Impressions From Breezy Point, NY Days After Hurricane Sandy
Helium By Tom Kyzivat [Animation]
What Makes Us Human? [Video]
Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.”
– Mikhail Gorbachev
Uprising 2012: The Message Of The Freedom Informant Network
Is this what it’s come to, a price tag on life, a world coursing with greed, intoxicated on monetary gain, and material conquest? Why have we allowed this? Ladies and gentlemen these are the questions you should be asking yourselves.
The world around us has been manipulated, coerced in a direction where human life is outweighed by profit.”
The quotes in this post are taken from the video at the bottom of this post: Uprising 2012: The Freedom Informant Network
Wake From The Dream
All the while you chase the dream life they’ve created for you, waving it in front of your face like a carrot on a stick. Stop it, stop being guided through life. We need to quit letting the decisions of a few control the lives of the many. We need to take our future, our children’s future, back into our hands.”
Reestablish Connection
When did we lose our connection with others, with community, and family? Stop focusing on the differences and start acknowledging and building upon our common grounds. Start sharing, connecting, teaching one another, and learning from each other as well.
Build our bond as human beings. Find your strength in unity. Find your voice, and then let it be heard.”
Be The Change You Want To See
What you have to say does matter. We just need to get off our knees, stand on our own two feet, and remind them just how much we do matter. Become the change you want to see.
Build the future together, a decent future, a future where life is cherished, rather than spent worshiping money.”
Value Education
Rid yourself of your cynicism, your ego, your fear. Instead open your hearts, your minds, and your eyes. Broaden your horizons… It’s time to change our ways, to evolve and break free of this viscous cycle. It’s time to educate ourselves on the issues affecting us and work together to create progressive affective solutions.
Welcome to the future. Welcome to the freedom informant network.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZwqQo4_B2E
Image: 12M 15M Global Revolution Revolución Global Zaragoza by gaudiramone’s photostream.
World Economic Collapse Explained In 3 Minutes
A classic, funny skit showing how economically interdependent nations have become, and what a horrific cascade of events happens when everyone tries to make a profit off of one another.
…the banking system must continually expand – not necessarily because it is the right (or wrong) thing to do, but, rather, simply because that is how it was designed …the extremely wealthy are saving incredible amounts of money, while at the lower ends the savings rate is deeply negative. Why is this important? Because as the Greek philosopher Plutarch once stated, “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”
– Dr. Chris Martensen, taken from his Crash Course In The 3 Interconnected E’s: Economy, Energy, Environment
Global Destruction & Crisis Domino Effect Animation
Most people are aware that human behavior is damaging the environment. This damage has now become dangerous – In many areas we are approaching the tipping point that will lead to collapse of ecosystems. Most importantly, since humans evolved from Nature, we thus depend upon Nature for survival, as it is the source of all our food, air and water. If the natural systems that support life on earth collapse then humanity is going to collapse”
– Dr. James Lovelock
Forced Positive Thinking Doesn’t Solve Problems [RSA Video]
![Forced Positive Thinking Doesn't Solve Problems [RSA Video]](https://mutualresponsibility.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/smile-or-die.jpg "Forced Positive Thinking Doesn't Solve Problems [RSA Video]")
My very radical suggestion is realism where we try to figure out what is actually happening in the world, and see what we can do about those parts of it that are threatening or hurtful.”
Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist, author and political activist
began to see a pattern and found it in more and more aspects of American life: this mandatory optimism and cheerfulness.”
Ignoring Problems Doesn’t Solve Them
One area where it is strongly concentrated now and has been for some time now is the corporate world.
The biggest evidence is the financial meltdown of 2007. People who tried to raise problems would be shut up or fired:
- You couldn’t be inside Countrywide Mortgage Company and say ‘I’m worried about our sub-prime mortgage exposure’ or you’d be out.
- People within Lehman Brothers who tried to point out that the housing prices could not last forever were fired. It was willful ignorance.”
To Solve Problems, They Need To Be Raised & Worked On
We are hard-wired to be vigilant…and on guard, that is how our ancestors survived, not by saying everything’s probably okay.
My very radical suggestion is realism where we try to figure out what is actually happening in the world, and see what we can do about those parts of it that are threatening or hurtful.”
Watch ‘Smile Or Die’ With Barbara Ehrenrich
Battle Of The Century: Our Addiction To Economic Growth Vs. Our Finite Planet
Crisis = The Clashing Point Between An Economy Of Infinite Growth And The Limits Of Finite Resources
Economic growth is effectively over.
There are practical limits to debt, and we’re hitting them. There are practical limits to energy sources, and we’re hitting them. There are real limits to the planet’s ability to absorb our wastes and industrial accidents, and we’ve hit those too.
We’re being told that the economy is recovering. But take away new debt the government has taken on since 2008 to stimulate the economy, and there’s been no real economic growth. There is no recovery. It’s all been done with more debt. We’ve already mortgaged our grandchildren’s future, but to keep the economy from relapsing, we’ll need to borrow even more. The game is up. We’ve reached the end of economic growth as we’ve known it.”
Unlike Many Think, There Is No ‘They’ To Blame For This Crisis: Everybody’s Addicted To Economic Growth
We all got hooked on growth. Rising GDP numbers became our main measure of success. ‘More, bigger and faster’ meant ‘better.’
We’re all addicted to growth. We all want better jobs and higher returns on investments. But we live on a finite planet.
The end of growth is not the fault of any one politician or a political party, but some people benefited from growth more than others.”
To Live Without Economic Growth, We’ll Have To Start Doing A Few Things Differently
We can live without economic growth, but we’ll have to start doing a few things differently:
- We have to measure and aim for improvements in life that don’t require increasing our consumption of fossil fuels and other depleting resources, or piling on more debt.
- Freedom, being with the people we love, good health and the time to enjoy it, a secure happy community.”
Video: Who Killed Economic Growth?
All the quotes in this post are by Richard Heinberg, senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion, taken from this video made by the Post Carbon Institute, Who Killed Economic Growth?
A Roller Coaster Ride Through The Industrial Age And Our Dependence On Fossil Fuels
“It’s all hands on deck” is the clarion call of the Post Carbon Institute in this fast paced 5 min. video, which takes us on a wild ride through the industrial age and our dependence on fossil fuels – culminating in the need for some tough changes to be made:
If we do nothing we will still get to a post carbon future, but it will be bleak. However, if we plan the transition, we can have a world that supports robust communities of healthy, creative people, and ecosystems with millions of other species. One way or another, we’re in for a ride of a lifetime.”
What Is The Solution?
In short, the Post Carbon Institute recommends,
we need to live within Nature’s budget of renewable resources at rates of natural replenishment.”
They further suggest the following:
- Learn to live without fossil fuels.”
- “Adapt to the end of economic growth as we’ve known it.”
- “Support 7 billion humans and stabilize population at a sustainable level.”
- “Deal with our legacy of environmental destruction.”
Do We Have A Choice?
The Post Carbon Institute makes the following arguments:
- Alternative energy sources are important, but none can fully replace fossil fuels in the time we have.”
- “We’ve designed and built our infrastructure for transport of electricity and farming to suit oil, coal and gas. Changing to different energy sources will require us to redesign cities and manufacturing processes.”
- “We’ll have to rethink some of our cultural values . None of our global problems can be tackled in isolation and many cannot be fully solved.”
- “We have to prepare for business unusual.”
Source of quotes, image and video : Youtube/300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
Embryo
EMBRYO HD from Vladek Zankovsky on Vimeo.
A very powerful clip paralleling the development of one human embryo to that of human civilization
Humans within this planet now are the newest experience of the universe in what, biologically, always seems to come down to cycles: of unity to individuation, through which arises conflict, negotiations happen, cooperation is arrived at; and we go to unity again at the next higher level.
And that’s why the story of evolution is so important today, to help us understand where humanity is, and what is our next step.”
– Elisabet Sahtouris, taken from Biologist Elisabet Sahtouris Finds Evolutionary Purpose In Crisis