Global Action Plan International

Report from the New Economics Foundation

This year has been finance-led capitalism’s 1989. It is now as broken as the old Soviet
Union. It didn’t work for the real economy. It put people in rich and poor countries
alike into debt for short-term profit. It was uncontrolled and grew in power until the
tail was wagging the dog.

Now there is a huge opportunity to develop a new model to build a real economy
that does work for people and the planet. The challenge is to take short-term action
to stabilise the situation, together with a measured, programme to build a diverse,
localised, sustainable economy which puts finance in its place as a servant of society
and values people and the environment.

Ten years ago, this island drew nearly all its energy from oil and petrol brought in by tankers, and from coal-powered electricity transmitted through a cable link. Now that traffic in energy has been reversed: the island exports millions of kilowatt hours of electricity from renewable energy sources.

Everywhere you travel on the island you see signs of change. There are dozens of wind turbines dotted across the landscape, solar-panelled roofs, and a long line of offshore giant turbines. Towns have district heating systems powered by rows of solar panels covering entire fields, or by generators which burn straw from local farms, or timber chips cut from the island's woods.

Once, innovation was widely believed to be about competition. Now, it's a life-and-death matter of global cooperation. In an article (PDF) commissioned by Indian magazine ManagementNext, we take a look at the world's needs for innovation - technical, social, educational, and not least economic.

How can education contribute to creating a sustainable, neohumanist society?

This was the theme of an international conference in Ydrefors, Sweden, jointly hosted by the College for Neohumanist Studies (CNS) and GAP 12-14 July 2008. 40 participants from 26 countries had plenty of ideas, and a number of projects crystallized out of the meetings.

A summary report listing all papers and sessions is available on request, as well as the papers, and notes from sessions. Video clips will soon also be available.

On July 7, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly voted to approve articles that recognize rights for nature and ecosystems. If they are adopted, Ecuador will become the first country in the world to codify a system of environmental protection based on rights.

From an article by Mike Davis, June 2008

The world’s foremost commission of earth scientists says:

We are now living in the Anthropocene epoch.

The Holocene epoch – the interglacial span of unusually stable climate that has allowed the rapid evolution of agriculture and urban civilization – has ended, and the Earth has entered "a stratigraphic interval without close parallel in the last several million years.”

Two professors wanted for international ESD centre

"It’s time to leap into action and start developing society towards a non-destructive and sustainable future. Success requires devotion, knowledge as well as innovative and insightful thinking. Learning and education for a sustainable society are crucial parts of the solution." writes the Swedish Development Aid agency, SIDA, responsible for setting up the new centre: SWEDESD.

Read about the vacant chairs here.

Storyline is a pedagogy for transdisciplinary subjects. Pupils learn by creating a story together with their teachers. The story provides the context and by entering into different characters the students can easily get emotionally involved and interested in both difficult and complex matters such as sustainable development.

Storyline for SD: conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, 11-12 April 2008