Showtime!
<written for the North Renfrew Times in October 2008>
In the past 24 hours, I’ve watched three films that have given me a renewed sense of optimism about the state of the world and our potential within it as individuals, families and communities. Considering the depth of the environmental crisis and the frequent news bulletins one hears recently about the state of the world’s financial system, this is an impressive feat!
The films are “The Story of Stuff,” “Be the Change” and “Crisis as Opportunity – Living Better on a Hotter Planet.” The North Renfrew Environmental Action group has bought copies of each one, and is donating them to Deep River Library - so you can watch them too! Teachers are particularly encouraged to check out these movies, as each has tremendous educational value.
“The Story of Stuff” is a very short film that packs a surprising punch! It’s chockfull of fascinating (and not widely understood) facts about the nature of the waste crisis. The film is provocative, amusing, fast-paced and very information-dense; very well worth anyone’s 20 minutes. It contains a surprising quotation and insight about the nature of our 60-year obsession with consumerism. A must-see! You can watch it and/or download it at www.storyofstuff.com - or borrow and watch it as a DVD from Deep River Library.
“Be the Change” is a 50-minute documentary from Ottawa’s ‘Living Lightly Project’ that showcases a wide variety of individuals who are “being the change they wish to see in the world” – and having a good time doing it!
You’ll meet urban gardeners, year’round cyclists, youth activists, eco-minded entrepreneurs, “green builders,” and activist types of all ages whose examples provide plenty of inspiration.
The third film is so inspiring I want to buy copies for everyone I know!
Elisabet Sahtouris is a world-renowned Greek-American evolution biologist whose achievements are not merely far too numerous to list, but downright awe-inspiring.
Robert Mueller, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations has said “Elisabet Sahtouris has a vision that is missing in the world. It is the only complete global vision with immediate solutions to the world’s problems!”
In her 90-minute slide show, she takes you along for a brief history of what “geologian” Thomas Berry would call “the human project” on this planet.
She understands – and touches on – Earth history from the days of the early bacteria to the present ecological crisis.
She reviews the ways in which both the religious and scientific communities have, over time, viewed and explained human endeavour – and manages to reconcile it all with insight, intelligence and humour.
One of Sahtouris’s favourite metaphors is that of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. The butterfly begins as a voracious caterpillar that later, in its chrysalis phase, undergoes a crisis in which its own immune system attacks the imaginal buds that are destined to become the new creature. The imaginal buds cooperate against the attack and link up to become the butterfly – a creature utterly transformed from its earlier self.
Sahtouris contends that “crisis has always been our best motivator” and cites numerous examples that indicate human ingenuity is more than capable of rising to the myriad challenges some of us now view pessimistically as insurmountable. Her studies of the long history of our planet show not that our habit of adversarial ways will inevitably triumph, but that we have the potential to make the leap from “a hostile competition phase” as a species, to a “mature cooperative phase.”
This is a scientist quite capable of understanding and synthesizing human knowledge from every sphere, discipline and historical era, then rendering it comprehensible to us less-schooled individuals, and inspiring us with stirring words of scientifically-based wisdom.
Sahtouris is utterly convinced that “if we take our clues from nature, we can survive and even thrive in the Hot Age that is now inevitable,” and concludes her presentation with 10 reasons why she remains an optimist at 70. She also mentions and quotes the Dalai Lama, who has said “The most important meditation is critical thinking – followed by action.”
A dose of Elisabet Sahtouris is guaranteed to do your heart, brain and spirit good!