environment

26 11, 2011

2012 Will Be a Big Year for the Pachamama Alliance

By |2017-01-13T11:28:01-07:00November 26th, 2011|Tags: , , , , , , |

Many of you know that Anita and I are deeply involved in supporting the efforts of the Pachamama Alliance around the world. Here’s a short glimpse of the extraordinary work of the Alliance in the past year and the truly exciting plans for the coming year. If you’d like to know the what/why/who/where of our “second life”, take a moment to watch these excerpts from the annual luncheon broadcast last week. We’re also leading a Pachamama trip to the Achuar territory deep in the roadless Amazon rainforests of Ecuador this June. Would you like to join us in a life-changing experience? less

Our 2011 Annual Luncheon Fundraiserpachamama.orgBring Forth a Thriving, Just, and Sustainable World.   Thousands of people around the world joined us in person and live online for this year’s Luncheon, investing their time, love, and money to answer a call from the rainforest and its indigenous guardians.

Our Mission

To empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture

and, using insights gained
from that work,

to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just and sustainable world.

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23 03, 2011

Extraordinary free environmental sustainability and social justice program

By |2017-01-13T11:28:09-07:00March 23rd, 2011|Tags: , , , , , , , |

In 2009 and 2010, an exquisitely crafted program on sustainability and social justice was presented at the Academy of Management.  I’ve just found out that it is available, free, for downloading and presentation.  Since I heard from many faculty that they had conflicts with attending the programs, and/or attending the trainings in their area, this is good news.  I can tell you, there has been quite a debate about turning this loose in this manner, but the creators at the NGO, the Pachamama Alliance, have decided that the urgency of the global crisis demands that they give it out, without insisting on pre-training, and rely on the innate integrity of the design to carry the day.

This program has been presented to more than 200,000 people in 52 countries worldwide, and has 3000+ trained facilitators.  It contains a wealth of exercises, information, and 85 minutes of beautiful and powerful video.  It’s being used in universities, companies, governments and NGO’s around the world.  It is not political, nor religious, and contains no orthodoxy, prescriptions, or enrollment.  It does report on and draw on the finest minds, from Paul Hawken to Bishop Tutu, from Hunter Lovins to Brian Swimme, from Julia Butterfly Hill to Van Jones and Robert Reich.  It is sobering and inspiring, thought-provoking and motivating and community-building.  All that and more.

Here is the link to the front page, where the short video gives you a taste of this delicious program.  www.AwakeningtheDreamer.org 

After you’ve seen the trailer, I think you’ll want to know more about how to either attend a Symposium or how you can access the materials.  This link will take you to the downloadable material.  http://awakeningthedreamer.org/get-involved/presenters-kit/

Here is all that I ask of my colleagues:  that you use this material with high integrity, seriously considering bringing the entire program into your classes or community groups, so that the real power of the experience comes to bear.      In addition, if you are willing, I would very much appreciate hearing from you if you download the material and how you are using it, so that I can bring that information back to the larger volunteer community.

I’m eager to support you with this.  Contact me with any questions!

Kit Tennis
Kit@SanchezTennisAssociates.com
+1-303-449-5921

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20 09, 2009

Awakening to the possibility of a sustainable, equitable and healthy humanity in our lifetimes!

By |2017-01-13T11:28:45-07:00September 20th, 2009|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

I’ll admit it, I spent more than two and a half decades depressed about the lost opportunities to create a renewable energy economy that would spare us from the environmental disasters attendant on burning fossil fuels.  Once Ronald Reagan ripped the solar panels off the roof of the White House and our government abandoned serious improvements in transportation fuel efficiency standards and pretty well killed off renewables R&D, I lost a big part of the hope and optimism of my youth.   Year after year, we failed to make even the least sensible steps toward converting away from fossil fuels, and I got more and more resigned to the prospect of looming catastrophe.

(more…)

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20 09, 2009

CAFE Standards

By |2017-01-13T11:29:08-07:00September 20th, 2009|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I’m pleased to see the Obama administration proposing large increases in fleet fuel efficiency standards. In my mind, we’ve squandered nearly thirty years of potential economic efficiency and national security through egregious foot-dragging by hidebound Detroit executives and a dangerously near-sighted Congress. 35 miles per gallon would be easy to reach, if not already the norm, if we had simply stayed the course we began on in the late 1980’s, on the heels of the first gas crisis.

Now, with nearly insurmountable climate effects added to the drag on our economy and risks to our security associated with dependence on far too much foreign oil, we have to bite the bullet and get on with it. As usual, it’s a case of “Pay me now or pay me later”, and many of those who scream about our “drastic” intervention in the market are the same pundits who opposed sensible, gradual improvements when they could have been far more painless.

At this point, Detroit, the Pentagon, and ardent environmentalists all agree that this move to greatly increase CAFE standards is essential. Let’s just accept the fact that the bill has come due for three decades of self-delusion about the urgency of the energy efficiency crisis, raise the standards, and get on the rest of the challenges facing our country.

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