Kosmos Journal: Five Most-Read 2014
1. Development in the Ecological Age, By Charles Eisenstein(image)
Do you live in a developed nation or a developing nation? If your nation has an extensive system of roads, rail and airports, if it is fully electrified, if it is mostly urban and suburban, if modern medicine is widespread, if literacy and education are near-universal, if most people are connected to the Internet, and if, most crucially, per capita GDP is high, then most people would say you live in a developed nation. Otherwise, it will be classified as developing—still on the way to acquiring these things.
Implicit in the developed/developing distinction is the assumption that the course of social and economic evolution exemplified by the developed countries is normal, inevitable and generally desirable. If I am developed and you are developing, that means that your destiny is to be like me.
Today, some key flaws in the narrative of development are become obvious. READ MORE
2. Ecosophy: Nature’s Guide to a Better World, By Elisabet Sahtouris(image)
The most exciting and beneficial things I believe happened to humanity in the past century were physicists’ recognition that “the universe is more like a great thought than like a great machine”1 and astronauts lifting far enough from Earth to see, feel and show us how very much alive our planet is. Those events led to a wonderful sea change from the older—and rather depressing—scientific story of a non-living material universe accidentally giving rise to all within it, devoid of meaning or purpose.
The new view, revealing a conscious universe and a living Earth in which we are co-creators, takes us out of fatalistic victimhood to becoming consciously active agents of our destiny! It lifts the fog of our self-image as consumers of stuff, giving us awesome rights and responsibilities to live out our full co-creative humanity. READ MORE
(image) 3. Connecting for Change: Insights from an Emerging Global Transformation Movement, By Rhonda Fabian
The Shift, Great Turning, and New Story are words used to describe what many are experiencing as a growing movement or awareness worldwide of the need to examine and restructure political, economic, and social systems to align more closely with the needs of humanity and the Earth.i The threats to life brought by climate change coupled with global economic crises are entering mainstream discourse as adversity trends to be feared, yet at the same time are providing impetus for personal transformation, practical efforts to cope at the grassroots level, and international initiatives for the common good.ii As threats have accelerated, so have the seeds of resilience and adaptation sprouted everywhere.iii
A growing community of noted authors, local and global activists, world spiritual figures, economists and ecologists are speaking urgently of a world in crisis and of a simultaneous awakening across many fields of endeavor to a new story, no longer based on greed, competition, and scarcity, but one informed by fresh expressions of cooperation, indigenous wisdom, community-building, sharing, and innovation at all scales from local to global. READ MORE
4. Human Watershed: The Emerging Politics of Bioregional Democracy, By James Bernard Quilligan(image)
First, the bad news. Our global community no longer has the luxury of putting off its complex problems till a later time. Mounting data on Earth’s atmosphere confirm what is already known in daily life: the planet is warming and water is becoming less accessible.
Water scarcity is the result of climate change, diminished rainfall, overpopulation, inefficient infrastructure, over-pumping of aquifers, pollution and wasteful agricultural practices. Nearly three billion people around the world are experiencing periodic water shortages. It’s affecting people in southern and northern Africa, the Middle East, the nations of central Asia, China, India, Australia, Mexico and southwestern United States.
In coming years, water deprivation will spread to more areas, resulting in drought, food shortages, economic hardship and migration.
With this global crisis emerging, it may seem odd to explore stressed-out watersheds and their regional systems as a way of developing new ideas and policies. Yet this is also a moment for pragmatism. Ironically, temperature-driven civil strife and social displacement may lead to new approaches in the production and allocation of vital goods and services, leading to political reform, social stability, economic opportunity and international peace. READ MORE
5. Roadmap: A Movement of Movements, By Michael Nagler(image)
We in the progressive movement have been aware for some time that we tend to be ‘siloed’ in our respective niches, whether saving the whales, protesting the 1%, militarism, or what have you. It had become so much a part of how and who we have been, however, that very few of us thought to do anything about it.
Then along came Blessed Unrest, the book and other presentations by Paul Hawken, that opened our eyes to the scale of the worldwide activities that he correctly called the largest social movement the world had ever seen—except that, in the proper sense of the word, it’s not a movement. Hawken counts tens of millions of people and groups doing progressive work, but “Movements have leaders and ideologies. You join movements, study tracts, and identify yourself with a group. You read the biography of the founder(s) or listen to them perorate on tape or in person. Movements have followers, but this movement doesn’t work that way. It is dispersed, inchoate, and fiercely independent. There is no manifesto or doctrine, no authority to check with.” And no name. READ MORE
Other top posts, not published in the print journal included: