Eco-Operate

Haiti - Impoverished people, devastating destruction. How to recover?

Is necessity truly the 'mother of invention'?

After the immediate human suffering has been
eased and the medical emergencies stabilized how
will they rebuild?

Could 'Earthship Biotechture' be a substantial help in rebuilding
some of the poorest, hard-hit areas of Haiti?

In Michael Reynolds' DVD 'Garbage Warrior' he and a small
group of 'alternative architects' go to India's Andaman Islands,
where they proceed to show the locals there how to make
a hut-like structure using available discarded plastic bottles and
tin cans, and cement after the Asian tsunami of 2004.
A structure that has self-contained well-water discouraging
contamination, inherent ventilation, and made from
materials readily available that everyone can
work together to build.

It seems this would be another opportunity to show how
critical it is to be able to react quickly and responsibly
to structural devastation- something bigger, richer,
more bureaucratic countries are completely unable
to achieve in the face of disaster. Katrina proved just
how inept a government response can be.

www.earthship.net
www.earthshipbiotechture.com
or look for them on facebook

I think their sites are currently being inundated
with traffic so it may take a few trys!

Read the excellent reviews for 'Garbage Warrior' and get it!
If for no other reason then to see how hard it
is to get legislation to allow for a testing place for those
interested in alternative building methods- a disturbing
look into our ineffectual legislative process!!!!

More FACTS about Haiti from the "World Fact Book":

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html

The Arrogance of Proselytizing!

Watch 'A Thousand Suns' - A look at the Gamo Highlands of the
African Rift Valley and the worldview of the people that live
in that region.

It's a moving and disturbing look at how do-gooders,
in all their splendid arrogance, continue attempting to
'civilize' and 'save' indigenous peoples right out of
their self-sufficiency and well-developed respect for the
cyclical essence of nature - as well as 'demonizing'
their own 'history'.

We could learn a lot from these people who've been
farming sustainably for 10,000 years!

You can watch 'A Thousand Suns' and other short
films online at the globaloneness project site here:

www.globalonenessproject.org

Confront All Polluters - Great and Small

I've not posted in a while...

I read what others are writing, gain a sense of calm and feel good so that I
don't need express anything 'in addition'.

I feel good that a lot of people out there are making large numbers of others
aware of our ridiculous ways and offering really enlightened solutions like
the ongoing project of Richard Rogers...
http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20081119/the-long-view

OR Dave Eggers "Once Upon a School" http://onceuponaschool.org/ and I'm
reassured that there are people, attempting and seemingly accomplishing,
serious good and it gives one (me) hope.
I think - FANTASTIC no need to add to that!

Then my friend Melissa sends me this link:

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11

Chis Jordan as many know is well known for his photography of
trash - mass quantities thereof - to be exact. His newest work is photographing
dead Albatross whose stomach contents are on display due to
advanced stages of decomposition. 

Sickening  and obscene but also provocative. If it were possible to address
'visual' interest without meaning I might possible say beautiful but the crime
against nature is too disturbing. Downy feathers, red bottle caps, assorted odd
shapes-plastic, as well as discarded cigarette lighters and more end up being
ingested and often feed to chicks by their mothers.

It's bad enough that our living makes so much garbage seemingly inevitable- even
when we're trying to do the right things.

If I were 'King For a Day' I'd make tossing trash from your car or leaving your
left over fast food wrappers in the park or on the beach punishable by 1 year
in prison (minimum). Constantly I STILL SEE ignoramuses (in our so-called
Green Age) throwing cigarette butts out their suburbans or what-have-you
and I just want to SCREAM at the absolute top of my lungs. Can't we be
better than that?

Maybe you feel as I do?

Maybe we who feel this way should confront every person we see
chucking there crap on the side walk (or wherever) until we first embarrass
them all then fine them into behaving for the better of all of us
....including the birds, fish, and turtles. (just make sure they'll not
carrying a gun...that's another conversation)

Remember the smoker who used to blow smoke in your face as you ate at a pub?

Remember Coleridge's   "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

'God save thee, ancient Mariner !
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !
Why look'st thou so?'--With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.

Lauren

Breaking News from Project R&R

Tonight on ABC-TV's Nightline an undercover investigation
of the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) will be featured
exposing the sickening reality of life as a research primate.

Please inform yourself by watching this rarely seen footage
of what lab primates must endure in the name of 'research'.

If it offends and outrages you as it does me you'll lend your
support to Project R&R at www.releasechimps.org.

A Better World By Design

A Better World By Design

Brown University
(& surroundings locations),
Providence, RI
November 7-9, 2008

20 Confirmed Speakers and more
workshop leaders and panelists
to be announced.

From the BWBD about page:

"What are designers doing to address these
critical issues facing today's world? How are
engineers developing new technologies to
improve life on earth? Where are entrepreneurs
finding surprising opportunities in this mess?
A Better World by Design will attempt to address
these questions by demonstrating what
professionals and academics are doing to
promote sustainable development and
change the world for the better.

Over three days, you will hear from dozens
of industry leaders about novel approaches
and solutions to extreme poverty, access to basic
resources, and environmental degradation.
Workshops will put theory to practice in the
spirit of engineering. And at night, get ready
to let loose at our mixer and gala!

Design for a better world is often user-centered,
affordable, and simple. As E.F. Schumacher
famously put it, "small is beautiful." The urgency
of today's global crises is making this approach to
appropriate technology more relevant than ever."

...And unlike many other conferences of this kind
it's actually affordable!

Students    $40.
Others      $100.

Partners include:

Brown
EWB
RISD
RESPONDDESISGN
idsa RISD