Key Distinctions

Our Framework

Here are some key concepts we find useful, not as “truths” we espouse but as places to think from.

The vision of a Green World is not fantasy; nor, however, is it realistic. What it is, is possible.(Charles Eisenstein, Climate: A New Story, 2018, p.278)

Changing the Paradigm

If we recognize that the world is on an unsustainable course, then change becomes not only possible but necessary—and inevitable. And since, as Einstein recognized, we cannot solve many of the world’s problems at the level that we created them, we need to shift our paradigms:

  • From an extractive economy – to – a restorative one
  • From trying to create a slightly less bad world – to – creating a regenerative one
  • From an individual- or even society-based focus – to – an Earth-oriented one
  • From trying to fix the present – to – building a better future
  • From thinking mechanistically – to – to thinking organically, in terms of whole systems
  • From scarcity thinking – to – sufficiency thinking

 

Shifting the Conversation

Every culture, every society, every economy, is ultimately a conversation. Our challenge, in this present moment, is to change the conversation about who we are, and our relationship to the Earth, and what kind of future is truly possible or, for that matter, desirable. Since our present ecological footprint — at current levels of consumption — requires 1.6 planets, and we have only one, we need to start restoring resources faster than we are depleting them, in order to get back into balance with Nature; and at the same time we need to vastly expand production and the creation of natural surpluses so that we can support a population that is soon to be ten billion people, at a level of sufficiency, without which neither peace nor ecological vitality will ever be possible. Our purpose is to make these ideas “ideas whose time has come” (Victor Hugo).

 

Earth Awareness

What we know: we know that we are intrinsically dependent on the biosphere and on the web of life for our own existence and well-being.

What we feel: that we have a responsibility to care for the Earth and to preserve its regenerative capacity for future generations.

How we act: we can choose to act as stewards of the planet, as the custodians and crew of Spaceship Earth (as Buckminster Fuller called it), as one-hundred percent responsible for the further evolution of life, consciousness, and the fulfillment of our ultimate potential as a species.

 

New Economic Models

Most of our work has been focused on economic and financial innovation, to attract capital to the profitable transformation of our civilization into one that is renewable and self-sustaining. We been the principal advocates for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) in the state of New Jersey, and in response to the state’s administrative stalemate we have begun developing alternatives that may prove to be just as important in the end. In addition, we have done extensive work with mutual credit systems and complementary currencies, and support a global monetary policy proposal to address the risks of catastrophic climate change, as well as innovative local currencies and credit systems that can help us rebuild and strengthen our communities.

 

New Kinds of Communities

Finally ,we support the development of both new communities such as Ecovillages, and the transformation of existing communities, to create the kinds of satisfying and sustainable lifestyles that most of us would prefer, if they were readily available.

 

Another World is Possible

At any given moment, we can choose to create a better world for everyone; to acknowledge and accept the past but not to be bound by it; to see human potential as unlimited; and to see ourselves as a piece of a gigantic puzzle that needs our presence and our contribution in order to fulfill the possibility that is the world and the universe. Decades ago, James Lovelock coined the Gaia hypothesis, that the Earth is a sort of super-organism that sustains itself in the face of all sorts of perturbations. This idea has been met with a great deal of scientific skepticism, not least because it is clear that we can alter the very delicate balance of self-renewal that has given rise to our own existence; but what if our mission, as a species, is to maintain and enhance the health of Gaia and together sustain its increasing self-awareness and self-actualization, as a living vehicle in the depths of space?

You can find out more about each of these foundational insights on the pages of this web site, and you can connect with us in practical and tangible ways, to join with us in creating a world that works for all.