Citizens Guide | Understand and Participate in the Success of the Paris Global Climate Agreement
compiled by Rhonda Fabian
Why Paris Is So Important
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 was the last time a major international climate agreement was established that limited greenhouse gas emissions. The Protocol included legally binding emission targets for developed countries for the six major Green House Gases (GHGs): carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydroflurocarbons, perfluorocarbons,…
Kosmos Participates in International Day of Peace 100 Day Countdown
Global Transformation in Harmony with All Life: from Fear to Hope, Remarks by Dot Maver, June 13, 2015
"Over the next 100 days, let us stand with the millions of people across the world who are suffering the devastating impact of violence and conflict. Let us share ideas and plans for helping and supporting them in their time of dire need." - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Dot Maver
What a…
Emergence: from Spark to Scale
Dear Reader,
All around the world we see it happening: a surprising election outcome, a new law or ordinance, a model program that gets adopted state-wide or nationally - positive change - in harmony with nature and for the common good. Many times just one or two people provide the spark that is fanned into flame, that ultimately ignites the imagination and determination of others to enact…
SPAIN | Winning the Commons in Barcelona
By Mayo Fuster Morell, May 26, 2015
Commons conquer Barcelona! A victory for David over Goliath
On May 24th the candidature “Barcelona in Common” won the municipal elections and “Now Madrid”- a candidature also connected to commons ethos – became a key force for the governance of Madrid city. Those are only two of the many surprises from yesterday's municipal and regional elections in…
FRANCE | Reducing Food Waste
By Joseph McAuley | May 28 2015
The next time you are about to throw out that half-eaten container of fast-food take-out, consider these facts: about one-third of the world’s food production and consumption systems either gets lost or wasted—that comes to about 1.3 billion tons, the value of which comes to the astronomical sum of $1 trillion. And this in a world where one in every nine people…
INDIA | Rebuilding the Soil
by Eden Kinkaid
The Hummingbird Project
The tragic phenomenon of farmer suicides in India is symptomatic of the damage that unchecked agricultural development has wrought, according to Delhi-based environmentalist Dr. Vandana Shiva. As explained in Shiva’s The Violence of the Green Revolution, technologies of modern agriculture, such as synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized…
Lifecycle of Emergence: Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale
Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.
This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t…
FIRST NATIONS | Protecting the Human Right to Water
By Maude Barlow, from her blog
British Columbia's Tsal'alh Becomes First Blue Indigenous Community
Tsal'alhmec, known as People of the Lake, (Seton Lake Indian band) became the first Blue Indigenous Community earlier this year. Tsal'alh adopted a resolution with the three criteria needed to become a Blue Community: recognizing of the human right to water, banning bottled water at…
Editorial | The Gift of Life
By Nancy Roof, with Stephanie Shorter
Life clothes itself in many forms. These many forms of life are gifts, if we are open to receiving them.
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘Living Earth?’ How do you personally feel when you observe and honor the aliveness around you? Do you feel enveloped and enlivened by a nurturing life force that perhaps even defies words to describe it?…
Nature’s Living Intelligence
By David Fideler
PUBLISHED IN SPRING | SUMMER 2015
In our consumer society, we are taught to see the world as a collection of objects to be transformed, sold, used, and, ultimately, to be thrown away. Perhaps that is one reason the enduring vision of the ancient Greeks still speaks to us today, because it was based on a deeper vision of nature in which the world itself was not a collection of…