NextNower Gwen Gordon Gets SERIOUS About Play: Support the SERIOUSLY! film campaign

About a year ago, Gwen Gordon and I were playing together, exploring cosmologist Brian Swimme’s Powers of the Universe:

Seamlessness – the source of all powers, the ground of being, pure generativity; Centration – the power of concentration and exhilaration, how the Universe centers on itself; Allurement – the power of attraction, how things hold together; Emergence – the power of creativity, how the Universe transcends itself; Homeostasis – the power of maintaining achievement, what the Universe values; Cataclysm – the power of destruction, living in a Universe where things break down; Synergy – the power of working together, mutually enhancing relationships; Transmutation – the power to change the self, disciplines and constraints; Transformation – the power to change the whole, communion and intimacy; Interrelatedness – the power of care, how the Universe responds to the other;  Radiance – the power of magnificence, how the Universe communicates.

Gwen had studied with Brian and understood that all the powers of the universe are at PLAY together and so generate the play of evolution. Brian taught that evolution itself is extravagant play, and we humans are like the champagne, the climax of play, bringing our special powers of adventurous play to the ongoing, greater evolution. Gwen could feel the truth of this, and decided to take her insights Seriously: 

Support the film by visiting the Kickstarter Campaign Page

This from Brian Swimme:

In Robert Bellah’s massive new book on the deep roots of our religious sensibilities, he offers his view that at our very core — forming the basis of our deepest creative capacities – is play.  And yet, in the long and tortured development of civilization, we have constructed several religions that regard play as frivolous and ignorable, especially when compared to the aims of contemporary industrial societies.   Gwen Gordon, a graduate of PCC, is attempting to make a difference here.  She is devoting her life to educating the world in a different way of being human, a way that returns us to this playful mode of being.  Some of you might want to get involved in one way or another.

What we understand is that play is also a form of collective, connective intelligence, which is another reason we’re supporting this film.  NextNowCollab is an experiment in social synergy, focusing on  projects that use technology (inner and outer) to enhance connective intelligence that sources our creative capacity to consciously evolve our world.  We work at all levels: personal (connecting to our own inner intelligences), social (creating more intelligent, synergistic groups and activity for the exponential interconnectivity of social innovations), and planetary (a whole system shift).  

If the idea of PLAY as a form of connective intelligence resonates with you, please consider spreading the word (and the fun) by supporting Gwen’s campaign for the film, Seriously!  A movie about PLAY

WATCH THE TRAILER at www.seriouslythemovie.com

This is from Gwen Gordon, the filmmaker:

An endless stream of serious news crosses our screens everyday – the theater of politics, the perils of ecological collapse, the specter of economic uncertainty. But what can we do? After all, most of us are already exhausted and overwhelmed by the immediate concerns pressing on our personal lives. Amidst this pressure, how are we supposed to unleash the full genius, creativity, and sheer life force it will take to meet the really big challenges of our time? 

In the face of uncertainty, our overwhelming tendency is to become tight and rigid. But you can’t untie a knot with a knot. Whatever it will take, it needs to help us stay present, open, and flexible…and work better together! 

What makes that possible? Where do we see people engaging the unknown with creativity, intelligence, and grace…together? Simple. Wherever there is PLAY!  Think about it! When we play together we’re cooperating, adapting, learning, creating, and solving problems!  After all, the universe has been playing for 14 billion years on the edge of chaos, trying everything under the sun (including the sun), making big messes, trying again,  learning, evolving…and now we have broccoli, jellyfish, giant Sequoias, and fleas that live inside the nostrils of hummingbirds. As cosmologist Brian Swimme says, “Life itself has evolved as and through play.” 

I used to live above a preschool playground. The bell rang every morning and children burst through the doors into the schoolyard screaming with pleasure. They built stuff and smashed it down, there was climbing and falling, hitting and hugging. It was all there..the raw workings of the universe itself! The universe was playing!

And yet, as critical as play is to our survival, schools continue to cut recesses and arts programs and children are getting less play time then ever in history. The APA has just declared a play crisis. And adults aren’t doing much better. We’re taking fewer vacation days and working longer hours than ever (the U.S. ranks as one of the most overworked, depressed nations in the world). We need a serious play intervention, a perspective shift that ennobles play as an evolutionary imperative…and gives us all permission to be the spontaneous, free creatures that we really are.

I’m making Seriously! A movie about play! to shine a bright light on the vital importance of play in every area of life through a chorus of play experts, gripping stories, a promiscuous red ball, and a menagerie of playmates. 

Watch the film teaser at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dMUcGhz1lg

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

Welcome 2012: Occupy Love

Our wish for 2102 is that this year we will recognize the value of our hearts in true connective intelligence, and we will finally, collectively, Occupy Love.

Consider that the heart has its own intrinsic nervous system, a bundle of neurons in the heart that actually qualifies as a brain. Our heart brains communicate information to the brains in our heads—in fact, more information travels from the heart to the head than the other way around, the only organ for which this is true.  But we have to be receptive, in a psychophysiological way, to receive its subtle signals.

I’ve been looking for and have found some subtle signals within the Occupy movement that this could be a movement to promote change through love instead of chaos; that there’s an opportunity to replace old patterns of change based on being AGAINST that are slow and not resilient with ones that transcend based on being FOR.

So for our last post of 2011, I’m including links to those signals within Occupy.  May they get ever brighter.  At the end of the list is a special Vimeo treat created by NextNower Manuel Maqueda, and we echo his wish for us all:

May you flow like a big river, graceful, peaceful, and yet unstoppable in your great power, to bring about the profound changes we need in 2012 for the benefit of all.

Happy New Year 2012

If We Get OWS Right We Get Everything Right:  Ian MacKenzie:  Ultimately, we are protesting not only on behalf of the 99% left behind, but on behalf of the 1% as well. We have no enemies. We want everyone to wake up to the beauty of what we can create.  And within it the short film:  OWS: The Revolution is Love. Occupy4Love:  “Occupy4Love is a beacon for heart-centered individuals, groups, and organizations that are supporting the Love in Occupy”. Facebook page  Occupy Evolution:  “Supporting the Occupy movement in reaching its full evolutionary potential.”  The planned film, Occupy Love: “Occupy Love will be a moving, transformative feature documentary that asks the question: how are the economic and ecological crises we are facing today a great love story?”  Occupy Your Heart: “There is no higher wisdom than a loving heart.”  The 100% for a Peaceful Occupy:  This group was created for the coming together of the people that want to stand up for a peaceful, non-violent Occupy.  From John Steiner:  Compassion is Our New Currency:  “Young activists have spoken to me about the extraordinary richness of their experiences at Occupy, and they call it love.”  From the Daily Kos: Occupy Your Heart:  “They may not understand it on an intellectual level, but they showed me that when they occupy their hearts with love fear falls away.  And now I get it.  It’s not bravery or courage that propels the success of OWS, it is love.  When we occupy our hearts with love, fear flees and cannot stand against the power that emanates from the heart.

Also of interest:  Occupy Your Soul by Michael Meade

Recuerdos de los ríos Amazonas y Ucayali by Manuel Maqueda

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.”

Happy Earth Day. Now Text TREE.

This is what Times Square will look like between 10am-1pm tomorrow for Green World Campaign’s launch of “ReGreen the World” and TEXT TREE initiative. When you make a donation of $5 to plant 5 trees, the “treemometer” will go up turning Times Square into an urban forest. TEXT TREE to 85944. Follow @texttree on twitter and facebook at facebook.com/greenworldcampaign. From NextNowCollab partner Marc Ian Barasch and Green World Campaign.  Text TREE and show your support for the planet. On Friday, April 22, from the heart of Times Square, the Green World Campaign will launch a year-long initiative to “ReGreen the World.”  Supported by Earth Day New York, the GWC’s dazzling animated graphics will swirl across jumbo screens day and night, inviting spectators—and people across the country– to Text TREE to 85944 and ReGreen the World. It will be spectacular, with more than 10 jumbo screens involved—including the building-sized NASDAQ and American Eagle—turning Times Square into a virtual forest at regular intervals. Go to vimeo.com/greenworld/texttree to see the video. We’ll be using the same technology—text2give–deployed by the Red Cross for disaster relief. Here’s the basic way it works: When the word “tree” is texted to the number 85944 by anyone from anywhere in the U.S., a $5 donation will automatically be charged to their cellphone bill. The Green World Campaign will use this to plant 5 trees on degraded land from Kenya to Mexico, from India to the Philippines. Trees help restore biodiversity, reduce atmospheric CO2, revitalize soil and support economic self-sufficiency in struggling indigenous communities. A $5 donation can be made right now–and repeated up to 5 times. And here’s a cool feature: Contributions texted on Earth Day, April 22, between the hours 10 a.m and 1 p.m. EDT, will show up in real-time on a giant Toshiba display in Times Square. So, we’re asking people to donate starting now, but especially to donate on the 22nd to visibly demonstrate how global citizens can work together to really “move the needle” for people and the planet. Anyone, anywhere in the U.S., at any time, can Text TREE to 85944 and $5 will go on the cell phone bill to plant trees to restore the ecology and economy of the world’s poorest places. And they will be able to go to the GWC to check our collective progress. It will be like a national positive feedback loop of what we’re achieving together, what global citizens can do to tangibly change the world now and for generations to come (with a technology that has mostly been used until now for temporary relief efforts).  This is going to roll out in many other forms after Earth Day in the public domain. PHOTO: This is our Green World Campaign-produced screen content for our Times Square “ReGreen the World” text TREE Earth Day initiative. It will be on 10 jumbo screens in Times Square this Friday, April 22, 2011 (including the building-sized NASDAQ and American Eagle screens) as part of Earth Day New York 2011, turning the urban environment into a virtual forest at regular intervals. This work supports the United Nations Year of Forests 2011. PSA designed and donated by leading ad agency David & Goliath (L.A., Frankfurt, London) and Stockholm-based FilmTecknarna. Production was funded by a grant from the U.K.-based CBD Charitable Trust. Technical coordination of this complex project will be overseen by Tal Yarden, a leading New York video designer and multimedia programmer. An interactive “treemometer” created by leading game designer Greg Roach will display real-time updates of contributors, creating a unique “positive feedback loop” in public space. Project partners include EarthWays Foundation, CauseCast, the One Spirit Learning Alliance, Culture Shock Marketing, the Streaming Museum, Iva Kaufmann & Associates, Greg Roach & Spirit Quest World and Imagination, Inc.

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.

Earth Island Journal Article by NextNower Manuel Maqueda

Manuel Maqueda (founder of NextNow Collab’s Trash Island project) reminds us in this report that single-use plastic is used for applications that last days, hours, minutes or even seconds but pollutes our environment for hundreds of years.

Earth Island Reports

Plastic Pollution Coalition

The Bioplastic Labyrinth

Plastic is a material that Earth cannot digest. Every bit of plastic ever produced still exists and will be here with us for hundreds of years. Once in the environment, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that attract toxic chemicals, are ingested by wildlife on land and in the ocean, and contaminate our food chain.

Our oceans and waterways are full of these small particles, which currents accumulate in convergence zones called gyres, located in the center of the word’s oceans. The most notable of these is called “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” but while the idea of a giant patch of garbage in the ocean is unsettling, the reality is more so: a planetary soup of small bits of plastic that circulate throughout the water column and which we have no hope of cleaning up.

However, plastics are not destroying our environment and compromising our health by themselves. It is our use of them that has catastrophic consequences. A material that lasts hundreds of years in the environment should never be used for applications that last seconds, minutes, hours, or even days. In addition, a material that has complex, non-transparent formulations involving toxic additives should not be in contact with our food and drink.

Chris Jordan. Sea birds and fish have a hard time distinguishing plastic from food. When they eat the stuff, they cannot digest it, and eventually die with bellies so full of plastic that no food or water can pass through them.

Plastic pollution is not a problem created by improper disposal. It is a problem created by irresponsible design, paired with unsustainable throwaway habits. Add in the lack of producer responsibility, and the omission of the precautionary principle when it comes to product toxicity, and you have a perfect environmental and human health storm.

As the magnitude and the human health implications of our plastic pollution problem are better understood, there is more and more buzz about plastics that are bio-based, biodegradable, or compostable. Many eco-minded people see in them an easy solution to our plastic pollution problems. The reality, however, is not that simple.

With new types of plastics should also come a concern over how we use plastics, bio-based or otherwise. Biodegradable plastics may or may not be the next best step, depending on the properties of these new materials – but also depending on the particular object or application we are seeking to replace.

For many disposable plastics, solutions already exist, such as reusables (lasting bags, bottles, cutlery, cups, etc.) or alternative materials (such as metal, glass or paper.)

Currently, manufacturers are not responsible for the end-life of their products. Once an item leaves their factories, it’s no longer the company’s problem. Therefore, we don’t have a system by which adopters of these new bioplastics would be responsible for recovering, composting, recycling, or doing whatever needs to be done with them after use. Regarding toxicity, the same broken and ineffective regulatory system is in charge of approving bioplastics for food use, and there is no reason to assume that these won’t raise just as many health concerns as conventional plastics have. Yet again, it will be an uphill battle to ban those that turn out to be dangerous.

Terminology-wise, we need to be extremely careful with the word “bioplastic.” It’s a neurolinguistic booby trap. Bioplastics, just like regular plastics, are synthetic polymers; it’s just that plants are being used instead of oil to obtain the carbon and hydrogen needed for polymerization. Bioplastic may or may not be biodegradable, may or may not be toxic, just like any other plastic. A plastic such as high-density polyethylene HDPE can be 100 percent bio-based (for instance 100 percent organic hemp), and yet still be non-biodegradable. The public, however, is led to think that any bio-based plastic is biodegradable, which is not at all the case. Dasani and Coke’s “Plant Bottle” is a notorious example of this type of greenwashing.

Some bioplastics, however, are indeed biodegradable and compostable. The problem is that there is no agreement on what this really means, and under what circumstances. One has to read the fine print for each manufacturer and for each type of product, and often rely on the industry’s self-awarded certifications. Biodegradability usually requires industrial composting facilities, which are few and far between – and make us wonder who is actually responsible for taking these plastics to those facilities after disposal. Also, composting is a much longer cycle than recycling, and the vast majority of bioplastics are not cradle-to-cradle recyclable. Some, in fact, contaminate the downcycling of conventional plastics.

There’s also the question of ecological footprint. In order to make bioplastics we need land, water, energy, and often pesticides and genetically modified crops. Given the enormity of our plastic consumption, one wonders what impacts we would see on food prices and resources if we transitioned to bio-based packaging.

In comparison, using paper, glass, or metal is simple: We know the ingredients, we know that these materials truly are recyclable, and we have the infrastructure and resources to produce and recycle them today. Reusable items, meanwhile, are simply better for the environment.

Nobody wants to demonize biodegradable plastics. However, we should ask tough questions before accepting anything new with a green label on it. Otherwise our eagerness to solve a problem might make us easy victims of greenwashing or lead us in a direction that could trigger or aggravate other environmental and health problems. Even worse, we might be hampering or delaying the adoption of effective, sustainable solutions, namely changes of habits, and deep changes in the ways products are designed, manufactured, packaged and discarded.

— Manuel Maqueda

Take Action

At Plastic Pollution Coalition we are junking our disposable habits and composting the throwaway society that has destroyed our planet and compromised our health. Our organization calls for the elimination of useless, senseless single-use and throwaway plastic junk, starting with bags, bottles, plastic cutlery, straws, excessive packaging, and a great deal of other things we can give up or replace with alternatives now. See www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org for more information.

Support the Bag Ban! (AB1998)

California’s AB 1998 would ban plastic bags and encourage reusable bag use at grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores. Plastic bags are a primary component of urban litter. And urban litter is the primary component of marine pollution. You may not know it, but you’re probably already paying for that because plastic pollution costs California families hundreds of dollars annually in hidden cleanup costs. Retailers distribute approximately 19 billion plastic carryout bags annually. Imagine the real damage that much plastic can do to the environment. For more information and to support the bag ban, visit http://www.cawrecycles.org.

Making the Invisible Visible 350-Style

Making the Invisible Visible is foundational to NextNow Collab’s mission.  350.org is coordinating a campaign to do just that.  It’s the same concept embraced by the Digital Earth initiatives–images communicate more viscerally than words (or charts, graphs, and tables) especially when the story is a complex one.  Or, as NextNower Bonnie DeVarco (co-author with Eileen Clegg of the forthcoming “Shape of Thought”) puts it,

“Words capture ideas.  Images free them.”

If any of our NN artists are in any of the cities mentioned below (or can get there) and collaborate on one of these projects please let us know.

From 350.0rg: Dear friends, You probably know that we at 350.org are taking the next two weeks to focus on “350 EARTH” — a global art project visible from space.

And you might have asked yourself: “why art? why space? why now?”

Here’s a quick story that can help answer that question:

42 years ago, astronaut William Anders raised his camera to the window of the Apollo 8 spacecraft and took one of the most iconic pictures of all time. “Earth Rise,” as the photograph became known, was the first image that showed humans a wide-angle view of the fragile planet on which we live. The image was breathtaking.

It was a picture that woke up the world. Two years later, on April 22, 1970, tens of millions of people participated in the first Earth Day. Many of the posters, banners, and flags carried that day featured the “Earth Rise” image.

Today, we’re in desperate need of an updated mix of art, activism, and political change.Scientists have produced all the charts, facts and figures we need to recognize the threat of climate change and understand its urgency. Economists have shown how to transition our countries towards low-carbon economies. Nonprofit organizations have rallied, lobbied, and pleaded for progress.

And yet, by all measures, we’re still not making the progress we need. While it’s growing day by day, our movement has a lot of work left to do. That’s why it’s time to bring in the artists.

So, this November 20-27 — the week before the UN climate meetings in Cancun — we’re organizing the first ever planetary art show: 350 EARTH. In more than a dozen locations around the planet, artists are partnering with citizens to create massive art installations around the theme of climate change, from its impacts (like a sea-level rise design in New York City) to its solutions (like a solar-powered design in South Africa). The latest addition to 350 EARTH comes from Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead, who has designed a gorgeous image of the legendary King Canute trying to stop a rising tide.

You can see a short list of featured locations at the bottom of this email, and if you know anyone living in these cities, please let them know about 350 EARTH.

Each image will be photographed from space, courtesy of DigitalGlobe’s generous donation of their satellite time to document the story. Since we can’t get photos from a space ship, a satellite is the next best thing.

350.org founder Bill McKibben explains:

It’s kind of fun to imagine some other intelligence peering down through their telescopes at our blue-white orb, trying to make sense of these giant images suddenly spreading across snowfield and desert and lagoon. What they’d see is the planet’s immune system coming alive–conscious, alert human beings doing their best to help safeguard the future.

Looking back on the “Earth Rise” image, Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman said that it was “the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life, one that sent a torrent of nostalgia, of sheer homesickness, surging through me. It was the only thing in space that had any color to it. Everything else was simply black or white. But not the Earth.”

We’ve mostly let climate change be debated in the black-and-white world of text and policy.  350 EARTH is different.  For a week, we’ll work in color: with art, spirit, and passion.

I hope you’ll join us,

Jamie Henn - 350.org (@Agent350 on Twitter)

P.S. Moving into 2011, 350.org is gearing up for lots of strategic campaigns and mass mobilizations–much more on that soon, after 350 EARTH.

P.P.S. Here’s that list of cities that need more participants–if you know anyone who lives in them, please let them know about 350 EARTH and pass along the info below.

Australia (Broken Hill – Friday, November 26, 9pm & 11pm)

Canada (Vancouver – Sunday, 21 November, 9:30-11:30am)

Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo – 21 de noviembre, 8:30 AM)

Egypt (Cairo – Friday, 26 November)

England (Brighton – Exact Location TBA)

Iceland (Reykjavik – November 27)

Mexico (Mexico City/DF – Lunes, 22 de noviembre,  09:15 AM)

Spain (Platja de los Eucaliptus, Delta del Ebro – Sábado, 20 de noviembre, 11:00 AM)

South Africa (Cape Town, 10am, Saturday, 27 November)

USA (Los Angeles – SUNDAY, Nov. 21. Arrive at 9:30 AM / Santa Fe – Saturday, November 20th, 2010)

Second Global Coherence Initiative Sensor Site Installed in Saudi Arabia

Global Coherence Initiative is a NextNowCollab collaboration.  The news about the Saudi Arabia site is a major development for the project, and we’re excited to reprint it here.  For more information, contact Claudia Welss, GCI Steering Committee and Director of Strategic Partnerships: claudia(at)glcoherence.org.

This past week marked an important milestone for the Global Coherence Initiative, having successfully installed a second GCI Monitoring System Site. GCI Director of Research Rollin McCraty just returned from overseeing the construction of the new sensor site, located near Hofuf in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia–on the opposite side of the planet from our first sensor site in Boulder Creek, California, U.S.  The new site was approved by Prince Abdulaziz Ben Jloui and is named in his honor.

The ability to simultaneously monitor signals on the opposite side of the planet will enable GCI to start building a picture of the rhythms and resonances in the magnetic fields produced by the earth and ionosphere on a global scale–the first time this has ever been done.

We at GCI genuinely appreciate the interest of NextNowNetwork/NextNowCollab members this past year, including all those who joined us for the EcoSentience day in Santa Cruz (during which GCI was presented). It has taken a network of many to allow us to design and set up these two planetary field monitoring sites, with the ultimate goal of determining whether collective positive coherent energy can influence the global field environment.  To continue to move forward we’ll need to keep growing our networks of support.

Now that we have two sensor sites, our next step is to create an automated system to analyze the data coming in from the sites.  We also need to deploy additional strategically positioned sensor sites in upstate New York on the east coast of the U.S., the United Kingdom, Asia and Western Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. If you are interested in sponsoring a sensor site, learn more.

Continued progress in achieving our collective mission of helping shift global consciousness is made possible through your caring participation and on-going support.  Thank you!  Claudia Welss, Rollin McCraty and the GCI Steering Committee

Can’t Pick Up Plastic or Plant Trees for 10-10-10 Global Work Party? You Can Still Make a Contribution

Even if you only have 5 minutes today, it’s not to late to join the 7347 events in 188 countries participating in the 350.org initiated 10-10-10 Global Work Party.  I organized a party to pick up plastic (most of which will be water bottles and food containers, tossed from cars) along a watershed route. NextNowCollab partner Green World Campaign is, as usual, planting trees.

(The connection between trees and climate is well known; less when known is the connection between trash (including single-use disposable plastic) and climate.  An Institute for Local Self-Reliance report I found a few years ago when looking to establish a connection is called “Stop Trashing The Climate” and presents evidence that, like planting trees, a zero waste approach is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective strategies to protect the climate.)

If you don’t have time to pitch in today, consider a contribution that only takes moments, and be part of the 10-10-10 Global Work Party.

Here are two NNC collaborations to consider:

Five years ago, Marc Ian Barasch started the Green World Campaign (GWC) at his kitchen table with the seed of an idea: “green compassion” (www.compassionatelife.com ). Planting more trees, it seemed to him,  was the most tangible and enduring way to help both people and planet.

Today, that kitchen table’s gone global. The GWC plants trees on three continents,  restoring the ecology and economy of some of the world’s poorest places. In each of those places, they seek to apply the most holistic solutions–and the most innovative ones.

They’ve supported agro-forestry projects in Ethiopia to protect the ancient Menegasha Forest. In Mexico, they’ve helped Tlahuica villagers replant their ancestral oyamel forests.  A project in India combines treeplanting with village sanitation.  Reforestation in a Philippines conflict zone includes an income-generating cocoa crop. A new “complementary currency,” the Green World Credit, pays youths in Kenya to plant saplings. They’re collaborating with a leading satellite imaging company to develop new ways to monitor trees. Leading artists are devising interactive media to engage global citizens in the healing of our planet.

Marc’s recent appointment to a U.N. committee for the Year of Forests 2011 gives the GWC a larger forum.

What started as a seed has grown into a nascent global movement.  It’s no exaggeration to say that trees can heal the world: Trees renew biodiversity; restore barren soil and improve crops; provide food and fuel; create moist microclimates and recharge watersheds. And every tree absorbs a ton of CO2 in its lifetime.  10-10-10 has been declared a day of climate change action. And planting trees, says Prof. John Holdren, chief White House science advisor, is “the best means currently known for removing CO2 from the atmosphere.”

Today the world is losing its trees at an unprecedented rate. The GWC is working tirelessly to reverse that trend.  Even a small donation can make a tremendous difference in the lives of villagers subsisting on degraded land, or indigenous people protecting  their forests,  or youth groups eager to plant their future (and ours).  You will help smallholder farmers provide food and shelter; make barren land fertile again;  turn CO2 into O2;  foster community and biodiversity.

This is sacred work: helping people to live in harmony with one another, and in ecological balance with Mother Earth.  If you can’t plant trees today, you can still contribute to the 10-10-10 Global Work Party by clicking on Plant Trees Now.

Stop Trashing the Climate provides compelling evidence that preventing waste and expanding reuse is an effective strategy for combating climate change. The 2008 report documents the link between climate change and unsustainable patterns of consumption and waste.  A useful report, but someone at NNC partner Plastic Pollution Coalition needs to talk to them about the negative realities of recycling, which they promote.  And climate change isn’t all that would benefit from eliminating single-use plastic.  From the PPC website:

Plastic is forever
Plastic is a material that the Earth cannot digest. Every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists, except the small amount that has been incinerated, and has become toxic air and particulate pollution.

Plastic is poisoning our food chain
In the environment, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that attract toxic chemicals. These particles are ingested by wildlife on land and in the ocean, and contaminate our food chain.

Plastic affects human health
Harmful chemicals leached by plastics are already present in the bloodstream and tissues of almost every one of us, including newborns.

Single Use plastics and Disposable plastics are the main source of plastic pollution
Consumption of single use and disposable plastics has spiraled out of control.  They are used for seconds, hours, or days, but their remains will last hundreds of years.

Recycling is not a sustainable solution
Unlike glass and metal, recycling plastic is costly and does not stem the production of virgin plastic product. Most of our plastic waste is landfilled, downcycled or exported to other countries.

The oceanic gyres
Patches of plastic pollution cover millions of square miles of ocean in the North Pacific and in the North Atlantic.  Scientists expect to find similar accumulation areas in the remaining oceanic gyres. There is no known way to clean up the plastic pollution in the oceans: the plastic particles are very small and circulate throughout the entire water column.  The amount of plastic pollution in the oceans is expanding at a catastrophic rate.

If you can’t pick up trash today, you can still contribute to the 10-10-10 Global Work Party by making a contribution.