http://www.bioneers.org/
main site
This is one of the most powerful alliances
of environmental groups in the world.
program content for conference:
http://www.bioneers.org/conference/content02.php
They get together for their national conference
next week.
They beam the conference to various cities as well
and have local happenings.
I highly recommend this Conference
to anyone in environmental bioneering.
your eg
A Special Message from Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons
Dear Bioneers:
Our shared mission is more important and urgent than ever: the restoration of the Earth's imperiled ecosystems and the healing of our human communities.
As bioneers, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina comes as no surprise. It was a matter of when, not if, such a catastrophe would befall us here in the United States. In fact, as fate would have it, opening day of this year's Bioneers conference on October 14th closes with plenary presentations by Bill McKibben on global warming and Diane Wilson on stopping the chemical industry's daily bio-terrorism on her beloved Gulf Coast.
Katrina may prove a watershed, both literally and figuratively: a teachable moment when the veils of denial, deceit and decay fall away to reveal the lethal mix of our disembodied environmental policies and corrosive racial and class injustices. A society that wastes its environment also wastes its people. We will have peace with the Earth only when we also forge peace and justice among people.
We offer our most profound empathy, compassion and support for the horrific suffering of the many people whose lives have been ended and upended beyond recognition. May our love for both people and the Earth guide us purposefully to change our way of living. We hope that we will look back on this pivotal moment as a turning point when a critical mass of citizens awakened to the madness of our civilization's destructive trajectory, when we changed course to create real and lasting positive change that honors both people and the web of life on whose grace our lives depend.
A society that wastes its environment also wastes its people. We will have peace with the Earth only when we also forge peace and justice among people.
Katrina, a hurricane souped up on fossil-fuel-induced global warming struck at the oily heart of the petrochemical industry and its toxic progeny, the chemical cartel's poisonous matrix. Stir in an inept, corrupt government beholden to those interests, dispatch the National Guard to war halfway around the world for more oil, and we get a shattering wake-up call for just how absurdly vulnerable and ill prepared we are. As global warming escalates, any of us could become homeless in the blink of a hurricane's eye. We all live downstream. Today we are all citizens of New Orleans.
Katrina was an accident waiting to happen, but it's no accident that its consequences are so disproportionately devastating low-income communities and communities of color. As Carl Anthony has said, race in this country has long served to create the illusion among a certain set of people that they are privileged and immune. But of course no one is immune.
The surreal image of floating waterfront Gulf Coast casinos washed far back onto shore is a macabre symbol of just how foolish and high-stakes a gamble we've taken. When you're gaming the Earth, the house always wins. Life is a gift that is tenuous and precarious under the best of conditions. Isn't it time to act with caution and precaution, to take pre-emptive action to avoid harm? Our children and the unborn are counting on us.
The imperative is clear. As bioneers, we know what to do and what directions to head in. The solutions are largely present. What we need to muster are the political will and economic muscle to make this epic shift from a disposable civilization to a sustainable one.
Since 1990, the Bioneers conference has focused on exactly the kinds of real, practical solutions that hold the best hope of getting us out of this mess. One purpose is education: Few people are aware of the plethora of viable solutions and strategies. Another is to get connected. There's tremendous power when we join together into a broader movement.
While things look pretty dismal at the national level, there's powerful momentum on the ground locally and regionally. Many communities, cities and states are focusing on real problem solving. If we are truly working for a sustainable, restored world, then we need to build it patiently from the ground up. This is the critical moment to step into the breach with real, practical solutions. That's exactly what we bioneers are trying to help catalyze across North America and beyond.
It's our hope, as Commonweal founder Michael Lerner has said, that together we can transform tragedy into wisdom and healing. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your presence and your part. Together we're creating a future environment of hope.
- Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons