The Gaia Foundation

Vandana Shiva and Patrick Holden: Discussion with the Audience

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:30:00 +0000

In Part Three of the talk and discussion 'Agrofuels, Food Security and Climate', Dr. Vandana Shiva and Patrick Holden respond to questions and comments from the audience. A Gaia Foundation event held in association with Navdanya, Soil Association and Resurgence, Hampstead Town Hall, Belsize Park, London, Monday 17th March, 2008.

Patrick Holden: 'Agrofuels, Food Security and Climate: The Case for An Integrated Approach to Climate, Biodiversity and Livelihoods'

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:30:00 +0000

In Part One of this talk on 'Agrofuels, Food Security and Climate', Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association, talks about the current scenario in agriculture and how it is simply feeding high consumption in some parts of the world, while raising food prices, poverty and hunger in others. Citing practical examples, he explains how we can achieve an alternative vision for a return to more local economies and livelihoods in Britain, thereby reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. A Gaia Foundation event held in association with Navdanya, Soil Association and Resurgence, Hampstead Town Hall, Belsize Park, London, Monday 17th March, 2008.

Nigel Crawhall: Africa's Indigenous Peoples and Their Special Role in Adapting to Climate Change

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Dr. Nigel Crawhall, Director of the Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), explains how Africa's indigenous people are helping to create new spaces for dialogue around the relationship between cultural and biological diversity. The vast and diverse pool of Africa’s cultural knowledge, practices and languages play an essential role in reviving Africa’s biodiversity. He shows that the recognition of Africa’s rich knowledge and cultural heritage is a vital dimension for any strategy dealing with the challenge of increasing climate instability. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, London, Thursday, 10th April 2008.

Peter Harper: 'Zero Carbon Britain' - what would it be like?

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:08:00 +0000

Responding to the threat of climate change, the government has set the challenging target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60% over the next 40 years. This is certainly a step in the right direction, but recent findings in climate science suggest it is nowhere near enough. It looks as if, in reality, 100% reduction in 20 years might be necessary. But is this remotely possible and how might it be done? Peter Harper has been part of a team working on these questions at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales. Active in the environmental movement since the 1960s, he brings a lifetime of experience to explaining the arguments and stimulating vigorous debate on ‘Zero Carbon Britain’. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, London, Thursday, 7th February 2008.

Vandana Shiva: 'Agrofuels, Food Security and Climate: The Case for An Integrated Approach to Climate, Biodiversity and Livelihoods'

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:15:00 +0000

In Part Two of 'Agrofuels, Food Security and Climate', Dr. Vandana Shiva analyses how the large scale growing of crops to satisfy our insatiable demand for fuel is pushing people off the land and endangering global food security. She argues that current solutions to climate change do not go far enough. They merely serve to ‘offset’ and ease our guilt over the excessive amounts of carbon we produce. Dr. Shiva cites how small-scale, community-led and diverse organic food production can play a major role in providing for our global food needs. Such a scenerio will also reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, and protect our remaining biological and agricultural diversity, as we adapt to inevitable changes in climate. A Gaia Foundation event held in association with Navdanya, Soil Association and Resurgence, Hampstead Town Hall, Belsize Park, London, Monday 17th March, 2008.

Earth Jurisprudence in the African Context, with Ng'anga Thiong'o

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:03:00 +0000

Ng’ang’a Thiong’o is Legal Policy and Advocacy Officer for Porini Association Kenya, Chair of Kenya’s Release of Political Prisoners campaign and a member of Kenya’s High Court. As a former Legal Advisor to the Green Belt Movement, he worked alongside 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Professor Wangari Maathai. Thiong'o explains how Earth Jurisprudence is expressed within African customary law. He also talks about the practical work Porini is doing to implement it. Interview at Gaia House, Hampstead, London, Monday 24th September 2007.

Food Security Through An Organic Revolution, with Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher and Sue Edwards

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 08:05:00 +0000

In 2003 the Ethiopian government stated its interest to help farmers use organic methods of crop production, improve local marketing infrastructure, and develop agricultural products to diversify the economic base of the country. The Tigray Project involves promoting organic composting methods to regenerate soils, bringing back species biodiversity, stopping grazing in sensitive areas, and preventing run-off and gullies by using soil erosion prevention techniques. There have been some remarkable results. Gaia Evening held at Hampstead Town Hall, Belsize Park, Monday 21st March, 2005

Food Security Through An Organic Revolution, Questions and Answers

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 08:04:00 +0000

Questions, comments and discussion with Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher and Sue Edwards.

An Interview with Andrew Kimbrell on Natural Law

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:48:00 +0000

Andrew Kimbrell, interviewed by Kenyan lawyer and activist, Ng'anga Thiong'o', discusses the inability of current law in the United States and elsewhere to appropriately deal with the environmental crises the globe now faces. He argues that several major legal concepts need to be implemented in order for the law to become relevant to climate change, one of the most important issues of our time. Interview held at Gaia House, Hampstead, London, Monday, 24th September 2007

Six Degrees: Life on a Hotter Planet, with Mark Lynas

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:54:00 +0000

Global warming caused by humans is now acknowledged as one of the most serious threats ever to confront the Earth. Is enough really being done to mitigate climate change? And what will happen if it is already too late? Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees: Life on a Hotter Planet, gives us a vivid description of the physical and human toll fossil-fuel-based culture has taken on the planet. By painting an alarming degree-by-degree picture, he tells us what is likely to happen over the next few decades as the result of global warming, unless we act now. Mark Lynas is a British author, journalist and environmental activist focused on climate change. He is author of Six Degrees: Life on a Hotter Planet (Harper Collins, 2006) and High Tide: News from a Warming World (HarperPerennial, 2005) and contributes to the New Statesman, Ecologist, Granta and Geographical magazines, and The Guardian and The Observer newspapers in the UK. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, Thursday, 12 July 2007.

Earth, Religion and the Sacred: Can the World's Religions Learn to Live With Ecological Integrity? With Rupert Sheldrake

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:38:00 +0000

Although traditional religions have often been concerned with the human community and it relationship to the environment, none of them has confronted the threat and scale of the global ecological crisis we are now facing. There have been a number of initiatives taken by religious groups and others to explore the response that religious communities can make. All this is encouraging. But how can these initiatives become more effective, and what part can they play in a practical Gaian approach to today’s environmental and social challenges? Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and the author of more than 75 technical papers and nine books. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge and philosophy at Harvard, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow. Rupert Sheldrake is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, San Francisco. Hosted by The Gaia Foundation and Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Tuesday, 26th June 2007.

Nature's Due: Healing Our Fragmented Culture, with Brian Goodwin

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 02:03:00 +0000

Modern scientific culture is in desperate need of change. “Science” today implies groups of specialists working in disparate disciplines while searching for answers to narrowly defined questions that have little or nothing to do with the real, living world. Brian Goodwin argues that nature is complex and has interrelated networks of relationships. He proposes that we must adopt a new science, a new art, a new design, a new economics, and new patterns of responsibility. We must be willing to give nature its due. In other words, we must recognize what we actually owe to the natural world and resist selfish exploitation. Professor Brian Goodwin was born in Montreal and studied biology at McGill University, before studying mathematics at the University of Oxford and finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh with C.H. Waddington. His university appointments were at Sussex and the Open University, and he was on the Science Board of the prestigious Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. Brian now teaches Holistic Science at Schumacher College in Devon, UK. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, Thursday 1st March, 2007.

Indigenous Strategies to Protect the Amazon in the Context of Climate Change, with Martín von Hildebrand

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 05:04:00 +0000

Indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon are managing a territory larger than the size of the United Kingdom. Over the last 17 years these communities have developed a very innovative process with the support of Gaia Amazonas and the COAMA programme, directed by shamans and driven by indigenous thought. The programme focuses on reviving their diverse and ecologically centred governance systems to administer this large territory collectively. Dr. Martin von Hildebrand tells us how this process has evolved. He explains the vital role indigenous traditions, cultures, knowledge and livelihood options play in recuperating and protecting mega bio-diverse areas of the Earth. Martín von Hildebrand, Head of the COAMA Programme and Colombian NGO Fundación Gaia Amazonas, has been a leading force in achieving collective indigenous rights to over 21 million hectares of tropical forest, and in stimulating a political will towards the inclusion of significant indigenous rights within Colombia’s 1991 Political Constitution. The COAMA Programme was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1999. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, Friday 23rd March, 2007

Nature’s Law: Reinventing Environmental Jurisprudence for the 21st Century, with Andrew Kimbrell

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:23:00 +0000

The New York Times called it “the most important environmental case in U.S. history.” The case, Mass v. EPA, challenged the Bush Administration’s policy of refusing to regulate global warming gases. Attorney Andrew Kimbrell, along with his legal partner Joseph Mendelson, devised the law suit and fought at the agency and lower court level for several years until finally achieving victory at the Supreme Court. He describes how the case developed, the legal strategy behind it and the at times dramatic interaction with both the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration as the case proceeded. Andrew Kimbrell is a public interest attorney, activist and author. He has been involved in public interest legal activity in numerous areas of technology, human health and the environment. After working for eight years as the Policy Director at the Foundation for Economic Trends, Kimbrell established the International Centre for Technology Assessment (CTA) in 1994 and the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in 1997. Kimbrell has written several books, given numerous public lectures on a variety of issues, and has been featured on radio and television programs across the United States. Gaia Evening held in association with UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) and Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) at Burgh House, Hampstead, London, Thursday, 18 September 2007.

Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia, with Stephan Harding

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:21:00 +0000

Stephan Harding, Lecturer and Resident Ecologist at Schumacher College, talks about the need to establish the right relationship with the planet as a living entity in which we are indissolubly embedded, and to which we are all accountable. He explores how Gaian science can help us to develop a sense of connectedness with the 'more-than-human' world and how we can integrate rational scientific analysis with our intuition, sensing and feeling: a vitally important task at this time of an ecological and climatic crisis. Stephan Harding holds a PhD in ecology from the University of Oxford. He is the Co-ordinator of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College, where he is also Resident Ecologist. He has worked alongside many of the world's leading experts on ecological thought and action, including James Lovelock, with whom he has collaborated for many years on the development of Gaian thinking. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, Wednesday, 6th December, 2006.

Recognising the Earth and Culture As the Basis of All Life, with Professor Wangari Maathai

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 10:43:00 +0000

In this talk, Wangari gives us an update on developments in Kenya in relation to her priorities of environment and culture; why these are so essential within the African and international context; and the opportunity the new Kenyan constitution provides to enhance these foundations of life for the Kenyan people. Professor Maathai's experience has shown her that culture is fundamental to a viable development path that respects both human communities and the Earth. Professor Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Laureate, has long been admired for her undaunting commitment to protect the Earth and local communities for decades during the Moi regime in Kenya. During this time she nurtured the Green Belt Movement, which now consists of more than 250,000 participants. Throughout the years she has helped women to plant more than 20 million trees on their farms, schools and church grounds. The work of the GBM has today extended to neighbouring African countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. Gaia Evening held at Burgh House, Hampstead, Friday, 18th June 2004.

Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice, by Cormac Cullinan

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 10:42:00 +0000

We are rapidly destroying the Earth. It is becoming clear that many of the treaties, laws and policies concluded in recent years have failed to slow down, let alone halt or reverse, this process. Cormac Cullinan shows that the survival of the community of life on Earth (including humans) requires us to alter fundamentally our understanding of the nature and purpose of law and governance, rather than merely changing laws. In describing what this new ‘Earth governance’ or ‘Earth jurisprudence’ might look like, he also gives practical guidance on how to begin moving towards it. Cormac Cullinan is chief executive officer of EnAct International, an environmental law and policy consultancy headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa and a partner in the specialist environmental law firm Winstanley, Smith and Cullinan Inc. A former shipping and international commercial lawyer, and anti-apartheid activist, he has specialised in the field of environmental law and policy since 1992. Launch of the book 'Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice' by Cormac Cullinan, Burgh House, Hampstead, Wednesday, 14th April 2004.