In order to support societal transition, and the scaling up of 'grassroots' solutions to climate change, we need to couple 'bottom-up' with 'top-down' processes, says Kosha Joubert, President of GEN International. In April 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published the third part of a trilogy of reports, compiled by thousands of the world’s most eminent scientists, giving the most accurate and up to date account of climate change. The first report, released in … Read more
Report
Japan’s AS-ONE Community: The Story of a 14-Year Community Creation Process
In 2001, some volunteers gathered in Suzuka, Japan, aiming to realize a happy society free from fighting and opposition, in harmony with nature. A borderless community named “AS-ONE COMMUNITY” has been created in an ordinary neighborhood of Suzuka, a typical middle-size city and also well known as a city of the Honda company. Hiroko Katayama, GEN ambassador reports. The name ‘AS-ONE’ was taken from a line of John Lennon’s masterpiece Imagine, ‘and the world will be as one'. Nowadays, 38 core … Read more
Water Flows in Damanhur Permaculture Approach to Water Flows in the Tentyris Region of Damanhur
In Damanhur, the community region of Tentyris has a special relationship with water, honoring it as a natural force and enjoying an abundance of it on the lands. In 2011, a team from Tamera, Portugal, came to collaborate on the creation of a large scale water retention system of six lakes, that are now in use. In November 2014, a new Permaculture Design for Sustainability course was launched, focusing on developing the wetlands area of Tentyris as a continuation of the work of utilizing, and … Read more
100 Million Nanonations the emerging cultural evolution
A superstition is an easy-to-understand concept that has no basis in reality. Believing a superstition blocks the perception of more useful possibilities. But superstitions are not called superstitions until they are recognized as superstitions. Before then they are regarded as the truth. A superstition that participants in modern culture have not yet identified as a superstition is “the nation-state.” This superstition became popular in the 1800s as a win-lose game (“If you get the resources … Read more
Local Spotlight But Don’t We Need Economic Growth to Lift the Poor Out of Poverty?
As a group challenging the growth paradigm, one of the most common questions that we hear is, ‘But don’t we need economic growth to lift the poor out of poverty?’. While growth has been successful to this end in certain ways, there are also some unwelcome consequences of growth. We prefer to ask other questions, like ‘Do we need to target economic growth to help those in need?’ and even better, ‘How are people currently breaking the poverty cycle in sustainable and inspiring ways?’. … Read more
About Ecovillages
What is an Ecovillage? An ecovillage is a human-scale settlement consciously designed through participatory processes to secure long-term sustainability. Ecovillages are rural or urban, intentional or traditional communities with vibrant social structures, vastly diverse, yet united in their actions towards low-impact, high-quality lifestyles. Ecovillages are consciously designed through local participatory processes, integrating the four dimensions of sustainability (ecology, economy, … Read more
Regaining Lost Power The Parents and Birth School in Tamera
Birth-giving is about opening. And opening is a process of trust. In Tamera, some mothers have founded a school for parents in order to use knowledge, transparency, awareness and experience to strengthen the forces of trust of parents, children and the community. Leila Dregger spoke with two midwives, and a young mother, on the art of regaining of lost power - and while she was writing the article, a new child was born to the community and the happy parents. "There is nothing greater and more … Read more
Three “Organized Urban Neighborhood” Urban Ecovillages in North America
Diana Leafe Christian reports about intentional communities in North American cities. She believes creating community in your existing neighborhood is a growing trend. In a few years we may have more organized-neighborhood projects to report on. … Read more
USA: Urban Ecovillages N St. Cohousing, Central Valley, California
Another similar urban project is N St. Cohousing (http://www.ic.org/directory/n-street-cohousing) in Davis, a college town in California’s Central Valley. Unlike the urban examples described above, N St. neighbors live on all sides of a city block in a shady residential area, and each owns or rents their own house and lot. (While N St. is a cohousing community rather than an ecovillage, I include it because of it has many of the same sustainability aspects as an urban ecovillage.) Even though … Read more
Sound as the Only Midwife Unattended Birth-Giving in the Philipines
Pi Villaraza´s wife, Daniw, performed two unassisted water births in their own home, in the midst of community, without the need of a midwife, a doctor, hospitals and medical apparatus. In their stress-free environment, her only real expenditure for both births was a plastic kiddie pool from Toy Kingdom. In the last four years, Pi and Daniw have also guided extended members of their community to follow a similar process in their own spaces. Pi from the Maia Earth ecovillage in the Philippines … Read more
