…That is if you’re a goose. For those of us with this bumper sticker just above our tailpipes, we may be in need of speed bumps to jolt us awake. Our planet’s life forms are the natural capital upon which all wealth exists. But by continuing our current trend are we killing the goose that lays the golden egg?
As an invited speaker in the Foreign Policy Association’s 2007 Great Decisions series on mitigating global climate change, I talked of polar bears on thin ice, chicken factories hatching avian influenza, the new coal rush exacerbating atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and air pollution, and many other canaries in the mine shaft. As Al Gore says, our parents and grandparents lived through the Great Depression, and our children and grandchildren will be coping with the Great Warming.
Before our goose is cooked, we need to join our fine-feathered friends to do a lot more and louder honking about global warming and other catastrophic environmental changes. Of course, some geese and many other species have already been “cooked.” Many more species are in “hot water,” as well as approximately a billion impoverished, marginalized people in peril due to environmental damage. Even affluent societies, gleefully sliding down the dark side of peak oil, will soon be in the soup.
Honking to raise alarm is important, but taking action on the ground is what’s needed now. Fortunately, individuals at the grassroots are inspiring hope through action in countless villages worldwide to operationalize the UN Millennium Development Goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)
The cries of the poor and the calls of the wild are being heard. GEM and its network of partners are effecting positive change by helping empower citizens and communities in Wisconsin and abroad implement MDGs with real, tangible results. Managing healthy watersheds, making sustainable land use planning choices, introducing permaculture design to suburbia, training environmental educators, creating sustainable livelihoods via organic agriculture and agroforestry in eco-villages, exploring optimal renewable energy technologies for a sustainable energy system, learning lessons from indigenous societies for mainstreaming into dominant society, building capacity in local citizens for engaged democracy in action, and pioneering practical ways towards a sustainable future are examples of our work. Through local actions to restore environmental health, we all will enjoy greatly enhanced security. With ample habitat and resilience, geese and all other species do lay golden eggs that bestow harmony, beauty and wealth for all.
In the GEM “Critical Issues” International Seminar Series, this year’s theme is “UN Millennium Development Goals: Update on building a sustainable future.” (More about the series at http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/gem/CriticalIssuesSeminar/0708CIS.html. In 2007 we are at the midpoint of the 15-year MDG effort to act before it’s too late. Join us on the UWSP campus or online at the GEM website to learn about exciting, innovative, concrete steps forward to achieve the MDGs. Keep honking—and more importantly, keep taking your own steps along a pathway to permanence and peace.
Best regards,
GEM Education Center Blog 