Global Action Plan International

"The good news is that the daily life of civil society activity is thriving – with no signs of long-term decline and decay, or for that matter any rise in selfishness and other ills, despite the pressures of recession. Civil society is made up of a myriad of circles of freedom and circles of cooperation that have proved to be remarkably resilient.

Pedagogy for ESD
– international pattern laboratory
at Gotland University, Sweden

Healing or Stealing?

The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009,
University of Portland, May 3, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was
“direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.
 
Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to
be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is
accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the

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.