Butterfly Effect Youth Exchanges

Please visit the support website for participants:

http://be2011.training-youth.eu/

This week was crucial to generate momentum before the UN conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December. It is considered indeed to be the last chance to address the climatic issue on an international level.

Last Tuesday Ban Ki-Moon conveyed a meeting on Climate Change the day before the annual UN General Assembly. The discourses offered by the heads of States were empty of real commitments to reduce the carbon footprint, empty of daring proposals and empty of the kind of courage we could expect at such a crucial crossroad for the Earth community of life and our species.

But even if they would come up with strong reductions proposals, aiming for 80 % reduction for 2020-2025 (or to cap the amount of CO2 equivalent at 350 ppm), something will still be missing. Yes, Mr. Obama. Climate change isn’t a threat. Climate change is more a symptom than the problem. We are the actual threat. It comes from our disruption with the web of life by considering nature as mere resources to use for the management of our home (eco-nomy). It comes from our inability to connect with the different fundamental cycles and to know that to dump waste, to clear cut forests, to pour chemicals in the soil, to pave meadows with concrete, etc. have a deep impact on nature economy. It comes from our miss conception of the self and from the corporate power which enhances greed, hate and fear as core values for our society.

To over focus on climate change and on greenhouse gases has a big risk: to let some essential and critical issues in the background. Interestingly enough, today was published in Nature a special issue around the planetary boundaries. The Stockholm resilience centre has just produced a study to identify different critical  Earth system processes on which the human species has a strong impact. What is the current state of such processes? Have they already reached tipping points ?

They identified 9 different of those processes and they are : climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycles, Global Freshwater use, Land change, Biodiversity loss, chemical pollution and loading of atmospheric aerosols. They proposed some tipping references and out of their numbers (which can be contested), 3 of them seem to be already out of “control” or in unpredictable behavior, out of a steady state.

My point is that we have to redesign so much more of our current economy than to simply reduce our “emissions”. It has to do with nothing less than everything. I find myself quite overwhelmed by the hugeness of the task we are on and I have to accept the uncertainty that comes with it. I guess the first step is to be able to awaken ourselves from the modern consumerism trance and to see the interconnectedness of all things and beings. We don’t now yet if we will be able to wake up early enough, but it is surely worth trying.

So butterflies, let’s create a huge buzz with our wings! We need our full human potential to transform our industrial growth society into a life sustaining culture!

Hubble, the space telescope, collected a new series of beautiful pictures from the distant Universe. Published yesterday by the NASA, one of them shows a Nebula, resulting of a dying star which used to be 1000 times bigger than our Sun. This Nebula, called the Butterfly nebula, sits somewhere in the constellation Scorpius. It is a massive cauldron, releasing enormous amounts of gas heated at 20’000 ºC and moving through the space at the speed of 965’000 kph. The “wings” spread themselves on a distance over 19’000 billions of kilometers across the space. Mind blowing.

A huge Butterfly sitting in the Constellation of Scorpius ? Mmmmhh. In astrology, Scorpio is said to be the sign of transformation, death and rebirth. It is the sign that leads us to the dark long nights of winter. The ripples of the Butterfly effect might suggest that the flapping wings over there are generating winds of change which could stir our collective consciousness. Yes we are Earthlings, but we are also stars dust, lineage of an evolution story which started, as far as we know it, sometimes around 14 billion years ago. Our ancestors used to search in the sky signs of a possible future. Stars were telling stories and were mythology figures. They were source of archetypes and meaning. The constellations, sitting side by side, allowed human minds to embrace complexity and paradoxes. Through astrology, they were able to enlighten an individual or a group about a situation. On many levels, they helped our species to direct itself on Earth.

In this climate of change we are living now, looking into the magnificent twinkling silence of the Universe will surely give us some inspiration and perspectives and will invite us to find a direction towards which we can naviguate all together.

The Butterfly Effect 2009 finished just one week ago and it was an incredible adventure. For twelve days we lived in an eco-camp in the dunes just above the ecovillage and community of Findhorn, Scotland. The programme was very dense, we explored and tried a lot of different tools to tackle the challenges of sustainability. The core of the whole camp was surely a 24-hour solo time on the other side of the bay, at Culbin Forest. Connecting deeply with nature, with the group, with our feelings and thoughts in order to feel empowered to become particip-active in the changing world, that was the intention of this first Butterfly Effect Exchange.

This new version of the website aims to become a platform for the participants to share their journeys during and foremost after the Butterfly Effect exchange. Some new features include a wikipedia to present some tips and knowledge, a blog nurtured by the participants as well and a gallery to get some glimpses of our experience.

May we all flap so vividly with our wings that the wind of change will direct our course towards a sustainable culture.

Welcome to the Butterfly Effect Youth Exchange 2009 !

This summer around 30 young adults (18-25) will gather together around Findhorn ecovillage, in Scotland. Together we will explore the issues of sustainability, tackling them with creative wit and passion.

This website is a platform for getting more information. Enjoy the visit