of knowledge on
climate change, and
the summaries of these
can be downloaded from
http://www.ipcc.ch/
Working Group I
Report "The
Physical Science
Basis"
Working Group II
Report
"Impacts,
Adaptation and
Vulnerability"
Working Group III
Report
"Mitigation of Climate
Change"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(7) The message in
a nutshell -
http://www.planetextinction.com/
With so much
information in the
IPCC reports, I’ve
found it difficult to
get a clear grasp of
what’s happening.
http://www.planetextinction.com/
distills out some of
the main impacts of
climate change and
presents a very
disturbing overview
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(8) Encouraging
tips on what we can do
-
http://www.fairsharesfairchoice.com
This website offers a
carbon coach to
support the lifestyle,
workplace and
community changes
needed.
‘Fair Shares, Fair
Choice’ is a growing
movement of people who
are choosing to live
and work within a
‘fair share’ of
carbon. If everyone
lived within the fair
CO2
share calculated,
together we could
avoid the worst
effects of climate
change.
Joining the
Fair Shares, Fair
Choice movement
can offer you:
Support for
low carbon living and
working...with all the
benefits to your
well-being
Opportunities
and ideas for
businesses,
organisations,
community groups and
schools
Savings on
money and resources at
work and at home!
A voice in
the climate change
debate – whether it’s
sharing your story or
sending a message to
leaders
The buzz of
taking positive action
on climate change!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(9) Treehugger’s
guide to greening your
community
And more useful tips
on making the Great
Turning happen:
Take a look at
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/how-to-green-your-community.php
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(10)
Climate Change Despair
& Empowerment Roadshow
Schedule
In Australia, John
Seed and Ruth Rosenhek
continue their
inspiring programme of
evening or one day
workshops for people
who’ve seen An
Inconvenient Truth,
or who’ve come across
other disturbing
information about
climate change.
Addressing the
hopelessness many
people feel, the
roadshow aims to
provide tools to
transform despair into
empowerment and
effective action. In
July and August
they’ll be touring
North Queensland.
Look at
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/climate/index.htm
to find out more.
This is a great model
for other groups to
follow – especially
where the despair and
empowerment workshops
follow screenings of
An Inconvenient Truth.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(11) FIND YOUR
POWER to respond
On the theme of tools
for turning around
hopelessness and
moving into
empowerment, my goal
in writing Find
Your Power was to
bring together
insights and
strategies that
support inspired
responses to what’s
currently happening in
our world, while at
the same time being
personally useful to
anyone reading it. You
can read a review by
Treehugger at
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/find_your_power.php
I’m still offering a
free copy to anyone
else (anywhere in the
world) who can review
it.
If interested, please
email me at chris@chrisjohnstone.info
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(12) WHY IS THERE
SO MUCH RAIN?
The UK has had an
extraordinary amount
of rainfall over the
last month. 27,000
homes have been
flooded, with an
estimated billion
pounds worth of
damage. Meanwhile,
hundreds of people
were killed in June by
storms and floods in
Pakistan and India.
Such increases in
flooding are expected
consequences of global
warming, as
Christopher Milly, an
atmospheric scientist
quoted on the National
Geographic website
explains, “"Warm
air can hold more
water," said Milly.
"[Clouds] tend to suck
more water up out of
the ocean, and it has
to drop sometime."
Milly was part of a
team that reviewed
data on 100-year
floods that occurred
in the last century
for 29 major river
basins around the
world. "By
definition, a 100-year
flood is really
extreme and rare,"
said Milly. "What we
can observe when we
look at those records
is that the number of
these extreme flooding
events occurred
disproportionately in
the last decades of
the 20th century.”
To read more, see
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0130_020130_greatfloods.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(13) AND ALSO SO
MUCH DROUGHT
While rainfall and
flooding will increase
in some parts of the
world, climate change
is leading to severe
droughts in other
regions.
Reduction in rainfall
is already having a
devastating impact on
crop yields in Africa,
worsening problems of
food scarcity.
See
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2005/2005-12-06-01.asp
And
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6092564.stm
A report on the
effects of climate
change in Australia
paints an alarming
picture of life in the
city of Sydney.
It warns that if
residents do not cut
water consumption by
more than 50% over the
next 20 years, the
city will become
unsustainable.
See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6315885.stm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(14) Why The Work
That Reconnects?
We have some bumpy
times coming, as
climate change leads
to an increase in
extreme weather
events, and
unsustainable patterns
of consumption fuel
conflict over
remaining resources,
especially of oil and
water. We are likely
to be confronted by an
increase in disturbing
information as crisis
continues to unravel
in our world. There is
going to be a need to
train ourselves, if
we’re to find our
power to face such
disturbing realities
and bring out our best
responses. The Work
That Reconnects is one
approach to this sort
of training. If you’re
running workshops like
this, please do enter
details in the events
page of our website
(see 1 above for how
to do this). Please
also let me know what
you’re up to so I can
tell people about this
in future editions of
the GTT.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(15) Volunteers
needed
Would you be willing
to enter workshop
details on the Great
Turning Times website
events page? If you’d
be happy to take
details from the
schedules of Joanna
Macy, John Seed and
others and enter
these, that would be a
great help. Please
email Chris at
dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk
for details, and to
activate events once
you’ve entered them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(16) THE WORK THAT
RECONNECTS IN CANADA,
FRANCE AND OTHER
COUNTRIES
There is a growing
international network
of people offering
Work That Reconnects
workshops, and other
trainings to help us
rise to the challenge
of facing global
issues. A contact for
Canadian workshops is
Meredith on
deep_ecology@shaw.ca
and for France is Clou
Carré at
clou.carre@free.fr
Please let me know if
you are, or are happy
to be, a point of
contact for workshops
in your part of the
world.
We can then develop an
international
directory of contacts
on the Great Turning
Times website.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(17) The Work That
Reconnects Workshop in
Italy, 26th-28th
October
In the Piedmont region
of northern Italy, set
amongst old-growth
forest in
the foothills of the
Alps. This weekend
camp offers an
introduction to ´The
Work That
Reconnects, an
approach developed by
Joanna Macy and others
(see
www.joannamacy.net for
info).
Take part in practices
which empower us to
act for the healing of
ourselves
and our world. The
workshop will be
facilitated by Layne
Gibson, a student of
both Joanna
Macy and John Seed.
Cost: £100 (concs
available)
For further details
contact Layne at:
laynegibson@hotmail.com
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