WiserEarth UK

What are you involved in right now? What makes you get out of bed in the morning? Post stuff that you'd like to share with other UK wiser people here.

Hello everyone,

 

It's nice to be a part of something at such an early stage and have access to people with a like minded approach.

 

I have been involved in sustainable building for around eight years mainly with the Earthship concept of building using waste materials, chiefly car tyres. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tFJa2aHgN4 . Day to day I work as a carpenter.

 

I am also involved with the local Transition Town movement in Totnes and am seeking to work on a more socially oriented theme of somehow in our overpopulated monopolised island making land more accessible and therefore bringing people closer to nature. In my view this is the only way we can heal our disjointed relationship with the planet and ourselves.

 

Hope to speak to you all at some point

 

Duncan

 

 

Hi all.

At the moment World Family is about to incorporate itself.We think we are going to be an unincorporated association, using Charities Commission templates so we don't need to do our Constitution all over again when/if we decide to apply for Charitable status. We need to raise a lot of money to support 3 major initiatives in Nigeria - the next "Global Youth Festival for Food Sovereignty" at one of the 30 or so (currently) participating university campuses - advocacy and other work to support a resistance to the current insidious land-grabs for biofuel production - funding to take a road show to other universities throughout Nigeria to spread the small farmers' / uni course initiatives.

We have reached 150 members, mostly part of United Small and Medium Scale Farmers Associations of Nigeria (USMEFAN), but the next festival is hoped to bring 2,000 people together from across Nigeria and other SSA countries. We expect some big names in the sustainable development & food sovereignty field, but cannot confirm at present.

Sheltered Housing Action Group (SHAG) (not joking!) in Brighton & Hove has achieved 7 milestones in Tenant Participation, and on 15th June, after a series of articles locally and nationally, I am representing sheltered housing tenants at an all-party parliamentary select committee of the Communities and Local Government Department (CLG) where I have been invited to give oral evidence on Supporting People, a funding quango which we want shot of.

At our partner in Cameroon, Betterworld Cameroon, the project director, Joshua Konkankoh (Koh) is probably about to be awarded an Ashoka Fellowship for 3 years which will allow him to work full-time for BWC and the Ndanifor Garden Permaculture project on the outskirts of Yaounde. The Cameroon Ministry for Ag and Rural Affairs is interested in setting up a national permaculture programme and Koh is likely to be at the centre of that. He has 3 new postgraduate volunteers, one a Phd, from a university in the north of the country.

What gets me out of bed in the morning is knowing that the Blessed Unrest continues unabated, that one or two people can make a big difference with intelligent and daring application under the cover of a future that must happen else the last 1.25 million years has been a pointless joke.

Party on Committed Agents of Global Change.

PS see profile for more and links to more...

Blessings to all

Louis Loizou.

All,

Not sure if I should post here but if not it can always be deleted. :)

I currently have two pieces of work that outstanding, and I mean that in the sense of that word and not in the sense of the phrase “out standing” :)

I need to write a new section for Reality Info that will be called “In-depth” and there is a document about the language of “oppression” that pervades our every day lives. It’s about the way that the media and “common sense” understandings hold back our real deeper understanding of the actual physical conditions on the planet.

For me the “in depth” document is the most exciting but my mind has been wandering to the “oppression” document all too often of late.

The “in-depth” document deals with the evolution of the species, at a high level, in essence and as such it is just bubbling away in the background. Concepts include

•    Evolution of human thought
•    Evolution of productive capabilities
•    Maximising potential
•    Optimism

I’m going to argue that although there are quite obviously a myriad of futures that the humans species could go down that at least one of them will benefit us all. :)

If anyone wants to see the notes on the document / collaborate on any of them, then just get in touch.

Cheers,
Dunk

My name is Shlomo. I live in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. I am currently working locally and nationally to oppose household waste incineration and promote sustainable waste management thinking. On the national level, I am the coordinator of the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN). Please visit our website at www.ukwin.org.uk

My background includes being a healer and community educator. While living in Bridlington I ran an 'Active Citizenship Project' that extended the healing work I was doing from individuals to the entire community - supported by my wife lorraine and by our organisation, then known as 'Community Healing Arts'.

As a partnership we are now 'Only Solutions LLP' after the John Lennon - "no problems, only solutions..."

I have trained in systems thinking via the Open University, including an advanced (postgraduate) diploma in environmental decision making.

The local campaign has secured the right to appear in the forthcoming public inquiry into proposals to build a waste incinerator in Sherwood Forest. Our big challenge now is to raise £15,000 to pay for basic technical expertise and legal support to be able to keep pace with the QC's and others paid for by Veolia and Nottinghamshire County Council.

I am about to take part in filming for a BBC piece on the success of our campaign so far, and the challenges we face at the public inquiry. The inquiry hearings are due to start in October 2009. We have submitted our statement of case and are begining to prepare our Proofs of Evidence...

Only Solutions is all about finding ways to combine spiritual and political orientations...

I would like to thank Camilla for the prompt she sent me a couple of days ago to introduce myself (otherwise I would have probably "lurked" around for a while :-)

I'm a lecturer at the Open University, and it's fantastic to see that the group already has at least one alumnus from courses that I am involved with (systems thinking and environmental decision-making).

My main purpose in life is to work towards a transformation in the way that we see and engage with the world, with a specific focus on social justice and ecological sustainability. I put this into practice at a range of levels:

-- personally, with a major drive towards self-sufficiency (with two allotments, hens in the back garden, sourcing things in bulk from online Fairtrade/organic distributors and a lot of creativity, my family has managed to avoid going into a supermarket for the last five years);

-- through my engagement with my students, where I have adopted a rather radical pedagogical approach (transformational learning) which both colleagues and students find very controversial!!

-- through my community, where I am trying to support the establishment of a vibrant transition town initiative;

-- and finally, through my direct support of lobbying and other organisations such as CND, Friends of the Earth, Amnesty International, FairShares, Triodos Bank, Tradecraft, The Phone Co-Op, Good Energy, myC4.com, etc

I see in initiatives such as WiserEarth the beginnings of a global based nervous system which will enable informed and participative decision-making -- the beginnings of a social tipping point?

Hello everyone. Just could spend hours at a time here looking what the WE crowd are doing through their projects and organizations. Apart of the time I'm lurking around here - I'm working on www.transitionwestcliff.org.uk

 

Thanks for all the inspiration and sharing.

Hi everyone I am from Albany Oregon. Retired but active socially in helping to make a better world for all. Lots of different projects the one I am working on right now is Health Care Reform in the USA. Doing what I can as a concerned citizen. Writing letter, networking, supporting efforts for a universal health care system that is not a mega profit center for investors but an actual health care, healing, and sickness prevention system that doesn't need to revert to drugs and surgery as the ultimate in enlightened medicine.

 

Otherwise I like to vision the future as a better place and also help make it happen. Cooperation, caring, giving, sharing, working for the common good and looking for the beauty and joy in life is my ambition.

 

When I grow up I want to be a hero who helps save humanity from its own ignorance, hate, selfishness, and separatism.

 

I love the Dalai Lama, Mother Meera, people like and who Believe and take action like Paul Hawken, the United Nations is a center of human vision and possibility, I love people who take action on their own and decide they can and they will live their life as best they can with joy, courage and enthusiasm, I love the people who care about the children, the innocent and the suffering, I love those who are willing to step into the chaos at their own risk to help the common good, these are the people and activities that keep my heart pumping out love to a world in need.

 

The UK is just another location on our planet Earth. Nations need to blend into the unfolding world community as friends and lovers and look for the beauty and joy that we can together create for our children.

 

 

 

 

Many thanks David for sharing your vision of what it means to you to create a better place - and doing it in such a beautifully illustrative way on this discussion.

 

Thank you Peter for sharing your work. If you find other like-minded people in Wales and you feel you'd like to create a local group here on WE, let me know. A WiserScotland was set up by Narda which aims to share Scottish initiatives.

Hi Everyone.

It's a pleasure to be part of the UK WiserEarth group - I have been knowing WE for a bit and seems to be a great way to contribute for a better society via sharing what we are passionate about and what we know.

I am an Italian-born citizen of the world, a happy human being, a part of the human race.

 

I hope I can bring a unique contribution the times I drop in the conversation as I have a background in Strategic Sustainable Development from the BTH university in Sweden and I found that perspective to really solid to move the steps forward in a strategic way. Also, the framework for sustainability is rooted in science and is great for giving an overall sense of direction -"where are we going".

Looking forward to the discussions :) Until the next time,

Take care.
/M.