Public teach-in on the triple global crisis Sept 14-16

The Triple Global Crisis

• Climate Change
• Peak Oil (The End of Cheap Energy)
• Global Resource Depletion (including Species Extinction)

Powering-Down for the Future

Toward an International Movement for Systemic Change:
New Economies of Sustainability, Equity, Sufficiency and Peace.

George Washington University
Lisner Auditorium, September 14-16, 2007
San Francisco CA & Washington, DC:

Over 60 prominent policy leaders, activists, scientists and scholars from 16 countries will gather for a unique three-day public Teach-In co-organized by San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The Teach-In will begin on Friday evening, September 14th and run through Sunday afternoon, September 16th, 2007, and take place in the 1600-seat Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University at 730-21st St. NW, in Washington, DC.

Speakers include: Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, Michael Klare, Winona LaDuke, John Cavenagh, Jerry Mander, Ross Gelbspan, Frances Moore-Lappe, Helena Norberg-Hodge, David Suzuki and Randy Hayes.

Four of the speakers will be appearing later at the Community Solutions peak oil conference in October at Yellow Springs, Ohio: Thomas Princen, David Korton, Richard Heinberg and Megan Quinn Bachman..

The Teach-In is unique in four important aspects:

1. The Teach-In represents the first merger of three major issues, essentially, the “Triple Crisis” of our time — Climate Change, Peak Oil, and Global Resource Depletion — that will be presented and considered as one, interconnected problem. Speakers will make the case that the current crises derive from the same causes and can be solved with the same solutions. This Teach-In will help to create and launch a combined (larger) international movement for planetary survival.

2. It is the first public gathering in the United States – whose way of life is one of the key drivers behind the global crises we face – of so many international leaders working to get on the same page strategically. The IFG has a successful history generating international social movements. It was IFG Teach-Ins that provided energy and concepts to the global citizens’ movement’s critique of the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial meeting in Seattle, Washington, in 1999.
3. The Teach-In will be the first time that solutions and alternative policies
   offered will be far more fundamental than those presently being publicly discussed: “Powering Down” (less power/less consumption); a new “Global Grand Bargain” including alternative economic paradigms and systems; new ways of living; new ways of thinking about global resource flows and economic growth; etc.

4. Two landmark documents will be released over the course of the weekend:
   • A Major Report on the False Promises of Industrial Biofuel Production as a panacea for the impending global fuel shortage crisis as driven by Peak Oil, diminishing access to oil reserves and geopolitical conflicts.
   • An International Call to Action entitled Manifesto on Global Economic Transitions, which lays out the current situation (the Triple Crisis), the conceptual framework (the solution to one is the solution to all), and the proposed way forward:
     
     

     Powering Down for the Future;
     Toward a Global Movement for Systemic Change: Economies of Ecological Sustainability, Equity, Sufficiency and Peace

Over 60 international experts from 16 countries and indigenous nations will participate.

A complete list of speakers and their bios is available here (PDF).

Advance tickets and information are available through Brown Paper Tickets at: www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/17923 or by calling 1.800.838.3006 or through the GW Lisner Box Office at 202.994.6800.

Scholarship and volunteer opportunities are available, for application and information call the
International Forum on Globalization in San Francisco at 1-415-561-7650, on the web at
www.ifg.org .

The Triple Crisis Teach-In is co- sponsored by:
The Progressive Student Union of George Washington University, Greenpeace-USA , The Nation Institute, the Sierra Club, Pacifica Radio Station WPFW/ 89.3 FM – Washington, D.C. and SALSA – the Social Action and Leadership School for Activists of the Institute for Policy Studies.

It is endorsed by:

Amazon Watch, Appalachian Voices, The Center for Food Safety, The Community Solution, The Council of Canadians, Earth Economics, EcoEquity, Oil Change International, The Foundation for Deep Ecology, Friends of the Earth-Brazil, Greenpeace-USA, Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education, INOCHI/Plutonium Free Future, Intercultural Resources-India, International Society for Ecology and Culture, Polaris Institute, Sierra Club, Small Planet Institute, Sustainable Scale Project, theheatisonline.com, The Transnational Institute (partial list).

For program additions and updates please check the IFG website at: www.ifg.org