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Talks from Step It Up November 3rd, 2007:
A Time for Leadership, A Time for Change
Click any of these or scroll down to read presentations and discussion:
Delia Lake – Leadership for a Sustainable World
PlanetThoughts Raymaker – The Environmental Mind
jacmacaire Humby – The Green Way (La Vie Verte)
WilliamThewise Goodman – Eco-villages as a Solution to Global Warming
muhammedYussif Wikinger – Energy Saving in Stockholm:
How One City Improves Itself
jaynine Scarborough – Music Break!
John Galland – Climate change and its consequences -
the latest scientific results
Discussion – What can and should politicians and government officials do?
DELIA LAKE – Leadership for a Sustainable World
Delia Lake: Welcome to the Center for Water Studies, and welcome to Step It Up! Our focus today is leadership for action to curb global warming NOW! If the best scientific minds of our times are wrong, we will have spurred a new round of human creativity, innovation, cooperation and responsibility. If, though, they are correct—and I believe that they are—and we do nothing, or not enough, the future generations will not be able to stave off climate disasters. It will be too late!
Delia Lake: I would like to start today by reading to you an excerpt from a recent blog from Bill McKibben, well-known environmental author and the founder of Step It Up.
Delia Lake: "Climate crisis is the playoff we just can't lose. Our home turf is on the line. The points against us will be lost lives and shattered prosperity for generations to come. The clock is running. We've used up all of our time outs. It's third down and we have a lot of yards to go.
Delia Lake: The world's climate scientists have had their huddle and they've given us a game plan. We have to tackle carbon emissions. In two years we'll need to cap those emissions and be on our own 10-yard line in 2010. Then we'll keep pushing back those emissions over the decades. The goal is to bring down carbon 80% by 2050
Delia Lake: We will need to break right through that defensive line of deniers and delayers. We will need to run interference on the oil companies, and block new coal plants. We'll have to rely on our receivers for some big plays -- I'm talking about solar receivers!
Delia Lake: We want touchdowns, not tipping points! We want stadiums filled with football fans, not hurricane refugees. It's up to us. We can't punt this one.
Delia Lake: But we need an umpire and referees on this field. We need rules to this game. Where is our government? Where are the officials? We know where they are. They're still back at the tailgate. They're presiding over the biggest barbeque in the history of Humanity. We need to get them out of their fantasy league, onto the real field, now, before the clock runs out on us!
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Right, Delia
Delia Lake: there are no spectators in climate crisis. We need all of you on this field. We need quarterbacks, line-backers, tackles, and safeties. We need the greatest offense and defense of all time! "
Delia Lake: from Bill McKibben to all of us :)
Delia Lake: For those of you who have been to other presentations and events here, we are doing something a little different today. We usually have expert presentations filled with important facts. And we will certainly have that today too
Delia Lake: But facts alone, no matter how compelling, will not save the climate of our home planet.
Delia Lake: Today we are including both guidelines and tools, and personal stories that we believe can help people step up to leadership roles in what may be the most important challenge of our lifetimes—global warming and the sustainability of our earth's climate.
Delia Lake: I would like to introduce two of my RL colleagues who have contributed to this presentation, Morris Jefferson and AlcheMiss Blessed. We are part of a group of authors who have written a book together, a Fieldbook for Enterprise Sustainability. Our book is being published by Greenleaf and is expected to come out early next autumn.
Delia Lake: Morris had intended to be here this morning but is very new to SL
Delia Lake: AlcheMiss is with you there in the audience right now
Jennette Forager: (yes, near me)
Jennette Forager: Welcome AlcheMiss.
AlcheMiss Blessed: Hello All! I'm a Newbie too!
Delia Lake: Today, I would also ask that you hold your questions until the end of my presentation. I know that is not our usual practice, but for this presentation, i think it would work best
Delia Lake: Leadership for Sustainability
Delia Lake: that may be the most important leadership for the survival of many species on our earth,
Delia Lake: humans have a considerable capacity to adapt
Delia Lake: but even for us there are limits
Delia Lake: it is generally accepted by archeologists
Delia Lake: that about 100,000 yrs ago
Delia Lake: the human population dipped to under 10, 000 individuals
Delia Lake: maybe even as low as 5000
Delia Lake: it may seem so to us, insulated as we are by our technologies
Delia Lake: but humans, homo sapiens are just as vulnerable to the vagaries of mother earth as are other species
Delia Lake: so we are presenting today a guide, some tools and a lot of encouragement to you all, and reinforcement to ourselves as well
Delia Lake: for all of us need to be leaders in order to stay the increase in global warming
Delia Lake: 2. Leadership for Sustainability, A whole Systems, Self-Organizing Approach of Structure and Analysis, AND Movement and Process
Delia Lake: --i will be referring to the slides to my right ....
Delia Lake: leadership for sustainability a. Can ONLY be inclusive, whole systems, self organizing BOTH / AND
Delia Lake: for example, look at some SL groups represented here of All About Water, Planet Thoughts Environmental, Clean Energy Now, Etopia, HUMANBE, BAOBAB , they are self-organizing communities of interest who are working together for the greater good of our planet in SL transferring knowledge, inspiration and bridge-building activity into RL
Delia Lake: the push, the inclination to sustainability emerges from deep patterns and processes
Delia Lake: it is important to get a sense of the WHOLE, and at the same time attend to the processes
Delia Lake: not only anyone, but EVERYONE on our planet earth is a leader either for or against curbing global warming. there is no in-between in this game
Delia Lake: there are question still to be answered and experiments to be worked though as to what we do and how we do what we do
 | | Early audience just after 7am SLT for Delia Lake's opening talk |
Delia Lake: this effort is a work in progress
Delia Lake: we need effective, compelling strategies
Delia Lake: and we need effective operational leadership
Delia Lake: the challenge is to cultivate the skills to get us to our objective of a sustainable climate
Delia Lake: do not please confuse that with a stable climate
Delia Lake: that is not now and never has been achievable
Delia Lake: but sustainable would be just fine :)
Delia Lake: to accomplish this, we need to build respect and trust along with knowledge
Delia Lake: we need to exercise our best creativity
Delia Lake: for that, we need to include
Delia Lake: there is a richness in the diversity of the peoples of our planet
Delia Lake: that if we communicate, will bring forth not yet conceived inventions in process, structure technology and culture
Delia Lake: during this process, there are bound to be some conflicts
Delia Lake: some minor, but some more substantial
Delia Lake: how we handle these conflicts will have a major effect on our success or failure
Delia Lake: there are internal and external components to leadership for sustainability
Delia Lake: many too many for me to list here
Delia Lake: but the area of action, of friction, of creative implementation is in the boundary between the internal and external
Delia Lake: this is also where the breakdowns and failures occur most often
Delia Lake: it is seldom that people loose their objectives
Delia Lake: of even their will
Delia Lake: but the buildup of tensions on the boundary
Delia Lake: is fierce
Delia Lake: when forging new paths in living
Delia Lake: so one of the main things we all need to do is increase and strengthen our capacity for holding and handling these tensions
Delia Lake: In the midst of tensions, managing to keep moving with purpose, on task, with the sensitivity and the versatility to respond quickly,
Delia Lake: appropriately and effectively. Building, Supporting and Maintaining the CAPACITY to hold and handle the ongoing tensions of Leadership for Sustainability
Delia Lake: what does that look like?
Delia Lake: it is an ongoing, process that when diagramed looks like this
Delia Lake: 5 fundamental steps
Delia Lake: first, you are "in the flow"
Delia Lake: next, pause in the midst
Jennette Forager: (these cards rez very slow Delia)
Delia Lake: do not stop the flow, or your action, but pause
Delia Lake: holding the energy and attitude you need to do that without losing connection and your focus
Delia Lake: is the slide rezzed now?
Jennette Forager: yes, ty
Delia Lake: i apologize if they are slow for people
Delia Lake: i was going at the pace my computer sees them...
Jennette Forager: of course....
Mascottus Phlox: It's ok Delia.
Delia Lake: next, find here and now
Delia Lake: that has many different aspects
Delia Lake: how often are we doing something but not really "there"
Jennette Forager: (rez'd)
Delia Lake: sometimes we do not even realize where our attention is as we wander along
Delia Lake: here also means physically where are you
Delia Lake: we are all in different physical places today
Delia Lake: yet at the same time we are here together virtually at the center for water studies
Delia Lake: now is where you are in the process of your project, in the process of your life :))
Soso Gao: /very important to be here in an international meeting
Delia Lake: remember what and why
Delia Lake: what are you really doing?
Delia Lake: why?
Delia Lake: for the sake of what?
Delia Lake: are there unintended consequences that you ignore?
Delia Lake: Re-Shape Attitude
Delia Lake: attitude refers to a number of different aspects, by definition
Delia Lake: to carriage
Delia Lake: to mood
Delia Lake: to inclination, ...are you moving forward but pulling back at the same time
Delia Lake: if so, your attitude and goals are out of alignment
Delia Lake: and then return to the flow
Delia Lake: 5 steps, continuous, every day practices
Delia Lake: when you put these steps together with, say, strategic leadership, your trajectory looks like this
Delia Lake: managing your energy and attitude to best accomplish what you set out to do, holding just enough tension to get the job done, to keep you passionate, but not so much as to stress you beyond what you can hold
Delia Lake: to show another example, let's consider birds in flight for a minute. actually flocking birds migrating
Delia Lake: it is an arduous task to migrate thousands of miles
Delia Lake: the V formation is familiar to all of us
Delia Lake: scientists who have studied it have found that it is an extremely effective mode of group movement
Delia Lake: one bird starts out as leader
Delia Lake: but as that first one tires, someone else moves up to take the place in front
Jennette Forager: The Tangled Wing
Jennette Forager: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Delia Lake: that goes on for the duration of the journey
Jennette Forager: (excuse me)
Delia Lake: they would not make it alone
Delia Lake: and NEITHER WILL WE!
Delia Lake: in concluding
Delia Lake: i would like to share with you a quote from a favorite book of mine
Delia Lake: Finite and Infinite Games, by James P. Carse
Delia Lake: Carse says
Delia Lake: "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite.
Delia Lake: Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, which is when they end. But infinite games are more mysterious. Their object is not winning but ensuring the continuation of play.
Delia Lake: Infinite players are not serious actors in any story, but the joyful poets of a story that continues to originate what they cannot finish.
Delia Lake: There is but one infinite game."
Delia Lake: Thank you. Please, now if you have any questions we will do our best to respond…….
Delia Lake: both AlcheMiss and i will be glad to try to answer questions
Jennette Forager claps
Delia Lake: i know that i covered a lot today
Delia Lake: i will leave this slideshow up for the next week and set it for public use
Delia Lake: i will also put out some of what i said in a notecard giver if that would be helpful
Delia Lake: *helpful
Jennette Forager nods.
artemisia Mathy: thanks Delia for the notecard
AlcheMiss Blessed: Yes, Delia, that would be helpful.
artemisia Mathy: * notecard
artemisia Mathy: i have a question ?
Delia Lake: AlcheMiss, is there anything you would like to say?
Delia Lake: yes artemisia
Soso Gao: Yes Delia and your slide are very interesting to understand also
AlcheMiss Blessed: Let's hear the questions first if that's OK.
Delia Lake: artemisia?
artemisia Mathy: we have the number leader who have participated in Us and their projects climate Chang e?
artemisia Mathy: in the same time today
Delia Lake: we will have one representative here today
Delia Lake: the inworld official representative for Mike Gravel will be speaking at 2 pm slt
artemisia Mathy: Ok
Delia Lake: we will i hope have press releases from others who are attending rl step it up events today
AlcheMiss Blessed: I think I'd like to say a bit more on the topic of Deep Diversity. As Delia mentioned, one skill for leaders of Sustainable Ent. is to make good use of every voice in the room, so to speak.
AlcheMiss Blessed: What we wd. mean by Deep Diversity is that leaders / leadership often emerges from unexpected quarters.
Mascottus Phlox: If I understand Delia, we only can have leaders in democratical systems?
Soso Gao: so you want to say that everybody could be a leader?
Soso Gao: not only political people?
AlcheMiss Blessed: Effective leaders must recognize that talent even when it come in unexpected packages. That would include perspectives from divergent class, socio-political, "abilities," etc. backgrounds.
Delia Lake: yes. Soso, not just political people. The challenge is too great. it will take most all of us
AlcheMiss Blessed: Yes; leadership is the quality of stepping up to the plate at the needed moment.
Delia Lake: and Mas, in a sense yes. but not necessarily democratic with a big "D"
Soso Gao: ok that's I understood
Delia Lake: so that within a country such as China that we in the west might not consider to be democratic
Soso Gao: it's a great idea that not really exist in France for example
Delia Lake: they still have the choice of being inclusive of differing viewpoints
AlcheMiss Blessed: This is where the quality of self-organizing comes in.
 | | Finale with AldoManutio Abruzzo at the party |
Delia Lake: and giving credence to valid points of view, drawing on diverse talents for innovation
artemisia Mathy: excuse me in electoral campaign in France we have send and ask question to our leaders well
AlcheMiss Blessed: Effective leaders must be able to hold the tension that emerges from these perspectives; hold it until a real "picture" comes into focus - a picture of the direction to be taken - toward a new Alignment.
Soso Gao: but leaders in France are too much politically engaged
Delia Lake: i think that is true in most western countries today, Soso
AlcheMiss Blessed: They can't be any more so than U.S. political leaders!
Soso Gao: yes
AlcheMiss Blessed: I think our challenge is to heighten the awareness of (who we in the U.S. call) "John Q. Public."
artemisia Mathy: but the question is ?
Soso Gao: and le political leaders have to let a great place for scientists if we want to grow up
artemisia Mathy: can you by this way influence in orientation political to change about pollutions ,constructions , chemical etc ?
Delia Lake: well
Delia Lake: before last week
Delia Lake: there were only a few political responses to today's step it up
Soso Gao: Yes I thin it's possible
Delia Lake: but right now there are almost 15,000
Delia Lake: gatherings like this in the rl
artemisia Mathy: in States ?
Delia Lake: mostly, yes
Delia Lake: some in England
Delia Lake: it got the attention of the politicians
Delia Lake: and many went scrambling to join events
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Delia, I think it is time...
Delia Lake: and send in statements about their leadership
Delia Lake: yes
Soso Gao: This is great
AlcheMiss Blessed: We must engage - through empowerment and inclusion - all the voices. Currently, in the U.S., too large a percentage of our population consistently rely upon our political leaders to "do something."
artemisia Mathy: good it's the beginning !
Jennette Forager clapping
Delia Lake: we can continue with this another time in another event
ToolsRMe Shan: yay!
Delia Lake: Thank you again. I would now like to introduce our next speaker, my partner in the planning and running of this event, David/PlanetThoughts Raymaker.
artemisia Mathy: thanks delia
Trautok Hax: thank you
Mascottus Phlox: Thanks a lot, Delia.
artemisia Mathy: * thanks
Soso Gao: because persons like you Delia have done the way and politicians then are going to join
Soso Gao: it seems the good way
AlcheMiss Blessed: I appreciate having been a part of this Delia. Thank you!
Soso Gao: thanks a lot Delia
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Delia, you can come up if you like... but I have some questions for the audience to discuss
Mascottus Phlox: (Delia for President ;))
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: and you have good ideas on these
PLANETTHOUGHTS RAYMAKER – The Environmental Mind
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Hi, everyone.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I have prepared little text, in order to be very spontaneous today
Soso Gao: Hi David
Trautok Hax: HI
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Also, running like crazy to do a real life Step It Up this afternoon, as well, and trying to earn a living
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: and other things as well!
Jennette Forager smiles.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: called "a life"
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: So, why mention this?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I want to look at what we can REALLY expect to do ourselves, and for others to do
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I would like a sense of the audience, first
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: How many of you know each of these: 1) Global Warming
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Please say "a lot", "a little", "never heard of it"
Delia Lake: a lot!
Xavier Denja: a lot
Trautok Hax: more than a lot
artemisia Mathy: a lot
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: A lot might mean: An Inconvenient Truth plus one other source :--)
Trautok Hax: ehhe
Soso Gao: a lot
AlcheMiss Blessed: More than a little; not quite a lot!
Rebus Whitfield: between a little and a lot
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK... yes, it is pretty well known, although the climate scientist is another level entirely
artemisia Mathy: 8 December
AlcheMiss Blessed: Then a lot, for me.
Soso Gao: yes of course
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK... now, 2) Peak Oil
artemisia Mathy: a lot
AlcheMiss Blessed: A lot.
Soso Gao: Bali Conference
Xavier Denja: some
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: If you like, "A lot", "Some", "A little", and "what is that??"
Soso Gao: will be the next step
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Anyone else want to say?
artemisia Mathy: hubert pic
Jennette Forager: a lot!
Soso Gao: a lot
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Don't be shy
Rebus Whitfield: a little
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: So no one has said "never heard of it"
Delia Lake: a lot
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Interesting... I imagine a few have not... it is not THAT well publicized
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: So, we have a well-informed audience
Soso Gao: so where are those who never heard about ?
Soso Gao: it's the problem
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Those who did not speak probably never heard of it??
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: It is OK not to know :--)
Soso Gao: those
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Anyway... the 3) is Resource Depletion
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: How much do you know/heard about it?
Delia Lake: again. a lot :P
Soso Gao: It's the heart of the problem
Soso Gao: if in our meeting
Jennette Forager: a lot
artemisia Mathy: a lot very expansive
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes... Soso... resource depletion?
Soso Gao: we haven't persons who come to be informed no?
AlcheMiss Blessed: I think I know something about this; you mean species, minerals; water; etc. Yes??
artemisia Mathy: water ecosystems
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Well, I assume a few people are just comfortable listening, which is fine
AlcheMiss Blessed: Water ecosystems - yes.
Soso Gao: yes
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Here is what I am trying to get to:
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: We have not only global warming to think about, but a complicated interaction of warming, resource depletion, and energy problems
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Peak Oil says that, basically, we will reach a peak of production ... maybe have already, maybe later
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Many think we are at the peak now.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Why does it matter?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Oil is responsible for 50% of earth's food production via fertilizer (with natural gas)
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Oil is used to make plastics
artemisia Mathy: the resources are surexploited
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: (tires, medical equipment, etc, etc)
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Oil is used to heat, and to travel, and to manufacture
artemisia Mathy: phytos
Soso Gao: It's not really right I think
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Natural gas has the same considerations
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes, Soso?
Soso Gao: It's right in developed countries
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: What is?
Soso Gao: but in the others
Soso Gao: I take one example
AlcheMiss Blessed: The over-use of oil is what I think Soso refers to.
Soso Gao: In Rwanda
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: This is not about over-use
Soso Gao: yes the people doesn't use plastic bags yet
Soso Gao: Rwanda
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: The whole Earth is now connected... how can the developed world provide medical supplies to the less developed world if we can not make them?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK, Soso... but pull one thread, and the garment moves
Soso Gao: and they are going to use
Soso Gao: many emergent countries
Soso Gao: are doing a great environmental politics
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Let me continue on.... you will see the point, which is a little different... I appreciate what you are saying about usage patterns
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Resource depletion is, you could say, everything else.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Large fish stocks are down about 90% (right, Delia?)
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Deserts are growing in Africa, Australia
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Clean water is not available to 1 billion people
Soso Gao: yes I agree
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK... well, this is alarming, right?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Anyone not worried?
artemisia Mathy: ememergent countryes resources are for our countries it's the problem
Soso Gao: yes it's alarming
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: So, some are dealing with the possibility that we can not avoid major decline in population, and change to "life as we know it"
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: How do we handle that?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Any thoughts?
AlcheMiss Blessed: The complexity can't be overstated.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Do we move to new locations? new countries? before disaster hits?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Leave low-lying areas?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes, Alche
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: You are right
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Many of the best minds on this topic vary widely on where we are headed
AlcheMiss Blessed: So - the challenge is to face these challenges from multiple viewpoints.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: There are, maybe three camps 1) It's over... look for stability in about 100 to 150 years
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: 2) it depends on what we do, and 3) it ain't THAT bad
AlcheMiss Blessed: We in the U.S. tend to think of these issues from our own view (e.g. heavy reliance on oil-based production).
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes, Alche... as Soso said, we need to be careful
AlcheMiss Blessed: We need to have other voices 'in the room' as we develop solutions.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I have a video that shows how Cuba manages almost without oil... but the word is "Almost"
Delia Lake: i guess I'm in the "it depends on what we do" camp
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Delia, it is good to have hope... but also, maybe face we are in for it, and what do we do
Trautok Hax: nice would be to have some representatives of people in luck of water..
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: As a child, I was interested in biology and grew bacteria in petri dishes
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: They always died off at the end
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Due to self-pollution or loss of food
artemisia Mathy: and we have not had to private resources and services (?in english )
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: We are slightly better off due to the dynamics of earth... but not if we trample those dynamics
AlcheMiss Blessed: Privitization is indeed a curse IMO
artemisia Mathy: sorry my english is bad : :(
AlcheMiss Blessed: (your english is 1000% better than my french!)
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Alche, you are saying that a wise and dominating government can take better actions... I agree
artemisia Mathy: thanks
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: In the USA we have neither
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: :--)
AlcheMiss Blessed: I'm saying that a wise gov't would cease to be dominating, and be far more inclusive.
Soso Gao: I'm not sure that it is a question of dominating government
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Well, you can be inclusive, but if a company is dumping toxic waste, I want my government to crush them (after a little warning)
Soso Gao: More, it is an understanding
AlcheMiss Blessed: Right now, we are living in fear of 'the Other.' We can't solve anything from this perspective, as we can't trust anything but what looks/feels like us.
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: There is also the use of incentives, to push toward good behavior
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK, Alche... yes
Soso Gao: and we have to had government well informed
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: meaning, find ways to make it worthwhile for Exxon to do the right thing
Soso Gao: that is not always the case
artemisia Mathy: we have to stop to dressed jobs aganst environment
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Let me say one thing... I don't want to sound very pessimistic
artemisia Mathy: *against
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I am not depressed or upset, but I think we have a heavy burden coming in the next 10 or 20 years
AlcheMiss Blessed: I like Gore / Robert Reich's suggestion for requiring polluters to pay for the privilege of killing us - BIG TIME!
Soso Gao: or government that accept to watch and hear the truth
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I think oil and gas will effectively run out, as they have in many countries, and we will only partially replace them
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: The earth, it is estimated by people I believe, can support about 25% oftoday's population
artemisia Mathy: we have to diffuse shout alarm Geo4
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Question: if you see all that coming, should we feel depressed, angry, or ... what?
AlcheMiss Blessed: When they run out is when we must have conquered all xenophia, otherwise that's when all hell breaks loose.
Soso Gao: yes Arte I agree
Soso Gao: neither depressed, or angry but fughting !!!
Soso Gao: fighting
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK, Soso.. I left that out (maybe on purpose?)
artemisia Mathy: and begining to make environment urbanism
Soso Gao: always and always
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes, fight back
AlcheMiss Blessed: How about collaborating??
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Preserve some part of what is good today in the world
Soso Gao: and what for are we here
Soso Gao: for collaborating of course
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: This takes us to deep motivations... in the worst situations, how do we behave?
Delia Lake: collaborating is essential. and we all here need to be reaching out to many others in our real world lives
AlcheMiss Blessed: We obviously now have the technology to speak with other across the seas in very personal way. Why aren't we thinking of using this to plan strategy?
Soso Gao: exactly Delia
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes, collaborating... respect, caring for each other
Trautok Hax: collaboration come more natural in litlte groups..tough
Trautok Hax: after a certain number
Soso Gao: Yes Planet
Trautok Hax: there is a crowd effect
Trautok Hax: that bring panic
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I think this is covered under "chaos theory"
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Society is very complex, and the forces coming are also complex
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Hard to predict, in other words
Soso Gao: so we have to bring the message in RL
Tess Carver: i think the best way to reduce pollution is to teach children about their environment
Trautok Hax: she just to underline that a real work can be done in litle circles...
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Yes, Tess... children are very important
AlcheMiss Blessed: Doesn't chaos theory speak to a self-organizing tendency within the chaos?
Tess Carver: not the rainforests, not the ocean...but their very own backyard
Soso Gao: Tess I totally agree
Trautok Hax: yes
Tess Carver: i see none of that in schools today
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: You know, I often see someone who is cut off in a car start cursing... just an example
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: How can we find solutions unless consciousness is much higher
Delia Lake: yes. AlcheMiss, it does
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Education is really important, Tess... but the adults are worried about the 20th century needs
Soso Gao: we have to put consciousness higher !!!
artemisia Mathy: by communication around the planet
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Now we need cooperative effort, and awareness of systems and relations
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I have a few videos... I hope they work... they are short
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: There are incredibly useful videos on the Internet, but Second Life is still so restricted, I am not so happy with these, but better than nothing
Soso Gao: we have a lot of possibilities
AlcheMiss Blessed: If we can remain focused on human needs, to the extent the corporate needs become 'secondary' we may be able to find a path.
Soso Gao: 1) SL
Tess Carver: what exactly is the goal? to reduce pollution? to halt global warming? to minimize co2 output?
artemisia Mathy: it's the end of constant now action
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I will say, my Web site has some good resources... I just put up an article listing books, films, Web sites, Carbon calculators, etc
Tess Carver: we can only solve specific problems, not general ones
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Tess, all of these
Soso Gao: 2) all the other medias like facebook, Wikis, vieos .... blogs
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: It is a web of connected requirements
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: jac... 5 more minutes please
Trautok Hax whispers :sorry i have to go...
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: We have to have deep personal values that show us how to behave under stress
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Delia... behind door #1?
jacmacaire Humby: np..
Delia Lake: the first video should play on the screen above and behind you David
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: I am not sure what order they are in... and I may skip some of it
Delia Lake: yes. everyone press play on your movie tab
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: sorry
AlcheMiss Blessed: OK - I'm a bit lost here. Movie tab?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: This shows the recent polar ice caps (Arctic) over about 80 years
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: watch at the end
Tess Carver: bottom screen, should be next to 'stand up' if u have quicktime installed
Delia Lake: the bottom right, the one to the most left of the 4 there
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Can we play that again?
Delia Lake: to the left of the tab with the music notes
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: There is a bettter video on my Web site, the last two years... but it will not play here
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: OK... approaching 1900
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: 1960
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Future
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Can everyone open a browser window?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: If you can, go to http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Whole&qid=1628
artemisia Mathy: desertification
AlcheMiss Blessed: Thanks Planet I think its opening
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: We have lag... or I do
Tess Carver: i do too
Delia Lake: some lag
AlcheMiss Blessed: I see it but there's no sound; is that right?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Maybe one more video... and then Jac goes!
Delia Lake: if anyone has HUDs that they could detach..
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Delia?
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: no sound on that one
artemisia Mathy: i have no sound lol
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: It's OK, the videos there are not worth the trouble right now
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Please check the first article at http://www.PlanetThoughts.org
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: It has some of the best information on all these issues, in various formats, and not too overwhelming
Delia Lake: David has produced and maintains an excellent website
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: My goal is for us all to see the very big picture, and think realistically what we can do
Delia Lake: i highly recommend that people check it often
jacmacaire Humby: yes.. it is well done..
Soso Gao: /sorry big crash
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: "thing" realistically, or think if you wish
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Thank you everyone
artemisia Mathy: inondations
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Delia, thanks for your kind words... I try
Jennette Forager claps
Delia Lake: Thank you David for once again provoking people to really think
Mascottus Phlox: /ME claps even if I crashed ;)
JACMACAIRE HUMBY – The Green Way (La Vie Verte)
 jacmacaire Humby: It is OK ??
Mascottus Phlox: What?
Soso Gao: yes ok
artemisia Mathy: we have the sound well
Delia Lake: please now welcome jacmacaire
Soso Gao: but no image
Jennette Forager: (re-logging)
Delia Lake: he will talk to us about La Vie Verte
jacmacaire Humby: Hello, I am French, and I excuse myself for the errors due to the translation...
jacmacaire Humby: My name is Jacques Macaire,
jacmacaire Humby: I am happy to join with you today in what we can call a wonderful demonstration of union..
PlanetThoughts Raymaker: Excuse me, all... I have an event to prepare for. Take care, and see you at the party later today!!
jacmacaire Humby: OK np.. see you later..
jacmacaire Humby: I am responsible for the non profit association called Humanbe.
jacmacaire Humby: My office #14 is the Non Profit Commons Island
jacmacaire Humby: which was generously donated by the Anshe Chung Studios
jacmacaire Humby: and is being managed by TechSoup and a group of volunteer residents,
jacmacaire Humby: with the goal of lowering the barrier of access to Second Life for nonprofits
jacmacaire Humby: But before explaining what we do, and why we are in Second Life,
jacmacaire Humby: I have the heavy task to explain you what is the "Grenelle of the Environment" in France.
jacmacaire Humby: The first question that we posed to me was often :
jacmacaire Humby: From where does the name come from : "Grenelle of the Environment" ?
jacmacaire Humby: Grenelle is an old commune attached to Paris into 1860..
jacmacaire Humby: which is today the district of Grenelle in XVéme district of Paris.
jacmacaire Humby: Of the agreements known as "Grenelle" was negotiated and concluded during May 1968
jacmacaire Humby: with the seat from the Ministry of Labor located in the street from Grenelle.
jacmacaire Humby: By analogy with the agreements of Grenelle, Grenelle is in France a multi-party debate
jacmacaire Humby: joining together the representatives of the government and trade associations,
jacmacaire Humby: bearing on a topic specific and aiming legislating or at giving an opinion.
jacmacaire Humby: From where the "Grenelle of the Environment" which was thus announced for autumn 2007..
jacmacaire Humby: The first stage of the "Grenelle of the Environment" thus has just finished at the end of October...
jacmacaire Humby: The serious things thus will be able to start in France...
jacmacaire Humby: The Sustainable Development entered in the age of reason in France and also for the rest of the world.
jacmacaire Humby: From now, everyone will have to combine economic growth and management of carbon..
jacmacaire Humby: Grenelle had this positive point in France that association like Greenpeace and the industrialists can speak each other
jacmacaire Humby: and advance on subjects where still a few months ago, it did not have there a dialogue.
jacmacaire Humby: All that is completely unhoped-for and, from now on,
jacmacaire Humby: there will be in France, before and afterwards.
jacmacaire Humby: A dynamics is now on the way in all the sectors..
jacmacaire Humby: Transport and housing were the subjects most ambitiously covered with the "Grenelle".
jacmacaire Humby: The projections on the governorship are also essential.
jacmacaire Humby: If a great tax reform is profiled to rock a part of the taxation of work on the energy and environmental taxation,
jacmacaire Humby: a crucial stage will be still reached.
jacmacaire Humby: To be objective and set out again with the task, we were weak on :
jacmacaire Humby: agriculture, waste and education.
jacmacaire Humby: On agriculture : the organic, labellized in the school canteens is an excellent initiative.
jacmacaire Humby: To the GMO let us apply to the letter the principle of precaution and decide then.
jacmacaire Humby: For the pesticides and other harmful and dangerous substances, it will be necessary to go more quickly.
jacmacaire Humby: But the discussion in depth did not take place yet.
jacmacaire Humby: It tracks should be seen, like the sustainable agriculture, for example,
jacmacaire Humby: which is not sufficiently explored.
jacmacaire Humby: Like seeking ways less greedy out of water, energy and intrans for the corn, per example...
jacmacaire Humby: Without taboos nor provocations, it will be necessary to put the things flat.
jacmacaire Humby: On waste, we are interested in the downstream (incinerators or sorting).
jacmacaire Humby: It will be necessary to attack now the flow and the upstream..
jacmacaire Humby: Finally education, subject on which it is agreed to give the hand to the work.
jacmacaire Humby: It is necessary to be much more ambitious than the simple school camps.
jacmacaire Humby: And especially in the administrations it will be good to impregnate
jacmacaire Humby: the dimension of the sustainable development.
jacmacaire Humby: Lastly, if the "Grenelle" gave place, in the media, but also in the company,
jacmacaire Humby: with political debates, economic and technological,
jacmacaire Humby: there is a dimension which was completely dodged :
jacmacaire Humby: it is the ethical and spiritual dimension,
jacmacaire Humby: which it will also be necessary not to be unaware of.
jacmacaire Humby: Perhaps you know it that the Sustainable Development is located at the medium of
jacmacaire Humby: Planet, Profit and also People..
jacmacaire Humby: It is the occasion maintaining to call in question certain values,
jacmacaire Humby: which led us to the dead end where the Earth is today...
jacmacaire Humby: It is necessary to develop a futurology,
jacmacaire Humby: and an analysis on the trajectory of our civilization.
jacmacaire Humby: It is a pity that the reflexion is not expressed on our culture materialist,
jacmacaire Humby: and who can be used to support a new social and economic model,
jacmacaire Humby: which would put the man in the center of the system...
jacmacaire Humby: How to help, everywhere in the world, the companies to be changed?
jacmacaire Humby: How to reconcile led change and international coherence?
jacmacaire Humby: Where the problem is
jacmacaire Humby: it is that the principal persons in charge to direct planet and by same the consumer society
jacmacaire Humby: consider that the wasting, superfluity, the transitory one and the redundancy
jacmacaire Humby: are engines of companies centered on the development and the innovating initiative.
jacmacaire Humby: They think to make more resistant objects,
jacmacaire Humby: would increase their cost and their lifespan, which would harm consumption then.
jacmacaire Humby: But overconsumption involves damage not only environmental and medical,
jacmacaire Humby: but also social and economic.
jacmacaire Humby: This is why, with an unrestrained consumerism, we prefer a consom' action
jacmacaire Humby: or responsible consumption which is a recent sociocultural phenomenon.
jacmacaire Humby: It expresses the idea according to which one, that we can choose to whom we give our money,
jacmacaire Humby: by choosing to consume either only in manner consumerist,
jacmacaire Humby: but by holding account of a "Sustainable Development"
jacmacaire Humby: which puts the man at the heart of the environmental problems, social and economic,
jacmacaire Humby: without privileging some more than one other.
jacmacaire Humby: Today, it is true that for all us, a new adventure starts.
jacmacaire Humby: The road is still long, but I am persuaded that each one on our level,
jacmacaire Humby: we can contribute to make rock the humanity "of the good with dimensions"...
jacmacaire Humby: In front of the extent of work
jacmacaire Humby: and in order to federate the assistance necessary to continue our work
jacmacaire Humby: we created 2 entities:
jacmacaire Humby: - HUMANBE http://www.humanbe.com
jacmacaire Humby: intended to put the man at the center of our concerns and to make it change in its behaviors
jacmacaire Humby: HUMANWORLDCITY http://www.humanworldcity.com
jacmacaire Humby: intended for all those which wish to defend a more human vision of our world
jacmacaire Humby: Thanks to SECOND LIFE,
jacmacaire Humby: HUMANBE has, today, the possibility of trying out the questions of the SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT in a different and virtual way,
jacmacaire Humby: while giving the possibility to the Man of supporting it in the true life...
jacmacaire Humby: According to the evaluations, roughly 80% of the Net surfers, like the 500 most important companies in the world,
jacmacaire Humby: will have a second virtual life on the Web from here at 2011,
jacmacaire Humby: and we would be wrong to deny the advantages related to this new fashion of navigation
jacmacaire Humby: which is at the bottom much more normal.
jacmacaire Humby: We remain on average 11 minutes in a virtual place, against one to two minutes on a Web page..
jacmacaire Humby: All the keys and the solutions are thus there,
jacmacaire Humby: between the true life and the virtual worlds to pass in sustainable development mode
jacmacaire Humby: and to make SECOND LIFE becomes this formidable tool for diffusion of the ideas...
jacmacaire Humby: As a headlight which shows the way, HUMANBE, seeks to create a place of reflexion,
jacmacaire Humby: information
jacmacaire Humby: and education about the Sustainable Development,
jacmacaire Humby: of which priority of the actions that we fixed ourselves, are:
jacmacaire Humby: - informative in the field of the climatic change, the control of energy, transport, as well as natural and industrial risks
jacmacaire Humby: . educational as regards Durable Development, in order to contribute to an evolution of the behaviors
jacmacaire Humby: and participative by the contribution of knowledge which is of interest proven in the evolution of the climatic changes
jacmacaire Humby: We especially found, thanks to SECOND LIFE
jacmacaire Humby: the possibility of being able to explore new ideas, and finally the means of launching many projects.
Mascottus Phlox: Sorry, Jac, I don't understand all. A part of Grenelle discussion was about virtual words? To reduce transport and confront oil peak?
Mascottus Phlox: virtual words
jacmacaire Humby: For the well-being of the present and future generations of our Humanity,
jacmacaire Humby: and to support the initiatives of the organizations which work for a better world,
jacmacaire Humby: Humanbe is happy to announce to you the realization
jacmacaire Humby: of the first prototype of a MAP indicating in SECOND LIFE,
jacmacaire Humby: the UNION of islands or sims concerned by the SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
jacmacaire Humby: If you click on the white points you will be teleport directly in the island indicated
artemisia Mathy: please can you talk about french realizations? in Grenelle?
artemisia Mathy: for the future of humanity and all species not only human
jacmacaire Humby: where you will find the same Map.
jacmacaire Humby: yes sure..
Mascottus Phlox: I agree Artemisia ;)
jacmacaire Humby: It is quite finished, and I am sorry for the islands that I don't put..
jacmacaire Humby: but if you want to add IM me. I will be glad.
jacmacaire Humby: We have also other projects like :
WilliamThewise Goodman: Thank you very much Jac for creating this map. I would like to see Etopia added to this map.
jacmacaire Humby: No problem..
jacmacaire Humby: We have also other projects like : An Eco Positive House
jacmacaire Humby: The objective is to produce a self-sufficing building in energy,
jacmacaire Humby: being able to be built at the best cost, and having neutral carbon emissions.
jacmacaire Humby: The project aims at making a transportable unit which will present the principles of the design,
Medora Chevalier: can I ask if it is mainly eco -friendly projects or also other peace and justice places?
shadows Larkham: salut
jacmacaire Humby: You are doing also other thematic maps
jacmacaire Humby: like an humanitarian map
shadows Larkham: yes
jacmacaire Humby: the management and the re-use of the positive houses,
jacmacaire Humby: and will open the way with a new type of autonomous and ecological constructions.
Medora Chevalier: great
jacmacaire Humby: This unit A POSITIVE ENERGY will show, while keeping a modern comfort,
jacmacaire Humby: which we can save our consumption of energy at the point of being able TO RESELL IT
jacmacaire Humby: We will pass then from the responsible consumer to the responsible producer.
jacmacaire Humby: Envisaged to be built in SECOND LIFE and REAL LIFE
jacmacaire Humby: it will be entirely prefabricated and could be re-used, allowing a fast building site and dust-free,
Soso Gao: Excuse me Jac
jacmacaire Humby: and which will be designed to receive groups of visitors.
jacmacaire Humby: yes Soso
Soso Gao: but you are speaking about your experience no?
Soso Gao: and not about the Grenelle ?
jacmacaire Humby: and now what we are doing without waiting
[Recording person crashed here]
jacmacaire Humby: I put at the place you want..
Medora Chevalier: great
jacmacaire Humby: the eco label ??
jacmacaire Humby: It is the installation of a device of sensitizing of the consumer as regards Sustainable Développement, by the creation of a label recognized for its serious.
jacmacaire Humby: By hoping that it can be free, it should be a rupture with the principles of the current standards
jacmacaire Humby: and will give complete information on the products and services.
jacmacaire Humby: Easily comprehensible by the consumer, will contain two levels of information:
jacmacaire Humby: quantified information and a code color.
jacmacaire Humby: The 5 indicators defined to date will provide information on the life of the product and its impact on its environment:
jacmacaire Humby: its print on the environment (C02 rejected, energy used, water etc consumption.),
jacmacaire Humby: its haul,
Mascottus Phlox: For comprehension, you are telling us your label was recognized by the Grenelle?
jacmacaire Humby: no own label
jacmacaire Humby: its capacity with being to recycle,
WilliamThewise Goodman: Jac thank you very much...I need to leave now to prepare for my presentation on Eco-Villages. Well Done!
jacmacaire Humby: its intrinsic tendency (chimique/naturel/bio),
Soso Gao: so nothing in common with the Grenelle I think
jacmacaire Humby: Ok You are welcome..
jacmacaire Humby: I am not a representative of the Government..
jacmacaire Humby: and its social ethics.
artemisia Mathy: of sure !
jacmacaire Humby: Many of other projects, are in preparation, and only wait to be realized,
jacmacaire Humby: like the construction of a city
jacmacaire Humby: intended to be used as support for the imagination of the future generations,
Mascottus Phlox: We are not from the Government too, Jacques....
artemisia Mathy: where ? the city?
Mascottus Phlox: A city?
jacmacaire Humby: everyone have to work..
jacmacaire Humby: intended to be used as support for the imagination of the future generations, or the numerical safeguard of the human transmission
Mascottus Phlox: It's a commission Atali plan, isn't it?
artemisia Mathy: Please jac in real or SL? the city?
jacmacaire Humby: I will be glad in RL…
jacmacaire Humby: but first in SL…
jacmacaire Humby: OK.. It will be necessary to act quickly now,
jacmacaire Humby: to change the behaviors and to organize a world ecological governorship.
jacmacaire Humby: It is time to set up a participative process and consensual able to mobilize everyone,
jacmacaire Humby: to create a dynamics,
artemisia Mathy: and city with urbanites? and specialist management?
Mascottus Phlox: I don't think next generation will use Second Life Jac. I hope they will have better virtual things ;)
jacmacaire Humby: yes why not??
artemisia Mathy: Oh...
jacmacaire Humby: to explore the possible ones,
jacmacaire Humby: to explain, but also to re-examine the old knowledge,
jacmacaire Humby: to develop the exemplary companies and people,
jacmacaire Humby: to support a capital risks interdependent economy,
jacmacaire Humby: to allow a voluntary help of the sustainable development,
jacmacaire Humby: to really take the tax off those which make efforts,
Mascottus Phlox: A world government is a good idea, but are we ready for that, even if we need to?
jacmacaire Humby: to direct the government aid towards sober projects out of carbon and energy,
Epiphany Kattun: Not with the current leaders in power.
jacmacaire Humby: to pass from the low consumption to positive energy,
jacmacaire Humby: to create who will bring towards sustainable territories...
jacmacaire Humby: Thank you for your attention..
Mascottus Phlox: I agree Epiphany. But we are responsible about our leaders ;)
jacmacaire Humby: If you wish to test our Sustainable Développement mode,
jacmacaire Humby: join us in SECOND LIFE and come to see me ( jacmacaire humby, my name in Second Life)
jacmacaire Humby: at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/234/60/26
Epiphany Kattun: Yes, and unfortunately, the American people are fast asleep.
jacmacaire Humby: we have also a link on the banner page of http://www.humanbe.com
jacmacaire Humby: All the stakes are there.
jacmacaire Humby: It is now that it is necessary to go, to act and propose.
Mascottus Phlox: American people, and European too ;)
jacmacaire Humby: We have to share our knowledge
jacmacaire Humby: I know that all that can appear a little insane, but I like to quote the sentence that Einstein said :
jacmacaire Humby: "a person who never made errors ever tried to innovate"...
jacmacaire Humby: Thanks you for your attention.
Epiphany Kattun: Thank you.
Delia Lake: that's true. jac :)
Delia Lake: Thank you very much
jacmacaire Humby: I hope that it will not too long..
Ivy Innis: thank you Jac - thought provoking
artemisia Mathy: Please i have a question ?
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
artemisia Mathy: Well you put the human in the center
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
artemisia Mathy: but many scientifics are discover language of species
jacmacaire Humby: it is the sustainable development way..
artemisia Mathy: oh sorry
jacmacaire Humby: and..
artemisia Mathy: many scientifics says that species are all communicated
jacmacaire Humby: yes of course..
Mascottus Phlox: See you on Etopia ;)
artemisia Mathy: new discover
[Record of jacmacaire section ends here]
WILLIAMTHEWISE GOODMAN – Eco-villages as a Solution to Global Warming
WilliamThewise Goodman: Welcome everyone to the Etopia Environmental Eco-Village.
WilliamThewise Goodman: It is great to see you all today!
WilliamThewise Goodman: Today's activities are part of a national US effort to make the issues of Global Warming an active part of the upcoming Presidential election here in the United States.
WilliamThewise Goodman: My talk will focus on how creating and living in modern-day eco-villages can be part of the solution to the challenges we all face around Global Warming.
WilliamThewise Goodman: I will make sure to leave plenty of time at the end of this talk for questions.
WilliamThewise Goodman: I want to address first the issue of Global Warming.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Much of the conversation is around who is to blame for this problem and I want to state from the start that I do not feel that matters at all.
WilliamThewise Goodman: There is abundance proof that the earth is in a warming trend, as it has done several times in the past.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Whether humans have "caused" this phenomenon I believe is not an important question at this point.
WilliamThewise Goodman: The question in front of us today is what are can do to about it? I see there are two parts of this question.
WilliamThewise Goodman: The first is, "What can we all do to reduce our impact on this issue?" This includes reducing our carbon output.
WilliamThewise Goodman: The second question is "What steps do we need to take to adapt to the changes which we will not be able to eliminate?"
WilliamThewise Goodman: So first off, what is an eco-village? According to the Global Eco-Village Network…
WilliamThewise Goodman: "An eco-village is a human scale, full-featured settlement which integrates human activities harmlessly into the natural environment, supports healthy human development, and can be continued into the indefinite future."
WilliamThewise Goodman: To achieve this, eco-villages integrate various aspects of ecological design, permaculture, ecological building, green production, alternative energy, community building practices, and much more into their design and operation.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Etopia is designed to be a showcase for all of these ideas and, in addition, a place where Real Life Businesses can have a home to offer their goods and services. It is an attempt to bring real life sustainable solutions into Second Life.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Eco-villages include a Social and Community aspect in which people feel supported by and responsible to those around them. They provide a deep sense of belonging to a group.
WilliamThewise Goodman: They are small enough that everyone feels safe, empowered, seen and heard. People are then able to participate in making decisions that affect their own lives and that of the community on a transparent basis.
WilliamThewise Goodman: They have an ecological dimension, which allow people to experience their personal connection to the living earth.
WilliamThewise Goodman: People enjoy daily interaction with the soil, water, wind, plants and animals.
WilliamThewise Goodman: People provide for their daily needs - food, clothing, and shelter - while respecting the cycles of nature.
WilliamThewise Goodman: The Cultural and Spiritual dimension of an eco-village respects and support the Earth and all living beings on it.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Residents encourage cultural and artistic enrichment and expression, and include a wide variety of spiritual practices.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Here is a listing of Eco-Village Design Concepts
WilliamThewise Goodman: 1. Multiple Uses: As much as possible locations, objects, and resources are designed to serve more than one purpose.
WilliamThewise Goodman: For example, the recycling containers you see scattered around the Island are also herb-growing containers which are available for harvesting by anyone.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 2. Mixed Uses: Within a two-minute walk you will find businesses, homes, food production, wild areas and recreation.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 3. Local Sustainable Materials: The materials used in an eco-village lean towards the use and reuse of material that are gathering whenever possible, from local sources.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 4. Human Scale: The height and scale of the buildings are kept in proportion to people so visitors and residents do not feel overwhelmed by their surroundings.
WilliamThewise Goodman: It is not an accident that the tallest objects on Etopia are the trees and Eagle Mountain.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 5. Permaculture Landscape: The landscape within an eco-village is rich in low water and edible plants.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Fruit trees not only provide shade but an abundance of locally grown food.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 6. Energy efficient Design: Homes and offices are designed to capture as much natural sunlight as possible and are built to minimize heat loss in the colder months.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 7. Multi-modal transportation: One of the key aspects of an eco-village is to offer a variety of sustainable transportation options and to emphasize walking, biking and mass transit.
WilliamThewise Goodman: In Etopia we have the Magnetic Levitation train and the aerial gondola as the main modes of transportation in addition to walking and biking.
WilliamThewise Goodman: 8. Community Gathering Places: The creation of authentic community is encouraged by the numerous places for small and larger groups of people to easily gather to play and socialize.
WilliamThewise Goodman: So, I hope all of you can see, that by incorporating these changes into our communities we can have a significant effect on the amount of carbon we pour into the atmosphere.
WilliamThewise Goodman: This is why I am committed to helping transforming the way we live into clusters of eco-villages as a solution to the challenges posed by global warming.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Since I suspect that the vast majority of us do not live in an eco-village in Real Life, there is a book I would like to recommend to all of you.
WilliamThewise Goodman: It is called Superb – 31 Ways to create sustainable neighborhoods.
WilliamThewise Goodman: The author David Wann.
WilliamThewise Goodman: This book list 31 ways that you can make changes right where you live to help make your neighborhood more sustainable – environmentally, socially and financially.
WilliamThewise Goodman: I strongly suggest getting a copy of this book as a first step for making changes right where you live
WilliamThewise Goodman: By incorporating these concepts into the renovation of our towns and cities and in the creation of new ones, we can help reduce the need for fossil fuels and it's effect on Global Warming.
WilliamThewise Goodman: In addition, living more sustainably will help insure that our children's children will have a healthy world to live in.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Thank you very much for your time and I have saved the rest of our tie together for questions and comments.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Did I loose you?
Mascottus Phlox: Not at all ;)
WilliamThewise Goodman: I am happy to pass along the text in a notecard if you like
singuart Ballinger: Bonsoir
WilliamThewise Goodman: Greetings
Ivy Innis: thanks - i would appreciate that
artemisia Mathy: yes thanks for the notecard
WilliamThewise Goodman: It also looks like a number of new people are coming now...lol
oldschool Spitteler: hi all
xoldschool: hi all
WilliamThewise Goodman: What comments do you have about this idea?
artemisia Mathy: I can pose a question ?
Ivy Innis: Do any of these communities currently exist?
WilliamThewise Goodman: There are hundreds of eco-villages around the world right now
artemisia Mathy: my question are you number in SL and do you make the same project in RL ?
WilliamThewise: How do you create? Do you create everything or start from a point? I think we don't have to build new villages or towns but transform them.
WilliamThewise Goodman: Most are very small and incorporate a number of these elements
WilliamThewise Goodman: My Real Life work is this.
WilliamThewise Goodman: I am a consultant to groups who are making communities around the United States
WilliamThewise Goodman: My background is environmental planning
WilliamThewise Goodman: And this sim is an example of what could be done if all these ideas
WilliamThewise Goodman: were brought together in the same location
WilliamThewise Goodman: Everything you see here exists somewhere
WilliamThewise Goodman: Just not all in the same location
singuart Ballinger: i hope you don't use the TeK or SEquoia to create the chair i prefer the granite sorry
WilliamThewise Goodman: We grow the wood here and harvest it for use
WilliamThewise Goodman: The bamboo bikes are also grown and made locally
Soso Gao: it's good like that
Soso Gao: very nice
Delia Lake: bamboo bikes :)) i really like that
Soso Gao: yes Delia
WilliamThewise Goodman: Here is the LM to help you get back to the Center for Water Studies
Soso Gao: and bamboo grows up very quickly
WilliamThewise Goodman: Would anyone like one of our bamboo bikes
Delia Lake: i would like that very much, yes
Mascottus Phlox: yes :)
Soso Gao: oh yes William
Ivy Innis: yes - :)
Innis Allen: yes please
Delia Lake: thank you!
artemisia Mathy: but bamboo doesn't accept an other plants !
oldschool Spitteler: thanx
singuart Ballinger: of course the bamboo make a quickly regeneration who they drink the water
WilliamThewise Goodman: The concept is to use local resources
WilliamThewise Goodman: Or trade for things you cannot make locally
singuart Ballinger: great idea William
WilliamThewise Goodman: The train was not made here
artemisia Mathy: but bamboo is very graphic
WilliamThewise Goodman: But we sell power to the town where the train was made
WilliamThewise Goodman: We are also part of the Green Island Project
WilliamThewise Goodman: so our sim is powered by renewable power in RL
Mascottus Phlox: What is it?
singuart Ballinger: 100% nature i love it
artemisia Mathy: Ho
Delia Lake: as is the Better World sim where the Center for Water Studies is
artemisia Mathy: green island project ?
Tsidel Shepherd: william - it is!? I've been wondering about that! that's exciting. As I'm aware that SL takes a *lot* of energy to run
WilliamThewise Goodman: We pay $50USD a year and the money buys renewable power tooffset the power used by the LL server for this island
Delia Lake: Bjerkel Eerie is the contact in sl for the Green Islands Project
singuart Ballinger: that's not expensive
WilliamThewise Goodman: No it is a very good value
Soso Gao: ok good so I'm going to contact her
Tsidel Shepherd: is there away for individual avs to do the same?
WilliamThewise Goodman: And those of you who have smaller areas you can pay less I assume
singuart Ballinger: did you have a help with a Linden Lab for your project
WilliamThewise Goodman: You will have to ask BJ about that
WilliamThewise Goodman: Linden Lab has not been part of Etopia
WilliamThewise Goodman: This has been done totally on our own
Delia Lake: it would be good to write to Philip Linden though and tell him that you want all of sl to be green powered
singuart Ballinger: sad
WilliamThewise Goodman: Great Idea Delia
Soso Gao: yes Delia a good idea
artemisia Mathy: all the banks lol
WilliamThewise Goodman: we encourage all of you to take a ride around the island to get the full effect
WilliamThewise Goodman: it is free as long as you get a ticket
WilliamThewise Goodman: And the gondola ride to the top of the mountain
Soso Gao: here are the eagles
WilliamThewise Goodman: We have homes and stores and office here as well as recreational activities
WilliamThewise Goodman: Does anyone have any more questions or comments
singuart Ballinger: and for educational du make a note card or explain the concept
Ivy Innis: Have you ever worked with K-12 students to introduce them to these ideas or to do any design?
WilliamThewise Goodman: I am happy to give you a note card with my presentation on it.
Tsidel Shepherd: i would like that
Butch Pinion: me too
WilliamThewise Goodman: Ivy - I make presentations all the time and would be happy to talk with you about this either in SL or in RL
Mascottus Phlox: Perhaps you should change villages and town. Lot of place can't be rebuilt like the Etopia Eco-village ;)
WilliamThewise Goodman: I would love to do this. I am also available as a consultant to SL developers to make more places work like Etopia
Ivy Innis: great! thanx
WilliamThewise Goodman: Did anyone else what a copy of my talk?
Butch Pinion: I do please
Tsidel Shepherd: Will - i would.
Hooper March: sure#
Delia Lake: i would like a copy please
WilliamThewise Goodman: Hooper where are you
Delia Lake: and perhaps we should have a services area on our info board at the water center
Delia Lake: with BJ and you on it
Hooper March: back row:)
WilliamThewise Goodman: Thank you all again for coming
Hooper March: ooops sorry I'm set to busy
WilliamThewise Goodman: Delia what is next
Delia Lake: thank you, William
Hooper March: thx i got it
Delia Lake: next we have muhammedYussif
Delia Lake: talking about a community in Stockholm. rl
singuart Ballinger: William with your concept will you search a sponsoring partner RL after ?
artemisia Mathy: thanks for the presentation
Soso Gao: thank you William
Delia Lake: that is powered by alternative energy
Mascottus Phlox: Thank to you William!
Ivy Innis: thank you! I'm going to take a look around...
Mascottus Phlox: At the CfWS?
WilliamThewise Goodman: I am happy to give tours as well
Delia Lake: yes. the next talks will be at the Center for Water studies
WilliamThewise Goodman: woot
Mascottus Phlox: Ok, so, see you there ;)
Delia Lake: muhammed, then jaynine scarbourough with live music
oldschool Spitteler: se you
xoldschool: you
singuart Ballinger: thx
Delia Lake: then some afternoon talks, and politicians
Delia Lake: finishing up with music :))
Delia Lake: this is really a great community design, William
WilliamThewise Goodman: Thank you very much.
MUHAMMEDYUSSIF WIKINGER – Energy Saving in Stockholm:
How One City Improves Itself
Delia Lake: we are pleased to have muhammedYussif with us today
Delia Lake: to tell us about alternative energy in rl
Delia Lake: in Sweden
WilliamThewise Goodman: Yeah!!!!!
muhammedYussif Wikinger: well I'm honored to be here
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Time to start?
XLR8RRICK Hudson: I am well versed in Geothermal installations
Delia Lake: any time, yes
muhammedYussif Wikinger: In the name of God the Merciful the Compassionate
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Peace upon you all with the Mercy and Blessings of our common God Almighty
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I am happy to be able to talk to you about energy savings in Stockholm, the Swedish capital.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: One of my great interests in life beside religion and politics is nature conservation
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I will start with a short introduction of myself and of the situation in the wilderness
Mascottus Phlox: Muhammed, I think you should speak closer to us...
muhammedYussif Wikinger: perhaps you have difficulties to listen? :-)
Mascottus Phlox: Yes ;)
XLR8RRICK Hudson: chat range 20Meters
Mascottus Phlox: And I'm in front of you ;)
Mascottus Phlox: Thanks :)
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I will also make a short review of the Stern report and the IPCC assessment.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Then the story from Stockholm and a few suggestions of what could be done about energy waste.
XLR8RRICK Hudson: that's a cool subject
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I have worked with nature conservation 10 years in my small home town in Sweden
muhammedYussif Wikinger: both as board member of the Nature Conservation Association and as Specie Guard for threatened species of flowers and mosses
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Every year I visit the places where "my" species reside.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Here two of the members of the Nature conservation association are looking
muhammedYussif Wikinger: for Gentiana campestris in an area made for electric power supply
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It starts getting flowers in July and here there are about 300 species somewhere.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It needs regular treatment so the grass will not kill it.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I have learned a lot during these years about Geology, Botany, Pollution, Garbage waste and Climate problems
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Now being a retired psychiatrist with grown up children I spend a lot of time on my new interests
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and also work in Second Life for promotion of climate awareness and religion.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I think that the awareness of species conservation made me go deeper into the climate question
Ezra Raymaker: sorry Muhammed... I've got to go and eat... back later... good to see ya...
muhammedYussif Wikinger: ok
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and actually when I entered Second Life one year ago I met
muhammedYussif Wikinger: passionate climate workers in the SL group Clean Energy NOW who gave me a lot of information and arguments
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and of course at the same time the Stern report came. It all started with flowers.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This is the flower Gentiana campestris that they were looking for
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It is labeled Vulnerable and go to blooming each other year
singuart Ballinger: gentianne
singuart Ballinger: i love it
muhammedYussif Wikinger: There are more flowers being endangered because of the change in agriculture management and the rapid consumption of trees in the forests.
Hooper March: :(
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This is the lichen Lobaria pulmonaria growing at trees deep in the woods where no pollution reaches
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This is labeled as Near Threatened.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I found in unexpectedly looking for vulnerable lichen - very beautiful looking as the structure of the inside of the lung
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Mosses are endangered because of the drainage by ditches
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and lichens are endangered by air pollution especially from cars and trucks.
singuart Ballinger: Lichen have received the atom of the Chernobyl accident
muhammedYussif Wikinger: that's true - they harbor the radioactivity
singuart Ballinger: and mushroom to
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This is the mushroom Gomphus clavatus
muhammedYussif Wikinger: In Sweden called the violet dodderer
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It is vulnerable to growing in the deep forest needing calcium rich soil to survive.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The study of threatened species is an excellent way to see what is happening in the environment.
singuart Ballinger: Forest of the sapine or tree
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Soon we will see the species in Sweden sensible to warm climate disappear
muhammedYussif Wikinger: tree
muhammedYussif Wikinger: because the can not compete with the invasion from the warm south.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This is the Chimaphila umbellata - vulnerable too
muhammedYussif Wikinger: growing close to some roads in my home area and guarded by us by authority of the regional environment protection bureau.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: here it has already flowered and looks more like twigs but the leaves are longer.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: We have a "red list" where the species are labeled
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable and Near Threatened.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: By following the development over years you can discover if something wrong is happening in the environment.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This is Botrychium virginianum which needs flowing calcium rich water around.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It is also vulnerable and very hard to find even if you know where it was last year.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Soon it was obvious that climate problems and energy consumption were major components
muhammedYussif Wikinger: in the problem how to save threatened species in the woods and lakes around me.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: By using microscope and field studies you can determine the specie and its distribution.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: But why can't we trust our Lord to take care of the environment problems.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: He created Nature and would surely want to keep it healthy and prosperous.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: A sustainable conclusion is that God wants us to take responsibility for our whole planet
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and the threat against us through global temperature
muhammedYussif Wikinger: increase is a major challenge God wants us to take care of and the result of that action will be our punishment or reward in our next life.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Soon this can be transformed to deserts.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Another objection can be that global temperature always,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: as far as we know have had changes up and down in a regular manner.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Even if we can see some regular changes that statement is more than wrong
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It has been about five near extermination events for life at our planet.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: One relatively recent 65 millions years ago by a meteorite ended 90% of all living creatures.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The current increase in green house gases is very rapid and
muhammedYussif Wikinger: fall outside the earlier patterns studied in the glacial ice of the island Greenland.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This year the Stern report and the report from United Nations climate panel made it obvious
muhammedYussif Wikinger: for everybody that energy consumption has a great influence on climate problems
muhammedYussif Wikinger: because of the production of carbon dioxide and the following rise in global temperature.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: As you recall the Stern report has assessed a wide range of evidence on the impacts of climate change and on the economic costs,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and has used a number of different techniques to assess costs and risks.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: From all of these perspectives, the evidence gathered by the Review leads to a simple conclusion:
muhammedYussif Wikinger: the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world
muhammedYussif Wikinger: access to water, food production, health, and the environment
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: When the world temperature rises more land goes to deserts and people living there will have a hard time searching for water
muhammedYussif Wikinger: both for their children, themselves and the land they have to feed them. The sheep, camels and cows will suffer from thirst.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Hunger and thirst will deteriorate their health and they will easier conquered by infectious diseases
muhammedYussif Wikinger: In other places, low situated land near the coastline there will be flooded,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: the sea probably will raise a couple of meters and large areas will not be suitable for human living any more.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Stabilization in this range would require emissions to be at least 25% below current levels by 2050, and perhaps much more.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: an assessment report describing progress in understanding of the human and natural drivers of climate change,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The United nations climate panel actually the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made
muhammedYussif Wikinger: observed climate change, climate processes and attribution, and estimates of projected future climate change.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It builds upon new findings from the past six years of research.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I think that report turned around most of the skeptical humans and now there are very few who would say this is not our problem.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The Nobel Peace Price to the most former next president of the United States of America Al Gore also confirms his great work to inform us about the graveness of the situation.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: We have many free utilities from nature in form of bio systems.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: These help us to live a comfortable life here on Earth.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: For example the bees work to make it possible for the trees to produce the fruits.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: We get electricity by the waterfalls that depends on the raining for water supply
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and the oceans help us to transport goods in a cheep way.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: We take all these systems for granted but they depend on a balance in nature which can be put at risk.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Here you can see the part of energy consumption in the world
muhammedYussif Wikinger: that is used by coal and oil producing carbon dioxide and global warming
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and what is expected with business as usual. Business av usual will be no business
Dr Rasheed Miraculous Drink whispers: huuuuh ... huuuuh ... me head ...
muhammedYussif Wikinger: There are many sources to green house gases and today we will concentrate on energy consumption.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Most of the world energy comes from oil and carbon fuelling and it releases carbon dioxide.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Actually we see a large over consumption of energy in western countries
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and our main goal must be to reduce that together with technical inventions
muhammedYussif Wikinger: how to reduce the pollution from energy production
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The problem has both technical and political implications
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I read in the national newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in Sweden the other day an article by one of our
muhammedYussif Wikinger: .known member of the European Parliament Anders Wijkman
muhammedYussif Wikinger: He tells us that the protection custom on cheap energy saving lamp bulbs from China is 66 %
muhammedYussif Wikinger: in the European Union
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Strange way to persuade China to be more energy saving
muhammedYussif Wikinger: but could be explained by the brightness of the German lamp bulb factory Osram which are scared of loosing market shares
muhammedYussif Wikinger: There are many ways to reduce energy consumption and we all can do a little bit
muhammedYussif Wikinger: but the result of all efforts will really make a difference
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I would like to tell you a story from Stockholm the capital of Sweden
Delia Lake: yes
jacmacaire Humby: It is true yes..
muhammedYussif Wikinger: where work is going on saving energy in many ways. Now I am talking about housing.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The tenant-owners society Vedbäraren 19 in Stockholm saves every year 20 000 US $ in reduced energy consumption
muhammedYussif Wikinger: when the district heating plant was renovated
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Now the warmth in the apartments is more uniform and the discharge to the environment is reduced.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The climate bureau in the administration gives courses in how tenant-owners societies can reduce their energy wasting.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: I will give you a picture of what happened:
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Kerstin and Bertil Lindqvist, he is a retired graduate engineer, on the third floor noticed at first an irritating noise from the radiators
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Other neighbors also made complaints over the same thing.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Soon they understood that the problem was in the boiler room.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: In the boiler room was the district heating plant who distributes the district heating to each of the 33 apartments and it had been the same since the 1970s.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The district heating plant was oversized. It followed the rules and prescription of that decade
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Together with some neighbors the Lindqvists wrote a motion to the annual meeting of the Society about exchanging the heating plant.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: That became the start of their engagement for a smarter energy-use in the house
muhammedYussif Wikinger: And because the heat comes from The Fortum Coal Power Station in Värtan every saved kilowatt hour means reduces discharge of carbon dioxide.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Almost 40% of all energy used in Sweden goes to heat and management of houses
muhammedYussif Wikinger: To reduce the discharge of climate gases the environment administration in Stockholm has an education
muhammedYussif Wikinger: for tenant-owner societies and house managers how to reduce energy costs.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Here you see a picture of the energy use in a block of flats.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: 15% goes to common electricity, 15% goes to hot water, 15 % goes to household electricity
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and 55% goes to heating of the apartments.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: If you take this 55% ( heating of apartments) so will 39% disappear in ventilation,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: 10% goes to the roof, 24% goes to walls, 24% goes to windows and 5% goes to floors
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Until now 230-240 persons have been trained.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Not until next year they have a specification of how much energy and discharge which has been saved thanks to the action taken in the houses
muhammedYussif Wikinger: But the exchange of the heat plant at Vedbäraren is a typical example.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Since they interviewed five different executors and compared their offers,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: the board in the tenants owner society Vedbäraren 19 decided to invest nearly 43 000 US$ in a new heat plant
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The investment has paid itself in three years.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The pump bringing water to the taps was also exchanged.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The old one gave such a high pressure that the water flushed out of the taps.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The exchange gave a definitive effect.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The water consumption was reduced with 30%
muhammedYussif Wikinger: It also saves warm water heating. The cost annually for water was reduced with 2000 US$.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The graph here shows the total energy consumption in the apartment block in megawatt hours over one year.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: You see the dip during summer because our winter is rather cold.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: The thick lower line is after the exchange of boiler and the thin upper is before the exchange.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: There are many things you can do to save energy in a household.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: You can use low-energy lamps, you can shut down electrical machinery instead of "stand by",
muhammedYussif Wikinger: you can lower the temperature in the apartment and wear better warming clothes,
muhammedYussif Wikinger: you can be careful with the garbage and not throw away things that can be used again.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: And do not forget to save the hot water, much energy is wasted there.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Outside the household you can drive your car carefully so you save gas and carbon dioxide
muhammedYussif Wikinger: through not pressing the gas pedal hard to have a powerful acceleration and don't use your breaks if not necessary
muhammedYussif Wikinger: you can put in another gear and reduce the speed that way.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: We call it soft driving.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Of course if you can afford it you can choose a car with bio-fuel or an electric engine if you only drive short distances.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: If you live in colder climate you can warm up the car before starting the engine.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: If possible you can use train instead of cars and airplanes for travel.
jacmacaire Humby: Bio fuel ??
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Airplanes use a lot of energy through their fuel consumption and recently in Sweden we discuss the climate problem as a threat against aero transportation.
muhammedYussif Wikinger: also yes
muhammedYussif Wikinger: If you run a company you can look through the many sources of energy loss and correct them.
jacmacaire Humby: It is an energy not possible..
muhammedYussif Wikinger: You can look at logistics and change mood of transportation
muhammedYussif Wikinger: and you can stimulate the employees to walk to work
jacmacaire Humby: You have to choose to eat or to be transport..
muhammedYussif Wikinger: or use bicycles by offer them a free breakfast when they arrive and making parking facilities for bicycles more comfortable than for cars, closer to the entrance
muhammedYussif Wikinger: This was the story I wanted to tell you. Please be free to come with questions.
Delia Lake: thank you muhammed
jaynine Scarborough: thank you :-)
jacmacaire Humby: Bravo..
Mascottus Phlox: Thanks, it was very clear.
Delia Lake: most cities in the western world have old buildings that need to be retrofitted
Hooper March: it's great that system paid for itself within 2 years
jacmacaire Humby: all the buildings I think..
Mascottus Phlox: A question: who paid? In your example, you said money was back in 3 years. But, who gave money first?
muhammedYussif Wikinger: probably they took a loan in a bank
Mascottus Phlox: So, private funds, not public ones?
muhammedYussif Wikinger: banking in Sweden are owned both by private hands and the state
Mascottus Phlox: Ok. Thanks :)
Hooper March: that was a great talk
muhammedYussif Wikinger: thanks
singuart Ballinger: Muhammed you have see the rarity species of the nature but you don't see the 'turn over of the nature' example the species live in warm climate adaptability with a fresh climate ?
jacmacaire Humby: Yes and with a lot of explication..
Hooper March: very informative and i like the Sweden flowers plants
muhammedYussif Wikinger: not exactly - but we see the border for trees moving up the mountains
muhammedYussif Wikinger: already
muhammedYussif Wikinger: any more questions before we stop?
jacmacaire Humby: When can we see you in SL generally ??
muhammedYussif Wikinger: mostly 2-3 times a day at the Chebi mosque after my praying
 | A delightful one hour interlude was
provided by jaynine Scarborough |
jacmacaire Humby: OK, thank you.
singuart Ballinger: i see in France in border of mountain the Olea europaea
singuart Ballinger: and they live now 100 year of adaptation and the change the climate
muhammedYussif Wikinger: ok - thank you very much everybody - salamo'aleikom (peace on to you)
singuart Ballinger: marleikoum salam
muhammedYussif Wikinger: Delia
jaynine Scarborough: :-))
Ezra Raymaker: thanks Muhammed
jacmacaire Humby: Namaste..
Delia Lake: thank you very much, muhammed
jacmacaire Humby: Thank you very much..
Hooper March: Om Shanti
Mascottus Phlox: Thanks ;)
Delia Lake: in just a few minutes we will be treated to the wonderful music of singer jaynine Scarborough!
***************** ONE HOUR MUSIC BREAK WITH JAYNINE SCARBOROUGH ***************
JOHN GALLAND – Climate change and its consequences -
the latest scientific results
John Galland: Hi, everyone!
Soso Gao: Hi john
John Galland: Wow, that was fantastic!
Secundo Dharma: /I need to good - a previous writing engagement - Love you Jaynine and Rad
Boel Mornington: Hi!
John Galland: Well, I hope a bunch of facts and figures isn't boring after that....
Rad Hand: /tC Secundo :)
John Galland: Let me introduce myself for just a moment
John Galland: I'm a climatologist at a small university in Kansas, in the middle of the US
John Galland: my specialty is Arctic sea ice (of which I'll say a bit later on)
jaynine Scarborough: i am all for facts although i sing songs about dreaming :-)
John Galland: but I also work on trends in severe weather on the high plains
John Galland: I appreciate the invitation to share with you all I've been reading and hearing from colleagues about climate change
John Galland: and also some recent information about impacts of climate change, which are increasingly felt
John Galland: Actually, my message is fairly simple
John Galland: the evidence is growing that climate change is occurring and that human activity, particularly burning of fossil fuels, is partly responsible
John Galland: the global temperature continues to increase, and as well in both hemispheres
John Galland: the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing faster than expected
John Galland: the models of 5 and 10 years ago, in face underestimated the rate of increase in CO2 emissions
John Galland: *in fact
John Galland: so, what has this meant
John Galland: I'll focus a bit on the Arctic
John Galland: first of all, temperatures there are increasing at twice the global average rate
John Galland: glaciers across large parts of the north are receding (melting back) or surging (getting thinner and losing more mass as icebergs)
John Galland: permafrost over large swaths of Canada, Alaska, and Siberia is melting
John Galland: there is more precipitation, but less snow
John Galland: more is falling as rain
John Galland: in fact, there are thunderstorms in parts of the Arctic now!
John Galland: The sea ice has decreased 40% since 1950
John Galland: and is decreasing at about 7% per decade now
John Galland: my colleagues anticipate that the permanent ice pack will be gone by 2050, so that ice will appear and melt back seasonally
John Galland: but the rate of melt is still growing
John Galland: 2007 was the record low ice cover year ever recorded
John Galland: the Northwest passage was open all year, for the first time ever observed
John Galland: the problem is that a number of animals, in fact an entire ecosystem, depends on the sea ice edge
John Galland: as the ice shrinks, so does their habitat
John Galland: the Greenland ice sheet is showing signs of a net loss of ice
John Galland: so the impacts are very obvious
John Galland: and being felt first and greatest in the Arctic
John Galland: now, what to do?
John Galland: well, whatever we do, the faster the better
John Galland: the reason is that the greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for 30-50 years
John Galland: that means that actions we do today won't really have much of an impact for at least a couple of decades
Delia Lake: so we are now experiencing the effects of the gases put in the atmosphere during our childhoods!
John Galland: yet, if we don't do it, the people 20 years from now won't be able to
John Galland: exactly, Delia
Mascottus Phlox: It depends your age, Delia ;)
John Galland: and there is 30-50 years of warming yet in the pipeline
Delia Lake: WOW!
John Galland: to bring carbon down to a sustainable level, we have to start very soon
John Galland: we need to peak carbon emissions in the next 10 years
John Galland: that is an incredibly difficult problem
01 Hifeng: i have a question. I'm not really into that "part" of science, I'm soon-to-be-biologist... but I've read that it's natural climate change cycle. what do you think about this?
01 Hifeng: do you agree? if not- why?
John Galland: glad to hear you're a budding scientist, good luck!
01 Hifeng: thanks :)
John Galland: I do agree that natural cycles are part of the climate system
John Galland: there are many of them, too, the sun has cycles of 11 and 22 years and more that we know of
John Galland: plus there are orbital wobbles that cause ice ages
John Galland: however, the warming we're observing right now is very rapid
John Galland: there's no cycle we know of or that is apparent in the data that happens that fast
John Galland: so, we need to peak emissions soon
John Galland: or the long term impacts grow much stronger
John Galland: and do feel free to ask questions!
John Galland: it's hard to ask people, isn't it, to cut back their lifestyle for someone else 30 or 50 years away
Trautok Hax: it is just common granny wisdom ...:)))
John Galland: so, I'll try to make the case that cutting back on greenhouse emissions has other benefits
John Galland: immediate ones....
John Galland: First, less strip mining for coal and drilling for oil
John Galland: these activities are environmentally risky
John Galland: Second, the pocketbook effect
John Galland: energy not used doesn't have to be paid for
John Galland: Third, we have an increased quality of life NOT engaging in those activities that produce lots of greenhouse gases
jacmacaire Humby: Is the market and trade of carbon good or not ??
John Galland: I don't like the market/trade system
John Galland: for two reasons I can think of right now...
jacmacaire Humby: Me too.
John Galland: first, it won't work unless someone is willing to keep squeezing the targets
John Galland: and no one is in a position to do so
John Galland: second, the large companies have deep pockets and know how to exploit loopholes
John Galland: *pockets
John Galland: these folks manipulate markets all the time
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
John Galland: I believe the secret to all this is to choose to live simply
jacmacaire Humby: yes mission zero..
John Galland: and, as all of you are doing, in SL for those things that produce CO2
John Galland: for example....
John Galland: I can drive a monster truck here to my heart's content
John Galland: I can fly airplanes, burn leaves outside, etc.
John Galland: people can do those things here, and reduce the impact out there
John Galland: The kinds of reduction in carbon footprint imagined in Step It Up are very possible
John Galland: first, the waste should stop, each of us as individuals
jacmacaire Humby: how to establish the statement of carbon for a product from the extraction to the end of life ??
John Galland: I agree, that is incredibly difficulty
John Galland: *difficuly
John Galland: *difficult
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
John Galland: cutting out waste costs nothing but a little thought
jacmacaire Humby: but I think it is the important to do..
John Galland: and saves much in energy
jacmacaire Humby: most important
John Galland: and then, we can actually begin to develop the infrastructure systems that will reduce the use of carbon
John Galland: But this can only work if we talk to others
John Galland: talking about polar bears and glaciers is important
Soso Gao: sure I agree
John Galland: but we need to talk to others about spending more time with their families
jacmacaire Humby: a kind of tracability of carbon..
John Galland: about living in a different way that is healthier and happier
Soso Gao: humanism
John Galland: I think people will listen to those arguments
John Galland: yes, Soso!
John Galland: I have tried for years to emphasize the threats
jacmacaire Humby: yes.. Humanbe
John Galland: which are very, very real
John Galland: but the response is often the opposite of what we need
Mascottus Phlox: I disagree. Moral isn't a good way. People could think it's the aim and not the tool.
John Galland: Mascottus, interesting point, could you expand a little?
Mascottus Phlox: We all know churches, promotion of the Family (with a big F).
jaynine Scarborough: yes what Mascottus say.. it is dangerous to connect a scientific insight with a moral insight when they are not necessarily connected
John Galland: Ah, I think I get you now
John Galland: well, the scientific insight is on what reality is
Mascottus Phlox: Yes Jaynine ;)
John Galland: and how to deal with that is really a moral question
John Galland: I would also argue that there is a power much stronger that we have and seldom use
01 Hifeng: hehe, simple lifes - but we can use computers, can't we? ;]
Delia Lake: this may be a cultural semantic difference
01 Hifeng: btw - can you say something concrete?
John Galland: it's the economic power of collective action
01 Hifeng: i mean - i care. but you're talking about morals and stuff...
Soso Gao: I agree 100% with you John
jaynine Scarborough: we can each draw our conclusions from one insight.. and we need to come to our own responsibility for the earth, instead of forcing it through moral group pressure...
01 Hifeng: maybe more science?
Delia Lake: in the US, moral and morality may be used to refer to things religious, but not exclusively. it has a broader use for us
jacmacaire Humby: it is a choice to do
jacmacaire Humby: take a computer or take a plane..
Mascottus Phlox: Science, education...
John Galland: In some ways, I think we are beyond science here
jaynine Scarborough: hmm, yes john
John Galland: we know very solidly that the changes are occurring
John Galland: no question about that
jaynine Scarborough: i see delia
01 Hifeng: beyond science?
Soso Gao: so it's the first and more important thing to care for the humans
01 Hifeng: how can we make decisions without science?
John Galland: the models are able to predict with greater and greater accuracy
jacmacaire Humby: and ethic ??
01 Hifeng: we are loosing point here
John Galland: yes, in the sense that we don't need to know more to acy
John Galland: *act
jaynine Scarborough: but i wonder why America as morally trained as it is is still far behind in the reduction of co2
Soso Gao: no questions of ethic here I think
Mascottus Phlox: Surviving is not ethic...
John Galland: I actually think there are very important ethical questions raised by global warming
01 Hifeng: surviving - but maybe other things are more dangerous than global warming?
John Galland: but I'm trying to say that leadership on the issue is not all about scaring people
Soso Gao: yes John
01 Hifeng: how can we know that, when we say "beyond science"? :/
01 Hifeng: *beyond
jaynine Scarborough: yes john
Trautok Hax: i agree.. every emergency put our consciousness in the target!
Mascottus Phlox: You said important questions, John?
Soso Gao: but no questions of religion
John Galland: 01, in the sense that we in the scientific community are certain
Soso Gao: it's another fight
John Galland: there is a solid overwhelming consensus
John Galland: *consensus
Soso Gao: survival of the humans
01 Hifeng: there are skeptics
jacmacaire Humby: why survival..
John Galland: the scientists' job is done here
Soso Gao: why survival ?
jacmacaire Humby: yes
Soso Gao: it's evidence !
John Galland: the skeptics don't listen to scientists, their opposition is based on self-interest or emotion
01 Hifeng: what do you think about skeptics?
Delia Lake: beyond hard sciences, and into the way we organize ourselves socially, what our expectations are for lifestyle, individually and in groups, what we value and what we care for...
jacmacaire Humby: be more positive no ??
01 Hifeng: omg skeptics ARE scientists...
John Galland: 01, scientists go where the facts lead them, the skeptics already know their conclusion
01 Hifeng: I'm interested in your opinion, but please explain why should i believe you
Soso Gao: the scientific results are known and we can't be positive if nobody take care
01 Hifeng: good scientists are skeptics
Soso Gao: known*
jacmacaire Humby: But the people is changing ..
jacmacaire Humby: I hope ..
John Galland: you and I are speaking of the professional global warming skeptics...
jacmacaire Humby: it is why we are here..
Soso Gao: yes you hope but the change could be quicker
John Galland: The change to a positive world is within our reach
John Galland: the key to it all is that we can take positive steps that make our lives better and address climate change
Soso Gao: yes it's right
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
John Galland: Like I said, we start with eliminating waste
01 Hifeng: could you please give url's to some papers?
01 Hifeng: where we should look for information?
John Galland: 01, the IPCC web site is excellent
jacmacaire Humby: before waste..
01 Hifeng: what i should read to be sure that you're right?
Delia Lake: regarding the "professional skeptics" there seems to be a disconnect in perceptions, silo thinking so to speak rather than looking systemically
Trautok Hax: i think the message is learn how to take care more and more every day better...no?
Soso Gao: look the conclusions of GIEC/IPCC
Mascottus Phlox: So, we should say "reduce speed limit to reduce CO2" and, on the same time "take of your own"?...
John Galland: and the ACIA, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment has an excellent report to read
John Galland: ah, Mascottus, you have your finger on a key point here
Mascottus Phlox: take car
Mascottus Phlox: take *care* (not car ;))
Soso Gao: yes in France we are in this those days
John Galland: which is why centralized solutions are so challenging
Delia Lake: hifeng, i would ask you, how can you really be sure of anything? seriously. and do you have to be absolutely sure of things, everything in your life before you act on anything?
01 Hifeng: yes, i have to be sure ;]
John Galland: we cannot depend on, and in fact don't want, heavy-handed government control to address the global climate change problem
01 Hifeng: and i can be sure if i read papers that are credible
John Galland: what the government gives, the government can take away
Soso Gao: of course John
John Galland: we, all of us, should use the power we have of control over our own lives and influence with those around us
jacmacaire Humby: but the government there is industrial
John Galland: *influence
jacmacaire Humby: behind sorry
jacmacaire Humby: lobby
John Galland: I think we can accomplish great things organized around using economic power
Mascottus Phlox: Are you speaking of something global?
John Galland: we can choose which products to buy, which brands for example, and where to buy them
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
Soso Gao: exactly
John Galland: we can research how things are made, the amount of carbon produced in making them and using them
jacmacaire Humby: consumer action
John Galland: exactly
John Galland: consumer action is more powerful than governments
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
Mascottus Phlox: Sometimes people don't have choice to buy, they only have to eat.
John Galland: and we can be examples
jacmacaire Humby: But we need label like Max Havelaar, and organic one, etc..
John Galland: yes, Mascottus, but the greatest emissions come from the people with the most opportunities for improvement
John Galland: I agree, meaningful labeling would be a great start to it
Mascottus Phlox: Ok John, I didn't know.
jacmacaire Humby: It will be good a carbon label..
John Galland: yes!!!
John Galland: now that's a spectacular thing to lobby for
jacmacaire Humby: OK we start now..
John Galland: carbon labeling, which I believe they do in some European countries
John Galland: and we organize to promote wise choices
John Galland: or at least educate and lead others
jacmacaire Humby: yes also..
John Galland: I am hopeful, but worried about the future
John Galland: I am worried that, for example, a broad movement to nuclear power will emerge
John Galland: I am not at all sure we can build that many plants that fast safely
jacmacaire Humby: We must stay positive than we could replace it by renewable energy..
John Galland: there will also be pushes for geo-engineering
Mascottus Phlox: French president is selling more and more nuclear plants , and to dictators...
jacmacaire Humby: yes I know..
John Galland: we should be very careful about ideas like injecting soot into the stratosphere or putting out large white sheets of plastic in the Arctic
John Galland: those ideas have been floated
John Galland: if people think there is nothing they can do, they will wait and then try some of those things
John Galland: we have the power to make huge strides now
John Galland: ok, I'm out of time....
John Galland: thanks so much for listening to me, and chatting with me today!
Mascottus Phlox: We should stop to destroy forests, for example. Trees are a chance for us....
jacmacaire Humby: bravo!!!!
John Galland: absolutely, Mascottus
Mascottus Phlox: We were honored, John ;)
jacmacaire Humby: clap clap clap
John Galland: thanks!
Delia Lake: thank you very much John
jacmacaire Humby: sorry my gesture doesn't work..
Trautok Hax: thank you John!!
Soso Gao: John
Delia Lake: once more a very informative and thought provoking discussion
John Galland smiles
jacmacaire Humby: Thank you
Soso Gao: one day I hope we could speak
jacmacaire Humby: :)))
Soso Gao: about emergent countries
jacmacaire Humby: yes..
John Galland: I agree, Soso - that's a vital topic
Soso Gao: and I'm going to do it
Soso Gao: on the 8th of December
John Galland: excellent!!!
Soso Gao: for the Bali conference here in SL
Soso Gao: it's a very important thing also
Traci Kondrad: John - could i ask one more question
jacmacaire Humby: yes. we must not give them what we don't want..
John Galland: sure!
Traci Kondrad: You stated that the evidence is growing that climate change is occurring, that human activity particularly burning of fossil fuels is partly responsible. Is there any data that shows how much global warming is due to human activity vs. natural cycles? Is there conclusive evidence on how each is divided up? This leads to the question: even if we were to take drastic changes in our life style how much of this change can we prevent?
jacmacaire Humby: OGM, nuclear, etc..
John Galland: Traci, there is some great information on that
John Galland: some is from models, which cannot reproduce the current climate unless both human and natural forcing are included
John Galland: also there are studies of observations of climate change (my own work, for example, has about half the warming in Kansas due to CO2)
John Galland: natural cycles do play quite a significant role
Traci Kondrad: Thank you John... I'll look for those models.
John Galland: I'm trying to find the link, I'll drop it on you if I can turn it up.
Traci Kondrad: Thank you.
jacmacaire Humby: I appreciate to be with you all.. and hope to see you soon in SL..
jacmacaire Humby: Bye bye
John Galland: bye!
Trautok Hax: bye jac
Delia Lake: We had invited many of our political leaders to come to our Step It Up event today. none so far has showed up
John Galland: Booo, hissss
jacmacaire Humby: Al gore ??
Delia Lake: to be fair, some of the US politicians are participating in rl events
Mascottus Phlox: :(
John Galland nods
POLITICAL ACTION DISCUSSION – What can and should politicians and government officials do?
Delia Lake: if you would be willing, i would ask 2 things with this time
Delia Lake: first, for the next 1 minute..not long, only 1 minute. think about everything you know about
Delia Lake: but say nothing.
Delia Lake: remain absolutely silent
Delia Lake: it is really difficult to remain silent, for me anyway
Delia Lake: and yet that is exactly what many of our leaders are doing
Delia Lake: so to help them, and because we do need their help
Delia Lake: if they were here today
Delia Lake: what would we say to them? what would we ask of them?
Delia Lake: we will post excerpts of our event today to websites and blogs
Delia Lake: so i ask that we use the next half hour to write an open, public "letter" to our elected officials
Delia Lake: i will start
Delia Lake: i would ask that my government, and the officials who are elected to represent me
Delia Lake: repeal the subsidies for the production of coal
Delia Lake: stop giving tax breaks to an industry that is killing us
Delia Lake: what would some of you ask?
Soso Gao: /sorry a lot of lag for me
ToolsRMe Shan: I would ask for my government to stop giving subsidies anywhere and allow the market to allocate resources efficiently.
ToolsRMe Shan: We are in this bind in large part because people have been asking politicians to give this break or that to their favorite cause.
Delia Lake: i would ask also that my representatives demand that the government agencies "clean up their act" set an example, move to fuel effeciency and alternative energy in their agency buildings and vehicles
Trautok Hax: i will ask politician to be men before politician...:)))
Delia Lake: and what difference would that make, Trautok?
Trautok Hax: Politicians mind is far away from peoples' real needs
Trautok Hax: men hearts can sense mankind connection
Boel Mornington: How can you say that, Trautok?
Trautok Hax: just looking the ways of living of most politicians in my country
Boel Mornington: I'm a politician, and I sincerely don't feel I'm different from the people around me
Trautok Hax: you are a good one
Trautok Hax: :)
Boel Mornington: I'm a local politician, and I really want to make a difference, also in the environmental issue
Trautok Hax: People together in your locality can do the difference
Trautok Hax: you will just coordinate things
Boel Mornington: Yes, and I think this is very much a "grassroot movement"
Boel Mornington: It must be a local movement
Trautok Hax: very good!
ToolsRMe Shan: Boel Mornington, I would ask my local politicians to do things that are actually good rather than seem to be good. In my part of the world, "looking good" means more than actually being good.
Boel Mornington: Then I challenge you to go into local politics
ToolsRMe Shan: I _am_ in local politics, thank you.
Boel Mornington: It's the only way to achieve influence
Jennette Forager smiles.
Boel Mornington: Good, ToolsRme :)
Delia Lake: in my part of the world, we really need local public transportation to more areas
ToolsRMe Shan: The point is that there is so much misinformation that even good-hearted people find it hard to go against the tide of local enthusiasm.
Boel Mornington: Yes, that's a really important issue, concerning the environment
Trushalo Nicholls: I don't think that ask is enough...
Trushalo Nicholls: We need to lean on politicians until they are forced to do what needs to be done and ignore popularity.
Trushalo Nicholls: We need to make them encourage businesses to have everyone who can tele-commute.
Trushalo Nicholls: We need to force them to improve mass-transit and reduce the need for cars and planes.
Trushalo Nicholls: We need to force them to legislate mandatory green-building policies.
Trushalo Nicholls: If that means we need to call them every day to tell them to change the way they're doing things then that's what we need to do.
Trushalo Nicholls: We need to show what needs to be done.
Boel Mornington: Why do you think it its better to lean on politicians, instead of going into the political system yourselves?
Boel Mornington: Place yourselves where the decisions are made
ToolsRMe Shan: "We need to force them to legislate mandatory green-building policies." Why do you think that mandating green building polcies is better than a market response to higher energy costs?
Trushalo Nicholls: Because politicians need years of experience before they can get into office, we don't have ten years for me to get into the Senate.
Trushalo Nicholls: We can force the issue of green costs in many ways, one would be to internalize costs like CO2 production which would increase the cost of non-green buildings.
Delia Lake: if our best scientific minds are correct in their assessments, no we don't have a lot of time
Boel Mornington: No, politicians don't need decades to get there - they are dependent on the support they receive from the political undergrowth
Jennette Forager nods and agrees with Boel.
Trushalo Nicholls: Exactly, that's why we need to hit them now, the politicians we have or those who are running now. We have to act now.
Delia Lake: there is another aspect here. we have for the past tens of minutes focused on what we would ask of our politicians
Boel Mornington: Don't look upon politicians as your enemies - look upon us as someone who represents the people
Delia Lake: they represent us, so what are we all willing to do to help them?
ToolsRMe Shan: Boel, please clarify what you mean by "dependent"
Boel Mornington: Yes - right Delia!
Delia Lake: and how might each of us set an example for how we would want our politicians to act?
ToolsRMe Shan: Beol and Delia, do our leaders represent us or do they lead? They cannot do both.
Boel Mornington: Each and every poliitcian in a democratic nation is dependent on the support from their fellows
Trushalo Nicholls: But he/she is dependent upon those who are loudest most.
Trushalo Nicholls: Those who have money after that.
Boel Mornington: They cannot lead without support
Trushalo Nicholls: And the poor and disenfranchized last.
Boel Mornington: If this is about money, our democratic system has failed
Delia Lake: yes, they can do both. but not if we conceive of leadership as the very narrow command and control, hierarchical model
Boel Mornington: I have faith in democracy
ToolsRMe Shan: I'm sorry, Boel, but I'm a bit more cynical about the political process. America is a democratic nation. Both our Congress and our president have almost no support, yet they "lead" and in leading they destroy.
ToolsRMe Shan: I have faith in democracy, too, Boel. A lot of faith in it.
Delia Lake: Mohandas Ghandi once said, and i think most people would consider him to have been a leader,
Boel Mornington: Ok, and I'm from Norway - do you think that makes a great difference?
Trushalo Nicholls: Then can you say that Democracy is not influenced at all by money and entirely by merit?
Trushalo Nicholls: I have faith in what democracy can be, but not always what it is.
ToolsRMe Shan: Boel, I am not familiar with your political system ... but the bigger the government gets, the more distant it becomes from "the people".
Boel Mornington: No, I cannot say that, Trushalo, but I can fight it
Delia Lake: I must leave you now, there they go, all those people, i am their leader, i must follow
Jennette Forager smiles @ Delia
Delia Lake: to have a sustainable world, will take most of us
Delia Lake: working in ways that each of us are able
Delia Lake: and i am back to my story of the migrating birds
Boel Mornington: I'll do my bit :)
Trushalo Nicholls: That's what really matters, that we do our bit. And this rally was a worthy bit, thank you.
Delia Lake: a group of birds will go more than 2 x as far, with less than 80% of the effort
Trautok Hax: politician have to help people to find funny and easy ways to change their habits
Delia Lake: and to do that they MUST rotate leadership among the flock
ToolsRMe Shan: Delia, let me make the point that it is the _informal_ systems (e.g. places like this and the things that Delia does) that will make a huge difference. Asking government to force people to do things is -- in my opinion -- the road to ruin.
Delia Lake shouts: i do hope by our efforts here in sl, and carrying over to rl, we are making a difference
Boel Mornington: I so totally disagree, ToolsRMe
Trautok Hax: helping is not forcing Tools
Boel Mornington: What goes on here and evrywhere else, will eventually influence the decision malers
Boel Mornington: *makers
John Galland: Sorry, I was called away by RL and just read the chat log - interesting discussion!
ToolsRMe Shan: Sorry, Hax, helping _is_ forcing. In order to help you need to tax your economy to create the resources that are the thing you want to help. By taxing someone you are forcing them to give government resources. That's force, Hax. Ask Boel what happens if someone decides not to pay taxes.
John Galland: I come down on a less coercive approach also, but no matter what your opinion on that, clearly educating friends, coworkers, and everyone else is a good thing at this point
ToolsRMe Shan: What government can and should do is create rules within which people can react reasonably and rationally. Government needs to be wise. Mandating green building rules is _not_ wise as it does not allow consumers to react rationally to rapidly changing conditions.
ToolsRMe Shan: Green building rules also give some manufacturers an upper hand over other more creative innovators.
Jennette Forager: You are saysing that ultimately the market will decree what is wise and probably at this point in time, green?
Trautok Hax: nobody understands so easily and quickily big enviromental mistakes
Trautok Hax: we are lucky here
Trautok Hax: :)
ToolsRMe Shan: The market is going to be green ... no doubt about it. At $100/barrel of oil the market is going to be VERY green very fast.
Trushalo Nicholls: And coal is still cheaper than any other alternative, is coal green?
Trushalo Nicholls: Cheap does not equal good, whatever the market says.
Boel Mornington: I don't know this "green building", sorry - but I know that the force behind the politicians decision of e.g. taxing gas-consuming driving, will be dependent on the people's -opinion on environmental issues
ToolsRMe Shan: Coal can be green if government creates wise rules about the use of coal, yes.
Trushalo Nicholls: Ah, so the goverment should force us to use coal a certain way and not let the market deal with it.
ToolsRMe Shan: If government (us!) decides that CO2 is bad, well, make the rule world-wide and the market will adjust .... instantly.
John Galland: In democratic societies the governments switch direction unpredictably - I wouldn't depend on them to do anything that lasts 30-50 years.... Only social structures have that durability.
Boel Mornington: In Norway, we are facing a major change of opinion, concerning environmental issues
Trushalo Nicholls: Also, a worldwide ruling will never happen on anything without major military force. No good.
ToolsRMe Shan: " Ah, so the goverment should force us to use coal a certain way and not let the market deal with it." When there are third-party effects, it is a legitimate function of government to intervene. Pollution is the classic example of a third-party effect.
Boel Mornington: Do I hear UK politics speaking?
Jennette Forager grins.
John Galland: Ah, Jennette - good to see you again!
Boel Mornington: Isn't it so, tha UK and US politics are run by the market?
Trushalo Nicholls: I agree Tools, I call them externalities, but I'm saying the same thing "internalize the externalities."
ToolsRMe Shan: "Also, a worldwide ruling will never happen on anything without major military force. No good." I disagree. Certainly there will be cheating but, again, it is the informal forces taht will cause people not to cheat heavily.
Delia Lake: i have great faith in the ingenuity of human beings. and it seems to me that we have not set our goals high enough
John Galland: I agree, Delia
Trushalo Nicholls: I agree, Delia
Jetpack: activated
John Galland: and now we're talking about government action to make us do what we know we should lol
Boel Mornington: So totally, Delia!
Jennette Forager smiles.
Boel Mornington: Politiciansa are run by opinions - and opinion, that's the people
Boel Mornington: .. and the media :)
Trushalo Nicholls: Well, can I choose to always bike to work when the roads aren't safe for me to bike or the zoning laws make it impossible for my work to be close enough.
ToolsRMe Shan: " and now we're talking about government action to make us do what we know we should lol" in a sense, yes. But I urge caution and wisdom and _not_ symbolic action that is counterproductive.
Trushalo Nicholls: The infrastructure needs to change and individuals cannot change it, but the government can.
John Galland: nope, organized individual action is the solution
John Galland: decentralized and instantly effective...
Jennette Forager nods
Trautok Hax: yep decentralized!
Trushalo Nicholls: Individual action doesn't matter if only half of the people care
Trushalo Nicholls: and never will everyone care.
Trautok Hax: where is the center indeed???
ToolsRMe Shan: " or the zoning laws make it impossible for my work to be close enough." Bravo! Zoning laws screw the environment! Zoning laws are an example of political force being used where market forces would be far more environmentally sound.
John Galland: the problem is to get them to care....
Boel Mornington: them ...
Jennette Forager: everyone cares....they just need help in expressing it
John Galland: I like that
Trushalo Nicholls: Everyone cares as long as it doesn't interfere with something they think is more important.
Trautok Hax: people will help and it is helping each other like here in sl...in several ways..
Boel Mornington: I always see my self as a politician as one of the people - how wrong I have been... "them" ....
John Galland: plus there are deeply rooted habits born of a mass consumption society
John Galland: those habits are what must be changed
Trushalo Nicholls: The mass consumption society must be changed as well.
John Galland: and people can only do that themselves
John Galland: exactly
Trushalo Nicholls: The people can do that, but not without the government and the businesses.
Delia Lake: just as i had about given up hope of one of the US presidential candidate representatives showing up today
Delia Lake: Astrophysicist has joined us
Astrophysicist McCallister: Howdy folks
John Galland: Greetings!
ToolsRMe Shan: Hmm, a billion Chinese want to consume. Their government is doing everything it can to allow them to consume. You want to stop that?
Delia Lake: this has been a most lively discussion
Boel Mornington: In a democracy, the politics grows from the local level - we are able to influence the national politics
Trushalo Nicholls: Hey!
Astrophysicist McCallister: Sorry that I'm late, just came from an RL speech, traffic was horrible coming fom Downtown
Jennette Forager: Hello Astro!
Astrophysicist McCallister: Boel, I'd like to take that point and run with it
Delia Lake: and i would like to continue with this as i believe that we must air many of these issues in open discussion
Astrophysicist McCallister: How would you feel about a federal initative process?
John Galland nods
Delia Lake: so we will plan more discussion events here
John Galland mulls mob rule and its deleterious effects
Astrophysicist McCallister: If you'd like me to say a few words, that'd be fine, otherwise I'm happy to simply take part in this discussion
ToolsRMe Shan: "How would you feel about a federal initative process?" I work _hard_ for direct democracy in my state. I am less convinced of the wisdom of that at the federal level.
Boel Mornington: What's the diffence, McCallister?
John Galland would be pleased to listen
Astrophysicist McCallister: Precisely, Boel. ;-)
Astrophysicist McCallister: ToolsR, are you familiar with the National Initiative for Democracy?
ToolsRMe Shan: Yes, quite. One of my friends is deeply into it.
Astrophysicist McCallister: Oh really? That's not a common response.
Astrophysicist McCallister: It's endearing qualities with an initiative process is at the Federal Level.
Astrophysicist McCallister: rather, are* at the federal level
ToolsRMe Shan: See www.vote.org, please. It's owned by Evan Daniel Ravitz, a friend of mine.
Jennette Forager thinks: Tools is not your common sort of guy.....
Astrophysicist McCallister: Hey, look at that!
Delia Lake: the page didn't load for me...
Astrophysicist McCallister: So I'm assuming you're familiar with Sen. Gravel?
ToolsRMe Shan: I am familiar with the arguments for direct democracy at the federal level. I am torn about it. I am quite in favor of it at the state level.
Astrophysicist McCallister: Really, I think the opposite
Astrophysicist McCallister: Only because here in CO, the State Tax Code has been ravaged by amendments
ToolsRMe Shan: My friend, Evan, is quite eloquent in defense of direct democracy at the federal level.
ToolsRMe Shan: Oh, I'm in Colorado, too. :-)
Astrophysicist McCallister: Yeah? I'm the CO State Director for Mike, also, the State contact for TDF.
Astrophysicist McCallister: You in Boulder? That's usually a logical guess
ToolsRMe Shan: Awesome, Astrophysicist.
ToolsRMe Shan: I am in Boulder but I am not your typical Boulderite.
Boel Mornington: Do you really have a a democratic undedevelopment problem in USA?
Astrophysicist McCallister: We're not a democracy
John Galland would like to hear how this will address clmiate change, when it seems more likely to result in fashion-based politics driven by mass media
Knildrig Aabye: .
Astrophysicist McCallister: Yes, let's segue into that
Boel Mornington: I thought the local level was very strong in the USA?
Delia Lake: not everywhere
Astrophysicist McCallister: I run local political campaigns (mayor, etc) and it's just as sullen at that level as everywhere else
Astrophysicist McCallister: People are confused about government
Delia Lake: and not focused enough often on local living economies in my opinion
Boel Mornington: But that concerns only lesser topics, and not what really influences global challenges?
John Galland agrees with Delia
ToolsRMe Shan: Boel, democracy in the U.S. is under vast attack. At the federal level, we almost have an aristocracy who keep running the country from year to year. 97% retention rate of federal congresspeople. They have managed to insulate themselves from "the people".
Astrophysicist McCallister: The number one issue of National Secuirty today is climate change
Hooper March: there have been movement in some strong and local level that have been ignored Bush Fatherland
Boel Mornington: So it is in Norway
Tess Carver: i agree tools, the people no longer feel like they have the power
Boel Mornington: Did the people ever flt that?
Astrophysicist McCallister: The people never had the power.
Boel Mornington: *felt
Astrophysicist McCallister: Because of slavery
ToolsRMe Shan: "i agree tools, the people no longer feel like they have the power" Which is a VERY strong argument for direct democracy.
Astrophysicist McCallister: The people weren't given the power
Astrophysicist McCallister: We were allowed to vote representatives into one house of congress
Tess Carver: the u.s. was founded by people who felt very strongly about having a say
Astrophysicist McCallister: after 1788
Astrophysicist McCallister: They were still aristocrats, Tess.
Astrophysicist McCallister: You get this very idealogical arguments about the founders
Hooper March: aristocrats with business interests
Astrophysicist McCallister: but it's not totally true
Astrophysicist McCallister: The Louisiana purchase is a good example of this
ToolsRMe Shan: "the u.s. was founded by people who felt very strongly about having a say" The U.S. was founded by people who wanted small government. That is a very different thing.
Boel Mornington: Oh, well - and Norway was influenced by the french revolution and the american constitution when we became a democratic nation ourselves... sigh
Hooper March: nice
Tess Carver: what do u mean tools?
John Galland: /contemplates that we have at most 10 years to peak carbon emissions lest we get to a 650 or 750 ppm scenario, which would produce a 5 degree Celsius global temperature increase
ToolsRMe Shan: Tess, I mean that Astrophysicist is right. The U.S. is a limited democracy in which "the people" had limited power ... deliberately and by design.
Delia Lake: some of the US founding fathers wanted small gov't but not all did
Astrophysicist McCallister: Which wasn't an issue
Astrophysicist McCallister: at first
Delia Lake: that's my question too, John
Astrophysicist McCallister: We still had High Federalists and Republicans duel it out
Astrophysicist McCallister: But representative government worked
Astrophysicist McCallister: Up until recently
Delia Lake: what do we have to do to make that goal
Tess Carver: well, i think that involvment in politics at all levels has been going down for quite some time
CivilE Writer: the US is a republic "..and the republic for which it stands.."
John Galland: exactly, Delia
Hooper March: oust the fraternity
Astrophysicist McCallister: Because as soon as one party controls more than one house of government
Astrophysicist McCallister: The process fails.
Trushalo Nicholls: /contemplates that the ocean is alread emitting more CO2 than it is absorbing and the Southwest US fires are likely the result of global warming.
Knildrig Aabye: Thomas Jefferson said "The will of the majority is the natural law of every society and the only sure guardian of the rights of man; though this may err, yet its errors are honest, solitary and short-lived."
Delia Lake: because if we are way off, it might well be that all the rest will be like angels dancing on the head of a pin
John Galland: precisely
Astrophysicist McCallister: Jefferson was an idiot
Astrophysicist McCallister: He was a total asshole
John Galland: a social movement about climate change is needed
Astrophysicist McCallister: Who advocated for the equivalent of anarchy
ToolsRMe Shan: ALL of them, Delia, would look our our current government and puke. The most aggressive of the founder in terms of government was Hamilton. He would look at what we have now ... all the control at all the levels .. and be shocked and ashamed of what we have become. That's my opinion at least based on what I know of him.
Tess Carver: no need to speak ill of the dead lol
Boel Mornington: Yes, I think this is way off by now - what will be each and everyone's actual contribution to reducing global warming?
Astrophysicist McCallister: Hamilton was my favorite.
John Galland: exactly
Astrophysicist McCallister: A carbon tax
John Galland: we have to stop the growth first
Astrophysicist McCallister: That's the way to go
Astrophysicist McCallister: we can't stop the growth
Tess Carver: i agree john...most climate initiatives are imposed from above...they will never get anywhere without the will of the people
Astrophysicist McCallister: You have to account for it
Boel Mornington: How will you contribute to that?
ToolsRMe Shan: "Jefferson was an idiot" And President Kennedy addressed a gather of 100 Noebl prize winners at the White House and said, "The last time there was this much brain power at the White House was when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
Astrophysicist McCallister: We need to act swiftly to reduce America's carbon footprint in the world by passing legislation that caps emissions, and lead the fight against global deforestation, which today is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases.
John Galland: ???? Have to stop putting out more before we put out less....
Hooper March: better hydro sea plants if levels continue to rise
Tess Carver: we need to convince people to love their own backyards before anything else
Tess Carver: we need to convince people to love their own backyards before anything else
Boel Mornington: You could also participate in local politics
Astrophysicist McCallister: No, you can't, Boel
John Galland nods with emotion
Boel Mornington: Making an influence upwards
Astrophysicist McCallister: Local politics is about three things
Hooper March: in scotland they have a hydropowererd plant built in 1958 thats still operates providing cheap clean energy
ToolsRMe Shan: "passing legislation that caps emissions" this, of course, assumes the conclusion that there are no more economcially efficient ways of adjusting to global warming.
Astrophysicist McCallister: Police, parks, and Plowing
Astrophysicist McCallister: That's all
John Galland: local politics is key
Delia Lake: we have quite a few technologies that would significantly help in retucing the carbon thrown into the atmosphere
Astrophysicist McCallister: I work in local politics
Astrophysicist McCallister: Always has
Astrophysicist McCallister: Let me tell you
Astrophysicist McCallister: Wal-Mart is the best thing for a city
Astrophysicist McCallister: Not for our country, but it's great for a city
Delia Lake: but we are not using many of them and not using the others as effectively as we could
Boel Mornington: Then local poliitcs is different in US than it is in Norway
ToolsRMe Shan: "Wal-Mart is the best thing for a city" Are you being sarcastic or do you mean it?
Hooper March: Wal Mart did more for Katrina survivors than bush ever did
Trushalo Nicholls: Local politics can be a ground-base for federal action. At least in larger cities.
Astrophysicist McCallister: No, I mean it
Astrophysicist McCallister: Wal-Mart is a saving grace for a city
Astrophysicist McCallister: I'm saying this as a democrat
ToolsRMe Shan: I happen to agree with you on that one, Astrophysicist.
Astrophysicist McCallister: Who understands local politics
Boel Mornington: As a local - and regional - politician, I feel I'm able to make an influence on what may have an impact on the environment
Boel Mornington: *impact
Trushalo Nicholls: Boel, that's where I think Astrophysicist is wrong, local politicians have a lot to say about water-quality and air-quality and a lot of input in the US.
Boel Mornington: Making a local plan for environmental issues
Tess Carver: we need to increase education about LOCAL environments...why should people care about the rainforest when they can't name the trees that line their street?
Astrophysicist McCallister: Fair point, Trushalo.
Astrophysicist McCallister: But if you've ever participated in the process locally, there's little you can do
Astrophysicist McCallister: The city relies on the state house
Astrophysicist McCallister: for things of that nature
Trushalo Nicholls: Yes, federal and State can always overrule the local, which is bad.
Tess Carver: what does a drowning polar bear have to do with me as i sit down to my dinner?
Boel Mornington: And I may influence my own government
Boel Mornington: And I do.... as best I can
Trushalo Nicholls: However, call a State official every day and convince ten of your friends to do the same and they usually cave.
Trushalo Nicholls: Especially if you can get their home address...
Astrophysicist McCallister: no, not true at all, Trush
Astrophysicist McCallister: I worked as a Communications Director/Leg. Liason at the state house
Astrophysicist McCallister: We get the phone calls
Astrophysicist McCallister: and they're ignored
Astrophysicist McCallister: They're noted, but nobody caves
Boel Mornington: Excatly...
Trushalo Nicholls: Sometimes I think Minnesota is a different world from the rest of the country...
Boel Mornington: Get inside, don't spend your efforts standing outside
ToolsRMe Shan: I "work" in the state house, too, as an occasional citizen-activist. Astrophysicist is absolutely right.
Trushalo Nicholls: I can get a personal meeting with anyone from a state rep, to the governor and I have.
Astrophysicist McCallister: sure, it's not hard to do
Astrophysicist McCallister: But they don't have to listen
ToolsRMe Shan: That's why direct democracy is so powerful. It's why the legislators absolutely hate it.
Trushalo Nicholls: Then I campaign for one of the runners that do agree to do the right thing.
Tess Carver: soo...how do we get the people to give a damn? about direct democracy OR the environment
Trushalo Nicholls: If a large portion of their constituency calls for meetings daily they will change.
Astrophysicist McCallister: nope
John Galland: Tess, that's the key
Astrophysicist McCallister: Let me tell you a story
Astrophysicist McCallister: About senate bill 1444
Astrophysicist McCallister: This was a tax-cab taxation bill
Astrophysicist McCallister: that was in debate
Astrophysicist McCallister: we got 300 phone calls from tax drivers in one day
Delia Lake: this has been an amazing hour and 15 minutes!
John Galland: I argue that only a culture shift, like the one against drunk driving or smoking, is the only way
Astrophysicist McCallister: Didn't change the legislator's mind or anything
Delia Lake: i do not want to cut off the conversation
Delia Lake: but might we all take landmarks and move our discussion to a new commonwealth sim?
Delia Lake: i think you will like it there
Delia Lake: mountains and forest and rivers
Boel Mornington: Sure, ok
Astrophysicist McCallister: sure
John Galland nods
Delia Lake: with bear, deer and all
Boel Mornington: Sounds like Norway :)
Delia Lake: i will continue to log our chat [but there was minimal additional discussion in commonwealth]
Delia Lake: the lm is in the poster next to me
Boel Mornington: Water studies?
Delia Lake: just click it
Boel Mornington: Yeah, right...
Trautok Hax: see you :)
Delia Lake: i hope to see you all over there in a few minutes
Trautok Hax: thanks for NOW
Delia Lake: this is truly a great day
Boel Mornington: I was rejected
Delia Lake: and thank you all for making it so
Delia Lake: i am leaving to set music streams on commonwealth :))
Delia Lake: please come too
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Fossil Fuel
