Beyond Charity

Our breakdowns are too systemic to be solved by “charity” but the idea of these new millionaires embracing real social entrepreneurship is a good one.

From Open Forum–On Facebook IPO

Manjunath Kiran / AFP/Getty Images
The ‘Facebook’ logo is reflected in a young Indian woman’s sunglasses as she browses on a tablet in Bangalore on May 15, 2012. World’s popular and leading social networking company Facebook Inc., founded in a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg whose current value exceeds 100 billion USD, will be making an initial public offering (IPO) which is slated to be Silicon Valley’s biggest-ever. AFP PHOTO/Manjunath KIRANManjunath Kiran/AFP/GettyImages 

Facebook is going public on Friday. The company’s market valuation at the end of its first day of trading could top $100 billion. Instantly, scores of Facebook employees will become millionaires.

But what happens the following day? These newly wealthy folks will eventually have to ask themselves an important question: What should I do with this money?

As a couple who was fortunate enough to face that question when we benefited from Juniper Networks’ IPO more than a decade ago, we would urge Facebook’s employees to consider devoting a share of their newfound wealth to philanthropy.

They are well suited to charitable giving, but not just because they have money. They’ve proved that they rapidly can build a successful, innovative organization from scratch – as well as identify needs within a community and then meet them. Skills like these are crucial to solving the difficult social, scientific and political problems plaguing our world today.

The beneficiaries of Facebook’s IPO will soon find themselves with seemingly limitless options for their money. Previously unimaginable lifestyles will be within reach – but so will the ability to help people and causes in life-changing ways. And while it may be tempting to take care of all the friends and family who come calling, an ad hoc approach to charity can grow overwhelming – and lead to well-intentioned but counterproductive giving.

We chose to establish a nonprofit foundation to give our philanthropy a focused mission and structure – and to ensure that our good intentions yielded positive results.

In the same way, Facebookers who choose charity can take the lessons they’ve learned in their professional pursuits and apply them to their philanthropic goals.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides an instructive model. It has a history of thoughtful, targeted and effective philanthropy. Metrics for success are clearly defined, and resources flow where those metrics indicate they can have the greatest impact.

The Gates foundation’s investments in vaccinations and antibiotics have saved millions of lives and generated billions in economic activity in Africa. But it has also admitted disappointing results from investments in small schools – and has worked to figure out why.

Such willingness to try new approaches to solving social problems – and to evaluate candidly whether they’re working – comes directly out of the culture of entrepreneurship embodied by Facebook and other Silicon Valley firms.

This week, many of Facebook’s employees will find themselves with newfound riches. They should enjoy the fruits of their labor.

But the world also needs their smarts – and their resources. Putting some of that money toward philanthropy could change the world – perhaps even more than their company has.

Kerry Olson and Dave Katz are co-founders of the Firelight Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the well-being of children made vulnerable by HIV, AIDS and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

This article appeared on page A – 16 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/16/ED1S1OIUV2.DTL#ixzz1vHIooa7c

THRIVE Movie Premiers 11.11.11

Thanks to NextNowers Vic Desotelle and Bill Daul for circulating to our NextNowNetwork community.  The website is interesting.

“My name is Foster Gamble and I’ve spent nearly a lifetime trying to figure out what happened that could account for the staggering agony and deprivation on this planet.  I set out on a journey seeking to answer questions like, is it even possible for humans to thrive?  I found a code, a pattern in nature, that’s been embedded in arts and icons throughout the centuries.  Truth hidden.”

Cultural Creatives 1.0 – The (R)Evolution

This is a rendering of what 80 million points of light on a map of the United States might look like.  Those Points of Light are the Cultural Creatives.

From the website and other sources:

Cultural Creatives 1.0 – THE REVOLUTION is a documentary made by Frygis Fogel, an Hungarian independent filmmaker, on the topic of the Cultural Creatives, people who are taking an interest in improving the quality of life and making it sustainable for future generations. It is NOT a global organization or any kind of political movement, yet there are an increasing number of people showing an enormous change in consciousness, providing examples through their own initiatives, and giving humanity an opportunity to find solutions to the issues of the 21st century. The Cultural Creatives comprise over one third of the adult populations of the US, Europe, Japan, and many major cosmopolitan cities worldwide, all with a similar mindset. In the midst of many world crises, they are anticipating the future as an abundant opportunity.

Featuring many key figures from Europe and the U.S., this is the first documentary film to look with scientific thoroughness at the world of Cultural Creatives. It shows that a great mass of people think differently from the way propagated by the media and promoted by the establishment. By the end of the film it becomes evident that this huge mass, were it to become aware of its power, could change the world. Because Cultural Creatives are unstoppable and their number is continuously rising, the values they champion could soon become core values for human civilization generally.

Cultural Creatives are emerging without anybody organizing their presence, without anyone seeking to create political power from their existence, and without any group having any interest in them. They are emerging simply because in real historical development the growth of human consciousness can not be stopped, no matter how much today’s establishments and intellectual elites try to ignore and even hide their appearance.

So they are all here, among and around us: 80 million Cultural Creatives in the United States and 120 million in Europe, all with a similar mindset – the citizens of a new world. They are the ones who are really preparing the future and its new social structures for us, and are doing so right now. They are the ones who anticipate the future as an astonishing opportunity never before available to mankind throughout the whole course of its history here on earth. Their message: The time is ripe to take the shaping of social life into our own hands.

The principle researcher for the Cultural Creatives is Dr. Paul Ray of the Institute for the Emerging Wisdom Culture at Wisdom University, a partner with NextNow Collaboratory on various State of the World Forum initiatives.

Community Leaders Convene: Join us at theCoreConference Sept. 23-25 2010

NextNowCollaboratory is a Community Partner of theCoreConference

The strong resonance between the goals of the two organizations is obvious in this description from their website:  ‘One of the themes of theCOREconference is “collective intent”.  How can we come together to create something bigger than ourselves that benefits everyone in greater proportion to what we can do for ourselves.  This is inherent in any successful collaboration, and we are manifesting it in every way possible in our creation and execution of the conference.”

theCoreConference has created a discount code for NextNowers.  PLEASE CHECK THE NEXTNOWNetwork HUB NEWSLETTER FOR THE DISCOUNT CODE.

Here’s the invitation:

Explore the future of communities at theCoreConference!

September 23rd-25th, Richmond, CA

We are excited about a new groundbreaking event called theCOREconference, where you can learn how to engage, build, lead and collaborate from key thought leaders and practitioners in community building and collaborative leadership.

» Social and collaboration technologies expo

» Multi-sector speakers and facilitators

» Case studies and best practice demonstrations

» Open space collaboration sessions

» Facilitated networking circles

theCOREconference will convene community leaders and technology developers from multiple sectors to present, discuss and exchange the best practices, technology platforms and tools, strategies of engagement, and help convene a network of many networks to come together at this compelling point in time.

NextNowers already supporting theCoreConference include Bill Daul, John Furey, Jeff Hamaoui, Brad Nye, Claudia Welss and others.

You’ll find NextNow Collaboratory at the conference hosting dialogues on community building and key organizational initiatives.  To join in, just look for a table with our name on it.

Additionally, we are excited to be able to offer you a $100 discount ticket through our network!  Refer to the latest NEXTNOWNetwork Hub newsletter and use the discount code when purchasing your ticket.

Visit the website to find out more about keynote speakers and workshop lineups: http://www.theCOREconference.com.

See you there!

Adjusting National Economic Development Policy to the New Reality of Ecological Limits

The bad news is, it’s been a lean few months for posts.  The good news is, it’s because we’re too busy doing the work to report it.  Thankfully Global Footprint Network can do both.

Below is the Global Footprint Network‘s report to NNC regarding the status of the Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative (ECDI) project we are supporting.

2009 REPORT

Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative

To NextNow Collaboratory

Overview

Thank you; your contributions toward kick-starting the Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative (ECDI) over the last year has helped us to generate a global debate about how to best adjust economic development policy to the new reality of ecological limits.

Over the last year we have witnessed a paradigm shift beginning to emerge: public policy discussions are moving beyond GDP as their main focus. The debate “Beyond GDP” is even starting to consider the significance of measuring resource limits. The Ecological Footprint has been a significant player in this debate. Perhaps the most visible landmark event was President Sarkozy’s launch of his “Stiglitz Commission report.” This 290 page report, launched in September 2009, includes 15 quite thoughtful pages about the Ecological Footprint.

With 2009’s single focus on carbon due to the COP15-Copenhagen summit, many debates forgot that carbon is just a symptom, not the underlying problem. This is now changing. Our ecological creditor and debtor approach is peaking many people’s interest. People start to realize that from this perspective nations’ and cities’ self interest to act becomes much more apparent. It boosts the importance of ecological asset preservation and reshuffles budget priorities so investments will generate lasting results.

The Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative Results

Many of the ecological creditor countries are in Latin America. Through our ECDI last year we worked with several of these nations.

• COMMUNITY OF ANDEAN NATIONS (CAN): the Secretariat is fully behind our initiative, and we launched “The Ecological Power of Nations” report with great success in both Lima and Quito. We also did an event around the report last November in Madrid with the Secreatry General of Iberoamericana (http://www.segib.org). This organization is similar to the British Commonwealth, and brings together all of Latin America, Spain and Portugal. (Their head, Enrique Iglesias invited CAN to produce this launch.) This built both a bridge to the Mediterranean engagement as well as to Copenhagen. In addition, we produced a “teaser report” on the Footprint with CAN. CAN has actively promoted the Footprint as for instance in this short but sweet video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhL5mY00HU

• CHILE: We have a new partner in Chile called Recycla who has strong connections with the federal and regional government.  We are jointly proposing a city Footprint project with Providencia municipality in Santiago, Chile.

• ECUADOR: We are moving actively forward with the national department of planning (SENPLADES).  Not only has Ecuador included the Ecological Footprint as a major sustainability indicator in their National Development Plan (the main agenda of their government), this document also stipulates Ecuador’s commitment to reduce their Footprint below their biocapacity by 2013.  Dania Quirola, SENPLADES advisor and our main contact there, participated with Global Footprint Network’s Director of Strategic Initiaitves Jennifer Mitchell and Global Footprint Network board member Haroldo Mattos at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) conference in Rio, 19 October. Initial financing for the collaboration is in place. Dania organized inter-ministerial meetings with me while he was in Quito and is firmly committed to the project. The first work sessions are being planned currently. Additional funding will be sought through other major international organizations such as IDB and Global Environment Facility.

• PERU: We had productive meetings with the Peruvian Ministry of Environment (Ministerio del Ambiente), with the Vice Minister, her advisor and another staff member. They have written a letter of commitment – wanting to work with Global Footprint Network and we have secured funding for Phase 1 of a research collaboration. Also, there are now other ministries that have expressed an interest to collaborate and have even earmarked some budget to contribute to the effort. This is essential for the success. We have developed a draft proposal, and heard from GTZ (the German Development Agencies) that they are very interested in helping with initial funding. Follow-up funding might come from IDB and Global Environment Facility.

• BRAZIL: We actively participated at the IDB conference in Rio, Brazil on October 19th to present our work on ecological creditor and debtor nations. This included also a presentation by our new board member, Haroldo Mattos de Lemos, former secretary of the ministry of environment. We have followed up with two more visits and are now engaged in a project with the City of Curitiba.

• COLOMBIA: We have built strong relationships with various offices in the Colombian government, including EcoPetrol (Colombia’s national oil company), the Department of Planning, and the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development. We just signed the first contract (early May) with the Colombian government to initiate a project verifying the Footprint and biocapacity assessment for Colombia.

• COSTA RICA: We are moving closer to national engagement with Costa Rica; we have been in conversations and have successfully navigated change in ministerial posts. They have confirmed interest for a national collaboration pending financing. The proposal they requested from was before the elections was stalled, but with the new government in place, it looks likely that they will take up the proposal again. Also, we presented in Costa Rica and have built allies in a number of institutions.

• MEXICO: While not an ecological creditor, we are making great advances, having given two seminars recently (in Monterrey and in Mexico DF), and building a relationship with Pro Natura to engage with the federal government around the topic of low-carbon development. There is also interest from the organization “Sierra Gorda” in the State of Queretaro. Most likely in July, we will be having a training in Mexico City, which will include representatives of Queretaro.

Global Footprint Network also hosted a roundtable discussion at Copenhagen COP-15 on the premises of the European Environment Agency with representation from a number of nations including Ecuador and Peru. A solid by in was experienced from all the nations and that we need to adapt to the reality of “peak everything” beyond carbon. Keeping their country competitive and prosperous in an ever more resource constrained future requires careful management of both the availability of and demand on ecological resources. This strategy is already working for Global Footprint Network, for example, with Ecuador.In addition to Latin America, we are also engaging with three other regions.

• MEDITERRANEAN REGION: The goals of Global Footprint Network’s Mediterranean Initiative is to bring the reality of resource constrains into the national and international policy debate, help policy analysts and decision-makers more deeply understand the risk resource limitation poses to their economic stability, engage with nations so they will eventually make more effective and informed decisions. We started to engage with Mediterranean countries this January, have been writing a paper for the economics association of Egypt on the MENA region, developed a survey paper comparing the trajectories of all Mediterranean countries, and will use the Footprint Forum in Siena to engage representatives from these countries to explore options for succeeding in a resource constrained world. By the end of 2011, our goal is to have 2-3 Mediterranean nations fully engaged.

• EASTERN EUROPE: This past year, Mathis was invited to speak before the presidents and environment ministers of a number of central and eastern European countries at a convening of the Regional Environmental Center (REC) in Budapest, a consortium of 17 nations. Through our close ties with the REC, we are working on a cluster-approach to informing leaders of central and eastern European governments of their national Ecological Footprint and biocapacity trends.

• AFRICA: This year, Global Footprint Network participated in the first climate change science meeting held by UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As a result, UNECA, which brings together over 50 of Africa’s finance ministers, wants to use the Footprint as a platform for climate and resource discussions throughout Africa. We are now in the process of developing an MoU for a collaboration with this pivotal intergovernmental commission.

We continue to engage with a number of governments around the world – and the opportunity to participate in the UNEP Governing Council in Nairobi, Africa in February 2009 allowed us to additionally build a number of good contacts.

We have been actively engaged with UNESCO – but the process slowed down with the recent change in leadership (a new director general was appointed last November). The plan to work with UNESCO on a significant conference – an Ecological Creditor and Debtor Summit – has been delayed, but we hope we will be able to reinvigorate this relationship with the new staff in place. In the meantime, we use other organizations’ venues to propose the ecological creditor and debtor perspective: Global Reporting Initiative, Regional Environment Centre, WWF, UNECA, are examples of such venues..

It is perhaps ambitious to set new standards for measuring progress – standards that encourage maintaining ecological wealth rather than liquidating it, as encouraged through blind focus on GDP. When we set our goal back in 2005 to get 10 nations to adopt the Footprint, we thought it was the most outrageous, far-fetched goal we could set.

But since then, our progress toward this goal has surpassed our expectations: To date, more than 35 nations have engaged with Global Footprint Network directly; 17 have completed reviews of the Footprint; and 5 nations – or 7, if we count Scotland and Wales – have formally adopted it. But adoption is only the beginning. We work with nations through a five-phase program ultimately aimed at helping them weigh their options and “bend the curve” – that is, shift ecological trends in the direction of sustainability – by making major changes in policy and investment.

Conclusion

There are rare times in human history when change occurs in great leaps rather than incrementally, and this is one of those times. During these periods, existing structures and belief systems lose their grip, openness to new possibilities emerges, values shift, and it is possible to define new goals for our human community. Global Footprint Network works to bring about a sustainable human economy, in which all can lead satisfying lives within the means of one planet. We believe that the Ecological Footprint is a crucial tool to helping leaders understand that operating within nature’s budget is in each nation’s self interest.

Thank you very much for your continued support of our work. We look forward to keeping you updated on our accomplishments, and partnering with you in supporting a sustainable economy by advancing the Ecological Footprint.

Klimaforum09 (..and COP15)

NextNow Collab is a partner of the WorldShift Alliance, and participated in the 2009 Great Shift Gathering in France.  Among the “transactivists” we met (those of us who choose to transcend and include differing perspectives in their activism, rather than operate from the traditional “us v. them” paradigm) was Gareth Strangemore-Jones of WorldShift 2012 (a new global movement dedicated to co-creating the foundations of a peaceful, just and sustainable world by the end of 2012), Club of Budapest, and Events4Change.

We’re inundated with sobering reviews of COP15.  You don’t need to read any more here.  Read Gareth’s informal report below.  Learn about The People’s Declaration which, while not necessarily perfect, seems another meaningful step in the right direction, like the Earth Charter (but why hasn’t that been more successful? The Earth Charter’s preamble:  We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.)

ALSO, because there’s so much analysis available on COP15 and so little time, here’s a link for an informative report with great links from Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, recommended by NNC partner State of the World Forum’s Research Director, Paul Ray:

What Hath Copenhagen Wrought? A Preliminary Assessment of the Copenhagen Accord

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From Gareth Strangemore-Jones on Klimaforum09:  Polly Higgins, Positive TV & New WorldShifting Friends @ Klimaforum Achieve more than the UN Manage in Years of Costly Procrastination

Dear friends and colleagues…

I am proud to write to you to commend Team Positive, who went to Copenhagen with such a pure and honest desire to help make a difference that their efforts and energies were both infectious and effective!

We were based at Klimaforum09, the people’s alternative climate conference and from there met and connected with some newly-recruited WorldShifters…grass roots activists, climate and energy experts, media professionals, political leaders and even heads of state plus a plethora of campaign groups, media outlets, social innovators, meshworkers – the quantity and quality of this network, I cannot begin to express!

At the heart of our activities, and as a result of the kind help and assistance of the very lovely Peter Engberg, Positive TV worked with the passionate young people at YourClimate.tv to produce a range of films representing both the official and alternative conferences, the organisations and individuals attending and video documentation of the outcomes and the next steps required.  For more, I thoroughly recommend you take a good look at www.yourclimate.tv

Over the last two weeks, we have connected with hundreds of good people and enlightened organisations who want to offer their assistance to co-create a peaceful, just and sustainable world!

While in Denmark, Positive TV and friends pulled off possibly the Coup of Copenhagen!

It was a triple header that brought a framework of such depth and clarity to the whole experience.

1) Firstly, on Thursday 17th December, the penultimate day, we got our WorldShifting friend and cutting edge planetary rights lawyer and advocate Polly Higgins onto Klimaforum main stage talking to George Monbiot (Author “The Age of Consent” and “Heat” / Environmental and Campaigning Journalist for “The Guardian”).  Polly outlined the legal framework behind her Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights and the new People’s Declaration of a Planet Earth Trust.  They spoke in the end for three whole hours with no drop off of a packed house audience who engaged in the Q&A session with renewed and inspired vigour!

2) Following a request for help from Bill Becker, on the very last day, we helped Chip Comins (Founder, American Renewable Energy Day) and Hans Hendrik (Head of Programming for Klimaforum) organise one of the most compelling panel discussions of either conference – “What Next for US Leadership”.  This event was due to be held at the official COP15 UN Climate Conference at the very sterile Bella Centre straight after Obama’s (ultimately uneventful) speech.  But after meeting with and collaborating with Bill Becker (Chief Executive of the Presidential Climate Action Programme), we worked with panel organiser Chip Comins to bring the event to Klimaforum.  The last block of Klimaforum’s final day was set aside for this most topical of discussions and a very special ending.

On the panel were
* Professor David W. Orr (Oberlin College / Rocky Mountain Institute / one of the world’s leading climate scientists)
* Bill Becker (Founder, Presidential Climate Action Programme)
* Bill McKibben (Founder of the new but very exciting 350.org)
* Chip Comins (American Renewable Energy Day)
* Michael T. Eckhart (head of the American Council for Renewable Energy)
* Polly Higgins (The People’s Declaration of a Planet Earth Trust)

Klimaforum’s main hall was once again filled with an invigorating debate engaging people from all corners of the world and from all walks of life but who shared a common passion for the planet and, indeed, for peace and for justice.  This set the stage beautifully for what was to be the closing ceremony of the event…

3) Polly was then offered the floor to read the People’s Declaration of a Planet Earth Trust.  This she did with such universal love, credibility, presence and compassion for the people and all living things to whom and to which it is offered, that I cannot imagine a more perfect way to close Klimaforum.

The people’s alternative conference had found its key to unlocking the WorldShift required to transition to a sustainable future.  We had offered it to both the conferences as a gift to humanity and it was received with such gratitude by the people for whom it was created.  These are the very same people who will now affirm and endorse it, who will promote it and who will take its simple message and give it the mandate required to uphold and enforce it.

We the people have chosen to reclaim our relationship with the planet and I am proud and privileged to have played a part in that process.

Power to the Peaceful!

Sign the WorldShift 2012 Declaration to join us: www.worldshift2012.org

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COP15: Accepting Responsibility (Huffington Post)

Forwarded by Jim Garrison, State of the World Forum, NextNow Collab collaboration, as, in his view, “an excellent perspective on the reason for the breakdown in Copenhagen today.”

William S. Becker,

Executive Director, Presidential Climate Action Project

HuffingtonPost: December 14, 2009

COP 15: Accepting Responsibility

Imagine you’re a well-to-do person attending a dinner of your peers. The food is top-rate and there’s plenty of it. Course after course is laid upon the table.

A group of less-advantaged people has been watching from the sidelines. When the dinner is done, you invite them to join you at the table. After the restaurant staff has served coffee, the bill comes. You and your rich peers insist that everyone now at the table must share in paying the entire bill.

If that seems unfair, then you have just understood the position of the delegates from emerging economies, now negotiating with their wealthier colleagues from the North over a climate deal at Copenhagen.

Some poorer nations have taken the position that because the industrialized world is responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions already in the atmosphere — in effect exhausting the environment’s capacity to cope with carbon — rich nations must pay “damages” or “reparations.” These payments presumably would be used by emerging economies to cope with the climate changes that already are devastating some of them, and to increase their standards of living while minimizing their emissions.

But the United States’ chief negotiator, Todd Stern — an attorney and by all accounts a very good and moral man — rejects that argument. Speaking at COP-15, he repeated President Barack Obama’s recent promise that the United States will pay a “fair share” of financial assistance to emerging economies. But, he said: “We absolutely recognize our historic role in putting emissions in the atmosphere, up there, but the sense of guilt or culpability or reparations, I just categorically reject that.”

Through most of the past 200 years of industrial revolution, Stern argued, people were “blissfully ignorant” that carbon emissions caused climate change. Therefore, he contended, the people of the United States need not feel a sense of guilt.

Like a good lawyer arguing on behalf of his defendant, Mr. Stern has taken a tough bargaining position. But it is neither accurate nor moral. At the highest levels of academia and government, we have not been blissfully ignorant that industrialization would result in climate change, and even if we were, that does not absolve the developed world of its responsibility to help poor nations as they attempt to achieve a standard of living they so far have only observed from the sidelines.

Scientists have known about climate change since the late 1800s. The first estimates that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could dramatically increase atmospheric temperatures were made in the late 1800s when Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius estimated that a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would increase the Earth’s surface temperatures by 5-6 degrees Celsius.

A long period of debate ensued during the early 20th Century, but evidence mounted that Arrehenius had it right. By mid-century, physical measurements were showing a striking correlation between greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the Earth’s temperature.

In the United States, presidents at least as early as Lyndon Johnson were warned that climate change was coming. In 1965, Johnson’s panel of science advisors told him:

By the year 2000 there will be about 25% more CO2 in the atmosphere than at present. This will modify the heat balance of the atmosphere to such an extent that marked changes in climate, not controllable through local or even national efforts, could occur.

Every U.S. president since has known of the risks of climate change. Every president and Congress since has failed to adequately mitigate or manage that risk. Although then Vice President Al Gore signed the Kyoto Protocol on behalf of the United States in 1998, the U.S. Senate made clear it would not vote in favor of ratification. As a result, President Clinton didn’t bother to try.

It wasn’t until this year that either house of the U.S. Congress passed a bill to begin controlling greenhouse gases. That bill, the Waxman-Markey bill, proposes to cap U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at about 3 percent below their 1990 level by 2020 — a ridiculously low goal given that America is the country most responsible for the warming gases in the atmosphere today and remains one of the world’s leading carbon polluters.

Our national climate policy has been dominated for a century by denial, by the political influence of fossil energy industries, and by willful disregard for climate science verging on, if not crossing the line into, gross negligence.

Even if Mr. Stern were correct — that the political leaders of the industrial revolution were “blissfully ignorant” of the relationship between pollution and climate change — that may not absolve them of liability for the damages our greenhouse gas emissions have caused. I asked University of Oregon Law Prof. Mary Wood about this. Her answer:

There are different competing policy objectives that a government has to consider, one of which is fairness to the polluter (by not punishing action that was legal at the time) and the other is protection of the public (by cleaning up the hazardous waste site). The courts have chosen the latter over the former every single time.

Prof. Wood contends there is substantial basis in case law, U.S. statutes and international treaties to hold public officials accountable as “trustees of the commons,” responsible for protecting the air, water, soils and other natural resources on which our wealth and health depend.

If we Americans should not feel guilty about our role in climate change, then we should at least acknowledge a great moral obligation to help poorer nations get to the table of genuine prosperity (the definition of which deserves its own essay) without further destroying the commons.

In arguing for the plaintiff, I will concede two points. First, money is far from the only issue on which developed nations must take responsibility. We also have a moral duty to dramatically cut our emissions and to do so quickly. On its blog, the Center for American Progress reported one conversation it had at COP-15 with a representative of island nations that are seeing their land and cultures lost to sea level rise:

All of the billions and trillions in the world won’t do a darn thing if your country is drowning or, worse yet, no longer exists. For the small islands, the focus should be on drastic emission reductions and not a price tag for their existence.

Second, we must be creative in finding the money that developing nations will need for mitigation and adaptation. Financial assistance of the type and amount that adds appreciably to staggering national debts or that further undermines the economies of the developed world is not in anyone’s best interest.

For example, among the ideas circulating through COP-15 is a proposal by George Soros to create a $100 billion assistance fund for poor nations using foreign exchange reserves issued by the International Monetary Fund – an idea Soros said would not add to anyone’s national debt.

Poorer countries would win a moral victory by forcing industrial economies to characterize financial assistance as “reparations,” or to demand punitive as well as compensatory damages for past emissions. But the moral victory is not as important as the funding itself.

What cannot be reasonably argued, however, is that the United States and the other rich countries who have been eating so well for so long have no moral responsibility to help others find a way to achieve their own decent, safe, sanitary and sustainable standards of living. That help should be given willingly and generously.

State of the World Forum Launches in Brazil: 2020 By 2050

SEE END OF POST FOR EVENT LIVE BROADCAST LINKS

NextNow Collaboratory is an organizational partner of State of the World Forum, launching the global 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign today in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.  This Forum marks the first time people will be coming together from around the world at this scale to strategize plans of action to reduce carbon emissions globally by 80% by 2020 (instead of 2050, widely accepted by governments but acknowledged by scientists as “too late”) not just through a change in behavior (which can be difficult to sustain) but by re-aligning our relationship to ourselves and to our values, to each other, to Earth and to Life itself.  It also marks the first time a major media company launches a national public education campaign on global warming intended to mobilize a nation to take action– from stopping clear-cutting of the Amazon to creating sustainable lifestyles.

Over 200 scientists, political leaders, business executives, academics, civil society activists and artists from 20 nations and across Brazil are in attendance.  But this initiative is about everyone becoming a climate leader, because that’s what it will take. We’re all part of this movement to build a future in alignment with our most deeply-held values, with the natural systems of Earth and all Life.  Increase your awareness by visiting the State of the World Forum 2020 Climate Leadership Media and Resources page, and join us for the next Forum in Washington D.C. February 28 – March 3, 2010.

Below is the press release for this historic meeting in Belo Horizonte:

PRESS RELEASE
August 4, 2009

Globo TV launches unprecedented national public education ads on global warming to support the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign

The Globo Organization, the largest media company in Brazil and the fourth largest in the world, will premiere its national public education ads to support the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign at the State of the World Forum in Belo Horizonte, Brazil August 4 – 7, 2009. The aim is to educate the public about the escalating dangers of global warming and to encourage “climate leadership” in reducing carbon emissions and developing sustainable lifestyles.

This action is unprecedented and marks the first time anywhere in the world when a major media company has taken up the issue of global warming and begun a sustained public educational effort in support of a national mobilization on global warming. “We are delighted at this demonstration of climate leadership,” said Jim Garrison, President of the State of the World Forum. “ We believe it will serve as a model for other major companies to join Globo and begin to educate their constituencies about the escalating crisis of global warming.”

Albert Alcouloumbre, Director of Planning and Social Programs at Globo, said, “We consider our support for the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign to be part of our responsibility to our viewers. Globo has a long history of social responsibility going back to the founder Roberto Marinho, and we are proud of this tradition.”

Ricardo Young, President of the Ethos Institute, said, “Brazil is ready for a national 2020 mobilization on this critical issue.”

The Globo ads support the launch of a global 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign and a Brazil 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign in Belo Horizonte August 4 – 7, when scientists, government leaders, business executives and civil society activists from around the world and Brazil will meet to begin planning 2020 campaigns.

Says Garrison: “The urgency of global warming mandates that each and every one of us become climate leaders. For the first time in our lives, indeed for the first time in history, all of us must take responsibility for our climate, whether at the individual, community, company, institution, state, or national level. We are all responsible for global warming. We must all share in the leadership required to solve it, for nothing less than the fate of human civilization is at stake. The crisis is that stark, the choice is that clear, the leadership required is that urgent.”

At the heart of the Climate Leadership Campaign and the purpose of the Belo Horizonte conference is resolving the contradiction between what our governments are negotiating and what our scientists are asserting about the accelerating pace of global warming. Our governments are negotiating as if the world has another forty years to solve global warming. The Copenhagen negotiations call for an 80% reduction of CO2 by 2050.  But the more our scientists know, the more urgent the crisis becomes and the more urgently we must act. The current world situation with regard to climate change is worse than the worst cast scenario of the IPCC in its 2007 Report.

It is for these reasons that when he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the IPCC, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri said “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” Thousands of scientists around the world agree. Lester Brown, who will keynote the Belo Horizonte Forum, states “The situation is so urgent it has come down to mobilizing to save civilization.”

Says Garrison:  “Climate leadership must be based on what is scientifically urgent, not on what is politically expedient. Thus our strategic intention and call is a very simple one: ‘2050 by 2020.’ What our governments are negotiating for 2050 must be accomplished by 2020 and we must all be prepared to demonstrate the climate leadership required to accomplish this.”

For further information: Leandro Grandi at FSB Communications at leandro.grandi@fsb.com.br or Jim Garrison at jgarrison@worldforum.org

For further information on the State of the World Forum in Belo Horizonte:
http://brasil2020.com.br

For further information on the State of the World Forum:
http://worldforum.org

TO WATCH LIVE BROADCASTS OF THE BELO HORIZONTE STATE OF THE WORLD FORUM:

6:00- 8:00 PM EST ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 4

9:00 AM- 5:00 PM EST ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5

nef’s (un)Happy Planet Index 2.0: US 114 of 143

Thanks to Dr. Paul Ray for distributing this through our State of the World Forum discussion list: www.happyplanetindex.org As the G8 prepare to meet in Italy this week, the second global ranking of the ecological efficiency with which the world’s nations deliver long and happy lives for the people who live there – the ‘Happy Planet Index’ – reveals a surprising picture of the relative wealth and progress of nations. Latin America tops the Index with Costa Rica the ‘greenest and happiest’ country.  Nine of the ten highest-scoring nations are Latin American The USA, China and India were all ‘greener and happier’ twenty years ago than today The World’s richest plummet from 1960s to late 1970s, with scores still lower today than 1961 The UK comes 74th, USA 114th out of 143 nations surveyed. The report, The Happy Planet Index 2.0: Why good lives don’t have to cost the earth, published today, Saturday 4 July 2009, by nef (the new economics foundation) presents the results of the second global compilation of the Happy Planet Index (HPI). The new Index is based on improved data for 143 countries around the world, representing 99 per cent of the world’s population. The report, with a foreword by the ecological economist, Herman Daly, shows that globally, we are still far from achieving good lives within the Earth’s finite resource limits. And, although there are signs of hope, overall we are still heading in the wrong direction. The HPI provides the first ever analysis of trends over time for what are supposedly the world’s most developed nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The results are not promising: OECD nations’ HPI scores plummeted between 1960 and the late 1970s. Although there have been some gains since then, HPI scores were still higher in 1961 than in 2005. Life satisfaction and life expectancy combined have increased 15 per cent over the 45-year period, but it has come at an earth-shattering cost – an increase in ecological footprint per head of 72 per cent. Of a group of 36 major nations it was possible to track over time in detail, around two-thirds increased their HPI scores marginally between 1990 and 2005, but the three largest countries in the world China, India and the USA (all aggressively pursuing growth-based development models) have all seen their HPI scores drop in that time. “As the world faces the triple crunch of deep financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production we desperately need a new compass to guide us. Following the siren’s song of economic growth has delivered only marginal benefits to the World’s poorest whilst undermining the basis of their livelihoods. What’s more, it hasn’t notably improved the well-being of those who were already rich, or even provided economic stability. Now we must use the Happy Planet Index to break the spell and chart a new course for a high well-being low-carbon economy before our high-consuming lifestyles plunge us into the chaos of irreversible climate change” says Nic Marks, founder of the centre for well-being at nef. By stripping the economy back to its meaningful outputs (lives of varying length and happiness) and the ultimate inputs (the Earth’s finite resources) the HPI is the definitive efficiency measure. It provides a clear guide to what ultimately matters to us – our well-being in terms of long, happy and meaningful lives – and what matters for the planet – our rate of resource consumption. But the Index also provides clear signs of hope. Overall, the HPI reveals that the world is heading in the wrong direction, but nations that perform well on the Index provide valuable insights into how we could do things differently: Costa Rica tops the Happy Planet Index 2.0. Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world, have the second-highest average life expectancy of the New World (second only to Canada) and have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of ‘one-planet living’: consuming its fair share of the Earth’s natural resources. Latin America tops the Index. Nine of the top ten nations on the Index are in Latin America. The highest-ranking G20 country in terms of HPI is Brazil, in 9th place out of 143 nations. Island nations perform well. Five of the ten small island nations included in the HPI are in the top 20 per cent of the HPI rankings. Middle-income countries, like those in Latin America and South East Asia tend to be the closest to achieving sustainable well-being. Our current development model performs best at middle-income levels, but even at its optimum, it is unable to deliver good lives that do not cost the Earth. In fact, the countries that are meant to represent successful development are some of the worst performing in terms of delivering well-being within the Earth’s limits: Rich, developed nations fare poorly. The highest placed Western nation is the Netherlands – managing only 43rd out of 143. The UK still languishes midway down the table – 74th, well behind Germany, Italy and France. It is just pipped by Georgia and Slovakia, but ahead of Japan and Ireland. The USA fares particularly poorly, in 114th place out of 143. No one country listed in the HPI 2.0 achieves all three goals of high life satisfaction, high life expectancy and one-planet living. But the differences between nations show that it is possible to live long, happy lives with much smaller ecological footprints than the highest-consuming nations. And there may be other positive pay-offs. For many in the West, the struggle to increase incomes has come at the expense of our social capital and mental health. The challenge for the West, the report says, is not to continue increasing our monetary incomes, but to ensure meaningful lives, and strong social ties. Often, achieving these aims means reducing the focus on consumption, and freeing up time for other pursuits. The HPI shows that good lives that do not cost the Earth really are possible. Comparisons show that long, happy lives can be achieved with far lower levels of resource consumption: People in the Netherlands live on average over a year longer than people in the USA, and have similar levels of life satisfaction – yet their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size (4.4 global hectares compared with 9.4 global hectares). The Netherlands is over twice as ecologically efficient at achieving good lives as the USA. Costa Ricans also live slightly longer than Americans, and report much higher levels of life satisfaction, and yet have a footprint that is less than a quarter the size. “The economy, communities, lifestyles and aspirations of a happy planet will be very different to those that lock us into our current ecological inefficiency. The Happy Planet Index suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life satisfaction, high life expectancy and one-planet living. Instead we need a new development model that delivers good lives that don’t cost the Earth for all. We should look to the Happy Planet Index to guide us in that endeavour” says Saamah Abdallah, nef researcher and the report’s lead author. The report sets out a ‘Happy Planet Charter’ calling for an unprecedented collective global effort to develop a new narrative of human progress, encourage good lives that don’t cost the Earth, and to reduce consumption in the highest-consuming nations as the biggest barrier to sustainable well-being. The charter calls for: Governments to measure people’s well-being and environmental impact consistently and regularly, and to develop a framework of national accounts that considers the interaction between the two so as to guide us towards sustainable well-being; Developed nations to set an HPI target of 89 by 2050 – this means reducing per capita footprint to one planet living, increasing mean life satisfaction to eight (on a scale of 0 to 10) and continuing to the gradual increase in mean life expectancy to 87 years; Developed nations and the international community to support developing nations in achieving the same target by 2070. In times of great crisis, come great opportunities. According to the Happy Planet Index, now is the time for societies around the world to speak out for a happier planet, to identify a new vision of progress, and to demand new tools to help us work towards it. The HPI is one of these tools. But if it is to be effective it must also inspire people to act. Click here for the entire 64 page report. Visit the Happy Planet Index website to measure your own HPI and to support our Charter for a Happy Planet.

Ecological Creditor Nation Brazil Mobilizes: State of the World Forum moves to February 2010 (Washington, D.C.) and August 2010 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

In February, NextNow Collab helped launch the Ecological Creditor Nation Summit initiated by the Global Footprint Network.  Brazil is one of the approximately 20% of nations studied that maintains Ecological Creditor status.  Now NextNow Collab partner State of the World Forum is moving its Washington D.C. conference from November 2009 to February, 2010, largely due to the extensive involvement of Brazil, which is launching a Brazil 2020 campaign in partnership with the Forum in August 2009–the developments of which will go far in informing the subsequent Forum in Washington, D.C.– and which we plan to attend.  All of these efforts combined act to energize the emerging global 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign.  We’re really excited by these developments and inspired by Brazil’s commitment.

Below is the announcement from Jim Garrison as it appears on the State of the World Forum website.

Dear Friends of the State of the World Forum,

We want to inform you that the upcoming State of the World Forum has been rescheduled from November 12-14, 2009 to February 28 – March 3, 2010. This has come about due to the extraordinary success of our endeavors and the fact that what was originally an intent to convene a conference has morphed into a global strategy to develop a 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign.  Allow me to explain.

A year ago, we decided to convene the 2009 State of the World Forum in November 2009 to address the escalating crisis of global warming.  We decided to do so using an integral framework, a perspective that was unique to the debate and which would allow for very synergistic cross sectoral dialogue. In early March of this year, I was invited down to Brazil to give some lectures on climate change and to speak about the integral approach we were taking on the issue.  What took place can only be described as phenomenal.  Each place I went, the response was not only an affirmation of the urgency of the crisis global warming represents but a willingness to begin working to develop a national mobilization in Brazil to support our efforts to mobilize action by 2020. Similar responses have been forthcoming in Australia, Holland, and Mexico and from a range of organizations and companies around the world.

To make a long story very short, four months later, we are launching a global 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign as well as launching a national Brazil 2020 campaign in Belo Horizonte, Brazil August 4 – 7 with over a hundred international specialists in climate change and several hundred activists from all over Brazil.  The decision has also been made to convene the 2010 State of the World Forum in Rio de Janeiro August 30 – September 3, 2010.  The emergence of a global strategy and such dynamic movement in Brazil has necessitated a reframing of the 2009 State of the World Forum in Washington.

There are four main reasons we are changing the date:

1) By moving to the 2010 February 28 – March date we will have much more space available to us at the Washington Hilton hotel to accommodate more people and to design a more interactive event with more breakout rooms.

2) The new dates for the Washington Forum will place this event equidistance between the two other Forums, giving us the opportunity to respond to the developments from Belo Horizonte in August 4 -7, 2009 and incorporate the work from Washington February 28 – March 3, 2010 into the Rio Forum August 30 – September 3, 2010.  This Phase One plan is in keeping with our overall orientation as a  global Campaign as opposed to a single event.  Our intent is to convene State of the World Forums in major cities worldwide over the next ten years, through 2020, as we building support for our 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign.

3) We have recently established an important partnership with Globo TV, the largest media company in Brazil and South America, and are in the process of developing programming ideas, including the production of at least one special in conjunction with the Washington Forum.  This gives us the opportunity to create other global television distribution deals and give the rescheduled Forum world-wide exposure.  The new February dates will give us the time necessary to make these arrangements.

4) The new dates will place the conference in Washington at a time when the Congress is in session, thus providing us with an opportunity to involve members of Congress in the Forum and include some lobbying activity concerning the overall Forum 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign.  As you may know, the United States is essentially acting like a failed state in the climate change domain and so there is a serious and urgent need for further education and lobbying in the Congress.

We sincerely hope that you appreciate the logic of our need to reschedule the Forum and that this change of dates has not inconvenienced you in any way.

We would invite you to peruse our website, which as been transformed from featuring an event to describing an entire global strategy: http://www.worldforum.org/

The urgency of global warming mandates that each and every one of us become climate leaders. For the first time in our lives, indeed for the first time in history, all of us must take responsibility for our climate, whether at the individual, community, company, institution, state, or national level. We are all responsible for global warming. We must all share in the leadership required to solve it, for nothing less than the fate of human civilization is at stake. The crisis is that stark, the choice is that clear, the leadership required is that urgent.

If we rise to this challenge, if we take climate leadership, we will generate climate justice and climate prosperity because it is precisely our capacity to solve our greatest crisis that affords us our greatest opportunities for growth within the context of sustainability and alignment with natural systems.