Bring Back the Earth

The guest post below has been generously contributed by Eco-learning Legacies. Founder Candia Lea Cole outlines the mission as follows, “As an eco-visionary, I envision a future on earth in which all people are conscious of their role in protecting and sustaining the living ecology of people and the planet and they wholeheartedly embrace the wisdom for everyday living and learning rituals that honor their innate eco-intelligence.” Their company is currently in a contest for the best idea to help humanity. Votes can be received up until October 17th. Here's a link to the voting page: http://www.bestideaforhumanity.com/register.cfm

Lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the probability that my children, and my children’s children, will be here long after me. I’ve been trying to envision how the earth will function in another 20, 30 or 40 years, and whether or not the branches extending from my family tree will be green and thriving.

To be perfectly honest, I have my moments of doubt. I am tempted at times to indulge in the cynicism of our age. Yet, just as the doubters and critics are about take over, I realize that it is up to me to determine how I will survive amidst the terror of environmental waste, pollution, and destruction. It is up to me to find strength. It is up to me to find resolve. It is up to me to see the hidden blessing that my situation is bringing me.

In today’s world, millions of us are feeling the pain of being imprisoned by our current reality upon earth, where the cries of hunger can be heard day or night around the globe, and the ice caps are melting, and the rainforest is burning to the ground.

It is hard to know where to step next, what to do next, and how to think about our place and purpose in the grand scheme of life. Yet what is becoming increasingly clear to me and others, in the face of this chaos, is that each of us needs to try and remain calm. We just need to take a deep breath.

As human beings, we are equipped to handle even the direst emergencies in our lives. As long as we have faith in each other and our surroundings, have the loving intention to live well and give ourselves permission to reclaim the innate eco-intelligence we were born with that guides us to live well. The truth we must all come to terms with is that we may never live on a planet that is entirely free of problems and dangers. What is essential is to not create any more problems, but try to fix the ones that already exist by living in an eco-intelligent manner.

Imperfect Circumstances are Perfect for Our Learning and Growth

There are hundreds of circumstances on Earth right now that seem less-than-desirable, but actually are perfect circumstances from which we can all learn about our place and function in life. These perfect circumstances represent one of the rarest opportunities in our history as a human species for our growth and maturation.

They represent one of the greatest opportunities that our bodies, minds, and souls will ever know for learning about how to function in greater harmony and balance with the rest of life. It also presents the need of each and every person to shift their everyday beliefs, actions and choices in the world, to support an ecology of personal and planetary well-being, rather than an ecology of disease. In essence, our perfect circumstances on earth today present us with an opportunity for healing and an opportunity to “bring back” the earth that we depend upon for our life and survival. 

Though I realize that some people on earth are set in their belief that our long-term destructive relationship with the earth cannot be healed, I cannot agree with them. The reason for this is that I have seen and experienced the power of healing in my own life.

If you’re saying to yourself, “What exactly is the power of healing?” I can help you to understand what I mean. The power of healing is the power to “live whole.” It is the power to set right the things that have become lost, injured, or unsettled in the course of life. It is the power to focus our energies in a direction that does not dissipate our vital life force. It is the power to avoid the kinds of internal and external conflicts that hurt our health and separate us from our true spiritual natures.

Ultimately, HEALING is about exercising the ability and willingness to live connected to the greater whole of life and to cultivate the kind of healthy relationships with the earth. It is about honoring our innate potential for integrity through eco-intelligence.

Eco-Intelligence Empowers us to Live Well in Today’s Eco-Challenged Times

In today’s eco-challenged times, it is our ECO-INTELLIGENCE that I believe will empower us to live well, because it is based on the common-sense idea that we are part of a living whole and we are meant to live in balance and harmony with the whole. Our eco-intelligence represents the intuition about “why we are here” on earth, and it validates our need to be in a relationship with life! When we are guided by our eco-intelligence, we stop believing the lie that there is separation between ourselves, each other, and all living things. We start to remember that what we do and what we think affects all life.

When we are guided by our eco-intelligence to live well in the world, we live with a clear sense of what it means to be connected to the earth. We live guided by a clear sense of what it means to be connected to global continents, nations, and cities, as well as people of different races and religions.

We live with a clear sense that we are not just bodies walking the planet, but bodies who share a connection with our minds, emotions, and spirits. By connecting with our innate eco-intelligence, we become aware of the fact that life is supported by the exchange and flow of positive energy. Energy is the key to health and the key to life!

Peace Day 2010

 

Living dangerously

[Image source: MSN News]
Many of us who are able to access internet and read blog posts like this one usually come from the section of the society that ensures our children are brought up in a safe environment and are not exposed to many outrageously dangerous circumstances. However not many children from developing countries around the world are as lucky. This fact is sometimes made too clear for comfort to us by news reports like the one I came across on MSN news yesterday. The images are very telling.

What surprised me a bit was that only 2 out of the 12 images were from India, my own country which is still considered developing, while most were from far east Asian and African countries. Many a time we are desensitised to the problems of people outside of our country by constant bombardment of the media reports of how badly our own country is doing. I watched image after image of kids from Manila, Kenya and so on playing in extremely polluted environs which they had improvised so ingeniously into a playground. Lot of thoughts came into my mind as I did so.

First one was more of a realization than mere thought. My reaction to pictures from the Indian subcontinent and Africa and those from around Asia was very different. I was sort of assuming that African, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi kids would be growing up and playing in such horribly detrimental circumstances. But when it came to pictures from Asian countries like Manila, Viet nam and Jakarta, my first reaction was that of astonishment. For some reason I never imagined that the situation might be worse than that on Indian subcontinent. Then gradually as that fact sunk in the second thought came to the fore. The importance of how a country or its people are represented in media. I know that this is not particularly a “eureka” thought. But I was just made to realise it once again. Countries from Africa and the Indian subcontinent (probably except India) are more often than not spotlighted for their poverty in all senses. Although the poverty and lack in India is also highlighted many a times in the media there are times when it is in the news for its scientific and technological advancements as well. On the other hand, Asian countries are more often than not portrayed as either technological giants (Japan, Korea etc.) or extremely beautiful tourist destinations (Thailand, Malaysia and the like). So when one sees images like those in this MSN news report the initial reaction is that of surprise.

Of course the main aim behind sharing these images with you is to make you aware of what legacy the previous and current generation of human beings has left for their descendants. It’s not just the planet and the fellow Earthlings that we have affected but our own selves and our offspring. I sincerely hope these images haunt you at least for some days to come ... and may be inspire you to do something about it.

TED Tuesday: We need educational revolution!

Making 'Abundant Water' a reality

Participating in an online campaign for Earth Day 40 that was observed on 22nd April, I have met quite a few people who are doing some great work in underprevileged communities for their betterment. One such mother-son duo is Barbara and Sunny Forsyth. Sunny has started Abundant Water, a sustainable project to create water filters in Laos. The project involves training the locals, the Lao people, to manufacture simple ceramic water filters to help them provide themselves potable water. After getting to know their work, I felt compelled to interview Sunny and share the brilliant project with my readers. Please click on the link below to listen to the interview.

Abundant Water Interview

Babs Forsyth, Sunny's mother, looks after the social media aspect of this project and she's someone who has effectively used various social media platforms to spread the word about Abundant Water. I asked Babs, how has social media helped AW get the word out?

Her answer to my question was:

1 year ago I started tweeting for Abundant Water. I had no idea what I was doing or really even why but I kept at it posting updates from Sunny's work In Lao, having conversations with people I only 'knew' through Twitter and spreading the word about AW.

We have participated in a few Twitter Events:

1. Hugh Jackman's Twitter Challenge for Charity with the most votes - didn't win

2. Top10Causes Twitter Challenge for Charity with the most votes - got 3rd

3. Shorty Awards for best in many categories, in our case it was Health, AW was about 13th out of several 100.

It was in this challenge that I 'met' Michael Q Todd and decided to participate in the 40 Day Social Media Entrepreneurship Training Course he was organizing.

The AW network grew, people from every continent have offered help and this has certainly been accelerated by participating in the 40 Day Course. Sunny has been able to meet Radiance and be interviewed by her. He has also been interviewed on Blog Talk Radio and all of these events have helped to spread the word about Abundant Water. I think there is great potential here that we have only just started to explore.

It is also through social media that Sunny has been invited to talk at TEDxCanberra in October this year.

We are also looking to get involved with Buy1Give1 or a similar organization to help spread the word and generate fund for the work in Lao.

Parallel to Twitter we are also running AW Facebook Page which helps to keep our friends informed about events both in Canberra and Lao.

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about Abundant Water.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AbundantwaterDOTORG

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abundantwater/

TED Tuesday: Kids take charge

Kiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.

Changents Kopernik

Kopernik, an on-line store of technology designed for the developing world, is a brainchild of Ewa Wojkowska and Toshi Nakamura. Both of them have worked in international development for about a decade in various developing coutries, with local communities, government ministries, NGOs and donors. This experience exposed them to a wide range of issues from working, improving access to justice for the poor, public sector reform, elections, to recovery from the devastating earthquake and Tsunami. They have been privileged to work for the UN as well. However, during this journey both of them were often left with a feeling that things were being done the same old way that they’ve been done for years and the environment was not conducive to spur innovation. At the same time, they knew that in order for development to be more effective, new ideas and innovation were necessary. And in spite of all the innovation taking place in the private sector it never got assimilated in the developmental planning for the projects utilised in developing coutries.

Out of this restless feeling and drive to do something about it themselves spurred Kopernik, named after the great Polish scienctist, Copernicus. The story of its birth is probably best told in Ewa's own words from their Changents profile,

[...] then in early 2009, we came up with one model of solving long standing development problems by asking people of various professional backgrounds for bold ideas. The foundation of this model was a clear statement of issues, articulated by the communities in developing countries who are living with those problems.

But based on our own experience, we instinctively knew that it would be difficult to get a clear statement of challenges. We were stuck on this for a while.

One night, after some good food and some more good wine, at our place in Brooklyn, we suddenly came up with the idea of reversing the idea. Why don’t we start with the proven ‘solutions’, and let the communities (represented by local organisations) articulate instead how they want to use the solutions (technology) to solve their existing problems. This was a little ‘Copernican Revolution’ for us, as we are now starting with supply (menu of possible options to solve common development challenges) and then from here our partner organizations can articulate the demand. And given that so many challenges are common to many developing countries (lack of clean drinking water and lack of power supply for example) – we think it makes a lot of sense.

Honouring my Polish background we decided to name our venture ‘Kopernik’, the Polish name of this great Polish scientist.

And that’s how it all began.

I interviewed Ewa about their unique and ambitious venture, which in its early stages is definitely showing signs of being a big success, and I would like to share her answers with my readers below.
 

Q] When you started Kopernik, what was your expectation of response to this unique idea from your potential technological partners? Was the response better or worse than your expectation?

A] We were pretty confident about the idea, but of course we did not know for certain until we actually spoke to the technology providers. The response from them was overwhelmingly positive, as we directly address the two fundamental challenges they face. These challenges are limited distribution channels (Kopernik helps by connecting the technology providers to local organisations in developing countries in need of the technology) and price, which is frequently too high (by crowd funding and subsidising at least part of the cost of products and international shipping we enable more technology to reach those who need it). For them, Kopernik is a means to be able to scale more quickly, and eventually bring the price down to reach even more people.

Q] How has the response from the beneficiaries of these technologies been? The provision of the gadget or technology definitely improves the quality of living for them. However have you had an experience where this boost has encouraged them to lead a better life and take initiative for further improvement?

A] We conducted our pilot activities in Timor-Leste and Indonesia, and the response from the beneficiaries has been very positive. While at this early stage it might be premature to say whether our initiative has encouraged them to lead a better life, they immediately saw the benefit of the technology, and its transformative power on the way they live.

One thing that is very important to us is ensuring that the technology that we feature on Kopernik is effective and appropriate for a developing country context. So we also ask that each organization rates and provides feedback on the products that they have received.

Kopernik will conduct a sustainability review one to two years after completion of selected projects. We want to know what difference the technologies have made to people’s lives, whether they are still functioning and in use, and if not, why not.

Q] In your bio on the Changents website you mention about Kopernik, “The model has evolved almost daily and then in early 2009, we came up with one model of solving long standing development problems by asking people of various professional backgrounds for bold ideas.” This would help incredibly in making the ideological base of Kopernik very broad and hence for it to be able to offer diverse technological solutions. What are the different fields of expertise, backgrounds that these professionals come from? Does their expertise as “professionals” help in the operation of Kopernik?

A] The idea was to really to leverage the un-tapped capacity and competencies of engineers, doctors, business consultants, students, designers, and teachers etc. in solving development problems. While we have not implemented this idea, we are in the process of incorporating it into the current model. This will be mainly in the area of developing new appropriate technology that responds to the needs articulated by partner organizations/communities in developing countries. We would be happy to provide more info on this endeavor, once the idea has taken more shape.

Q] Can you explain a bit about ‘crowd-funded financial subsidies’ that Kopernik helps provide to those in need in the developing countries?

A] New technology, however useful it may be for the society, is often very expensive, and the free market mechanism does not necessarily bring such technology into the world. This is why government often provides subsidies for new technology, such as hybrid and electric cars. This market failure also applies to technology for the poor. Building on the collective power of individuals, Kopernik is providing micro-subsidies to the appropriate technology to scale and reach the people who need them the most.

Q] Given that it is a very new idea and initiative, what are Kopernik’s goal / vision for next 5 years in terms of outreach, both to technological partners and those who need those technologies? And how would you want anyone reading this interview to help Kopernik reach that goal, realise that vision?

A] We want to bring appropriate technology to benefit over one million people within 5 years. We are building networks with key universities such as MIT and organisations like Ashoka to identify and distribute emerging technologies that can change lives. We also work with NGO networks and are establishing relationships with overseas volunteer programs to identify and reach out to reliable and innovative NGOs so that we can reach more people and connect more technology to people who need them.

We are currently working with 'off the shelf' technology but will soon expand into supporting local level production of appropriate technology. Similarly, while we are currently using a donation/subsidy model we will soon introduce new service lines that include loans and lease-to-buy schemes.

As for what readers can do - two things:

1. Donate towards one of the following two proposals:

Provide Access to Clean Water

$6.50 will buy a life-straw for a displaced person in Sri Lanka and provide one person with safe drinking water for a whole year.

http://bit.ly/cFJh9X

Help provide clean light to students in rural Nigeria

$30 will buy a solar lamp for a student in rural Nigeria that will replace dirty, dangerous and expensive kerosene.

http://bit.ly/bGkL4e

2. And ask 5 of their friends to do the same!

http://www.thekopernik.org/

TED Tuesday: Importance of "soft power"

India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it's not the size of the army that matters as much as a country's ability to influence the world's hearts and minds.

TED Tuesday: Siftables

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Sunday Spotlight: Kiva.org

It is a brand new year of brand new possibilities. And I am writing my first post of the year about a community that helps make brand new possibilities into reality. If we are ready to accept the reality with open heart, all of us have a potential to help someone else lead a better life. We can chose to keep complaining about our own and not do anything about it. Or we can be grateful for what we’ve got and try to make a difference for someone else. If you are the one of the latter kind, Kiva.org is the place for you to go to. I came across Kiva.org some time back but didn’t register as a lender until recently. I am yet to give my first loan but I am really glad to be participating in UPrinting.com’s Kiva Blogathon.

As Kiva’s own website describes, “Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.” What I find unique about Kiva is that they provide “loans” and not charity or donation to people who want to be entrepreneurs. This is very empowering for the individual who receives the money as there comes a responsibility with it. It makes the person confident of their self-worth and doesn’t make them resent for living on charity. It boosts the entrepreneur’s self-esteem to know they’ve been shown confidence in by their lender. They are expected to put in an effort to set up and run a business profitably so the money can be returned to the lender. I feel this is a very powerful way of touching someone’s life and improving it.

Also reassuring is Kiva’s effort to maintain transparency throughout the whole process. Usually when one gives a donation or charity, there is an underlying resignation that the money may or may not reach the proposed cause. But we give it away anyway for our mental and moral satisfaction. Kiva helps you “give” the money to someone in need but not “give away”. There is accountability in the whole process. There is a basic assumption that the entrepreneur may fail and you will never see your money back. But at least there is an expectation that the entrepreneur should put in some effort to make the business work. It may or may not. But what is important is the intention of the giver and the taker. Kiva has set up a great network of fellows and volunteers worldwide who make sure the feedback loop is constantly fed and the lenders are updated with the status of the “project”. And on a given lender’s profile you can see the history and success of the loans they’ve given to the date. I was pleasantly surprised to see almost 95% of the loans being repaid and hence being reused over and over to change so many lives.

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

Kiva community is made up of various levels and teams that contribute to the whole process in their won capacity. The core team looks after the management and administration at the highest level. But the supporters (corporate and institutional partners), field partners (micro-finance institutions), fellows (individuals who get to visit and experience Kiva’s working on the field) and volunteers are the people that make Kiva a grass-root level organisation. I am also impressed with the ‘apps gallery’ that Kiva has developed. These various applications help those interested setup alerts to watch the progress of and get notified of the loan requirements that they’re interested in. For example, I wish to give a loan in India to an entrepreneur in the field of education and computing. Kiva’s Facebook and Twitter alerts let me set up an alert with these criteria. So when a request from a field partner or an entrepreneur gets entered into Kiva’s database, I get an alert that I might want to consider this opportunity for making my contribution. Isn’t that just wonderful!

So if you think you are ready to touch someone’s life and make a difference, head to Kiva.org, register yourself as a lender and make that contribution. You will literally see it keep coming back at you over the course of your life. Happy 2010 and happy loaning!!!

You, too, can be a banker to the poor: Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof on fighting poverty in the developing world with a click of your mouse.(OPINION)(kiva.org): ... An article from: New York Times Upfront

Universe in your head

[Image source: MSNBC]

“Everyone creates their own reality.”

“Thoughts become things.”

“Observer collapses the wave-function merely by observing.”

These lines were made famous by the “new age-y” documentaries like What the bleep do we know?! and The secret. May be not all of you have heard of them. But these and many other works by leading scientists and spiritual leaders have lead to a paradigm shift amongst those who are open to such shifts. Research into understanding of mind-body interaction has gone way beyond neuroscience, which is the popular face of this kind of research. I’m sure most of you would have heard / seen the term “New age” in regards to classification of books, music, ideas etc. The term points more towards the rise of a “new age” of sorts in human thinking and doesn’t really mean that human beings are discovering something new. It is a mere rediscovery if one considers the ancient texts of numerous cultures as not mere mythology.

Many (re)discoveries in the cutting edge research in quantum physics, neuroscience, cognitive sciences and biomedicine are now hinting towards the existence of ‘consciousness’ and its significant importance in how we perceive the world, the “reality”. Cosmic Log on MSNBC.com describes itself as “Quantum fluctuations in space, science, exploration and other cosmic fields... served up regularly by MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle since 2002.” It showcases the book ‘Biocentrism’ by biomedical researcher Robert Lanza which is generating controversy by arguing that our consciousness plays a central role in creating the cosmos. As one of the reviewers of the book says, this may not be an entirely new idea but it is worth repeating. The physicists who should be declaring this out loud to the general populous aren’t doing so because it would mean a HUGE paradigm shift; may be the one that we’re not yet ready to handle. But if YOU think you are ready, give the book a read. We successfully made the shift from ‘geocentric’ model to ‘heliocentric’ model. May be now it is time to try a bigger leap, to the ‘biocentric’ model.

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TED Tuesday: Clean drinking water, quick and cheap

Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.

Cultivating clean water.(GREEN GUIDANCE)(Protection of clean drinking water): An article from: World Watch

This time, DON'T vote for "change"

Climate change is real ... and climate change effects are long term. I want to focus on these two aspects of climate change today. In the past I’ve written about global warming, the tipping points of weather patterns to look out for, importance of replanting the rainforests and many other subjects relating to changing ecology of this planet ... changing for worse.

I hope that I do not need to harp too much on the first aspect that the climate change is real. I believe, whether you openly accept it or not, each one of us have realised this by now through our own experiences. There is a debate over whether it is caused by humans or nature. I think the point is moot. Whatever the reason, as the most intelligent and technologically advanced Earthlings, we humans CAN and need to do something about it. If it is caused by us, we definitely need to negate the effects of our deeds on the planet and fellow Earthlings. And for a second if we believe it is natural, as Earthizens (technologically and socially advanced Earthlings) we bear the responsibility of changing the course of this natural phenomenon. After all, it is not going to be the first for us, is it?

The second aspect, however, needs more voice given to it. I do not think enough people realise that climate change is not instantaneous. The results of whatever substances released in the ecosystem that cause these changes are evident only decades later. I believe common people and policy makers alike do not understand this very well. Or the policy makers can mislead common Earthizens due to their ignorance of this fact. The “funny weather” we all are experiencing globally now is caused by emissions 25-30 years ago. And if we cut the emissions now, the effects will show a couple decades later. So we need to be patient and not short-sighted. By the way, ‘emissions’ don’t only mean gases (Green house gases have become synonymous with climate change) but also the liquid and solid forms which are sometimes more detrimental. This is another point on which the general public of the Earth needs to be educated.

To end this post I would say this. We need to do something about climate change because it is real. Whatever the cause the Earthizens have to try their best to slow and possibly revert it, either because we’re responsible for it or because we’re the only ones capable of doing so on Earth. The masses need to be educated about the long term effects of climate change and the power to act lies in their hands rather than a few policy makers.

Take action: http://www.blogactionday.org/en/takeaction

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Happy birthday, WETM! You're ONE!!!

I've been meaning to write a post summarising my blog-writing journey for a while. But I couldn't find a better occassion than today to do that. WETM (short for Watchful eyes, thoughtful mind) turns one year old today! Yes, I am definitely excited like a new mum whose child turns one. It is a time for her to remenisce about the past one year when she was busy nurturing the baby.

I wrote my first blog post on this same day, exactly 1 year back. If you read that post, you'll realise my blog has changed directions somewhat from its original plan. YouTube was the starting inspiration but once I plunged into the deep abyss of knowledge (via books, films, internet and more) I found too many interesting ideas that attracted my attention and made me think. Like a little baby enriches the mum with experiences of motherhood, this blog has enriched me with fascinating knowledge and ideas, putting a thinking cap on my head and introducing me to many wonderful human beings.

When I started this blog, I was going through a transformation in my personal life. Traumatic experiences can make your life take a dramatic turn, for better or for worse. In my case, it was definitely for better. As I was trying to understand myself and the inside better, my WETM gave me an opportunity to marvel at the outside, the wonders of nature and also of humankind. With time, I came across films and books and people that showed the direction to connection between the inside and the outside. With my thinking the blog posts changed too. While still sharing the wonderous and fascinating achivements of nature and of mankind with my readers, I looked for a connection between the past and the future, between us and the nature.

I do not know if WETM will grow to a ripe old age along with me or will it die prematurely. Like any mum, I would hope and pray for its long and healthy life, for it to flourish. And more importantly, to be the driving force which would make me think out of the box and let me express those thoughts to others.

Happy birthday, WETM! You're ONE!!!

TED Tuesday: Future of SETI

The SETI Institute's Jill Tarter makes her TED Prize wish: to accelerate our search for cosmic company. Using a growing array of radio telescopes, she and her team listen for patterns that may be a sign of intelligence elsewhere in the universe.

Sunday Spotlight: The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid: Promote and win!

“'The Age of Stupid' is the new cinema documentary from the Director of 'McLibel' and the Producer of the Oscar-winning 'One Day in September'. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching 'archive' footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?”, says the synopsis of the film on its official website.

“The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, which had its world premiere in London on March 15th 2009 and was released in UK cinemas on March 20th 2009. The film will be released in Australia & New Zealand on August 19th, the global premiere will be live from New York to 45 countries on September 21st 2009.
Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at archive footage from 2007 and asking: why didnt we stop climate change when we had the chance?”, says the YouTube channel of Spanner Films that is responsible for making of this documentary.

As you would have read above, the documentary is being premiered globally on the 21st (in US) and 22nd (in rest of the world) September, 2009. That’s next Monday/Tuesday. Hence I thought this was an appropriate time for me to focus the spotlight on it. Even though the documentary has been premiered in Australia in August, I haven’t yet gotten a chance to see it. I’m hoping to catch the live online broadcast from NY during the global premier. However, from the trailers I’ve watched and reviews I’ve read it seems like a very different take on the climate change issue. It weaves together 6 stories recorded in present day to make a fabric of human psyche. These are real people and not actors posing as someone. Fernand Pareau, 82-year old French mountain guide; Jeh Wadia, starting a low-cost airline in India; Alvin DuVernay, Shell oil man who rescued 100 people after Hurricane Katrina; Layefa Malemi, living in Shell’s most profitable oil region in Nigeria; Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud, two Iraqi refugee kids trying to find their brother and Piers Guy, a windfarm developer fighting the anti windfarm lobby in England ... all show us different aspects of human mentality. The documentary does not set out to show us what we’ve already done to the planet because the assumption is we already know that. It, however, gives us a peak into the future that will be if we continue on our merry (?) way.

Another difference of this documentary from many others is that £450,000 of its budget was raised by “crowd-funding” - selling shares to individuals and groups. Film is therefore completely independent. The people’s contribution does not stop here. Even for the global premier people from various participating countries have organised their own “Indie screenings” to make it truly global. So for me this documentary also serves as a great example of how one can make a difference on a shoestring budget with support of other people who’re probably living on a shoestring budget themselves. I would strongly recommend all my readers to spread the word about The age of stupid and try to get as many people as you can to watch it. You can do your bit in many ways, organising your own screening, spread the word on social media, write a blog or at least watch it yourself.

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End of animal research?

Before long, we will each have an alter ego to assess the medication we need. That's the vision of Natalia Alexandrov, winner of the New Scientist/NC3Rs "Beyond animal research" essay competition.

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Aktivhaus generates power

Lloyd Alter of Treehugger shares this great design and architecture achievement with us:

We love the Passivhaus, or Passive House as it is known in America, where houses are designed to be so well insulated and sited that they need no energy other than passive solar gain to keep warm. [...] Now we learn from Jetson Green about the Aktivhaus, set up to not only heat and power itself but to have some left over.

The first Aktivhaus has been deployed in Denmark and is predicted to produce enough energy in 30 years to neutralise the energy costs of building it. Eventhough 30 years sounds like a long time, it is definitely better than NEVER neutralising the energy cost gone into building the house. Read more about both these fabulous environmentally friendly house designs on the Treehugger and Jetson Green websites.

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Point of no return

Between 2005 and 2006, 43 international climate experts volunteered to evaluate each of five tipping points, judging the likelihood that achieving a tipping point would lead to potentially dangerous global warming. Tipping points occur when a small change in one factor, a "driver," can cause a disproportionately large response in an overall system. These 5 tipping points are,

1. More than half the Amazon rain forest turns into something other than rain forest by 2200.
2. Atlantic "conveyor belt" and the flow of ocean water worldwide is severely disrupted by an influx of fresh water from melting ice caps due to rising temperatures.
3. If the world warms by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the Greenland ice sheet will almost unavoidably melt away.
4. If El Niño, a periodic disruption of the ocean and atmosphere in the tropical Pacific, becomes the average state of the region's climate as global warming progresses, widespread shifts in precipitation patterns will ensue.
5. If the ice sheet over West Antarctica disintegrates due to rising temperatures, revealing islands that are currently buried.

So now we just have to wait and see how long before we help the planet check all points on the list. Wired Science recently used pictures from NASA's Earth Observatory to create time-lapse videos of our "achievements" in this regard so far. We're not doing bad, are we?

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