In October I will be hosting a World Café group of people who facilitate The Climate Project for Al Gore's organization. As a followup to viewing An Inconvenient Truth groups around the country could experience Climate Change Cafes. The event in October will be the initial exploration into this possibility.
Please write to us and share your experiences with Climate Change Café and other variations on the World Café that serve the issue of environmental and social sustainability. Thanks! - Nancy
Tom Atlee has been sharing his thoughts with us and other groups about something called the Transition Handbook, which was developed by a fellow in the UK, called Rob Hopkins. Here's a video Hopkins made a year or so ago, just to introduce you to his concepts, and then I'll share Tom's letter.
FireHawk Hulin 'Stumbled" me a link to this great visual story by illustrator/author Franke James. Franke's story of battling the powers that be to create a little beauty and health in her front yard is the perfect antidote to Joni Mitchell's famous lament "Pave paradise, put up a parking lot."
Click the image to "read" the rest of the story (and while you're there, check out the others she's created on the subject of global climate change and what we can each do about it).
Cool Globes is a US-wide project that was launched in Chicago last year using the power of art to bring a more positive message about the need to "cool" the planet. Here in the San Francisco bay area where I live we're gearing up for a Cool Globes exhibition in Chrissy Field. It opens this Tuesday and will be showing through October 12th.
Here's a video of local artist Lauren Davies creating her piece - "The Butterfly & the Tsunami":
Two absolutely stunning books appeared on my doorstep the other day, review copies of new photography books on the theme of global warming, courtesy of the high-quality publisher Harry N. Abrams.
They are both remarkable works of art, but Storm Chaser, which depicts the extreme weather conditions thrown up by the climactic changes of global warming, immediately caught my attention with its direct visual impact.
In shot after shot, veteran photographer Jim Reed captures the exquisite tension between the beauty and the raw power of nature at its most elemental. The text is fascinating too, as Reed and his crew keep a journal of their travels through disaster after disaster.
This video of their journey has footage of the artist photographing hurricanes Katrina and Isabelle that had me perched on the edge of my seat:
Vanishing World is a bit more cuddly, with its focus on the endangered-species poster-child the polar bear, but no less spectacular; arctic light has got to be some of the most magical phenomena on the planet.
The artist, Mireille de la Lez, takes you deep into a world few have ever experienced, and from the looks of it, this key part of our global climate system is disappearing so fast fewer still will get the chance to see it in the future.
But Vanishing World leaves us on a high note, with the optimistic belief that if this book motivates just one person to take action to protect the polar regions, it will have fulfilled its mission. In my opinion, this optimism is well-founded indeed. I can't imagine anyone not being powerfully moved by this glimpse into the beauty of this region and those creatures who live there.
Debbe Kennedy, Founder of the Global Dialogue Center writes:
At the Global Dialogue Center our contribution is working to provide opportunities to think, question and explore new ideas, so we all can be informed citizens and catalysts for positive change.
I would like to invite others to visit Global Dialogue Center to listen to our new MOMENTS OF INSIGHT SERIES, which includes a powerful six-episode series with NY Times Bestselling Author John Perkins, called OUR GEO-POLITICAL CRISIS and YOU.
Take a look at this powerful video to hear a young girl address world leaders in a way that puts environmental issues in perspective.
Nancy Margulies, our Global Climate Change blog host suggests this clip as a possible opening for a Global Climate Change Café or as a link in an invitation to a Global Climate Change Café.
Debbe Kennedy, Founder of the Global Dialogue Center writes:
Recent Comments