- P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: Climate crisis
by Michel Bauwens 09 Jun '19

09 Jun '19

thanks for reading Slater's loss of faith apocalyptic warning letter below, Michel ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Mathijs de Bruin <mathijs(a)mathijsfietst.nl> Date: Sun, Jun 9, 2019 at 12:04 PM Subject: Climate crisis To: Dear friends, Not much of an update of my part. Tears are in my eyes as I’ve read Matthew Slater’s post (forwarded below). Knowing him as one of the strongest ‘possibilitists’/optimists who has been working on realistic options for a livable future. I don’t know what to make of this, how to interpret this, how to deal with this. I do know, that his words are not lightly spoken. I do think we should worry. I feel that our solution(s) are not in maintaining wellbeing, as much as in sticking together. I want to hold your hands as the tsunami is coming, feel your embrace. See what is the best we can do, as *our* world is failing. To me, in this context, even knowing (and: doing!) what should be done. To choose survival, together, is worthwhile challenge. Even though the fruits of our labour might not be the utopic reality we long and strive for. It might be a different one: parting with grace, embracing what is to come, overcoming despair and: building on what is (or might be) left. “Alles van waarde is weerloos.” — Lucebert With love, Mathijs *Van: *"Matslats - Community currency engineer" <matslats(a)fastmail.com> *Onderwerp: **matslats.net <http://matslats.net>: Climate crisis* *Datum: *9 juni 2019 om 10:27:07 WEST *Aan: *mathijs(a)mathijsfietst.nl <https://cdn.blog.ucsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/polar-vortex-2019-Jan-29.jpg> I suspected for a long time that our civilisation wasn't viable. When the banks crashed in 2008 I paid attention to a lot of apocalyptic reporting that said we came *this* close to economic Armageddon - whatever that meant. As I better understood how capitalism is a stupid dogma preached increasingly only by self-serving, vain sociopaths <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/give-and-take/201310/does-studying-…>, how it requires exponential consumption of resources <http://www.missingtheforest.com/capitalisms-problem-exponential-growth-in-a…>, and how it has failed to respond to increasingly shrill science-based warnings, I came to expect an ugly financial and/or climate collapse as inevitable in my lifetime. I was alarmed in early April 2018 when the polar vortex broke <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/27/north-pole-temperatures-soar-pa…> and Europe froze, but Jem Bendell's paper, Deep Adaptation: A map for navigating the climate tragedy <http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf> didn't alarm me too much. His favoured theory was a multi-breadbasket failure (MBBF) within 5-10 years; the melting of sea ice at the north pole would disrupt the weather so much that that grain harvests in Russia, USA and Canada would all fail, and that this would probably lead to societal collapse. Fair enough, I said. Jem's instincts can be uncanny. Last week I heard the news that the polar vortex has shifted over from the less cold north polar ocean to greenland, where more ice remains, and this has meant near incessant rain for grain farmers in USA. By the end of the planting season, only 60% of the fields had been planted, and much of what was planted had drowned. This plus drought in Australia <https://www.world-grain.com/articles/11664-australian-wheat-output-falls-to…> and a long Russian winter <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-25/russia-s-wheat-crop-unde…> means that we are facing MBBF this year. Suddenly I'm not so sanguine. My last ten years work on complementary currencies has been an expression of optimism I didn't feel, that it was possible for people to self organise and run society differently. I felt even if there was the smallest chance of it being meaningful, in the face of such suffering, working to change the system was meaningful. Now without time to change the system, its hard to find purpose. We've been sunning ourselves on the beach until the tide went out waaaay to far, and now we see the froth of the tsunami on the horizon. Its too late to install the early warning system, too late to reinforce our houses, now we've only got time to run and to hope. Its time for me to admit that the system I was working to change for the better will be destroyed and all my work will be dashed on the rocks. Its too late to build a decentralised energy grid; too late to redesign finance; too late to build a better food system, too late to restore our national manufacturing base; too late to restore our soils, agriculture; too late for carbon capture technologies too late to dismantle the fossil fuel leviathan; too late for every hope I clung to; from last week to this, I don't know who I am any more. Climate science is far from exact, but when it starts playing out we'd be foolish to say it was wrong. But there's a leap from "crops will fail" to "society will collapse" which is another field entirely. A sensible society could still take steps (that's what Deep Adaptation is about) not so much to reduce carbon emissions but to ensure that resources are shared. But our society is very far from sensible, or even aware of what is coming. A real but manageable hunger crisis, perhaps comparable to the special period in Cuba <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6xoKmnYq8>, will be compounded by shock, blame, #ClimateGrief <https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/gy48d4/environmental-grief-climate-chang…>, and opportunist elites profiting from pain. So this winter the global grain reserves will be eaten and as in 2011, the poorer countries will probably experience political unrest fueled by high food prices. Since the north pole is past its tipping point, next year will almost certainly be worse than this, so about 18 months from now, a LOT of people will be freaking out. More than ever before, the food we eat will be taken directly out of the mouths of the starving. Some people are predicting human extinction <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqIt93dDG1M>, but that seems a rather abstract loss to me. My chest is heavy and my gaze constantly drifts because I'm grieving the failure of our wondrous civilisation, contemplating the expansion of needless suffering, and turning to face a difficult future. ---------------------- Please share this link on social media if you like it! http://matslats.net/climate-crisis -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: THIS BOOK IS YOURS - support us to make a book about artistic collaboration!
by Michel Bauwens 02 Jun '19

02 Jun '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Sally De Kunst <sally_de_kunst(a)hotmail.com> Date: Sat, Jun 1, 2019 at 3:30 PM Subject: THIS BOOK IS YOURS - support us to make a book about artistic collaboration! To: Sally De Kunst <sally_de_kunst(a)hotmail.com> Dear friends and colleagues, *We need your support for the book we are currently preparing! * As you all might know, Arc artist residency had to close its doors in December 2018. After this news we decided we wanted to shed a light on the artistic research and the collaborations that took place at Arc, by publishing a book. *’THIS BOOK IS YOURS – Recipes for artistic collaboration’* will cover four years in the life of Arc, from January 2015 till December 2018. Each chapter of the book starts with a recipe for a meal that was prepared at Arc on a certain occasion, because the easiest and most fundamental way of gathering people, exchanging and collaborating is by cooking and eating together. The 19 chapters will furthermore contain other «recipes» for artistic research and collaboration: texts, instructions, scores, drawings, essays, diaries and more, contributed by artists and other practitioners from various fields who were involved in Arc. *In order to be able to finance this publication, we need your support. * We started a *crowdfunding to find 7.000.- CHF* and every little bit will help. You can pre-order the book, but also buy a postcard or a glossary, or invest in a drawing or a diner. *You can find all the info to pledge here:* *wemakeit.com/projects/this-book-is-yours <http://wemakeit.com/projects/this-book-is-yours>* A big thank you in advance for your support and for forwarding this message to your friends! Sally, Julien, Alberto, Valentine, Gosie & Julien -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: The Bankers’ “Power Revolution”: How the Government Got Shackled by Debt
by Michel Bauwens 31 May '19

31 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ellen Brown <Ellen.Brown(a)publicbankinginstitute.org> Date: Fri, May 31, 2019 at 2:34 PM Subject: The Bankers’ “Power Revolution”: How the Government Got Shackled by Debt To: <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Hi, here is my latest article, posted on my blog -- *The Bankers’ “Power Revolution”: * *How the Government Got Shackled by Debt* <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> It is excerpted from my new book *Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…>, available here <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…>.* Best wishes, Ellen http://EllenBrown.com <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> http://PublicBankingInstitute.org <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> Unsubscribe <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> michel(a)p2pfoundation.net from this list. Update your profile <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1a9&i…> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Fwd: New deadline for proposals: 20 June 2019, and other important information: International conference "Social Solidarity Economy & the Commons: Contributions to the Deepening of Democracy", 6-8 November 2019, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
by Michel Bauwens 31 May '19

31 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ana Margarida Esteves <anamargarida.esteves(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, May 31, 2019 at 3:13 PM Subject: New deadline for proposals: 20 June 2019, and other important information: International conference "Social Solidarity Economy & the Commons: Contributions to the Deepening of Democracy", 6-8 November 2019, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal Dear colleagues, We have been contacted by several potential participants who asked for an extension of the deadline for the receipt of proposals, so that they can have time to fully develop their proposal while fulfilling other professional and activist commitments. In order to honor these requests, we decided to extend the deadline to June 20. In order to make the conference more dynamic in terms of interactions between participants and the production of outputs, as well as fasten the dissemination of conference results at the highest level of quality and impact, we decided to introduce two innovations: 1) To offer, in parallel to traditional paper sessions, between five and six "Research Derby" sessions in which participants are invited to pool their proposals into a collective article draft. The topic of the "Research Derby" sessions will be in line with the five thematic areas proposed for the conference. Each session will be coordinated by about two senior scholars or practitioners, who will guide the participants through the discussions and the drafting process. The drafts will be finished after the conference by the participants in each session, who will be credited as co-authors. The organising committee will gather these drafts into a special issue proposal, to be sent to a journal in the Q1 or Q2 quarters of SCOPUS. The concept of the "Research Derby" was developed in the following article: Brett Favaro, Douglas C Braun, and Earth2Ocean Research Derby. “The ‘Research Derby’: A Pressure Cooker for Creative and Collaborative Science.” Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, no. 1 (2013). Abstract: Ecology and evolution research benefits when scientists engage in meaningful collaborations. However, making time for such efforts is difficult, particularly for early-career graduate students* who are often focused on an independent and self-driven research program. Here, we introduce the concept of the Research Derby, a collaborative and semi-competitive workshop where teams are given 24 hours to complete a research project. This ‘pressure-cooker’ environment is designed to give scientists a fun and short-term opportunity to conduct research outside their primary field, promote skills exchange within the research group, and ultimately produce high-quality scientific publications. In this manuscript we outline the goals of the Research Derby, explain how to set up such an event, and recount our experiences running a Derby within our research group at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada. We argue that Research Derbies have the potential to achieve creative and collaborative high-impact science, and are a fun and productive research activity. *Note: In order to increase the diversity of perspectives and output, we also encourage the participation of mid-career scholars and practitioners. 2) To offer thematic interactive poster sessions, in which participants will be encouraged to interact with the authors and discuss ideas for the further development of research projects, as well as future collaborations. *We ask prospective participants to indicate, in their proposals, in they wish to be considered for either the "Research Derby" sessions or the poster sessions. * *Those who have already submitted a proposal do not need to re-send it. We just kindly ask you to send an e-mail to ssecommons.cei(a)iscte-iul.pt <ssecommons.cei(a)iscte-iul.pt> indicating if you would like your proposal to be considered to a "Research Derby" or a poster session, or if you prefer to be included in a classical academic paper session. * We are also happy to send you a list of confirmed Keynote speakers and members of the Scientific Committee of the conference, which you may find in annex. Kinds regards, Ana Margarida Esteves Kind regards, Ana Margarida Esteves -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: Please Help Michael Albert's new Podcast, RevolutionZ
by Michel Bauwens 27 May '19

27 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Michael Albert <sysop(a)zmag.org> Date: Mon, May 27, 2019 at 1:49 PM Subject: Please Help Michael Albert's new Podcast, RevolutionZ To: Anthony Arnove <arnove(a)mac.com>, Ben Bagdikian < benmar(a)uclink4.berkeley.edu>, Mark Becker <marc(a)yachana.org>, Martin Prieto Beaulieu <martin(a)beaulieu.se>, David Barsamian <barsamian(a)riseup.net>, Normand Baillargeon <baillargeon.normand(a)uqam.ca>, Ramzy Baroud < ramzybaroud(a)hotmail.com>, Marcos Arruda <marruda(a)pacs.org.br>, Maximilien Arvelaiz <maxarvelaiz(a)gmail.com>, Rolf Auer <rolfauer(a)yahoo.ca>, Adam Arvidsson <adam.arvidsson(a)unimi.it>, James Asfa <james.asfa(a)googlemail.com>, Mutlu Arslan <mutluarslan1(a)yahoo.com>, Walden Bello <waldenbello(a)yahoo.com>, <aydin.ordek(a)politics.ankara.edu.tr>, Ozlem Aslan <aslozlem(a)gmail.com>, Senia Barragan <ybarragan86(a)gmail.com>, Michael Albert <sysop(a)zmag.org> Cc: Dean Baker <dean.baker1(a)verizon.net>, Benat Belfast < kortatu5(a)hotmail.com>, Nedda Argulo <neddangulo(a)yahoo.com>, Sergio Baierle < baierle(a)gmail.com>, <bdriscoll(a)eyeboston.com>, Sumanta Banerjee < suman5ban(a)yahoo.com>, Stanley Aronowitz <saronowitz(a)igc.org>, Bob Barr < barrph(a)class.org>, Jessica Azulay <jessica(a)disconnection.org>, Radhika Balakra <rbalakra(a)igc.org>, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com>, Omar Barghouti <omar.barghouti(a)gmail.com>, David Bacon <dbacon(a)igc.apc.org>, Sysop at zmag.org <Sysop(a)zmag.org>, balkanozapatista(a)gmail.com < balkanozapatista(a)gmail.com>, Rosalyn Baxandal <ROSYBAX(a)aol.com>, George Bachrach <gbachrac(a)sharegroup.com> Hello, I am writing everyone in my address book, almost exactly 1,000 people, because I am initiating a Podcast called RevolutionZ: Life After Capitalism <https://zcomm.org/revolutionz/>. I figure since I have your email address, you at least know my history and views so who better to turn to? In the words of Lennon and McCartney: Help me if you can, I'm feeling down And I do appreciate you being 'round Help me get my feet back on the ground Won't you please, please help me? A podcast is a leap for me. My nephew recommended that I do one a few years ago and I barely knew what he was talking about. Since then, things have changed for me and podcasting. Without going into details, family health issues have left me seeking a way to be supportive, generate badly needed income, and simultaneously stay politically productive. Meanwhile, podcasting has become incredibly popular, technically manageable, able to generate income, and politically relevant. RevolutionZ starts with one audio episode a week. With sufficient help, I will add a second and third each week, and also video. In the first episode each week I will address something topical, cultural, or activist, and quickly move the discussion from analysis to vision and strategy. In the second, a guest will discuss his or her areas of expertise. In the third, I and the week’s guest will address supporter-submitted questions and comments. Generating useful content is seriously daunting, but as in most media endeavors, the biggest hurdle will be creating sufficient early momentum to justify first visitors following and supporting the podcast. I hope you will give me a leg up on that hardest hurdle. Will you click one or more of the links below, listen to some of the material, and even send me some advice on improving RevolutionZ? Will you use the links to follow the podcast? Will you pledge a monthly donation by becoming a patron via the website Patreon <https://www.patreon.com/revolutionZ>? While gearing up to do RevolutionZ, I am also seeking to sell the house I am writing this letter from to garner revenues for the health needs mentioned above. To do the podcast is of course a political project, but this time it also seeks income to help address serious personal needs. In short, I can’t do RevolutionZ without a reasonable living situation, time, peace of mind, and resources for costs, all of which now require “a little help from my friends.” So I am asking you to please consider making a monthly pledge by becoming a patron and following RevolutionZ, I would profoundly appreciate it. Flip a coin. Heads you become a Patron, Tails you don’t. RevolutionZ is fully funded! I am stable. Don’t bother with the coin, just become a Patron. RevolutionZ has funds to grow and diversify, I am comfortable. That’s the situation. Please do let me know at sysop(a)zmag.org your reactions to the idea of RevolutionZ and I thank you in advance for any support you can provide. You can access and then relate to RevolutionZ by various paths: Use RevolutionZ’s Patreon Page <https://www.patreon.com/revolutionZ> where you can pledge some much needed material aid and enjoy related benefits. Use RevolutionZ’s Server Host Page <http://revolutionz.buzzsprout.com/> which includes episodes and transcripts of episodes. Use RevolutionZ’s Own ZNet Hosted Website <https://zcomm.org/revolutionz/> that has instructions for all modes of access and includes transcripts. Use RevolutionZ’s RSS feed <https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/330161.rss> with any EReader. Listen anywhere with Apple’s Podcast App <https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolutionz/id1465163691> which comes free with all mobile Apple hardware. Listen on Spotify <https://open.spotify.com/show/6lGvEAmn9yU6RhhMvyMB8n> with a browser or get their App to listen from your mobile device. Listen on Stitcher <https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/michael-albert/michhael-albert?refid=stpr> with a browser or get their App to listen from your mobile device. I thank you again for your time, advice, and, I hope, help… Michael Albert -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: NEW BOOK! "Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age"
by Michel Bauwens 26 May '19

26 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ellen Brown <Ellen.Brown(a)publicbankinginstitute.org> Date: Sun, May 26, 2019 at 12:00 AM Subject: NEW BOOK! "Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age" To: <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Hi, my new book, nearly 3 years in the making, is finally in print. It’s called “Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…>” and is published by the Democracy Collaborative. The release date is June 1 and it's available for pre-order here <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…>. As our democracy hangs in the balance, I hope this book allows many more people to understand why having control over the money supply is central to the idea of democracy, and what we can do to wrest that control from big private banks and put it squarely in the hands of the people. >From the back cover: *Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.* *** *"Banking on the People* is a compelling and fast-moving primer on the new monetary revolution by the godmother of the public banking movement now emerging throughout the country. Brown shows how our new understanding of money and its creation, long concealed by bankers and others capturing the benefits for their own purposes, can be turned to support the public in powerful new ways." *-- Gar Alperovitz, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, Co-Founder of The Democracy Collaborative and author of America Beyond Capitalism and other books* "More lucidly that any other expert I know, Ellen Brown shows in *Banking on the People* how we can break the grip of predatory financialization now extracting value from real peoples’ productive activities all over the world. This book is a must read for those who see the promising future as we seek to widen democracies and transform to a cleaner, greener, shared prosperity." *-- Hazel Henderson, CEO of Ethical Markets Media and author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books* "Ellen Brown shows that there is a much better alternative to Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Public banks can safeguard public funds while avoiding the payday loans, redlining, predatory junk-mortgage loans and add-on small-print extras for which the large commercial banks are becoming notorious." *-- Michael Hudson, Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and author of Killing the Host and other books* *"Banking on the People* offers a tour de force for those activists, NGOs, and academics wanting to understand the forces at play when we talk about the democratization of finance. A must read!" -- Thomas Marois, Senior Lecturer, SOAS University of London, author of *States, Banks and Crisis *and other publications Best wishes, Ellen http://EllenBrown.com <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> http://PublicBankingInstitute.org <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> Unsubscribe <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1…> michel(a)p2pfoundation.net from this list. Update your profile <https://wordpress.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=8829ce026276832f7fc66a1a9&i…> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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This is the p2p-f mailing listserv
by Michel Bauwens 14 May '19

14 May '19

Test -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: The Climate Movement: What’s Next? (GTN Discussion)
by Michel Bauwens 08 May '19

08 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Great Transition Network <gtnetwork(a)greattransition.org> Date: Wed, May 8, 2019 at 5:48 PM Subject: The Climate Movement: What’s Next? (GTN Discussion) To: <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> >From Kavita Byrd <kavitaji25(a)yahoo.com> ------------------------------------------------------- Dear GTI, I would like to speak to the questions of "SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE" and the need for a meta-movement. In that strange way life has of delivering curses and blessings in one package, climate change is both cataclysmic and catalytic – with an unprecedented power in both capacities. It is forcing us to change, and to choose how we want to change – to reinvent ourselves and our lives, or to face our own extinction. The climate crisis, as many have noted, is a symptom of something much deeper, but because of the cataclysmic nature of the consequences it entails, it is also the perfect catalyst for the deeper change needed, a radical whole-systems shift on an unprecedented scale. A crisis of this magnitude clearly cannot be addressed by any technological, financial or legal quick fix, but is an unequivocal wake-up call, a red-alarm signal, for a profound transformation of both our consciousness and our systems. And despite the admitted complexity of how to get from here to there, the core message is crystal clear: we need to move from a global capitalist system based on separation, limitless growth, competition and self-profit to a cooperative, just and regenerative new system based on our interconnectedness and unity-in-diversity with each other and the whole web of life, human and non-human. The climate crisis is an ultimatum: we need to see ourselves as part of a whole, much larger than any of us alone -- and to start acting that way, individually and collectively. Perhaps no lesser crisis – the very threat to our own survival as a race – could have ignited the sense of urgency that is awakening today: since the IPCC report was delivered in October, warning us we have only twelve years to completely transform our systems, we’ve seen a surge of action, from the school-strikers, Extinction Rebellion, the New Green Deal – a momentum that is unlikely to turn back, because it is understood now that there is no time to lose, that it is now or never. The young people feel this most acutely, but their elders are also waking up now to the cruelty of the legacy we are leaving them. And around this the generations are also starting to come together, as are diverse cultures, walks of life, races and genders – more and more we are realizing that it’s all hands on deck now, or we will all go down together. Catastrophic as it is, climate change has the potential to serve as the perfect catalyst for a profound, long-overdue radical whole-systems transformation, such as we have never seen before in the history of the human race. Affecting all levels, personal, local and global, it needs to be addressed at all levels, personal, local and global. And that is beginning to happen today, as we are seeing in these rising movements. We need to build on the potential to alchemize this rising sense of crisis into a critical mass, to catalyze whole-scale renewal out of impending collapse, by building on the accelerating momentum and coordinating vision and action at all these levels. These actions reach both in and out, calling us to transform our consciousness and world-view from within, and at the same time reach out to unify with others. And yes, we’re up against tremendous odds, certain irreversible tipping points have been crossed, and, no matter what we do, we are headed into very challenging times… yet that’s no reason to sit back complacent or cynical, like some in the “it’s too late” camp, but rather, all the more, do everything we can to transform ourselves and our world in the short window of time we have left, as I believe we are being called to, by the forces of nature and our own evolution. That intention, and the actions we take from it, are in our hands, no matter what the outcome…and they may be far more powerful than we know… Personally, I’d love to see GTI get involved in another Action Node, riding the wave of rising urgency around the climate crisis now, and harnessing it for a global citizens movement for the great transition we’ve been working for...I don’t believe we’re out of time; I think that more than ever the time is ripe now… Kavita Byrd ******************************************* Thursday, May 2, 2019 >From Bill McKibben <bill.mckibben(a)gmail.com> ________________________________________ THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT'S STATE OF PLAY I came to climate activism gradually. In 1989, when my book The End of Nature was published, it was the first book on global warming for a general audience. For the next fifteen, I worked mainly as a writer and speaker. That’s because I was analyzing the problem incorrectly. In my estimation, we were arguing about the science of climate change: is it real, how bad is it, how bad will it become? Being a writer, and an academic, I thought the right response seemed clear: shed light on the issue through more books, more articles, and more symposia. At a certain point, though, I began to realize that we weren’t engaged in an argument at all. The scientific debate had already been settled by about 1995, with the first major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. The scientific community had reached a clear consensus, yet governments did not take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We were in a fight, not a discourse. Like most fights, it was about power and money. Another book or symposium was unlikely to move the needle. On the other side of the fight stood the fossil fuel industry, with the richest—and hence most politically powerful—enterprises in human history. We weren’t going to match them dollar for dollar, or even penny for dollar. History indicates that in such unequal situations, the only option is to build a movement large enough to provide a countervailing force. It has happened before, such as with the movements for women’s suffrage, civil rights, and, most recently, marriage equality. Those were all hard fought, but a climate movement is harder because no one has made trillions of dollars being a bigot, but people do make trillions selling coal, oil and gas. My expanded understanding prompted me to found 350.org, which initially consisted of myself and seven undergraduates. The biggest problem with climate change was that it seemed so large—and we seemed so small next to it. It was hard to feel hope and easy to walk away. Nevertheless, each student took one of the seven continents, and we set out to organize. All over the world, we found people who wanted to act. Our first task was to show that there was a large constituency for action. So, in our first big action in 2008, we managed to coordinate 5,100 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries, which CNN called the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history. We’ve gone on to organize about 20,000 such rallies, in every country but North Korea. 350.org is still, I believe, the largest group that works solely on climate change, with a not-so-large staff of 120 spread around the world. On the ground, we have found a huge if diffuse movement, made up mostly of indigenous and other frontline communities bearing the brunt of fossil fuel industry. Much of our work is thus focused on coordinating the multitude of worthy efforts already underway. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we also quickly saw the need to move beyond education to confrontation—hence, in the US, the birth of the continent-wide Keystone pipeline fight. There was already a movement in place in the tar sands of Alberta and on the prairies of Nebraska through which the proposed pipeline would pass. But we nationalized the movement, with demonstrations in DC and pressure on President Barack Obama. So far, the pipeline remains unbuilt. Every project like this around the world (e.g., fracking wells, coal ports, LNG terminals) is a target for opposition. We may not always win, but we always make life harder for the industry. On another front, we realized that, to be successful, we needed to systematically confront the instruments used to sustain the dominance of fossil fuels. Thus, we launched the divestment movement in 2012 with the goal of reducing the financing for and, more importantly, social acceptance of the extraction of fossil fuels. It has grown much faster than we expected, and it is now the largest anti-corporate campaign of its kind in history, with commitments from endowments and other portfolios worth about $8 trillion. Goldman Sachs said recently that the campaign is the main contributor to driving the prices of coal shares down sixty percent, and Shell said it had become a “material risk” to its business. In retrospect, I think the most important development in this movement has been the strong emergence of a “climate justice” focus, uniting the climate fight with the broader fight for human rights and dignity. There are so many great leaders now leading the struggle that I don’t want to list any for fear of leaving many out. But for the last five years, my job has been to move into the background as much as possible, seeking to highlight the work of others. Looking ahead, the biggest challenge facing the movement remains the strength of the opposition. With unlimited cash, it has managed to dominate politics, especially in the US. The Koch Brothers are two of the biggest political donors, as well as the biggest oil and gas barons and biggest leaseholders in the tar sands. Give them, and the larger industry, credit: they have managed to make US the only country on earth not taking part in the Paris Agreement, abandoning the international coordination of emission reductions. They even got the US to backtrack on something as obvious and simple as automobile fuel efficiency standards. I do think that, in the long run, they will lose. The science gets stronger with each passing week, and every hurricane and fire makes the issue more salient—and more urgent—for more people. The newest polling shows that climate is much higher on the list of items that Americans worry about and vote on than it used to be, and that trend will continue given the inexorable impacts of our changing climate. Seventy-five years from now, we will run the world on sun and wind because they’re free. These new technologies, whose prices have plummeted in the last decade, excite everyone. Polling shows that the political left, right, and center all love photovoltaics. Still, the “long run” remains the problem. I worry that we can’t make change happen fast enough. If we continue on the current trajectory, the planet that in seventy-five years runs on sun and wind will be a broken one. The strategy of the industry is to extend its business model another decade or two, even at the cost of breaking the planet. They want to make the transition untraumatic for themselves, even if it is traumatic for all life on earth. Going forward, the movement needs to grow bigger and stronger. The strength of movements is a direct reflection of how many people are involved. And a movement must be bigger than the sum of its constituent organizations. We need a combination of breadth organizing and depth organizing. The first are the broad, low-barrier-to-entry, consciousness-raising efforts—think about the student Climate Strikes now underway thanks to the inspiration of Sweden’s Greta Thunberg. The second are the grittier, detailed efforts to get particular policies adopted—say, the state-by-state and city-by-city fight for renewable portfolio standards that specify minimum levels of energy production from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. And the third is an overarching framework to inspire action: for example, the incredibly exciting fight for a Green New Deal now being debated in US political circles and other countries. Together, these three components are the foundation for a bigger, stronger movement. “SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE"? I am not great with eschatology; I don’t know the final destination. While I don't know how to change the “system,” the urgent nature of the climate crisis doesn't let us simply put off action. The biophysics doesn’t allow it. That said, progress on the climate fight in its own right can help drive systemic change. Think about who dominates the prevailing political-economic system. So many of the major players have gained their power by controlling the scarce, geographically concentrated supplies of fossil fuel—players like Vladimir Putin, the Koch brothers, the Saudi royal family, and Exxon. If we replace fossil fuels with sun and wind, the effect will inevitably lead to at least some erosion of the current power structure. In general, to achieve the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, decentralized and local is where we need to be headed. Going forward, we must fight for the changes we know we need to make for a livable planet and, at the same time, make the world a fairer place. Some of this is inherent. Because sun and wind are intrinsically local, for instance, they reduce some of the power imbalances inherent in an economy based on who controls the small patches of ground above oil and gas. There will be solar billionaires, I imagine, but there won’t be solar Koch Brothers or solar Saudi royal families, because the diffuse nature of non-fossil fuels tends to disperse rather than concentrate economic power. But enabling such a shift requires an intentional strategy to structure renewable energy so that its ownership and control is as local as possible. That was the particular genius of Germany’s Energiewende law, which proposes a plan to democratize energy supply in the transition to a low-carbon, reliable, and affordable energy system. The climate crisis could be the lever for other kinds of transformative change. Again, look at the discourse around the Green New Deal, which reflects a deep policy shift in the direction of fairness and equity. Like the New Deal of the 1930s, this proposal would be an economy-wide mobilization in the direction of greater justice, with the “green” part a reference to the fact that our main goal is not ending an economic depression but the full-scale decarbonization of the economy in light of the climate crisis. Such synergy between social and environmental issues holds great potential. DO WE NEED A META-MOVEMENT? The climate threat is so pressing and so intermingled with current economic arrangements, that it provides the best possible lever for making profound change in other aspects of the economy such as rampant inequality, as Naomi Klein articulates so well in her book This Changes Everything. Social movements across diverse issues are inherently linked because they share a common critique of the status quo, whether you call it neoliberalism, predatory capitalism, or simply capitalism. All kinds of collaboration, both philosophic and strategic, are possible. Look, for instance, at the crucial role of indigenous groups and the indigenous rights movement. Shunted off to what we once thought were valueless wastelands, these communities often live atop fossil fuel resources or astride the transportation routes needed for pipelines and other infrastructure. As such, they are natural allies in the fight against climate change. Indeed they are important leaders in the fight, and they bring a worldview that challenges the status quo with enormous clout. Fighting for their human and legal rights often means complicating the lives of the fossil fuel industry. Specifically, it is crucial that the worldviews associated with indigenous peoples, human rights advocates, and other movements are recognized for their close alignment with the scientific data pertaining to the climate crisis. The oldest and newest wisdom traditions on the planet are powerfully synching up while casting considerable doubt on the conventional wisdoms—extraction, accumulation, commodification—that have dominated our economic and political world. For another example, look at the potential alliance between climate and anti-war movements, driven by the realization that most conflict in this century is going to be driven by climate disruption. Indeed, it already is: a severe drought in Syria, for instance, helped touch off years of deadly civil war. More broadly, climate disruption is widely recognized as the biggest obstacle to realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including the reduction of poverty and inequality. In the last couple of years, hunger and child labor are both on the increase again, thanks to warming-caused disasters. All these conditions point to opportunities for alliance building across movements to accelerate transformational change. I have never been a Pollyanna. The cheerful title of my first book, after all, was The End of Nature. And its thirty-year sequel, out this spring, is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? But I do sense that, at a moment when the climate emergency has become obvious and pressing, we might begin to pivot. If we do, we could progress very far very fast, especially if the climate movement forges alliances with other movements. The extremely rapid fall in the price of renewable energy and electric storage is one indication that the necessary conditions for rapid change are now in place. We are not going to stop climate change—that is no longer on the menu. Standing on the Greenland ice shelf last summer and seeing it melting was sobering. We’re now playing for whether warming is going to reach 2, 3 or 4 °C, with the latter appearing increasingly likely. That range of temperature rise means we still can decide to sustain a livable civilization. But the window for survival is closing fast. We must use this moment as crucial leverage to push the planet in a new direction. Let us try. If we succeed, then we have risen to the greatest crisis humans have ever faced and shown that the big brain was a useful evolutionary adaptation. If we fail—well, we better to go down trying. Bill McKibben 350.org **************************************************************************** Wednesday, May 1, 2019 >From Paul Raskin <praskin(a)tellus.org> ________________________________________ Dear GTN, We launched our current series on key social movements in November 2017 with a rich discussion of a “global citizens movement” as the missing historical agent for a Great Transition (the GTN exchange is archived at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/201-how-do-we-get-there-the-p…) A recurrent theme has been how the portentous issue of climate change infuses all social and environmental mobilizations. Our May discussion will focus directly on the climate movement, per se. With so many of us active in this diverse arena, centering the GTN discussion on a specific essay seems overly restrictive. Instead, I invite you all to respond, succinctly or at length, to one or more of the following questions: WHAT IS THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT’S STATE OF PLAY? What has worked, and where has the movement fallen short? What lessons can be drawn for the next phase? “SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE?” Does defusing the climate crisis require the deep structural and value changes of a Great Transition? Or can “green capitalism” get us there? Where do you stand on the reform versus transformation debate? DO WE NEED A META-MOVEMENT? To the degree that climate change is a symptom, along with other crises, of deeply embedded structural problems, does the climate movement need to build overarching alliances and movements? Does the climate movement, by addressing a signal existential threat, have a special role in binding disparate movements into a coherent force for a just and sustainable future? To kick off the discussion, we asked 350.org founder Bill McKibben to respond to each of these questions: www.greattransition.org/images/McKibben_Climate-Movement-Whats-Next.pdf. What Bill says (and doesn’t say) may provoke some thoughts of your own. Comments are welcome through Friday, MAY 31. Over to you, Paul ------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a comment on the GT Network Read all comments (or reply) at https://greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/211-the-climate-movement-… Note: Expect a delay between posting and receiving your comment Need help? Email jcohn(a)tellus.org -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: [CommonGood] Berlin Awakening
by Michel Bauwens 06 May '19

06 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Birgit Daiber <bir.dai(a)hotmail.com> Date: Mon, May 6, 2019 at 1:49 PM Subject: [CommonGood] Berlin Awakening To: commongood(a)listi.jpberlin.de <commongood(a)listi.jpberlin.de>, transform-commons-wg(a)googlegroups.com <transform-commons-wg(a)googlegroups.com > Dear Friends and Colleagues, I'm working on an article "The Right to the City" for the Transform-Seminar 31.5./2.6. in Zagreb, but as I just was interviewing activists in Berlin running a wonderful campaign on housing, here a short information: *Berlin awakening* Every year about 40 000 people arrive in Berlin and try to find a living. Beyond the hype of glamour and politics Berlin is a working-class city. Traditionally most of it’s citizens do not own houses. Still today 86 % live in social housing ore privately rented flats. As in all globalized cities real estate run by hedge-fonds became one of the big businesses in Berlin. In the last five years rents increased about 50 % - means traditional tenants are evicted and no “normal” family is any more able to find a place to live. In this extremely tense situation activists remembered a wonderful and never practised article in the German Constitution: Art. 15 says *“**Land, natural resources and means of production may for the purpose of socialisation be transferred to public ownership or other forms of public enterprise by a law that determines the nature and extent of compensation.”*Since March 2019 now activists campaign for a referendum to expropriate big private housing-companies, and it’s going rather well. Until mid-June they have to deliver 20 000 signatures (already completed), after proof by Berlin-Senate the Referendum can be started. The referendum needs the mayority of 35 % of the eligible voters to be successful. Already now the campaign provoked extensive political debates all over the country – because the situation is not better in other cities. And for sure, the traditional political scene is deeply shocked. Yours, Birgit *bir.dai(a)hotmail.com <bir.dai(a)hotmail.com>* *www.birgitdaiber.eu <http://www.birgitdaiber.eu>* *Mobile: 0039-366-4207762* *Casella Postale No. 28, * *Uff. Posta, Via Vittorio **Emanuele* *I-98055 Lipari* _______________________________________________ CommonGood Mailingliste JPBerlin - Politischer Provider CommonGood(a)listi.jpberlin.de https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/commongood -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

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Fwd: My response, and intro from Paul Raskin
by Michel Bauwens 06 May '19

06 May '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gary Cleveland <gary.cleveland80(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, May 6, 2019 at 2:14 AM Subject: My response, and intro from Paul Raskin Thrilled my response has gone out to the GTNetwork. And delighted to have the opportunity to introduce the ideas of Organisations, their Ethos and Stakeholders to such a massive audience?? Gary Response GTN May 2019 Considerations – 1. WHAT IS THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT’S STATE OF PLAY? 2. “SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE?” 3. DO WE NEED A META-MOVEMENT? My profound thanks to Paul for opening and simplifying this massive area by posing these three considerations as it allows me to respond – [hopefully succinctly]. I will enumerate my reply in hope that my opinions are more easily undertstood and, thus, of value? 1. I hurdle the first and address a combination of No’s 2 and 3. 2. I have always considered “Climate Change”, though terrifying, a blessing for, as a personal threat inducing fear in all humans, it acts as a window to the big room where has long lurked the problems that demand a *‘meta’ - ‘system’ – change, *in other words, A Great Transition, GT. [I am sure I don’t need remind anyone that we are the ‘G T Network’? GT] 3. So, the question comes down to how do we speed the advance to the GT? Paul gives one all important answer when he notes we need – “build overarching alliances and movements” and then “bind--- disparate movements into a coherent force for a just and sustainable future” 4. I maintain the prime reason the world have been so slow towards a GT is that almost all humans avoid either ‘building’ or ‘binding’. [To our own disgrace, we have deflected doing this within the area of great non-profit organisations, even though, we are all key stakeholders to them.] 5. If we ponder the three great sectors of organisations; namely – A. for-profit - commerce and industry; B. non-profit - community, such as health, education, religion etc; C. government - at all levels. the sad answer is that only the commerce sector has succeeded, partly, in creating alliances, eg - WRI, WBCSD, the Bteam, etc. and, that national governments make endless attempts that either fail totally or fail within the time scale that fate allows us? But, you and I in the non-profits community sector [whom profess to know the need.] have not even tried - until, maybe, now! I believe it is not too fanciful to imagine we, the Great Transition Network within Tellus, can provide the impetus and leadership that ‘builds’ and ‘binds’ a coherent force. [The notable success folk like Ceres, Volans, p2p, GreenBiz etc. have achieved as individuals is truly remarkable. One can only wonder how much faster we will move if they combine to partake in forming that ‘force’?] My response to Paul’s invitation is that I am convinced that pressure from us, the thousand plus GTNetwork, as key stakeholders can build and bind an ethos to allow the coherent force to lead to a *just* and *sustainable** future*. - - - - - - - - - Great Transition Network >From Paul Raskin <praskin(a)tellus.org> We launched our current series on key social movements in November 2017 with a rich discussion of a “global citizens movement” as the missing historical agent for a Great Transition (the GTN exchange is archived at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/201-how-do-we-get-there-the-p…) A recurrent theme has been how the portentous issue of climate change infuses all social and environmental mobilizations. Our May discussion will focus directly on the climate movement, per se. With so many of us active in this diverse arena, centering the GTN discussion on a specific essay seems overly restrictive. Instead, I invite you all to respond, succinctly or at length, to one or more of the following questions: WHAT IS THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT’S STATE OF PLAY? What has worked, and where has the movement fallen short? What lessons can be drawn for the next phase? “SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE?” Does defusing the climate crisis require the deep structural and value changes of a Great Transition? Or can “green capitalism” get us there? Where do you stand on the reform versus transformation debate? DO WE NEED A META-MOVEMENT? To the degree that climate change is a symptom, along with other crises, of deeply embedded structural problems, does the climate movement need to build overarching alliances and movements? Does the climate movement, by addressing a signal existential threat, have a special role in binding disparate movements into a coherent force for a just and sustainable future? To kick off the discussion, we asked 350.org founder Bill McKibben to respond to each of these questions (soon to arrive in your inbox -- and also attached). What Bill says (and doesn’t say) may provoke some thoughts of your own. -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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