Twitter Democracy = Mobilize.org

I have been thinking for a while about making a project to rewrite the Constitution and Bill of Rights to be relevant to our time together in this country today.

Naturally the heart and spirit of the documents are vital and present, I believe that engaging citizens in the process on a wiki page will invite deep and thoughtful civic engagement.

I posted my thoughts on twitter about 10 days ago: "Rewrite wikipedia style - Constitution 2.0? Bill of Rights 2.0?"

And on Twitter - godemocracy just started following me and on their tweets I found out about a group working along the same lines with people 12-32 years old:

From their website:

"Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to increase our civic engagement and political participation. We work to show young people how public policy impacts our lives, and more importantly – how we can impact public policy

"Our Theory of Change "

"Our theory of change starts with the individual citizen identifying problems at the local, state and national levels. Once problems are identified, citizens must engage in conversations searching for innovative solutions to the problems they have identified. Mobilize.org seeks to take the individual actor past the deliberation stage, enabling members of the Millennial Generation to implement their solutions. Through the success of citizen-generated initiatives, Mobilize.org's end goal is to institutionalize citizen-generated solutions as a staple of American governance at all levels."


"...With over 220 Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneurs on college and high school campuses and in communities across the country, Entrepreneurs organize around issues that are important to their local community."

"This is what democracy smells like" - students protest and demand SRI - in "1960's version 2.0"

A recent article in cited a student protest where students of "New School" in NYC where students occupied a university building and demanded the school's president quit over a number of issues.

The protest ended this week:

An article states: "Kerrey also agreed to allow students the use of the Fifth Ave. building, 'until a suitable replacement is secured and instituted, which would include the reinstallment of suitable library and study space.' The school president also agreed to provide new library space in The New School’s Arnold Hall and 7,000 square feet of quiet study space in the school’s Sheila Jackson Galleries by the end of the spring semester.

The six-point document also granted student participation in establishing a committee for socially responsible investing; gave the University Student Senate 'the ability to communicate with the student body freely' — something they said they had previously not been allowed — and granted access for a student senate representative to attend meetings of the school’s board of trustees.

'We weren’t being radical, we were being reasonable,' Emmad explained. 'We were simply trying to defend our school.'

As 4 a.m. approached, the ebullient crowd walked to Union Square. After two nights and a day inside the cafeteria, one participant, riffing on a chant from earlier in the day, said, 'This is what democracy smells like.' Then someone turned on a boom box and students began dancing.

After a peaceful climax to 32 hours of occupation, it seemed like the dawn of the 1960s Version 2.0."

How the bailout is supposed to work? Or is working?

Hmmm.... check out this image. click to enlarge

Indian Farmers Using Coke and Pepsi as pesticides

Watch this Video

Schwarzenegger tells U.N.: Green rules help markets

Schwarzenegger tells U.N.: Green rules help markets

POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - Green regulations will help both the environment and ailing economies, California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told a 187-nation U.N. climate conference on Monday.

"Of course, there are some people who say that we can't afford the fight against global warming while our economies are down," he said in a video message on the sidelines of the December 1-12 U.N. meeting in Poznan, western Poland.

"But the exact opposite is true," he said.

California, which is the world's fifth biggest economy on its own, has been leading other U.S. states in the fight against climate change.

"The green rules and regulations that will help save our planet will also revive our economies," the governor aid.

The Poznan talks are reviewing progress toward a new global pact to fight climate change meant to be agreed at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen. The talks have been overshadowed by the global financial crisis.

Schwarzenegger also said he would attend the Copenhagen talks to support U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.

The Poznan talks are a step on the way to agree a new worldwide climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it runs out in 2012. The United States is the only industrialized nation that has not ratified the Kyoto treaty.

President George W. Bush said Kyoto was unfair because it did not set caps on emissions by emerging nations like China and India and he reckoned it would be too costly for the U.S..

Obama has promised much tougher action on fighting climate change and intends for the U.S. to be more involved in environmental efforts when he takes over the presidency in January.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Matthew Jones)

My Vision For America

Just posted this as my vision for America on change.gov

MY VISION FOR AMERICA
12 / 08 / 2008 12:13 AM

Our country's culture is thriving and well with education, spirituality, healthcare, leisure and commerce in alignment with the natural systems upon which we all depend for life.

Our healthy culture thrives with every person inspired by integrity with each other as we live recognizing interdependence and collaboration as the basis of our success.

Our green economy is a model and blueprint of regenerative economic activity which actually restores healthy ecosystems and natural habitat for plants and animals.

Our reverence for each other and all life is the basis for our system of ethics, our thriving green economy, and our culture's message to the other inhabitants on our Planet Earth.

America has renewed and restored it's Golden Destiny to serve the betterment and evolution of life on the planet."

Please input your own vision for America - www.change.gov

Wealthiest man in the world Bill Gates started out Dumpster Diving...

According to AnneAlexander of www.ecospace.cc:

"Tuesday was the birthday of the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, born in 1955 in Seattle. When Gates was in 8th grade, the Lakeside Mothers Club had a rummage sale and used the money to get computer equipment for the school. Gates and his friend Paul Allen got swept up in the excitement of this new technology. They rummaged through dumpsters at the nearby Computer Center Corporation to find notes written by programmers, and with that information, they wrote a 300-page manual. In 1975, they started Microsoft."

"This is a modern day example of the “diamonds in your backyard” concept, shared by Russell Conwell (1843- 1925), an American minister, lawyer, writer, and outstanding orator, in his book, Acres of Diamonds."

"According to Wikipedia, “The central idea of Acres of Diamonds is that one need not look elsewhere for opportunity, achievement, or fortune — the resources to achieve all good things are present in your own community. This theme is developed by an introductory anecdote, told to Conwell by an Arab guide, about a man who wanted to find diamonds so badly that he sold his property and went off in futile search for them; the new owner of his home discovered that a rich diamond mine was located right there on the property.” "

"Gates and Allen got their start dumpster diving in their own neighborhood. They were following their passion."

"They didn’t get distracted by the next “bright, shiny object” and lose their interest in computers. Moving onto the next thing too quickly is a common tendency in entrepreneurs. They get fixated on the next “bright, shiny object” that comes along, sometimes aborting the development of a current project. “Surely,” they say to themselves, “this amazing new (fill in the blank – product, program, guru, etc.) will mean my true success!” And they forget the diamonds in their own backyard."

"Maybe it’s time for you to do a little digging to rediscover the wealth buried in your own “backyard” - your community, your true talents and passions."

"Maybe it’s time to go dumpster diving in your own business, your relationship, your network. Without any doubt, there are many diamonds there, waiting patiently for you to pick them up, dust them off and bring them to a world crying out for them."

"We need your brilliance, and it’s not “out there.” It’s as close as your heartbeat. Let me know what you find."

"Anne Alexander helps small green business owners grow their businesses. Find out how at www.GrowYourGreenBusiness.com"

The Latest from Billionaire George Soros on Financial Crisis

I just finished George Soros’ latest book “The New Paradigm for Financial Markets – The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means”

He just wrote an article on his thoughts for the New York Times Review of Books – which is a great summary of the thinking outlined in his book and update on his ideas.

The article is of interest if you want to learn of Soros’ basic ideas on markets, financial theories, etc. and his views of how regulation should be moderated by a new paradigm of financial thinking which he calls “reflexivity.”

"The misconception is derived from the prevailing theory of financial markets, which, as mentioned earlier, holds that financial markets tend toward equilibrium and that deviations are random and can be attributed to external causes. This theory has been used to justify the belief that the pursuit of self-interest should be given free rein and markets should be deregulated. I call that belief market fundamentalism and claim that it employs false logic. Just because regulations and all other forms of governmental interventions have proven to be faulty, it does not follow that markets are perfect."

The ultimate moment of the breakdown of market fundamentalism was when Greenspan admitted that he was wrong in his pursuit of free market fundamentalism which allowed this bubble to get out of hand. MSNBC Reports, "Badgered by lawmakers, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan denied the nation’s economic crisis was his fault on Thursday but conceded the meltdown had revealed a flaw in a lifetime of economic thinking and left him in a 'state of shocked disbelief.'"

Soros is clear that regulation is necessary - yet in the current situation he is cautious of the pendulum swinging too far the other direction.

Here’s a link - and here are last two paragraphs:
“Since the risk management models used until now ignored the uncertainties inherent in reflexivity, limits on credit and leverage will have to be set substantially lower than those that were tolerated in the recent past. This means that financial institutions in the aggregate will be less profitable than they have been during the super-bubble and some business models that depended on excessive leverage will become uneconomical. The financial industry has already dropped from 25 percent of total market capitalization to 16 percent. This ratio is unlikely to recover to anywhere near its previous high; indeed, it is likely to end lower. This may be considered a healthy adjustment, but not by those who are losing their jobs.”

“In view of the tremendous losses suffered by the general public, there is a real danger that excessive deregulation will be succeeded by punitive reregulation. That would be unfortunate because regulations are liable to be even more deficient than the market mechanism. As I have suggested, regulators are not only human but also bureaucratic and susceptible to lobbying and corruption. It is to be hoped that the reforms outlined here will preempt a regulatory overkill.”

My friend Dan Krimm responded to this and I thought he said it so well - I'll post his comments:

Cool. So, "reflexivity" amounts to a sort of feedback loop between
perceptions and reality (along the lines that some political elites
characterize as "perception *is* reality"...). Sometimes that feedback is
corrective, but sometimes it is self-reinforcing.

In other words, the financial system is rife with highly nonlinear
dynamics, and thus not reliably equilibrium-seeking. (This is what
Nicholas Nassim Taleb was getting at in his 2007 book "The Black Swan".)

Taleb points out at one point in *his* book that fully 50% of the gain in
the market over the last several decades can be isolated to *ten individual
days*. He points out that this violates the assumption that the randomness
of the market is "Brownian random-walk" randomness that tends to fit a
Gaussian bell curve (so-called "normal distribution" underlying
conventional statistical tools used for conventional risk analysis --
outliers are supposed to be unimportant in influencing the mean). On the
contrary, the variability in the market is self-scaling in a much more
extreme manner, like earthquakes, along the lines of Benoit Mandlebrot's
"hyperbolic scaling distributions" more commonly called "power-law
distributions" (where outliers can make a huge difference in the mean).

The fact that all the risk analysts were using an abjectly false assumption
about the distribution of variation in the market was one huge contributor
to the cluelessness in recognizing the potential for and strategically
avoiding this magnitude of disaster.

In short, market analysts have assumed that all the oddities of market
jumps are anomalous and external in origin. (Otherwise, as Soros points
out, the market would be assumed to reach equilibrium.) But in fact, this
nonlinear effect is internal in origin.

As the economists would say, not exogenous, but rather, endogenous.

I really hope that people in the market get this message loud and clear,
and the sooner the better. The orthodoxy is what got us into this mess.

And Alan Greenspan was "shocked, simply shocked"...

The solution: rein-in the nonlinear dynamics with smart regulation. Cap
the degree of risk leverage. Regulate things that look and behave like
insurance (credit default swaps) like other forms of insurance. Require
information transparency (trails of origin) in derivative securities, so
you can actually trace the behavior of the elements that comprise them.

Why do we care if some investor gets hit by the risk they take on, however
unwittingly? Because we are all invested in it, in the end, through
multiplier effects. The stability of the economy is a public good, and the
public deserves to protect itself collectively by regulation that
illuminates and contains risk.

It is patently unfair to society to privatize the upside while socializing
the downside.

Dan

B of A - stops financing Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining.

Yesterday, RAN celebrated a great victory! Bank of America posted a new coal policy on its website announcing that it will phase out financing of mountaintop removal coal mining!

Here's the commitment in their words:

"Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountain top removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal. While we acknowledge that surface mining is economically efficient and creates jobs, it can be conducted in a way that minimizes environmental impacts in certain geographies."

Rainforest Action Network was largely responsible for the action:

They state - "Since we launched our "No Coal" campaign against Bank of America and Citi last October, one of our central demands has been that they stop providing support for mountaintop removal coal mining. We applaud Bank of America for taking this important step to reduce its financing of dirty coal. But we also need to keep the pressure on them -- as well as on Citi and other banks that finance coal -- to ensure that they continue to curtail financing for dirty energy and start funding the future through energy efficiency and renewable energy."

RAN is one of the most effective environmental groups, dollar for dollar and has brought about a tremendous amount of change in corporate America.

RAN ON!

There's a Free Lunch of understanding for us...by embracing new ideas

Friends - to accept that we have deeply damaged, or perhaps destroyed many ecosystems, and our once prevailing economic system, is not pessimistic. To the contrary, it is highly constructive. To embrace the problem is the most positive thing to do, since only then can we identify the remaining solutions that can actually work.

If you want to get a cliff notes version of the current financial crisis I encourage you to read Paul Krugman's column in NY Times. He does a marvelous job of recapping the situation, and how other countries have navigated successfully through similar crisis in the past.

He finished with what I believe were his most important points. Shed light on the reality that we have no scarcity of ideas, ingenuity and creativity. I believe it is absolutely possible that we can derive a period of great well being and prosperity for humanity from the financial meltdown - simply by thinking different.

Here are his words, "As readers may have gathered, I believe not only that we're living in a new era of depression economics, but also that John Maynard Keynes - the economist who made sense of the Great Depression - is now more relevant than ever. Keynes concluded his masterwork, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, with a famous disquisition on the importance of economic ideas: "Soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil."

"We can argue about whether that's always true, but in times like these, it definitely is. The quintessential economic sentence is supposed to be "There is no free lunch"; it says that there are limited resources, that to have more of one thing you must accept less of another, that there is no gain without pain. Depression economics, however, is the study of situations where there is a free lunch, if we can only figure out how to get our hands on it, because there are unemployed resources that could be put to work. The true scarcity in Keynes's world - and ours - was therefore not of resources, or even of virtue, but of understanding."

"We will not achieve the understanding we need, however, unless we are willing to think clearly about our problems and to follow those thoughts wherever they lead. Some people say that our economic problems are structural, with no quick cure available; but I believe that the only important structural obstacles to world prosperity are the obsolete doctrines that clutter the minds of men."

Paul Krugman - November 20, 2008 - Read entire article here.

Gore - The Internet Could save Society

On SiloBreaker.com -

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Former US vice president Al Gore said an Internet revolution carrying Barack Obama to the White House should now focus its power on stopping Earth's climate crisis.

The one-time presidential contender turned environmental champion told Web 2.0 Summit goers in San Francisco Friday that technology has provided tools to save the planet while creating jobs and stimulating the crippled economy.

"The young people who have been inspired by Barack Obama's campaign and the movement that powered Barack Obama's campaign want a purpose," Gore said.

"One of the reasons we were all thrilled Tuesday night is it was pretty obvious this was a collectively intelligent decision."

The Internet's critical role in Democrat Obama's victory in the presidential race against Republican John McCain was a "great blow for victory" in addressing a "democracy crisis" stifling action against climate change, Gore said.

The Web has "revolutionized" nearly every aspect of running for US president and delivered an "electrifying redemption" of the founding national principle that all people are created equal, according to Gore.

Renewing civilization - we need the caterpillar to create the butterfly!

Think about it - we need the caterpillar to create the butterfly!

I was at a lunch meeting today and we were discussing the current crisis in the financial markets as a much need adjustment to the overstimulated system.

One of us said something to the effect "This system needs to die for us to have a new, better system."

I responded and shared that the system doesn't need to die, it simply needs to evolve, and become better.

Just as a caterpillar does not die to become a butterfly, it simply changes. We all need to hold space for this system to metamorphosis into a new and improved reality for all.

Our economic strategy of endless consumption to measure the growth of our economy must end, simply because we live on a planet with finite resources.

The experience of well being for all can be shared by utilizing all of our planet's resources in a more efficient manner. We must implement evolutionary ideas, values and technologies which can help the system to simply evolve without breakdown.

"If the positive innovations connect exponentially before the massive breakdowns reinforce oneanother, the system can repattern itself to a higher order of consciousness and freedom without the predicted economic, environmental, or social collapse." Barbara Marx Hubbard

Photo from creative commons.

Denmark - grow your economy and reduce energy consumption

Thomas Friedman wrote an excellent Op-Ed piece in New York times - on his visit to Denmark and their energy infrastructure...

Basically Denmark, like California has successfully grown it's economy while at the same time reducing or keeping it's energy consumption steady...while at the same time building a world class wind industry - far ahead of the US, and only rivaled by China.

He writes -

"There is little whining here about Denmark having $10-a-gallon gasoline because of high energy taxes. The shaping of the market with high energy standards and taxes on fossil fuels by the Danish government has actually had 'a positive impact on job creation,' added Hedegaard. 'For example, the wind industry — it was nothing in the 1970s. Today, one-third of all terrestrial wind turbines in the world come from Denmark.' In the last 10 years, Denmark’s exports of energy efficiency products have tripled. Energy technology exports rose 8 percent in 2007 to more than $10.5 billion in 2006, compared with a 2 percent rise in 2007 for Danish exports as a whole."

"Frankly, when you compare how America has responded to the 1973 oil shock and how Denmark has responded, we look pathetic."

“'I have observed that in all other countries, including in America, people are complaining about how prices of [gasoline] are going up,' Denmark’s prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told me. 'The cure is not to reduce the price, but, on the contrary, to raise it even higher to break our addiction to oil. We are going to introduce a new tax reform in the direction of even higher taxation on energy and the revenue generated on that will be used to cut taxes on personal income — so we will improve incentives to work and improve incentives to save energy and develop renewable energy.'"

"Because it was smart taxes and incentives that spurred Danish energy companies to innovate, Ditlev Engel, the president of Vestas — Denmark’s and the world’s biggest wind turbine company — told me that he simply can’t understand how the U.S. Congress could have just failed to extend the production tax credits for wind development in America."

"Why should you care?"

“We’ve had 35 new competitors coming out of China in the last 18 months,” said Engel, “and not one out of the U.S.”

The Wealth of Health - You Are What You Eat!

Often think that the food we eat has a dramatic effect on your health? It does.

The medical industry does a very poor job of educating people about the impact of food and health. When people get sick the first order of business is to offer some form of "cut, burn or poison" as a treatment - rather than a lifestyle change.

The upcoming film "Food Matters" speaks to this. Watch the trailer, and then the movie.

Indian Saint, Amma - hosts permaculture workshop at her ashram

In order to help restore a forest ecosystem in her 150 acre ashram in Northern California - Amma hosted a three day permaculture workshop . The workshop was led by Geoff Lawton - one of the world's leading permaculture experts.

The MA Center writes: "Through the understanding of how ecosystems evolve and a willingness to support nature's processes, human beings can truly be a positive force in the environment. With the collective help of Geoff, Common Vision, the workshop attendees, GreenFriends, and MA Center residents, MA Center has begun its journey of realizing Amma's dream of inspiring people to live in harmony with Nature."

American Human Development Report - we're not #1 anymore in US...

For the first time a report has been compiled on the well being of the United States modeled on the UN Development Program. The first time it has been done on an industrialized nation.

I'm sure that some of these stats are not surprising to many of you, here are some findings from there work:

• More than 14% of the U.S. population (30 million Americans) lack basic literacy and math skills
• Of the 30 richest nations, the U.S. ranks second in the number of children (15%) living in poverty
• The U.S. has 5% of the world’s people - but 24% of the world’s prisoners
• The U.S. ranks 24th in global life expectancy - yet spends more on health care than any nation

"For Americans to live longer, healthier lives, it is obvious from the report that progress
depends in large part on a comprehensive resolution of the problem of health insurance. Today, some 47 million Americans lack health insurance, risking negative
health outcomes and shorter life spans. The nation appears unlikely to make significant strides in health until every American has adequate health coverage.
In addition, Americans are at risk from a wide range of preventable causes of death and disease, including obesity and violence. In a reflection of how complex social problems are linked, researchers have found that poor parents, living in neighborhoods they perceive to be dangerous, are often reluctant to allow their children to play outside. Lack of exercise contributes to childhood obesity, which lowers health scores. Restricted space to play can also have a negative impact on school performance, lowering education scores.
• In order to improve access to knowledge, research suggests that intensive intervention in early childhood is necessary to break the pattern by which parents with limited education raise children with limited education—short-circuiting their ability to command decent opportunities and wages in a high-tech, information-intensive, globalized economy. Superior preschool programs and intensive
elementary schooling can offer students from poor families a chance to fulfill their potential, seize opportunities, and lead lives they value. The ideal of American opportunity, grounded in equal access to public education, is threatened by the lopsided educational realities of American schools. In addition, we are asking our schools to solve society’s most intractable problems—social exclusion, chronic unemployment, dangerous neighborhoods, and more.
• For Americans to sustain, or obtain, a decent standard of living, the wages and opportunities of millions of Americans must improve. Growing inequality in income distribution and wealth raises a profound question for Americans: Can the uniquely middle-class nation that emerged in the twentieth century survive into the twenty-first century? Or is it fracturing into a land of great extremes?"

The report was created by the American Human Development Project

The wealth of Biodiversity - 4,600 species of Potato!

Christian Science Monitor reports that Peru's International Potato Center maintains genetic strains of over 4,600 species of potatoes which are indigenous to the Andes, alone!

"But aren’t potatoes from…? Tay understands the question even before you get it out. “Americans think potatoes are from Idaho,” he says. “Ask a European, and they say the potato is from Ireland.”

Actually, it’s Peruvian. Potatoes date back about 8,000 years, to the shores of Lake Titicaca, 3,800 meters above sea level, in what is today Peru. Incan armies ate potatoes centuries ago, and rural communities eat them today. An estimated 5,000 varieties grow in the Andean region; 80 percent of those sit in the CIP."

In fact, the center has maintained this array of potatoes for over 30 years.

With prices skyrocketing in corn, wheat, soy and other essential crops, the potatoe is seen as an essential resource.

"Just a few months ago, these words might have seemed hyperbolic. But the spud has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight, now that prices for soy, wheat, and corn have skyrocketed. The United Nations has called 2008 the Year of the Potato, as has Peru. Governments around the world are turning to the root to help ease hunger. Peru’s military is eating potato bread instead of regular white. And at this humble center in Lima, the phone is suddenly ringing off the hook, journalists are knocking at the door, and requests for expertise are pouring in from around the world.

'Potatoes are being looked at as one of the pathways out of poverty,' says Pamela Anderson, the center’s director general."

Public Policy - Sustainability First? Not yet for Government...

"Government waste is prevalent throughout our daily lives. From the pointless use of Police ATVs patrolling our completely safe beaches, to the quashing of plans for more efficient everything, our governments seem to be avoiding the imminent truth about our environmental crisis. At very least, sustainability does not seem to be on their checklist of mandatory considerations before making a decision. Everything from the policy decisions to the execution of initiatives are often missing the mark on the dire need to transition our society to one that is in alignment with nature, rather than at odds with it."

Article cites sustainability as imperative for Public Policy in government.

Authors Scott Badenoch and Argam Derhartunian are Co-Founders of Creative Citizen, a green wiki for a sustainable lifestyle.

PROUT - input for the Blueprint for new society?

I experience that we must recreate the systems of organizing ourselves, our economy, and our relationship with Nature. The old system has design flaws and many are saying that signs of its demise are evident.

The question of how long the current economic, political, societal, cultural system will last - or whether or not it is even is in jeopardy, is secondary to the imperative for us to EVOLVE from where we are to optimize the current operating system of our civilization.

PROUT Institute offers some very compelling ideas:

"Mission Statement
The PROUT Institute works to bring new life and a bright future to humanity by applying progressive social theory and concepts - and those of the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) in particular - that provide deep solutions to social problems and give holistic expression to human potentialities.

PROUT's Fundamental Premise
PROUT is based on the fundamental premise that all people should have equitable scope to develop and express their physical, mental, and spiritual potential, while maintaining balance between individual and collective interests, and while maintaining harmony with the rest of life on the planet.

PROUT Design Principles
PROUT does not seek to promote an ideology but to offer a system of practical design principles that are intended to bring balanced progress and vitality to the human society. Read More

Four Essential Conditions
for Creating a New Society
The PROUT Institute identifies four essential conditions for undertaking a transition to a sustainable and equitable future:

* Hope: a rational and grounded sense of hope for humanity's future
* Vision: a comprehensive vision to guide enduring social transformation
* Empowerment: personal vitalization and empowering ideas
* Solutions: a theory based, solution-oriented approach to social renewal

Future Vision

While recognizing that humanity faces unprecedented problems, and that significant disruptions in social life are now upon us, PROUT holds a positive outlook on humanity's future. It sees the difficulties of the present forcing shifts of consciousness and creating conditions for the rapid emergence of a universal humanity, able to work together to develop the rich potentialities of the human species potentialities long suppressed by a materialist culture.

PROUT seeks to help open a path through the darkness of the present to this new stage of human existence and to provide a socio-economic paradigm in which humanity's emerging new consciousness and unity can take root in fertile soil and flourish. It seeks to open a cleared vista, without dogma-created impediments, to the comprehensive fulfillment of human potentialities."

Read all about PROUT here.

Ecuador is first country to include Nature's rights in constitution!

The recent New Moon update from the Pachamama Alliance announced that just a few weeks ago on July 7th, Ecuador adopted a new constitution which includes the rights of Nature.

Ecuador is the first country to recognize the value of ecosystems officially. It's aim is to foster a new model of develop with humanity in harmony with our natural systems.

"Chapter: Rights for Nature

Art. 1[N2] . Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms.* The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Art. 2[N3] . Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.

In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.

Art. 3.[N4] The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.

Art. 4[N5] . The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.

Art. 5[N6] . The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.

The environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State."