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MIndopeners: If Greenland meltdown ; how Asia doubles worldwide urbanisation: 1 Doerr; 2 Principals debate;  3 ?liberated by Stern 1

Best ever news?

If you've heard better worldwide citizen news than this I'd sure love to hear your nominations -info@worldcitizen.tv

WSF Kenya Jan 2007: The invitation theme that 100000 people will bring their social networks to has been announced:
Do you want a world where profit or life matters most?

3 minute video of this invitation is linked here http://futurehistorian.tv/_wsn/page8.html

December 2006- best for world month?

Kenya's inspirational invitation links to  the action-now question what pre-WSF forums (real meeting or virtual) can any mapmaker concerned with sustainability link conversations of this and our social networks around.

Billionniare's philantropy hosted conversations: omidyar.net social-edge

Poor peoples spaces: changemakers.net     -you tell us at info@worldcitizen.tv

No less an expert than Peter Eigen of Transparency International declared last year that in January 2007 we would have less than 12 months to start ending corruption everywhere. This is a tipping point that proceeds even climate ones -if we ever expect any of the world's laregst powers to come back on peoples sides. Others may know that 2005's make poverty history and africa commissions were taken over this summer by Africa progress Panel funded by Bill Gates and with Peter Eigen in charge of system mapping of transparency

So Kenya can be seen as a crossroads:  Act-connect-unite citizen networks now or forever after forget about peace

and for those who love climate's urgency most, the Nobe laureate for peace and climate 2004 is Wangari Maathai of Kenya.

Also in December: film exposes Exxon head-on for all its yeras of misinformation on climate

chris macrae us 301 881 1655
http://futurehistorian.tv http://guidemakers.net http://worldcitizen.tv

Most Extraordinary Climate Crisis Info Sources of the Year:

• Stern Report 
• Lugar - Energy is the alnatross of National Security
• Khosla video
• 91 Clinton GI Transcript- Financing Clean Energy :  Executive Director from Fundacion Solar, Ivan Azurdia Bravo; Chairman of Development Alternatives, Dr. Ashok Khosla; Founder, Green Belt Movement, Professor Wangari Maathai. And please welcome back our moderator, John Podesta.
• Gathering Strom recommendation- end addiction to petroleum economics used in January State of Union adddress
• Inconvenient Truth dialogues

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  Report, ClubofLondon, Village of Almeria : Climate Day Nov06, RN writes:
  The turn out at the Climate Change Day was really encouraging and the tone of the message was very different than last year when it was all too gloomy. Without watering down the urgency or severity of the situation and the impending crisis (the term Climate Change is being replaced with the terms "Climate Crisis" and Climate Chaos) there was never the less a feeling of empowerment and hope conveyed to the participants from the speakers. For the first time I can actually say that I was happy with George Monbiot's, which focused on not accepting any argument "against action on climate change" that is based on a premise that it is already too late to act. The Stern Report was being used effectively to get everyone (especially government) into an action mode. He also said  that there was too much finger pointing at the other countries (ie. China or India and of course USA) as defeating our efforts if they don't join global trading programs. Some speakers also asked for some deeper thinking about the carbon trading schemes and the general focus was on Contraction and Convergence.
  
  The I Count rally did not educate at all and was a kind of pep rally. But again - it was a positive energy and expressed much unity and solidarity to face the challenges of climate change.
  
  The SolaRoof effort for a public demonstration of our solutions is moving ahead and now the target is to have a multi day event within our SolaRoof Pavilion that will be up on the South Bank during the last couple of weeks of February. The building is a portable structure that will cover 10 by 30 meters and we are just beginning to plan the program for the period of time that we have available.  There are a number of business supporters collaborating to make this happen and the structure will be relocated after the event to Nottingham University's School for the Built Environment. for long term studies and technical development. Concurrently we also have a project underway in The Gambia where a SolaRoof method will be used in an exciting EcoVillage initiative scheduled for completion in January 07. There will be more news on these efforts as we get clarification on the details.
  

  Nov06: ClubofMonterey First news of TED prize-dream winners for 2007 includes the deep climate voice:
  

   

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  you have been reading our column on 4 hemispheres waves on climate crises - still search before full details get connected in rest of the page; you can also help us spot or debate vital travel guide content for world changers at guidemakers yahoo group

   

  Dr. E.O. Wilson, Biologist

  

  Dr. E.O. Wilson, photo courtesy Jim Harrison, Harvard

  "This planet can be a paradise in the 22nd century."
  
  

  One of the world's most distinguished scientists, E.O. Wilson is a university research professor and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard University. His most recent work has focused on drawing public attention to the impact human activity has had on life on the planet. His research includes evolutionary biology, the biology of social insects, the classification of ants, sociobiology, biogeography, and ethical philosophy. He was 13 when he discovered, in a vacant lot near the docks of Mobile, Alabama, the first known U.S. colonies of fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, invaders from Brazil and Argentina known in the South as "the ants from hell." He is most famous for the publication in 1975 of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, a work of deep insight that advanced evolutionary thinking and proved a Darwinian manifesto, describing social behaviour from the ants to humans. It was also the work that threw Wilson into one of his biggest controversies, being accused of suggesting that some human beings are genetically superior to others. Another major contribution has been, with the physicist turned biologist Charles Lumsden, the idea of "gene-culture co-evolution". Essentially it describes how culture and genetics intertwine to create the complexity of human life, reaching for the biological roots of culture. Drawing from his deep knowledge of the earth's "little creatures" and his sense that their contribution to the planet's ecology is underappreciated, he produced what may be his most important book, The Diversity of Life. In it he describes how an intricately interconnected natural system is threatened by a man-made biodiversity crisis he calls the "sixth extinction" — the most devastating trauma since the extinction event that laid waste the dinosaurs and other creatures 65 million years ago. In it he notes that the 1.5 million species named so far by scientists represent only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions that may be out there. Wilson's prediction that 30 percent to 50 percent of all species would be extinct by the middle of the 21st century was meant to provokeand it did. With the human population expected to reach 9-10bn by the end of the century and the planet in the middle of its sixth mass extinction — this time due to human activity — the next few years are critical in maintaining anything near the current level of biodiversity. Wilson believes, "The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can." With his most recent book, The Creation, he wants to put the differences of science-based explanations and faith-based explanations aside "to protect Earth's vanishing natural habitats and species — in other words, the Creation, however we believe it came into existence."

  
  

  President William J. Clinton

  

  Clinton Global Initiativen

  "All of us have an unprecedented amount of power to solve problems, save lives and help see the future."
  
  

  Elected President of the United States in 1992, and again in 1996, President Clinton was the first Democratic president to be elected to a second term in six decades. Under President Clinton's leadership the United States enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. To achieve this, the Clinton Foundation is focused on four critical areas: health security, with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS; economic empowerment; leadership development and citizen service; and racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation. The Clinton Presidential Center, located in Little Rock, Arkansas, is comprised of the Library, the archives, Clinton Foundation offices and the Clinton School of Public Service. Following the 2002 Barcelona AIDS Conference, President Clinton began the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) to assist countries in implementing large-scale, integrated, care, treatment and prevention programs that will turn the tide on the epidemic. It partners with countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to develop operational business plans to scale-up care and treatment. CHAI works with individual governments and provides them with technical assistance, human and financial resources, and know-how from the sharing of the best practices across projects. The ultimate objective in each of these countries is to scale up public health systems to ensure broad access to high-quality care and treatment. The Initiative's long-term goal is to develop replicable models for the scale-up of integrated programs in resource-poor settings. CHAI is currently bringing life-saving care and treatment to over a quarter of a million people around the world and over 60 countries have access to CHAI's drug and testing prices. In September 2006, President Clinton hosted the second annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which is a non-partisan catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, including poverty, climate change, global health, and religious and racial conflict. In its two years of existence, the Clinton Global Initaitive has generated over $10 billion in commitments to improve the lives of people living on 6 continents.

  
  

Ray Anderson Interface

 (pdf transcript Royal Society of Arts) :

I’ve made the business case for
sustainability over and over and over, as I have
with you in terms of survival, the macro case,
risk management, markets, people, processes,
products, profits, purpose, shareholder value,
all based on focusing proper attention to place.
There’s no question in my mind, based on our
experience at Interface that it’s a clear,
compelling and refutable case, yet the sceptics
remain.
So given the sceptics’ reluctance, even
disdain and unwillingness to accept my case, I
wish to challenge the sceptics to make their
case. More precisely, I’d like to hear the
business case for double glazing the planet with
greenhouse gases and while talking about the
cost of preventing global warming, please
address the cost of not preventing it.
I’d like to hear the business case for
destroying habitat for countless species, about
whose connection to human kind in many or
most cases we have not a clue. Ecological
ignorance abounds in our culture. Paul Hawken
says an average American can name a thousand
commercial brands and only about ten trees.
Maybe with you it’s 500 commercial brands
and 20 trees.
I’d like to hear the business case for
poisoning air, water and land. I’d like to hear
the business case for disrupting pollination and
photosynthesis - that ought to be a really
interesting one.
I’d like to hear the business case for
over-fishing the oceans to the point of collapse,
for destroying the coral reefs, forest and
wetlands; the business case for depleting and
destroying the basic infrastructure that under
guards civilisation itself, the natural systems
upon which everything depends, including the
economy.
For again, what economy can even
exist without air, water, materials, energy,
food plus climate regulation an ultra-violet
radiation shield, pollination, seed dispersal,
waste processing, nutrient cycling, water
purification and distribution, natural filtration
and hydrologic cycle, soil creation and
maintenance and insect control. All supplied
by nature and her natural systems.
The economists would tell us that all
these are externalities and they do not count
in the financial system. I beg to differ.
Without any of them there would be no
economy in the first place. How can it be
good business to externalise those and take
licence to literally destroy them.
I’m waiting with bated breathe for the
answers so I can correct my errant ways. Of
course there are no answers to that and
therein lies the inevitability of sustainability.
It’s only a question of how much pain before
a sense of ethics drives human kind to get off
the slippery slope and opt for survival.
I thank you for your attention.
Peter Jones: Well thank you very
much for those rhetorical questions at the
end Ray and I think most of us accept that we
are being presented with a gigantic lie in
terms of the way that goods and services
arrive at our table.