[SustainableTompkins] Gelbspan & Lappe

[Katie Quinn-Jacobs]

Lappé <http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2117> & Gelbspan 
<http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/12/10/165845/92>'s articles 
struck me as essential reading - in two very different ways; we need the 
brutal honesty of the latter and the call to courage of the former. 

It is rare for individuals in the sustainability mov't to take on the 
possibility/reality of being past the tipping point, yet most of us 
admit that the collective global reponses are just tinkering around the 
edges of the problem.  Myself, I think it's a moot point whether global 
warming is already engaged in irreversible positive feedback or if we 
cross that threshold in 8 years - either way it's a done deal.  Humans 
aren't going to re-engineer global society in 8 years.

That leaves us where?  Here in Tompkins County.

Myself, I think the Vermont idea of having a Harvest and Courage 
Celebration that Lappé attended is a good one.

 From Gelspan's article:
/
"The key to our survival as a civil species during an era of profound 
natural upheaval lies in an enhanced sense of community. If we maintain 
the fiction that we can thrive as isolated individuals, we will find 
ourselves at the same emotional dead end as the current crop of 
survivalists: an existence marked by defensiveness, mistrust, suspicion, 
and fear."/

-- Katie Q-J







senecajean at aol.com wrote:
> 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.
>   

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