hope

It’s April, and in some places in North America it is spring. Not outside my window this morning, though, where the snow is lightly falling for the second day in a row. However, snow or not, it’s time for the “Spring of Sustainability” series. S of S offers free daily lectures and discussions, online or by teleconference, for 11 weeks. If you miss the live presentation all talks are offered free of charge on the S of S website for 48 hours; once that runs out, there is a fee to access the archives. Last year I paid the $90 cost and it was well worth the price, as I still have access to lectures by leading thinkers and activists like Hunter Lovins, Richard Heinberg, Joanna Macy, and a whole slew of others. I continue to listen to them on my IPod when I drive. This year I’m trying to be more pro-active and listen live or, failing that, during the two days the talk is posted on-line. So far Bill McKibben and Andrew Harvey have been featured, and both are well worth the 30 minute time commitment. If you haven’t yet done so, head over to the Spring of Sustainability website and sign up – you will receive email notifications of what’s coming up next and can decide whether or not it’s worth carving out the space in your calendar.

Click here to listen to the Bill McKibben talk, where he gives a shout out to Citizens Climate Lobby as well as strongly supporting pricing carbon through fee and dividend, not cap and trade. This link is only good until 4:00 pm EST today, after that you’ll have to pay. The same link, though, will provide you with the talks that are still being offered – I would strongly encourage you to listen to Andrew Harvey’s sobering discussion about the perilous time we are entering, which we have brought on ourselves through our disregard of the planet that sustains us, and what we can do to prepare ourselves psychologically and spiritually for this time of great disruption as well as promise.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/42244621]

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