Third Annual Future Generations Conference
“True Wealth in a Green World”
February 10, 2012
Barry University School of Law, 6441 E. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL
The program brings together speakers from green business, microlending, law, and other fields to examine what makes a society rich and explore methods of creating true wealth for all members of the Earth community.
Speakers will include:
+ Bill Belleville, award-winning environmental writer and documentary filmmaker, author of Salvaging the Real Florida: Lost & Found in the State of Dreams and numerous other works focusing on nature, conservation, and a sense of place; learn more at Bill’s website, billbelleville.com;
+ Janelle Orsi, Esq., Director of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, pioneer in the field of sharing law, and author of The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify Your Life & Build Community; find out about her “legal services for a sustainable, equitable, and sharing world” at janelleorsi.com;
+ Janie Barrera, President and CEO of AccionTexas, the largest non-profit microlender in the United States; visit acciontexas.org for more information about AccionTexas’s programs and community-based approach.
CLE credit will be offered. For further information and to join the mailing list, please contact Jane Goddard at jgoddard@barry.edu or (321) 206-5788.
Click here for: True Wealth Flyer True Wealth Registration Form
Strategic Planning Session with Global Alliance for Rights of Nature – December 1, 2011
The planning session location
Tom Goldtooth, president of Indigenous Environmental Network, flanked by Cormac Cullinan and Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange
Spiritual leader Mkhosi Rutledge blessed our planning session and aligned us with the spirit world
A monkey on the University of KwaZulu-Natal campus
Presentation – The Earth Bears Witness: Who Should Stand Trial? - December 2, 2011
Cormac Cullinan and Sister Pat Siemen presented at the Diakonia Centre, which is the Durban headquarters for the World Council of Churches and has been a center for faith-led resistance and organizing during the apartheid days; it is now a node for climate justice. The Diakonia Centre continues to advocate resistance to the violence being done to the Earth community by the commodification of Nature and market driven carbon mitigation mechanisms, rather than actual reduction in GHG emissions.
Sister Pat spoke to the “Earth bears witness” dimension and our own complicity in the violence being done to Earth by unexamined behavior patterns and addiction to unrestrained economic growth that ravages Earth. She also explored the question of who could be an impartial judge and jury when we live in a such dominant human-centered worldview, raising the possibility that it is time for a “Council of All Beings,” with the most vulnerable serving as the jurors. Expanded remedies need to include equitable restoration that brings forth Earth’s healing of eco-systems and species, and the ending of market systems that take precedence over people and planet.
Read a press release about the talk here.
Global Day of Action March – December 3, 2011
Getting the word out
Cormac Cullinan and the Earth Balls
Cormac Cullinan and Shannon Biggs
Sister Pat with Jane (intern, Cullinan & Associates) and Sarah (partner in Cullinan & Associates)
Starting the march - Shannon Biggs (in red), Lia (in front, intern with Cullinan & Associates), Jane (intern with Cullinan & Associates), Osprey Lake and Robin Milam
A great banner
And one more
In this season of giving thanks, my heart turns to the many friends, supporters and committed sojourners who live with simplicity in caring for all the members of the Earth community, especially those who are most vulnerable.
Every day we feel the mounting urgency to radically alter the economic structures that feed on ceaseless consumption and the exhaustion of ecosystems that can no longer refurbish themselves. In addition, so many families suffer from unemployment and loss of homes. The voices of the global Occupy Wall Street movement give hope that democratic participatory processes will restore greater economic equity and civility.
As the Director of CEJ, I will be attending the civil society sector of the U.N. Climate Change Conference beginning November 28 in Durban, South Africa. The various events on my schedule include a Multi-Faith Rally for Climate Justice and a talk by Pablo Solon, former Bolivian Ambassador to the U.N., on “Rights of Nature and Climate Politics.” Pablo Solon’s approach is based upon concepts that are foundational to CEJ, as well.
The Center for Earth Jurisprudence is joining with the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature and regional climate justice groups in raising our voices to demand the adoption of policies that enforce significant reductions in GHG emissions. Also essential is the adoption of just adaptation and mitigation policies to assist those countries most disproportionately impacted. While the official outcomes of COP 17 do not look promising, we stand in solidarity with those who demand equitable climate change policies.
Before my return I will be visiting with some of our Adrian Dominican Sisters who live and minister in Meru, Kenya. During my time in Kenya I will be particularly mindful of Wangari Maathi, a visionary pioneering environmental leader and founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya who died in September. Wangari was named a Nobel Peace laureate in 2004 for her life’s work with women in rural Kenya and environmental activism. Later she joined the struggle against powerful politicians grabbing the land and forests of Kenya. She was beaten and arrested numerous times because of her resistance to political and environmental oppression.
I remember meeting Wangari at the memorial ceremony for Thomas Berry at St. John the Divine in 2009. Her determination and humor were infectious. I will be giving thanks for her life and inspiration as we continue in the struggle for justice for all beings of Earth.
I’ll be updating the blog when I return from Africa.
Sister Pat
Worldwatch Institute RSS- Membership in Co-operative Businesses Reaches 1 Billion February 23, 2012Wednesday, February 22, 2012Co-ops offer democratic alternative to shareholder-owned businesses.Washington, D.C.—The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, providing a great opportunity to raise the profile of an important organizational tool for spreading human rights and equality worldwide. Membership in co-operative […]Cameron Scherer
- Membership in Co-operative Businesses Reaches 1 Billion February 23, 2012
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