VIII. Earth Earns: An Open CoCreative Earthropocene to Astropocene PediaVerse

C. An Earthropocene Era: Pedia Sapience Achieves a Unified, Peaceful, BioHome with an Ecosmic Project

Sen, Jai. The World Social Forum as an Emergent Learning Process. Futures. 39/5, 2007. A good entry to this popular, intentionally self-organizing movement, that takes as its mantra: Another World is Possible. As with such laudable efforts, there is often a need to move beyond defining themselves in terms of what they are against, and to substantiate this better alternative we so need. The quote is from its website (Google) and its prime principles.

The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, to share their experiences freely and to network for effective action.

The World Social Forum is characterized by plurality and diversity, is non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party. It proposes to facilitate decentralized coordination and networking among organizations engaged in concrete action towards building another world, at any level from the local to the international, but it does not intend to be a body representing world civil society.

Shannon, Geordan, et al. Planet.Health: An Ecosystem Approach to Imagine and Coordinate for Planetary Health Futures. Challenges. September, 2023. We note this entry by Planet.Health Global, London, United Health Futures, Geneva, Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, University of Heidelberg, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, Eco Community Organization, New Zealand, Stanford University, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, and University of East Anglia, UK activists as an example of an holistic, physiosphere wellness exam. The edition contains all manner of good ideas, plans, intentions as a vital TO DO list with a One Earth, Family, Future vista.

Planet.Health addresses imagination and coordination challenges for common world health and welfare through innovative approaches to smaller and larger social community. This report presents the findings from our inaugural Planet.Health meeting conversations in 2022. Herein we share the challenges, achievements, and lessons learned during this initial year of activities. We explore the potential impact of web3 technologies and decentralised social, economic, and financial networks and highlight these approaches for addressing planetary crises and a flourishing human–environment relationship. (Excerpt)

Sherr, Lynn and Megan Thompson. Women’s Movement Transforms Post-War Liberia. http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/04/14/womens-movement-transforms-post-war-liberia/4965. Noted more in Gender Complements, a most luminous example of how women united can change the worst of violent, gang-ridden situations.

Shrivastava, Aseem and Ashish Kothari. Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India. New York: Viking Penguin, 2012. Senior Indian environmentalists call for a dramatic shift from a prior and present western industrial bent, which although valued for its services, will ultimately destroy the nation, including the natural biosphere. See also an article by Kothari: “India 2100: Towards Radical Ecological Democracy” in Organic Democracy.

The world stands so dazzled by India’s meteoric economic rise that we hesitate to acknowledge its consequences to the people and the environment. In Churning the Earth, Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari engage in a timely enquiry of this impressive growth story. They present incontrovertible evidence on how the nature of this recent growth has been predatory and question its sustainability. Unfettered development has damaged the ecological basis that makes life possible for hundreds of millions resulting in conflicts over water, land and natural resources, and increasing the chasm between the rich and the poor, threatening the future of India as a civilization. Rich with data and stories, this eye-opening critique of India’s development strategy argues for a radical ecological democracy based on the principles of environmental sustainability, social equity and livelihood security. Shrivastava and Kothari urge a fundamental shift towards such alternatives—already emerging from a range of grassroots movements—if we are to forestall the descent into socio-ecological chaos. Churning the Earth is unique in presenting not only what is going wrong in India, but also the ways out of the crises that globalised growth has precipitated.

Aseem Shrivastava wrote his doctoral thesis in environmental economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught economics for many years in India and the US. Most recently, he taught philosophy at Nordic College, Norway. He has written extensively on issues associated with globalization. Ashish Kothari is a founder-member of the environmental group Kalpavriksh. He has taught at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and coordinated India s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan process. He has been active with various people s movements, and has authored and edited over thirty books.

Singh, Jyoti. Creating a New Consensus on Population. London: Earthscan Publications, 1998. This work follows up the Bucharest, Mexico, and Cairo UN conferences and includes many NGO and regional programs, advice on reproductive health, development, family planning and the empowerment of women.

Singh, Madanjeet. ed. The Timeless Energy of the Sun for Life and Peace with Nature. Geneva: UNESCO Publishing, 1998. Success stories about the increasing utilization of clean solar energy, especially in third world countries.

Smil, Vaclav. Feeding the World: A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. A proficient survey of the many factors involved in food issues: demographic, agroecosystem, irrigation, cultural and so on.

Sole, Ricard and Simon Levin. Ecological Complexity and the Biosphere: The Next 30 Years. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. July, 2022. In a special issue with this title, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona and Princeton University senior scholars introduce and survey this perilous challenge that we Earthlings must face over these decades. But as we have just seen with the US climate act, whether the biosphere can be saved and sustained, or not (kinder or cinder), can be addressed by a common initiative and a strenuous, concerted effort to make this really happen. From the author’s experience, 21st century nonlinear science such as complex adaptive systems, network topologies, resilience theories which is now known to underlie natural phenomena need be fully implemented to inform and advance this global (Earthropocene) project.

Among the authoritative entries are How the Living World Evolved and Where It’s Headed Now by Peter Raven, A Resilience Sensing System for the Biosphere by Timothy Lenton, et al, Circling the drain: The Extinction Crisis and the Future of Humanity by Paul R. Ehrlich, et al. Scaling Up our Understanding of Tipping Points by Sonia Kefi and Modelling Coupled Human–Environment Complexity for the Future of the Biosphere by Madhur Anand, et al.

Global warming, habitat loss and overexploitation of limited resources are leading to alarming declines in biodiversity. Ecosystems are complex adaptive systems (search SL) with multiple alternative states and can abruptly shift from one to another. In dealing with a biosphere where humans are part of a complex, endangered ecological network, novel theoretical and engineering approaches are vitally needed. Using a 30-year window, we explore ways to sense, preserve and restore ecosystem resilience as well as interventions from afforestation to bioengineering to mitigate ecosystem collapse. (Excerpt)

Indeed, our only hope for a sustainable future will be for us to find a way to overcome our unremitting greed at all levels and to love one another while building social justice. (Peter Raven)

Som, Sanjoy. Common Identity as a Step to Civilization Longevity. Futures. Online August, 2018. The author has a doctorate in planetary sciences and astrobiology from the University of Washington and is cofounder and director of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Mountain View, CA. Please visit that site for an incredible array of people and projects as human valiance begins to explore and expand into this open expanse. However it is here said that this wondrous future will not happen unless we peoples get altogether and achieve a true Earthling ethnicity.

A common identity among humans coupled with existing local identities may be key to the longevity of our civilization. We posit that societal stability, defined here as the potential for humans to avoid either physical or ideological conflict with members outside of their group, is enhanced by perception of common identity. Teaching the Earth from space as a corner-stone of common identity, leveraging on the “Overview Effect” described by astronauts, can help introduce a neutral worldview to students and offers a framework for cross-cultural exchange. Introducing psychology in the early curriculum provides tools to handle emotional complexity on par with the cognitive development of students. We suggest that a positive outcome in the development of common identity and emotional awareness would lead to the emergence of empathetic behavior. (Abstract excerpt)

Blue Marble Institute We are an international community engaged in building a sustainable future and nurturing scientific interest among the public. Our mission is to explore life as a universal phenomenon and empower the next generation of scientists. Areas of research include: planetary habitability, origin of life, space biology, climate change, sustainable development, remote space exploration, and global catastrophic risk. Our international research team includes Laura Barge, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Jim Cleaves, Julia DeMarines, Betul Kacar, Ivan Lima, and Sara Walker.

Soto, Hernando de. The Mystery Of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs In The West And Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books, 2000. In this widely cited book, the Peruvian economist argues it is because of a workable balance between personal initiative, the availability of investment and legal restraints. In Peru and many other countries it can take years to get a business loan or a deed to property.

Spretnak, Charlene. The Resurgence of the Real. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997. A graceful essay to rehabilitate and celebrate the knowing body and sense of natural place through the appreciation of a creative cosmos just appearing at the frontiers of holistic science.

Spretnak, Charlene. Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World. Topsham, ME: Green Horizon Books, 2011. Among her lifetime credits, found on www.charlenespretnak.com, is professor of philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Amongst several other books noted there is Missing Mary: The Queen of Heaven and Her ReEmergence in the Modern Church (2004) and States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age (1991). This latest work informs and embellishes the rising, imperative turn to an emphatic age to leaven competition and consumption, if we are to survive mind you. Typical chapters cover Relational Revelations, The Relational Shift in Education and Parenting, Health and Healthcare, Community Design and Architecture and The Relational Shift in the Economy.

Relational Reality reveals the coherence among numerous surprising discoveries of the interrelated nature of reality. These discoveries are part of a new perspective that has been emerging gradually for the past several decades but has gained momentum and is now transforming every mainstream field of human endeavor. All our basic assumptions (built on the old idea that everything in the physical world is essentially separate and functions mechanistically) are being reconsidered. No longer a marginal perspective, the Relational Shift is based on the realization that all entities in this world, including humans, are thoroughly relational beings of great complexity who are both composed of and nested within networks of creative, dynamic interrelationships. Nothing exists outside of those relationships. As we try to grasp the interrelated nature of reality, emergent relational approaches are already transforming the way we educate our children, attend to our health, green our communities, and rethink economic activity. (Synopsis)

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