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December
13, 2010:
Dear friends,
As delegates are meet in Copenhagen to craft a new global climate change
agreement, are you following the news with same frustration I feel? Are
you, perhaps, blocking it all out with a sense of hopelessness and futility?
Or watching the bickering and the lobbying of special interests whittle
away at the agreements we desperately need in order to prevent global catastrophe
with slow-burning anger?
If we have any hope of safeguarding the life support systems of the planet,
we need to create change on a massive scale, transforming our energy systems,
our transport systems, our economy, our food-growing systems, just for starters.
And our governments are not leading the way. Only if we push, pull, drag
them along, prod them and cajole them might they do what needs to be done-and
we ordinary people must become the global leadership.
We need to create the transition, on every level: personal, community and
global. For that, we need people who know what the solutions are, who have
the commitment to work for them, fight for them, pressure politicians to
adopt them, organize communities around them, teach them and pass them on.
Earth Activist Training empowers our students to do all of the above. Our
graduates come away with the skills and passion to create real change. Right
at this moment, many of our alumni from England and Europe are in Copenhagen
to say 'no' to false solutions and press for real action. Others have started
or worked in some of the most exciting and creative programs developing
real sustainability: on the Common Vision fruit tree tour that plants trees
in schools around California, in community gardens in the housing projects
of Bayview Hunters Point, turning intersections into gathering places with
City Repair in Portland Oregon, supporting a permaculture training farm
in the West Bank of Palestine, using beneficial fungi to remediate toxic
sites in Northern California, starting backyard gardens in Iowa City, working
with Transition Towns across Britain and the US to create community resilience.
We need your help to continue this work. Many of you have already responded
generously to our appeal for scholarship funds for Vicki Noble, creator
of the Motherpeace Tarot deck, feminist author and healer. I'm happy to
say that Vicki will be coming to our winter course, and I'm deeply grateful.
But we have eighteen other applicants, just for our January course, requesting
work trade or scholarships. Who are they?
---A young woman who teaches low-income children about the importance of
environmental stewardship, food politics, organic gardening, watershed,
composting, and native plants through outdoor experiential education in
Austin, Texas.
--An activist/natural builder currently eco-mapping a forest the community
is struggling to save from logging on Cortes Island, BC.
--A field biologist organizing bioregional projects in Bozeman, Montana.
--A biodynamic farmer and musician who wants to teach urban permaculture
in Vancouver.
--An Australian organizer who works with women's cooperatives in Guatemala
and East Timor.
And over a dozen more. They are people who hold crucial pieces of the mosaic
of solutions that can help us make the shift.
Won't you help us give them the tools and inspiration they need? Our major
funders have felt the crunch of the financial crisis, and Earth Activist
Training depends on your donations to keep us going. And your donations
are tax-deductible!
You can make a one-time donation or join our EAT Mycellium Fund and make
a monthly pledge for exponential impact. You can donate online at
www.earthactivisttraining.org/donate.html
...or by mail:
Send a check made out to our fiscal sponsor, Alliance of Community Trainers
and earmarked EAT! (Don't forget the earmark or we won't know who it's for!)
Send it to:
ACT
PO Box 1286
Austin TX 78767-1286
And here are some resources to help you take action around climate change:
You can download our Climate Change Primer and our No's and Yeses Flyer
at:
www.earthactivisttraining.org/climate_resources.html
The Primer gives a quick overview of the terms being used and the real scope
of the solutions available to us-and how they fit together. In fact, it's
not a bad overview of our Earth Activist Training curriculum.
The No's and Yeses flyer is a simple handout you can use for your own organizing-feel
free to change and adapt it!
If you want to see what permaculture looks like in practice, check out our
Earthactivistas channel on YouTube for several short videos, including our
newest, Inner City Permaculture, that shows some of our ongoing work in
Bayview Hunters Point, inner city San Francisco.
www.youtube.com/user/earthactivistas
One of the great difficulties in making change is how we work together in
groups. I've recently done two webinars for Transition U.S. on group decision
making and facilitation, and they can be viewed online at:
http://transitionus.org/online_training_archives
So don't throw that plate at the TV, or smash your computer in frustration.
We are all part of Gaia's transition team, and if we continue to work together,
we can make the shift from the bottom up instead of the top down. Who knows-it
may even be more firmly grounded that way!
Thanks so much for all your support-with it, we can continue to share the
skills we will all need in this coming time for survival and transformation!
-- Starhawk
For Earth Activist Training
Following are some of Starhawk's fave donation recipients,
with her comments why:
- E.A.T.
(Earth Activist Training) is a two week long training that combines
a permaculture design course with earth-based spirituality, political
organizing and direct action training. Activists, youth, and people
from poor communities who desperately need both the skills and the hope
this training offers usually can't afford the costs. We'd love to have
the funding to allow us to offer it on a pay-what-you-can basis. For
currently scheduled EAT trainings, see the EAT
site courselist page.
For full information including donations visit the EAT web site Donate page:
www.earthactivisttraining.org/donate.html
Again, Click the "Make a Donation" button on the left to donate using PayPal, or mail a check payable to ACT to the following address:
ACT
PO Box 1286
Austin TX 78767-1286
- Reclaiming
Witch Camps always need money to provide scholarships for students who
can't afford to come otherwise, and to sustain our minimal but important
infrastructure.
Tax deductible checks can be sent through Vermont Witch Camp. Make check out to VWC and earmark it "All-Camp Scholarship Fund." Send to:VWC,
PO Box 206,
Burlington, VT 05402
- R.A.N.T.
(Root Activists Network of Trainers) provides training and organizational
support for actions in the Global Justice and related movements. Donations
help fund travel and occasional stipends for trainers, the development
of written and online resources and a website, and trainings for trainers.
Since we formed in January of 2001, RANT has offered support for campaigns
in California, Brazil, Argentina, Quebec, Genoa, Washington DC, New
York, Kananaskis, and elsewhere. To find out more about RANT, visit
the website at rantcollective.net.
Click the "Make a Donation" button on the left to donate using
PayPal, or mail a check payable to ACT to the following address:
ACT
PO Box 1286
Austin TX 78767-1286
- Reclaiming's
El Salvador Friendship fund supports projects teaching sustainability
and empowerment in poor communities in El Salvador. We encourage people
to join a Circle of Love and pledge $100 a year for five years, but
any amount is gratefully accepted. The last earthquake has created intense
suffering and need.
For the El Salvador Fund, tax deductible checks can be made to:Reclaiming
(earmark them ESFF)
P.O. Box 14404
SF CA 94114Thanks for taking the time to be sure your checks are correctly made out, earmarked, and sent to the right address. I know this is a bit confusing, but we don't yet have a central funding agency for the diversity of projects represented here.
The groups above are ones I'm personally involved with. There are other lovely possibilities: the Pagan group of your choice, groups working for abortion rights, Green Party candidates, your local schools, and I'm sure you'll think of others. Let's jumpstart our own economy, one that reflects our values and supports a true, shared abundance.
-- Starhawk
