Spring of Sustainability, FREE online, on radio, purchase CDs, promises to bring many clear views of complex issues we need to understand to preserve life as we know. Check the SWC site: and sign up free.
Speakers and organizers of Spring of Sustainability are not giving in to the paralysis that seems to infect most of us – getting heavier and more prone to illness because – we can’t break loose from our TVs – and computers! (Am victim to the latter!) Did you notice Spring is PERMANENTLY two weeks early? That’s the sweet part. The Maldives under water? Some COUNTRIES will have to “move” due to the auto and factory-based pollution that cause climate crisis. Unending drought? All the people living without water will have to migrate, though that must be horrendous when you are dying of thirst! Acidification of our oceans? Die-off of countless species? Really, how on earth did we allow this craziness when we have known for many years what the destruction of our natural resources would bring? Seems unconscionable to me.
Knew from Vinit Allen, founder of Sustainable World Coalition, that his Spring of Sustainability would bring a solid base of useful information aimed at balancing the needs of our habitat with our own. Each interview is 1/2 hour, takes place at noon – and expect all to be marvelous. Though I have missed a few, and its not always possible to have noon free, this remains a series not to be missed. May have to buy the CDs.
The line up is amazing: Jane Goodall, Joanna Macy, Thom Hartmann, Bill McKibben (350.org), Frances Moore Lappe’ (Diet for a Small Planet and so much more!), Nina Simmons (Bioneers), Duane Elgin (Living with Simplicity), Van Jones(Green Collar Jobs), and so many more incredible workers for our mutual planetary health. Want to join them?
You can call in questions. http://springofsustainability.com/ Also found recommendation here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/112710429
“Here’s a very strong recommendation. This program of daily half-hour webcasts throughout the spring looks like it’s going to be amazing. The list of 100 presenters is a jaw-dropping who’s who of the movement. And like everything in a gift economy, there is no money involved – just connections and the good kind of growth.”
And from WiserEarth, a creation of ecology icon, Paul Hawken, and friends: http://blog.wiserearth.org/capitalism-communities/ (
Hosted by Betsy Rosenberg, today’s talk on the Spring of Sustainability series featured Emmy award-winning journalist and host of Sundance Channel’s The Green Simran Sethi.
Earlier this week, author Hunter Lovins spoke to us about finding a way out of capitalism. She urged each of us to delve deeper and question where the basic necessities in our lives come from.
On Tuesday, Duane Elgin explored the topic of volunteering simplicity and the importance of living with balance. As he puts it, “There is no cook book about simplicity.”
This Thursday, Simran Sethi speaks to us about where the environmental movement stands in our current media sphere. Her topic, “Why Sustainability Isn’t Getting More Traction–and What We Can Do To Change It,” was a good segue to a question many of us may be wondering as we approach Earth Day this April.
Sending an important message on such a massive scale requires incredible drive. Over the last several years, the movement has gained powerful momentum but has been losing traction at the same time. What happened? Simran Sethi couldn’t have put it better when she responded, “Things got really deeply politicized and convoluted. There are a number of reasons it didn’t gain traction… This is just the way we’re wired.”
On a very basic level, our human brain is programmed to react to immediate danger. The difference between telling someone what is going to happen to him or her in twenty years versus what is affecting them right now, Simran explains, is really in the framing.
Reflecting on what a journalism student once proposed, Sethi remembers being challenged herself to reframe the question of what sustainability is to focusing on what sustains us as people.
“We have to work with existing cares. It’s about igniting people in a place where they already care, meeting people where they are.”
Back in October 2011, Wiser had the honor of hosting a WiserLocal event with Simran in la Ruche, Paris. That night, Simran and the community discussed what was holding us back from going green. Moving beyond the “one-size-fits-all” idea and approach is urgent, she mentioned. We need to push past dropping alarming statistics and bring the environmental conversation back to the level of the people. What does it mean in our day-to-day lives?
Five months later, she speaks to listeners this afternoon about what works with environmental communication and perhaps—our greatest fear—what isn’t working.
Simran’s message hasn’t changed, and neither should ours. It’s easy to be deterred when the sustainability message is losing its hold in the midst of mainstream media. In the end, however, it seems like what is at stake isn’t the message we’re trying to send. It’s the way in which we’re sending it.
“Taking one step is a part of a bigger journey,” Simran Sethi reminds us.
Indeed, the movement and dialogue surrounding sustainability hasn’t lost its traction. Maybe the real challenge is figuring out how to hang on to it. (More on this at http://metamorphose.us/
“Metamorphose
An interdisciplinary exploration of the personal and cultural dimensions of transformation. A creative investigation into the values, beliefs and social conditions that bring us together and inspire us to engage and flourish. Answers to the question, “What ignites change?”
Founded and curated by Simran Sethi. Currently in beta.
Spring of Sustainability runs through Friday, June 22, 2012. For more info: 415-737-0235, info@swcoalition.org, http://springofsustainability.com/.