Great Turning Times September 2004
16th
September 2004
Dear
reader,
Have you noticed how much rain we’ve been having
recently? In Britain we’ve just had the wettest
August ever recorded and many farmers are facing a
financial crisis as a result. It has been too wet to
bring in many harvests, combine harvesters have got
stuck in the mud and crops lie rotting in the
fields. The same week I heard about this, I also
heard about another disturbing symptom of climate
change. The seabird population around Britain is
collapsing. Birds like Puffins and Guillemots, which
used to be familiar sights for birdwatchers, may
soon no longer be. Here’s the news item I saw.
Seabirds in Britain's Northern Isles Wiped Out by
Global Warming
Scientists are attributing a rapid collapse of
seabird populations around Great Britain's Northern
Isles in recent years to global warming. Rising sea
temperatures, they say, are upsetting the delicate
balance of the region's ecological relationships.
Microscopic plankton, which form the lowest rung on
the marine food chain, are moving north as ocean
waters warm, depriving small fish like sandeel of
their primary food source. As these populations of
small fish decline, area seabirds, which depend on
them as food, stop reproducing and eventually
starve.
(Find
out more about this at
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1243152,00.html)
It may appear that I’m
starting this newsletter on a negative note. But
what I’m most interested in – and what this
newsletter is largely about – is how we turn
‘negative’ information into ‘positive’ responses. As
symptoms of global warming become more obvious and
closer to home, levels of concern will rise. Already
the government’s chief scientist Sir David King has
warned that millions in the UK will be at risk of
flooding over the coming decades. At what point will
the turning occur, where ecological security starts
to become more important than cheap air travel or
petrol? The idea of The Great Turning is that
we are arriving at that point now. We can all become
part of the shift in values, perception, awareness
and behaviour needed to move towards sustainable
living. I see this as the great adventure of our
times. But what will help this turning happen?
A book I’ve been much impressed by recently is
Martin Seligman’s “Authentic Happiness”.
Based on scientific research on what makes people
happy, it distinguishes between pleasure and
gratification. Pleasures are usually short-lived and
related to bodily sensations. They are very nice,
but as soon as they wear off, you can be left
feeling hungry for more. Gratifying experiences come
from using our strengths to engage in challenging
activities that we see as worthwhile. These leave us
with good feelings afterwards that last much longer.
How does this relate to The Great Turning? There is
a common perception that facing global issues is
depressing. Because of this, many people avoid
looking at what’s going on in the world, leading to
widespread denial of our current ecological crisis
(see attachment for article about this). What the
research on happiness suggests is that if disturbing
information acts as a wake up call prompting a
constructive response, then in the long run it is
likely to lead to increased feelings of satisfaction
in life. Joy comes from actively doing something to
respond, rather than being a passive on-looker or
avoider of difficult realities. Seligman, an
international authority on the psychology of
happiness, writes:
“Gratification is part and parcel of right
action.... It can only be had by activity consonant
with noble purpose.”
In other words acting for our world is a way of
increasing fulfilment in life. This has certainly
been my experience, I’d be interested to hear if it
has been yours too. Why is this important? Because
constructive empowered responses to climate change
and other world issues might become more popular if
they were seen as personally satisfying. If the
sequence of bad news, concern, empowered response,
fulfilment was more widely recognised, then there
might be less resistance to disturbing information
about our world.
How does this sound to you? What I’m interested in
here is how activism for our world can become
thought of as attractive and enjoyable.
Another book I read this year is “The Tipping Point”
by Malcolm Gladwell. It is about how ideas spread to
become trends and then social epidemics. At the
moment, terms like ‘sustainability’, ‘ethical
lifestyle’ and ‘deep ecology’ are not very
infectious. Gladwell uses the term ‘sticky’ to
describe ideas that catch on and hang around long
enough to be passed on to others. How could
ecological awareness become sticky enough to become
highly contagious? Perhaps exploring the psychology
of what can make it enjoyable is one way. Let me
know if you have ideas on this. One expression I’ve
heard recently is ‘flourishability’ rather than
sustainability. Sustaining, while important, doesn’t
sound as attractive to me as flourishing. So that
brings me to The Great Turning, the central theme of
this newsletter.
I am attracted to the idea of The Great Turning
because I see it as a potentially infectious
positive vision. It describes a time in the early
Twenty First Century when humanity wakes up and
engages in the shift to a life affirming society.
Recognising that its old way of living threatens
continued human flourishing, more and more people
act together to promote a deep level transformation.
There are three dimensions to this shift. First is
the saying No to the old destructive ways. This is
where activism, protest and campaigns are necessary.
Second is investment/involvement in positive
alternatives, both in individual lifestyle and
collective organisation. Third is the deep level
shift in values, ways of looking at things,
psychology and spirituality. This newsletter is
about initiatives, events and resources that promote
this Great Turning. Focussed mainly on what’s
happening in the UK, it can be thought of as a
running commentary on the changes (positive and
negative) as they occur and also advance notice of
events you might be interested in.
Best wishes
Chris Johnstone
The Great Turning Times.
Ps
If you like this email newsletter, please do pass it
on to anyone else you think might be interested. If
it has been forwarded to you and you’d like it
regularly, please email me with SUBSCRIBE in the
subject header. If you want to stop receiving it,
please email me with “REMOVE” as a subject header.
It comes out four times a year, with editions in
September, December, March and June. Copy date for
entries is last day of month before next edition.
Please let me know of events, news, resources etc
that you would like included.
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(1.) It was Joanna Macy who coined the phrase ‘The
Great Turning’ to describe the story of change
required in our times. An article by her about this
is viewable at
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Ongwhehonwhe/MacyGreatTurn.htm
There is more material on her website at
http://www.joannamacy.net
She is coming to the UK in May 2005 and
will be running a week long intensive residential
workshop at Monkton Wyld in Dorset from May
15th-22nd. Cost £450 (concs. £350) Full board, or
limited number of camping places at £395 (concs
£295).
Contact Alex Wildwood for booking information.
Email alex@wildwood.org.uk or phone 01453-836566
Joanna will also be giving some public talks –
details to follow in the December newsletter.
To find out more about what her workshops involve,
I’d recommend her book “Coming Back to Life”,
co-written with Molly Young Brown (New Society
Publishers,
I also have copies of a chapter I wrote about Deep
Ecology workshops, (cost £2), and a booklet
introducing Systems Thinking and Deep Ecology (cost
£4). Email Chris at dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk for
details.
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(2) STOP PRESS - There are a few places left on the
following course:
* Introduction to Earth Education - with Steve Van
Matre, on 29th September.
£85, at Dartington, Devon.
For more information or to book your place, just
email or call
WildWise Events Ltd
Foxhole
Dartington
Totnes
Devon TQ9 6EB
Tel: 01803 868269
Mobile 0781 349 2825
Email: enquiries@wildwise.co.uk
Website: www.wildwise.co.uk
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3. Newsflash - Pollutants cause huge rise in
brain diseases
Scientists alarmed as
number of cases triples in 20 years
Juliette Jowit,
environment editor
Sunday August 15, 2004
The Observer
The numbers of sufferers of brain diseases,
including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone
disease, have soared across the West in less than 20
years, scientists have discovered.
The alarming rise, which includes figures showing
rates of dementia have trebled in men, has been
linked to rises in levels of pesticides, industrial
effluents, domestic waste, car exhausts and other
pollutants, says a report in the journal Public
Health. In the late 1970s, there were around 3,000
deaths a year from these conditions in England and
Wales. By the late 1990s, there were 10,000.
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(4) Low Impact Living courses at Redfield Community,
Buckinghamshire, October 2004.
DIY for Beginners
8-10
October
This course de-mystifies many practical skills,
explains environmentally-friendly ways to carry out
many common DIY tasks, and also covers suppliers /
buying materials, fixings and timber.
Cost: £150 waged, £100 unwaged. All meals and
accommodation included
Living in Communities
15-17
October
This course, now in its ninth year, is offered
by Redfield in association with 'Diggers and
Dreamers' (the Directory of British Communities).The
course tries for a balance of discussion with
opportunities to join in the regular seasonal
activities of the community, and informal chats with
community members. We also look at communities
around the world and the historical roots of the
current wave of community formation.
Cost: £90 waged, £50 unwaged. All meals and
accommodation included
Wind & Solar Electricity
22-24
October
Run your household appliances with the power of
the wind and the sun. This course provides an
overview of the basic principles and the technology
of solar and wind electrical systems offering
participants the theoretical knowledge and practical
experience required to design and install small
renewable energy systems.
Low-Impact Living
Initiative (LILI) is dedicated to helping protect
the global environment by promoting sustainable
alternatives to various aspects of everyday life.
Contact us to find out more about our installations,
courses, presentations and manuals.
LILI, Redfield Community, Buckingham Road, Winslow,
Bucks, MK18 3LZ
tel / fax: (01296) 714184 web: www.lowimpact.org <http://www.lowimpact.org>
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(5) Writing for Change - The Pen is Mightier than
the sword. 15-20th November 2004,
Totleigh Barton, Devon UK.
Chris Johnstone (editor, The Great Turning Times)
and Elisabeth Winkler (editor, The Soil
Association’s magazine Living Earth) will be
running a five day course on using writing to
express your concerns and to promote change at many
levels, from personal, to organisational through to
wider social and political change. We will look at
writing press releases, campaigning letters,
articles and newsletters etc. We will also look at
the psychology of change and resistance to change,
exploring the role writing can play in influencing
this.
Guest speaker – Dave Hicks, known internationally
for his writing on global issues.
Course fee £435 (full board, residential, some
grants available)
For details contact The Arvon Foundation, Totleigh
Barton, Sheepwash, Beaworthy, Devon EX21 5NS
Tel 01409 231338 Email:
t-barton@arvonfoundation.org
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(6) EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM, London : 14th - 17th
OCTOBER (see pdf attachment)
The Forum will be launched with a large opening
event on Thursday 14th, followed by 3 days of
discussion & debate involving leading activists from
around the world, as well as music, drama,
film-showings & exhibitions celebrating this global
movement. On the afternoon of Sunday 17th there will
be an
International demonstration through central London.
As this will only be 2 weeks before the US election
the demonstration on 17th Oct should be a huge
display of Europe's opposition to war & the Project
for the New American Century."
For a full list of proposed workshops please visit:
http://www.fse-esf.org/en/programme/list.php?guesswhatshow=on&stage=1
Workshops Will Be Based Broadly Around
The Following Topics...
War & peace - Democracy & fundamental rights -
Social justice &
solidarity: Against privatisation (deregulation);
For workers, social
& women's rights - Corporate globalisation & global
justice - Against
racism, discrimination & the far right; for equality
& diversity -
Environmental crisis & sustainable society. There
may be something on Deep Ecology too.
"The ESF emerged from the spectacular success of the
World Social
Forum, which opened in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001.
Its first 2
gatherings in Florence (2002) & Paris (2003)
attracted over 50,000
people from Europe & beyond. Social movements, trade
unions, NGOs,
refugees, peace & anti-imperialist groups,
anti-racist movements,
environmental movements, networks of excluded &
community campaigns
come together to debate ways of making 'another
world possible'.
These international & European gatherings were
sparked by the
protests against the IMF & World Bank in Seattle in
1999. They are
recognition from the local, national & international
level, that the
conditions under which we live are shaped by the
political economic
system which has been labelled `globalisation'. The
ESF is a giant
gathering for everyone opposed to war, racism &
corporate power,
everyone who wants to see global justice, workers'
rights and a
sustainable society."
REGISTRATION: Demand for places is expected to be
high so you will
need to register early. Registration information is
available on the
website, but please do get in touch using the
contacts below if you
have any problems.
PRICES: For the 4 days: £30 waged; £20 concessions
for unwaged &
students. (Proof for concessions will be required
when you collect
your pass at the event.)
ACCOMMODATION: We cannot guarantee to find
accommodation for all ESF
delegates, but we will endeavour to offer as much
cheap & free
accommodation as possible. Please get in touch if
you either need, or
can offer, accomadation.
CONTACT: Tel: 020 7833 8440 Email:
kesfoffice@gn.apc.org
Post: ESF
C/O NATFHE, 17 Britannia St, London WC1X 9JN.
Website:
http://www.fse-esf.org/
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7. Newsflash - The planet goes haywire
Fires and floods,
heatwaves and hurricanes - it's been a year of
extreme weather. And there's more on the way as
global warming kicks in, warns John Vidal
Friday August 27,
2004
The Guardian
There will always be freak weather
and temperature and rainfall extremes, but what is
extraordinary is that very wet summers such as those
of 1903 or 2004, as well as intense heatwaves,
storms and droughts, are coming thicker and faster
as the world heats up. Ten of the past 14 years have
been the hottest recorded, and this is linked by
scientists to a rapid rise in levels of greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere - which
according to ice core samples tested in the
Antarctic, are the highest in 440,000 years and
still rising.
Almost all climate
scientists, atmospheric chemists and oceanographers
say the greenhouse effect has arrived and that we
should expect more droughts, hurricanes, flash
floods, forest fires and giant storms. The kind of
extreme weather that happened once in 100 years,
they say, could soon take place every 20 years.
Last week the European
environment agency produced evidence that Europe was
warming faster than expected and that the number of
natural disasters had more than doubled in the past
decade. Last year's pan-European drought cost 20,000
lives and billions of euros and the later floods
affected at least 600,000. The agency, which said
that most European glaciers were in fast retreat,
warned people to expect more flash floods,
mudslides, storms and droughts.
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(8) ACTION -
Friends of the Earth Climate Challenge
FoE
have launched a 'Climate Challenge' campaign to get
people to improve energy efficiency in their own
lives and send a message that we need to take action
NOW on climate change:
"By taking part, not only will you be helping make a
difference, our actions will signal to politicians
and industry that we can't continue business as
usual, destroying the only planet we have."
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/climate_challenge
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(9)
Rising Tide Climate
Change Network Gathering
1 - 3
October, SUMAC Centre, Nottingham
Help build a varied and vibrant network and find out
about current Rising Tide campaigns.
Workshops include:
* The
Science of Climate Change
* SUV's (4x4's)
* Oil War and Climate Change
* NVDA
* Media Skills
* Theatre of the Oppressed
* Columbia Solidarity Campaign
* Blocking Airport Expansion
* Emissions / Eco-Housing
* Climate Campaigning at the G8
* space to run your own workshop
Crash Pad Accomodation, Creche available on request
Cost: £15 - £30 (depending on what you can afford)
includes food
Early booking
ESSENTIAL,
contact
info@risingtide.org.uk or phone 01865
241097
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(10)
Rising Tide email Newsletter
If you’d like to be kept in touch with climate
change campaigning and information, subscribe to the
Rising Tide free email newsletter.
To subscribe to this
list send a blank e-mail to
news-subscribe@risingtide.org.uk
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(11)
World Carfree Day 2004:
Resist Car Culture
22 September 2004
Four years ago World
Carfree Network initiated the world's first global
carfree day, a victorious day of actions on four
continents reclaiming our streets and our lives from
the automobile. Every September, people around the
world join together for World Carfree Days:
Further info:
www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd
Ideas for creative
direct resistance against car culture:
www.carbusters.org/freesources/action_ideas.php
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(12)
WILDERNESS ECOTHERAPY COURSE
Sunday 10th to Saturday 16th October, 2004
Footprint Education would like to invite you to join
Outdoor Educator, Dave
Key, and Jungian Analyst, Mary-Jayne Rust a
wilderness-based ecotherapy
course.
The course is aimed at people working in the healing
professions who would
like to develop therapeutic outdoor practices, and
at those working in
outdoor education and personal development who would
like to learn more
about engaging with the healing power of outdoor
spaces.
The course is based at Doune Bay Lodge - accessible
only by boat or on foot
- at the western tip of the Knoydart peninsular, on
Scotland's wild and
rugged west coast. Know as Britain's "Last
Wilderness" Knoydart and Doune
Bay Lodge offer the perfect opportunity to explore
ideas and theories in
comfort and then head out into the mountains for two
days of practice and
Exploration. The itinerary includes indoor group
sessions, lead outdoor activities,
walking and two nights spent in a traditional
mountain 'bothy'. There will
also be the chance (subject to weather) to spend
reflective 'solo' time in
one of the world's most inspirational landscapes.
All accommodation, local/organic food (where
possible), facilitation and
transport ex-Mallaig - including boat charters - are
included in the price.
You can find out more and download a booking form
at:
www.footprint-education.org/ecotherapy.html
Or email us on
info@footprint-education.org.
FOOTPRINT EDUCATION LIMITED
Education for a fair & sustainable future.
e:
info@footprint-education.org
w: www.footprint-education.org
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(13) Strategic Campaigning Course,
12-13th October 2004,
Edinburgh,
Strategic Campaigning training delivered by
Greenpeace International training consultant,
Michelle Sheather - a short course on how to plan
and execute your own campaign whether local,
national or international; getting you results that
will make a difference to achieving your agenda and
goals.
Cost
£100-£250 For more
information contact:
strategiccampaigning@creatingconnections.org
or telephone: 0845 458 3211
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(14) Bristol Schumacher Lectures 2004 – Spirit,
Nature, Matter
Saturday 30th October, 10am – 5pm,
At The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, next
to Bristol Temple Meads station.
With Christopher Alexander (world renowned
architect), Miriam McGillis (co-ordinator of Earth
Literacy programme at Genesis Farm, US) and Satish
Kumar (talking on integrating spirituality, ecology
and social justice)
Contact Schumacher UK for info email:
admin@schumacher.org.uk
website: www.schumacher.org.uk
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(15) Gaia Theory for Beginners – a one day course,
Sat Nov 6th 2004
9.30am to 4.30pm. At 8-10, Berkeley Square, Bristol
with Chris Johnstone.
Gaia Theory could
represent one of the most important shifts in
scientific thinking over the last three hundred
years. It proposes that the Earth is more than just
a dead lump of rock that we happen to live on.
Rather it can be viewed as a single living system,
or ‘super-organism’, that we are part of. This
course introduces the science behind Gaia Theory and
also explores what it might mean for us in the
fields of psychology, philosophy, ecology and
spirituality.
To book, phone Bristol
University Public Programmes Office, Tel 0117
9287165
Cost £22 (concs £16.50) Advance booking essential.
details:
dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk
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(16) Copydate for next newsletter is end of November
2004. Please let me know of resources, workshops,
events, websites, news, etc you’d like others to
know about. Contact chris at
dreambeat@tantraweb.co.uk