My writings - and those of others.
Trades transitioning
Here’s an encouraging story published by Fast Company.
“Danish renewable energy giant Ørsted reached an agreement with North America’s Building Trades Unions: The company would hire union members for a series of upcoming U.S. projects. NABTU represents 3 million workers in 14 unions, including electrical, bricklaying, cement, masonry, and more—a group historically skeptical of renewable energy because of its potential to disrupt members’ jobs. “
It deals with three matters that are frequently stumbling blocks. The workers are more than capable of bullding things. They just have to learn how to build something different and have the training provided to do so with proper earnings as they make the transition. The wages that they earn in the new jobs will be comparable to the ones they earned in previous occupations. And to sweeten the deal they will also have added benefits. These transitions are apparently common in Europe. It is time for North American companies to imitate these elements which seem obvious.
Gadgets
I’ve been reading Jason Lanier’s You are not a Gadget - and it has reminded me of a gadget that I dislike - the Chat function in Zoom. In a conversation with one of my sons, he defended the function as useful between two colleagues when watching a webinar - and on that I have no particular disagreement. What I object to is the interruption of chats to everybody. The sender assumes that the information he/she is going to provide is more important than that of the presenter at the moment. It is intended to he helpful but it smacks of self-importance.
What this does is to put a small bulletin on my gallery page view that annoyingly obscures the face of the speaker. Sometimes it is a link to a website in a font that is unreadable. If I am trying to follow what the speaker is saying, I don’t want to leap to another place and look at it now. When many are attending, “Hello” from wherever may be momentarily inspiring that the world is wide and extensive but it doesn’t survive as something important.
Lanier decries the ability of the trivial to become important and swamp attention from the main event. It is part of social media’s attempt to make everyone more important - without realizing that the herds we are creating are there for a reason - not to have more friends we hardly know or care about, but to send us more advertisements. It also shows how behaviour on one set of platforms is now influencing our behaviour on others. I won’t read your chats - and I’ll hardly ever send one.
Another outstanding site
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an important site for anyone who sees ecology as a moral and spiritual issue. It has undergone a recent update that makes it even more attractive as a resource for learning. The site tells us this:
“The Mission of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is to inform and inspire people to preserve, protect, and restore the Earth community. The religions of the world transmit ecological and justice perspectives in their scriptures, rituals, and contemplative practices as well as in their moral and ethical commitments.” It goes on to list a number of projects and connections
You can find brief summaries of all the world’s major religions. There are equally impressive materials on climate emergency. Laudato Si, the encylical of Pope Francis, has had considerable impact and these materials have also been collected for reference. There are numerous resources including a regular newsletter. Among the many projects are those relating to to Journey of the Universe project.
For anyone interested in climate change, the foundational information here is of immense value.
Celebrate Earth Day
Happy Earth Day!
Last year was bitter sweet as I had to cancel an arts event, where several artists donated their service to support environmental efforts as part of Earth Day’s 50th anniversary. The earth continues to need our reverence. Thomas Berry suggests the need to reframe our understanding - that humans are subjects along with all the other evolutionary creatures and elements which we have too often thought of as objects for our use and exploitation.
Even in a pandemic there are ways to celebrate:
Try the quizzes at the Earth Day 2021 site and see what you know: (I’m doing better on climate change than on climate literacy but I have work to do on both.)
Watch one of these videos:
Life in Color With David Attenborough,” on Netflix,
“Secrets of the Whales” the project of an even bigger power player, the filmmaker and deep-sea diver James Cameron.
Cher and the Loneliest Elephant,” streaming beginning Thursday on Paramount+ and playing on cable May 19 on the Smithsonian Channel,
the three hourlong episodes of “A Year to Change the World,” being shown in succession Thursday night on PBS stations. It follows Thunberg, then 16 and 17, as she travels the world in 2019 and 2020, giving speeches at climate conferences and educating herself — and through the documentary, us — i
A ten year anniversary
2021 marks the tenth anniversary of the release of the film, Journey of the Universe. The documentary spends one day on the Greek Island of Samos. It takes a philosophical view of evolution and tries to answer the great questions: Who are we? How did we get here? Where are we headed? For those who want to move beyond the cosmology of western and other religions, it offers a perspective that widens understanding and puts humanity in its place within a larger context.
The film’s birth nevertheless has religious roots. Its genesis of came from the Riverdale Centre for Religious Research led by Thomas Berry, a Roman Catholic monk who studied world religions and was struck by a need for a more comprehensive cosmology. He wrote about a call for a new story as early as 1978 and continued to ponder the questions and write about them until his death in 2009. He found a willing collaborator in Brian Swimme, an evolutionary cosmologist. They collaborated to produce The Universe Story in 1992. But the strength of the story encouraged both to work on a more awe inspiring presentation which resulted in the more recent film, subsequent book, university symposia and educational materials. Released in 2011, the film was carefully vetted and verified by scientists in all fields - but its effect is not a quantitative verification but an awe inspiring one reaching into ever expanding educational opportunities.
The book by the same name, written by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, both students of Berry, tells the story in an engaging way that urges further reflection on the journey of the universe of which we are a part. “Wonder will guide us”, says Swimme at the end of the film. One of the most valuable part of the book is the chronology from the “great flaring forth” - an alternative to the Big Bang - 13.8 billion years ago - to the last entry - since 1990s thousands of extra solar planets have been discovered. Discovery of a 13.1 billion year old galaxy.
The book and film have generated studies by all the world’s major religions. They set an important context for where we go from here. They call for a major reassessment of how we look at our creation stories. Among the resources are podcasts and video courses showing how those in various fields - scientists, activists, indigenous leaders, teachers are living out their stories in the light of new understandings.
The new site offers resources for individuals and organizations and includes curricula, its own YouTube Channel, newsletter and events. It is an important resource for anyone who wants a wider context for the continuing journey of the universe and our place in it.