Building Community

Entering the conversation

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Scientists talk about climate change with studies on pollution and toxins where the Inuit discuss the effects as they occur within our lives. Our whole world is changing. On the topic of environment southerners focus on borders which prevents them from getting connected. When Inuit talk about environment we are one.

Knowledge that grows on the fields: Bottom-up approaches for agricultural research

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Knowledge stands at the beginning of everything purposefully created. It takes knowledge to build farms and machines, to build firearms, or to steward the land. Having knowledge often means having power. Inequalities in access to knowledge often lead to power-inequalities.

Do the world’s contemplative religious traditions demonstrate a path to sustainability?

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Within nearly all the great religions of history we find contemplative traditions which espouse the curious principle that foregoing excessive wealth and consumption (and therefore energy use) will actually make one happier. As a general rule these traditions advocate eating only what one needs to be healthy; exercising to maintain physical vigor (but not excessive strength); studying to attune oneself to the subtleties of nature and of the mind; and shielding oneself from the distractions of daily life. All this, they claim, will result in a fuller, more joyful existence.

How a once nutritious grain was transformed into something unhealthy to eat: the story of refined white rice

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As we dig into history, we discover there is a much deeper answer to “why white rice?” Traders who exported rice demanded that it be shipped as polished white rice–which weighed less and stored longer and hence increased their profits–and further proliferated its consumption. Then, over the decades, the dominant elite culture defined brown rice as “dirty” and fit only for the poor; while white rice was seen as sophisticated and modern.

Bathtubs: A theory of community relations

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Let us imagine that you are MacGyver, that 1980s tv guy who can build an atomic bomb out of gum and duct tape. You are facing a world-shattering crisis. You have a pile of scrap materials out of which you must build a high speed vehicle to effect your escape from this crisis, which will certainly involve you outracing a dramatic explosion. There are wheels, gears, sticks and the all-important duct tape. There’s also a big claw-footed bathtub. Now, when your need is for lightness and speed, do you attach the bathtub, just because you’ve got one lying around?

Excerpts on education

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The development and implementation of K-12 concentration camps is not part of some giant conspiracy. Rather, it is the outcome of the way our educational system was created. Most of the people who originally developed the system believed they were doing the right thing, and they did not try to hide their plans or intentions. It was completely consistent with the perspective, derived from religious organizations, that the domination, cohesion, and vitality of society were inversely related to individualism; permitting free inquiry and action were anathema to control by religious societies and also by corporate society.

Pour Evian on your radishes

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It is also slowly dawning on the Japanese that radioactivity is not something that can be scrubbed away with soapy water. It has a Midas touch. Everything it contacts becomes fiendishly toxic. So every drop of water, concrete, foam, rubber glove, fire hose, or anything else that comes into Fukushima’s arc becomes a lethal assassin.

Happiness movement hits the UK

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A new global movement for happiness was launched Tuesday in the UK. Action for Happiness is supported by more than 4,500 members including the Dalai Lama. Based on the new science of happiness, the movement suggests that the keys to happier living lie in actions such as Giving, Relating and Accepting.

Media coverage has been extensive:
– 20 Happiness Facts
– Don’t worry, every little thing’s gonna be all right
– Switch off, chip in, be happy, say activists
– My advice for the happiness lobby? Start with drugs
– Britons becoming ‘increasingly miserable’, warns happiness group
– Happy evangelists take on the cynics
– It’s time the right looks beyond its prejudices and understands what this agenda is about