Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

Todd Wong combines Chinese New Year with Robbie Burns Day: poetry slam with Kung Fu, highland dancers with sheng players, erhu and bagpipes, dragon boat racing, and a banquet with deep-fried haggis wonton. Seattle and other cities are copying.

"Toddish McWong" in the Sun Yat-Sen garden, Vancouver, with accordion and MacLeod tartan -- Deb Martin photo, courtesy of Globe and Mail 17 Jan 2011.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy! started in 1993 at Simon Fraser University when Todd Wong, a student and 5th generation Fascinated by the similarities of martial arts, ancient music and ancient foods, "Toddish McWong" created a Vancouver BC tradition. In 2007 he fund-raised to save Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa's childhood home from demolition. Eighteen years later, he serves dinner for a thousand  and races with the GHFC dragon boat team, whose uniform is a Fraser Hunting kilt and a red shirt decorated with Chinese style "lucky" gold coins.
 
This Is Who We Are: Scots in Canada exhibition toured Canada and Scotland in 2009, featuring among other photos, Wong in a lion mask (right, a different pic from the one in the exhibition, tartan unidentified).








Left, Robin Hood tax mask from Adbusters mag.

For more cultural hybrids, see Todd Wong's GHFC webpage, a 2004 CBC-TV video clip, Brave Waves fusion music, Ricepaper (especially its green issue) and Adbusters magazines.

The illusion of a "Green Economy" -- Leonardo Boff

Reprinted from the Rio+20 People's Portal (which is worth checking regularly) Boff's critique of the UN Green Economy proposal to sell the world's commons to raise money for climate action and MDGs (because rich countries have for decades denied direct aid), comes from Brazil's leading liberation theologian. Similar protests from poor countries and ecojustice NGOs will be heard at next week's World Social Forum Thematic Social Forum preparing for Rio+20, in Porto Alegre, Brazil and the New York City Global Civil Society Workshop on the Rio+20 “Zero Draft” and Rights for Sustainability. Meanwhile, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at Davos, and UNCSD in its pre-Rio meetings, have aligned themselves with the Business Action for Sustainable Development corporate lobby for public-private partnerships, carbon finance and corporate offsets.

Boff, The Tao of Liberati

Everything we do to protect our living planet, Earth, against forces that upset her equilibrium and therefore cause global warming, is valid and must be supported. But the very expression "global warming" masks phenomena such as the extended droughts that decimate the grain harvests, the great floods and hurricanes, water shortages, soil erosion, hunger, impoverishment of 15 of the 24 services numbered in the Evaluation of Ecosystems of the Earth (UNO) and which are responsible for the sustainability of the planet (water, energy, soil, seeds, fibers, etc..) The central question is not even that of saving the Earth. The Earth takes care of herself and, if necessary, she will do so by expelling us from her womb. But how are we to save ourselves and our civilization? That is the real question, to which the majority responds by shrugging their shoulders.

Lower carbon emissions, organic products, solar and wind power, reducing our intervention in nature’s rhythms, seeking to replace the resources used, recycling, everything that falls under the rubric of green economy is sought after and disseminated. And this mode of production should prevail. 

Even so, we must not be deluded and lose our critical awareness. Green economy is discussed to avoid the issue of sustainability, because it is contrary to the present mode of production and consumption. But deep down, the green economy utilizes measures within the paradigm of dominating nature. The green and the not-green do not exist. There are elements that are toxic to the health of the Earth and society in various phases of the production of all products. Through the Analysis of the Cycle of Life we can demonstrate and monitor the complex interrelations between the different phases: extraction, transportation, production, use and discharge of each product, and its environmental impact. It is clear that the so-called green is not as green as it sounds. The green only represents a phase of processing. Production is never eco-friendly.

Take as an example ethanol, considered to be clean energy, and an alternative to fossil fuels and dirty energy from oil. Ethanol is clean only at the mouth of the fuel pump. All the processes of its production are highly polluting: the chemical products applied to the soil, the burnings, the transportation in big trucks that release gasses, the affluent liquids and the chaff. The pesticides kill bacteria and expel the earthworms that are fundamental to the regeneration of the soil; they only return after five years.

To ensure production of the goods necessary for life, in a way which neither stresses nor degrades nature, something more than the search for the green is required. The crisis is conceptual, not economic. Our relationship with the Earth has to change. We are part of Gaia, and through our careful actions we can help her become more conscious, and create a greater opportunity for assuring her vitality.

The Earth Charter

I see no path to saving ourselves other than that defined by the Earth Charter [final section]: "Our common destiny calls us to search for a new beginning; this requires a change in the mind and in the heart; it demands a new awareness of global interdependency and of universal responsibility".

Change of mind: adopt a new concept of the Earth as Gaia. She does not belong to us, but to the [web] of eco-systems that serve the totality of life, regulating her biophysical base and the climates. She created the entire community of life, not just us. We are her conscious and responsible segment. The hardest work is done by our invisible partners, a true natural proletariat, the microorganisms, the bacteria and the fungi, of which there are thousands of millions in each tablespoon of Earth. They have effectively sustained life for 3.8 thousand million years already. Our relationship with the Earth should be like our relationship with our mothers: one of respect and gratitude. We should gratefully restore that which she gives us, and maintain her vital capacity.

-- Leonardo Boff

See also the post-Durban Proposal of Bolivia to Rio+20 on the PWCCC website, Federico Fuentes' Bolivia Rising, and the Andean Buen Vivir and Minga movements; Asian reactions in Preliminary comments by Third World Network on the Zero Draft of Rio+20 and subsequent updates on TWN.org.sg

Fighting environmental racism

The US environmental justice movement

Van Jones, a leading voice for "green jobs", hopes to mobilize progressive forces of many types and stripes under the patriotic umbrella of the American Dream Movement, a mass open-source campaign of grass-roots organizing, house parties, events, social networking (Facebook, Twitter etc), and electoral activity. See our previous blog and his Wikipedia biography, his Oct 2010 One Nation Working Together rally and Rebuild the Dream (Facebook and video "What would MLK do?")

The American EJ movement was pioneered by black civil rights leaders Reverend Ben Chavis and Reverend Joseph Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Reverend Leon White of the United Church of Christ (named in this brief history by NRDC); by Robert Bullard, founder of the Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) at Clark Atlanta University; West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT); the Student Environmental Action Commission (SEAC) f. 1988, and the (attended by Michael Dorsey: see our blog) 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit's Principles of Environmental Justice, (see other founding documents here). More recently, Southwest Network for Environmental & Economic Justice (SNEEJ) in NM, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (co-founded 1996 by Van Jones) in Oakland CA, New Orleans' DSCEJ, CLEANHouston, Greenaction in SE San Francisco, student groups SEEJ (at Columbia and Berkeley) and EJCC, Mothers of East LA, Seattle's CCEJ. In Oct 2011 the Council of Elders (veterans of US civil rights and EJ movement, not to be confused with the international Council) met at the Cenacle in Chicago; they supported Occupy Wall St with a public visit, open letters and video. This is an incomplete list. In recent decades action has broadened beyond African-Americans to include a rainbow of other minorities, immigrants and migrant workers.

In Canada 

A new video from the Ecology Action Centre, Halifax NS

Michael Buzzelli, Environmental Justice in Canada – It Matters Where You Live (CPRN 2008, free download); A. Gosine, C. Teelucksingh text, Environmental Justice and Racism in Canada: An Introduction (Emond Montgomery 2008), J.Agyeman et al., Speaking for Ourselves (UBC Press 2009), and the CELA bibliography. See also the University of BC student initiative "Decolonizing Knowledge" video and Facebook site, UBC First Nations House, U of Victoria Indigenous Affairs and First Nations House; Vancouver Ricepaper Magazine's 2011 Green Issue.

You are invited to comment, suggesting other historical and current links.

The EJ movement has gone international, for example the D2D statement at the 2010 US Social Forum -- but that will be the subject of a later blog.

Dr Michael K. Dorsey appeals for an ecojustice coalition of faith groups, environmentalists and the Third World

In this video from Durban, Mike Dorsey explains the shortcomings of civil society participation in UNFCCC and the need for a coalition of ecojustice groups before the Rio+20 Earth Summit.
Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), he has been involved in UN Kyoto negotiations for the last 20 years, in US People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, Sierra Club, Center for Environmental Health, Islands First and Environmental Leadership (as a founder), the Obama campaign, and is winner of numerous awards. [I met him at UNEP-RONA in 2010 and have corresponded since.-DM] See his biography and publications. Here is his latest article with Patrick Bond, "Anatomies of environmental knowledge and resistance..." (AJPE Dec 2010) describing the past history and future of the ecojustice movement.

REDD vs green -- in Brazil and Kenya

In Brazil, Kenya, and other parts of the global South, opposition is mounting toward the UN "green economy" proposed for Rio+20, with its reliance on corporate lobbies and carbon marketers. Here is a trailer of a 28 min documentary made with indigenous peoples in Brazil:


from climate-connections, A Darker Shade of Green, by Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest Coalition, who are also working with indigenous peoples in Cancún and Chiapas, Mexico.

Kenyan views in The Green Belt Movement's Community Forest Climate Initiatives (Dec 2011):

Natural forests provide benefits such as water catchment, climate regulation, biodiversity... medicine and food.

[Kyoto CDM-AR as a model for REDD] Afforestation and reforestation (AR) can have positive or negative impacts on biodiversity depending on the ecosystem being rehabilitated and the management options being applied. AR activities that emphasize species selection and site location can promote the return, survival, and expansion of indigenous fauna and flora population. In contrast, clearing native forests and replacing them with a monoculture plantation of exotic species would have a highly negative impact on biodiversity.

GBM experience has shown that uncontrolled pressure to start and scale up forest carbon projects can be disastrous to biodiversity, water resources, food security and rural community livelihoods. Lack of clear laws and national policies, zoning maps, and institutional infrastructure often lead to unfavourable competition from logging and paper industry for ‘forest land’ at the expense of highly threatened biodiversity and watershed restoration.

An increased emphasis on carbon projects can encourage the planting of exotic trees which are fast growing and give quick return on carbon credits compared to indigenous trees that grow much slower, hence have a low return on carbon credits.... A plantation is a monoculture farm of exotic trees. We cannot afford to reduce natural forests.

GBM wants to see an equitable, ethical climate finance system. Carbon offsetting does not address the issue of climate change at its root cause; behavioural change is needed so fewer GHS [green house gases]  are produced.... 

In addition, some of the rules in these carbon projects, such as the 1990 eligibility criteria for degraded forest for AR CDM projects, further discourages conservation efforts and biodiversity restoration in rural areas. This is because only sites that were deforested before 1990 are eligible for rehabilitation without any regard to the general health of the ecosystem as a whole. Such rules have been forcing the communities to prioritize sites based on year of deforestation at the expense of the prevailing biodiversity threats and watershed restoration needs in the critical water catchment areas therefore undermining the goals of livelihoods improvement.

Local community participation: Projects should respect communities rights, culture and livelihoods. GBM experience has been that this can be achieved if the project allows for full and effective participation of rural communities. This requires sufficient investments in education and empowering communities, and developing grassroots governance structures so as to ensure free prior informed consent, enforcement of agreements, safeguards, clear and equitable benefit sharing and conflict resolution guidelines. In the absence of these, the project can fuel community conflict.

Until governments put in places strong national forest authorities, these AR carbon projects and REDD projects cannot work in Africa.

See also reports from other countries in REDD-Monitor, Global Witness, CBD Alliance's Top 10 issues for biodiversity justice, and Third World Network's backgrounder on Forests. On safeguards, see Oxfam, Guide to Free Prior and Informed Consent.

“Rural reality radio” covers climate change in India -- by Shravya Reddy

photo © 2008 Flickr/Russ Bowling CC CC BY 2.0

Cross-posted from climaterealityproject.org 27 Dec 2011.  
  As we work to build a global climate movement, we often rely on the latest technologies to get the word out fast. Case in point: In September, the Climate Reality Project’s worldwide event – 24 Hours of Reality – reached people instantly in their living rooms via the Internet. But of course, billions of people are not connected to the Internet, and many don’t even have electricity. To reach such audiences, radio is often the best means of mass communication.

Recognizing this, an environmental organization in India has taken to the airwaves to help rural communities prepare for the impacts of climate change – using the format of a reality show competition! Development Alternatives – also known as DevAlt – has rolled out a program called the “Rural Reality Radio Show on Climate Adaptation” (PDF).

To find out more about this, I had a really exciting chat with Zeenat Niazi and Vijay Chaturvedi, both Senior Program Directors at DevAlt [photo at right]. Over the past year, in over 100 villages in India’s Bundelkhand region, they’ve worked with groups of women who have been exposed to impacts of climate change like prolonged drought. These women were encouraged to devise special projects to help prepare for climate impacts, and were given airtime to discuss their projects on local community radio stations in a reality show format. Their projects – designed and implemented entirely by the women themselves – range from improved farming techniques to vermicomposting (using worms to turn waste into compost). The “contestants” were then shortlisted, and are up for winning a grand prize. One of the coolest features is that the judges are their fellow villagers who have been listening to the radio shows all along. Voting will start next month, and I’m already curious to find out who the winner will be!

This program was funded through a World Bank award, and its objective is to help rural communities change some of their traditions and practices in response to a changing climate. The program also aims to prove that simple measures can reduce climate risk.
By the looks of it, the initiative has already started changing attitudes toward climate preparedness. As Ms. Niazi told me, “when we see farmers switch from wheat to barley for their winter crop for the first time in decades, we know that the message is sinking in, and they know they have to be ready for change.” On a hunch that I may not have had much experience with farming (a very good hunch!), Mr. Chaturvedi clarified: “Barley requires much less water than wheat, and water availability has been dwindling in the region.”

DevAlt isn’t working solely on responding to climate change. They have a whole slew of projects that prevent carbon pollution in the first place. These low-carbon growth projects fall under the umbrella of their “Shubh Kal” initiative (which means an “auspicious tomorrow”). Ms. Niazi explained that even though these villagers have a negligible carbon footprint, her group still felt it was “important to demonstrate that they can lead by example,” and prove that communities can improve livelihoods while reducing carbon pollution.

An example of a Shubh Kal project is the building of greener brick kilns that reduce carbon pollution by up to 50%. A second example is the distribution of “carbon cards”, which contain a village’s carbon footprint as well as the amount of carbon prevented from entering the atmosphere though tree planting, forest maintenance and soil conservation measures. Periodically, the village’s performance in lowering its footprint is measured and recorded on these cards.

I couldn’t agree with Ms. Niazi more when she exclaimed: “These communities are showing others that they don’t have to repeat the same mistakes the rest of the world made, and can achieve prosperity without following the old model.” Three cheers to that! Now if only others – in the developed and developing world — figured this out too, and realized that economic growth can be achieved in a low-carbon manner. Hmm … Perhaps I need to get myself on a reality radio show soon and start spreading the word!

What do you think about this approach of showcasing communities’ climate preparedness efforts through radio programs? Would you listen to such a show, or even participate in a show like this in your community? If so, do pitch it to your local radio station. We’d love to hear what you think!

Transition Towns -- the human process

"In Transition 2.0" film Trailer
Resilience – sometimes defined as “bouncebackability” -- is the watchword of the Transition Town movement. From a small beginning in Rob Hopkin's student permaculture project in 2003, it has expanded to over 1000 initiatives in 34 countries, TT is remarkable among environmental groups for its attention to human process, and neighborliness.(1) Unlike many community organizing methods, it avoids political cleavage and confrontation -- an approach may be particularly suitable to North America.(2) It seeks to bring together all those between the extremes of climate denial and alarmism, and as a first step, celebrates a “Great Unleashing” to celebrate the diversity of hopes, skills, and arts in the community. Here are some tips for its Unleashing organizers:

• Invite a professional facilitator
• Involve everybody... Avoid them and us
• Create together clear written aims… and refer to them frequently.
• Trust the process! Create a "buzz"... visioning an abundant future
• Stay attached to outcome… let go of your own agendas
• Some people will leave and others will join. Whoever turn up are the right people.
• Each group should have a core of people… who meet regularly, but also be open to whoever else wants to come. Each group should be continually asking itself “who isn't here that should be here”, that is, always being open [to attract] new people with relevant skills.
• In large cities, early adopters are encouraged to form neighbourhood groups, called Hubs. (3)

The Unleashing encourages all sides to focus on what they would have done “anyway”: relearning lost skills (preserving food, community gardens, building with local natural materials such as cob, use of hand tools, native plants), visioning through stories and the arts, ; conserving local beauty spots' biodiversity, soil, water and air; tree-planting, recycling, reducing carbon footprint by supporting local agriculture and business, and generally seeking to replace “quantity of stuff” by "quality of life". Another attractive part of the process is that the activists plan for their own "demise" as a group: any successful community is bound to change as it develops, enlisting both natural leaders and quite humble people (4) who have special traditional knowledge and stories to tell. The movement deliberately seeks involvement of hearts and hands, as well as heads.

Rob Hopkins puts it this way: "Life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable... It's better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise. Our communities lack the resilience to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil. We have to act collectively, and we have to act now. By unleashing the collective genius of those around us [to plan]... Our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and recognize the biological limits of our planet.” (5)

Some long-term aims include ending oil dependency by developing an oil-dependency audit, and local Energy Descent Plan -- in fact strengthening the community to meet any economic downturn – re-localizing the economy so it is less dependent on distant corporations, bankers, and governments. Unlike those institutions, TT emphasizes bottom-up planning, local entrepreneurs and social justice.

Here is the story of a 2011 start-up in Northfield MA

The flyer explained “Transition Northfield is a creative community-based response to economic instability, resource depletion (peak oil), and climate change. Its aim is to engage residents from all aspects of our community to work together in a positive practical process that increases local resilience and economic vitality. It is flexible and fun, encourages local creativity, and results in a stronger, more cohesive community.”

Retired minister Alex Stewart shared his knowledge of Northfield history, house painter Cliff Phillips produced sandwich board signs to announce upcoming events, ... Joan Stoia shared her substantial business world savvy and produced a speaker’s series. Sam Richardson, a former math teacher, launched NorthfieldNeighborhoodNews, a website for interaction between neighbors and the sharing of news, current events, reports, photos and documents. Massage therapist Melanie Phillips’ shared cookies, optimism and energy... while Emily Koester, social worker and mother of three school age children spear-headed projects, facilitated meetings and churned out articles and press releases. Local foods maven John Cevasco provided consistency, commitment and healthy snacks, while research consultant Shirley Keech showed steadfastness, willingness to work the details and encouragement. Local jewelry maker Shay Wood kept information flowing to the non-wired community, calling and connecting with interested people and organizations by phone to make sure they weren’t left out-of-the-loop. Full time professor Walter Jaworski shared what he learned in Transition training with the group and planned a film series Looking Back to the Future – Envisioning Our Communities in 2030. Veteran volunteer Don Campbell made us believe in the possibility of accomplishing resiliency one person at a time.

Judy Phillips, who recruited the original group... [kept us] connected with other email universes, cranking out beautiful flyers and posters, devising creative ways to manifest the Transition Town principles and organizing an amazing multi-generational Film Project that encouraged young and old to dream about a transformed and positive future. The goal of all this learning, communicating and information sharing was the launching, scheduled over three days, of projects that will bring those dreams to fruition.

The second event, author Ben Hewitt’s talk (“The Town that Food Saved”) set the stage for two days of activities... to come together (as family/friends/ neighbors/residents of Northfield) to rebuild trust, collaboration and interdependence as the real pre-condition for community vitality, economic prosperity and overall well-being.  Many in the SRO crowd of 47 attendees left that evening seeing clearly that we are all connected and we can do this....The final day of Celebrate Northfield saw the coming together of Northfielders interested in this theme: “How can we as a community prepare for the uncertainties of the future?” The day was an extraordinary experience. Based on the First Principle of such Transition events, “Whoever comes are the right people”, the assembled community of nearly 40 people created 14 working groups to help meet those uncertainties. The responses may surprise you, and we are not finished yet, for this was just the beginning. The Working Groups (WG) will continue to work and to meet during the weeks and months to come. And there will be more groups forming as ideas come forward.

Footnotes 

1. The transition approach draws on sources as varied as the classic Permaculture books by Bill Mollison (1988) and David Holmgren (2003), the AA 12 step program, psychologists' and therapists' exercises, Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects, World Cafe, the Schumacher Society, and the peace movement; concepts from the New Economics Foundation, and FEASTA.org.
2. For example, Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals (1971). Confrontation is a self-defeating strategy in the present political climate, argue George Lakoff, Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED), The Psychology of Climate Change Communication (2009), and the Transition Handbook, p. 135. TTowns prefers to work inclusively with all members of the community; however, the movement does not exclude eco-villages or "intentional" communities from joining.
3. Summarized from the Transition Handbook, p.125, 148, 222. The process is largely modeled on the Open Space of Harrison Owen.
4. For example -- create a “Comments Wall" where each person puts up Post-it notes OST: (pink) one thing I can do, (yellow) one thing my town can do, (orange) one thing the government can do, (green) one other thought. Transition Handbook pp. 154-5 – a classic Open Space process.
5. Transition Handbook, p.134-5.

Selected resources

Websites: Wikipedia on TransitionTowns, TT world directory and training dates for US and Canada, stories from TT Boulder CO, US Transition Voice blog; stories from Britain and Eire, Rob Hopkins' blog, LindsayCurren's blog. For Canada: Transition Halifax, Montreal's Urban Ecology Centre / Centre d'écologie urbaine, Toronto's Food Policy Council, Ottawa's SloWest, Village Vancouver, Transition Victoria.

Films/videos: of TT founder Rob Hopkins, Powerdown, In Transition 1.0 (the new version released Jan 2012  In Transition 2.0 adds stories from Portugal, India), Annie Leonard's animation The Story of Stuff , Joanna Macy's The Great Turning, Peter Victor, "Managing Without Growth" video part 1 and part 2)

Books: 

David Korten, The Great Turning, and his Yes! magazine. See also Post Carbon Institute.

Rob Hopkins, The Transition Handbook (2008) (download); updated in The Transition Companion:Making Your Community More Resilient in Uncertain Times (2011) 

New Economics Foundation, Other Worlds are Possible (download 2009) with 28 case studies

Peter Victor, Managing Without Growth (2008) 

FEASTA.org Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability website

Richard Heinberg, The End of Growth:Adapting to Our New Economic Reality (2011)

Rachel Kaplan and K. Ruby Blume, Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living (2011); online resource list

Carolyn Baker, Navigating the Coming Chaos: A Handbook for Inner Transition (2011); see also Joanna Macy's Coming Back to Life (1998) and website The Work That Reconnects.

Quakers and TT:

Britain YM's Good Lives blog, Quakernomics bulletin, Living Witness and QPSW's Sustainability Toolkit (Nov 2011), Bamford intentional community. For the USA - New England YM and Ruah Swennerfelt's Transition Vision blog.