[SustainableTompkins] Upbeat Climate Change article by Francis Moore Lappe

[senecajean at aol.com]

Thank You for this. Although I have reservations about the "abundance" approach, a perspective su h as this provides a real antidote to despair which can have such a paralyzing effect. Another example of the bleak could be Ross Gelbspan's latest article, linked below:

Beyond the point of no return

It's too late to stop climate change, argues Ross Gelbspan -- so what do we do now?


http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/12/10/165845/92
 

Or perhaps the two articles taken as a pair point up the vital necessity of the sustainable way. 

I would like to read Lappe's longer article. I know Greenstar has a lot of magazines of this type: I'll check and see if they have Shambhala Sun.  The link to the magazine which unfortunately does indeed NOT link the Lappe article is http://www.shambhalasun.com/  



Jeanne

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Elan Shapiro <elansla at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us>

To: sustainabletompkins at lists.mutualaid.org; sustainability at lists.ithaca.edu

Sent: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 12:30 pm

Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Upbeat Climate Change article by Francis Moore Lappe

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: Elan Shapiro <elansla at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us>
To: sustainabletompkins at lists.mutualaid.org; sustainability at lists.ithaca.edu
Sent: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 12:30 pm
Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Upbeat Climate Change article by Francis Moore Lappe




   Climate Change, Courage & Celebration
by Frances Moore Lappé
  http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2117
(Note: her longer article on "Natural Abundance" 
n the Jan 2008 issue of Shamballa Sun magazine, 
ink unavailable, goes into more depth about her 
ritique of the Energy Descent mindset.)

'd been preparing for a speech by devouring 
iterature about the global environmental 
atastrophe-50 species disappearing daily and ice 
aps melting way faster than experts had 
redicted.
The messages were tough: Hey, you Americans, the 
arty's over. Be more responsible and less 
reedy. Give up your toys and wake up to the 
isaster happening around us. "Power down" and 
top trying to get your status from acquisition. 
emember, you've had it easy compared to the rest 
f the world.
Inside I'd felt tight, frightened, and guilty.
Then I got a call from Helen Whybrow, host of the 
ad River Valley, Vermont, event at which I'd 
een preparing to speak. All she really wanted 
as reassurance that I understood the nature of 
he event. "Each fall our Center for Whole 
ommunities puts on a Harvest and Courage 
elebration," she explained.
That was it. All it took were these few words, 
nd my body eased and heart lifted. In my mind's 
ye, I could already see hundreds of Vermonters 
among whom I will always count myself, having 
een one during the '90s) filling a huge barn to 
hare steaming bowls of soup, homemade bread, and 
ies. Together, we'd dig deep for answers to our 
lobal crises and take strength in our common 
earch.
I've spent much of my life focused on learning 
hat, in regard to world hunger, fear and guilt 
on't truly motivate systemic change. Sometimes 
hey have the exact opposite effect. Telling 
eople "no" can intensify our craving, our 
rasping for even more before it's all gone.
Yet many impassioned, well-intentioned 
nvironmentalists believe that now we must sound 
he shrillest possible alarm, for Americans are 
sleep-unaware of the now near certainty that 
nless we cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 
050 or earlier, the consequences of climatic 
isruption will be catastrophic.
But what if many of our messages are themselves 
rapped in mechanistic and moralistic thinking 
hat helped get us into this mess in the first 
lace? And what if, to make this historic turn 
eem possible-even compelling-we changed the way 
e talk and think about it?
Instead of scolding people for being wasteful, we 
ncourage ourselves and others to shed a belief 
ystem that denies us power and happiness, and 
eeps us on a treadmill wasting the Earth's 
lenty. In that inefficient system, only 6 
ercent of the material extracted and processed 
ctually ends up in products we use. Rather than 
power down" we can offer ways to "align with the 
arth's answers." After all, the sun provides 
aily doses of energy 15,000 times what we 
urrently use from fossil sources. The message 
ight also shift from "simplify" to enrich and 
iversify as we make new connections in our heads 
nd in our communities, as we learn new skills 
nd ways of being. The challenge becomes less 
bout restriction and more about trusting our 
ommon sense and curiosity.
For its event, the Center for Whole Communities 
inks "harvest" with "courage" with 
celebration." For me, the three words capture it 
ll: We can harvest the abundance that is our 
ome if we have the courage to break away from 
he dominant culture of waste and destruction and 
o walk with our fear of the unknown and of being 
ifferent. These natural fears are the dark side 
f our beautifully social nature; but we can tame 
ur fear of separation as we make new connections 
n communities of common purpose-instead of 
ommon purchases. Then we can celebrate. For-who 
nows-we may just be able to make this historic 
urn.
Frances Moore Lappé is a YES! contributing editor 
nd author of many books, most recently Getting a 
rip.
-- 
lan Shapiro
ustainable Tompkins Program Co-Chair
ustainable Living Associates, Principal
rog's Way B&B
11 Rachel Carson Way
thaca, NY 14850
07-275-0249
"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
             Mohandas Gandhi
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