- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 556
Then the most remarkable thing happened and the First Dog on the Moon* got hold of the plan first!
Photo:B&T
As for the leaking of the plan, to my mind, It must have been an inside job!
Photo: Via The Guardian/ Twitter/Trendsmap (*The ‘Plan’ by The First Dog on the Moon was first published
in The Guardian on 27 October 2021)
And Now for Your Perusal a Really Fantastic Plan to Save the World
Glasgow 2021 Where We Hope to Rediscover Our Imagination and Build a Better World
The GCGI Call to COP26: Make COP26 The Dawn of a New Beginning
Photo:IwmBuzz
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 809
Nearly 60 years ago, Rachel Carson fought the chemical industry barons. She won and saved the world from the scourge of DDT. The COP26 leadership would do well to study her example, and be inspired by her commitment, courage and reselience.
Silent Spring: A Watershed moment
Rachel Carson’s Groundbreaking Book Still Speaks to Us Today
Silent Spring exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT and helped set the stage for the environmental movement.
Photo: ResearchGate
‘Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.’
Rachel Carson: Voice of Nature
Photo: rachelcarson.org
As Robert McCrum writing in the Guardian in 2016 has remarked: ‘Silent Spring is a classic of American advocacy, a book that sparked a nationwide outcry against the use of pesticides, inspired legislation that would endeavour to control pollution, and thereby launched the modern environmental movement in the US. The great nature writer Peter Matthiessen identified its “fearless and succinct” prose as “the cornerstone of the new environmentalism”. In a few limpid chapters, and fewer than 300 pages, Rachel Carson described the death of rivers and seas, the scorching of the soil, the annihilation of plant life and forests, the silencing of the nation’s birds, the perils of crop spraying, the poisoning of humanity (“beyond the dreams of the Borgias”) and the genetic threats posed by all of the above, especially in its carcinogenic manifestations…
‘The unrestricted use of pesticides in North America had boomed after the second world war. Carson, whose early work for the US Bureau of Fisheries had given her a special understanding of marine pollution, was one of the first to realise that DDT, a radical new pesticide, had severe ecological consequences. As the great ethnobiologist Edward O Wilson has written: “The effects of pesticides on the environment and public health had been well-documented before Silent Spring, but in bits and pieces scattered through the technical literature. Environmental scientists were aware of the problem but they focused only on the narrow sector of their personal expertise.” Carson’s achievement was to synthesise this information into a single message (her unforgettable image of a “silent spring”) that scientists and the general public could relate to and understand...
‘The chemical industry, which had championed DDT as central to the nation’s domestic agriculture, was an unofficial part of the war effort. Carson was seen as triply dangerous. First, she was an outsider; second, she was a humble biologist with no academic background; and third, she was a woman who addressed herself to the general public (writing radio scripts and bestselling books like The Sea Around Us, 1951). In a word, she was unqualified and unpatriotic…’
However, she persisted and she won. She changed the US and Changed the world too: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
See also: Fifty Years After Silent Spring
What the world can learn from Rachel Carson as we fight for our planet
Rachel Carson and the legacy of Silent Spring
Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson
The GCGI Call to COP26: Make COP26 The Dawn of a New Beginning
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 631
Photo: Angela Hsieh/NPR
The world has lost trust in crony capitalism, belha belha, belah Politicians, here today and gone tomorrow into the pockets of lobbyists!!
The Revolution to heal the world has already started and is led by the youth, students, our children and grandchildren. This is why I am hopeful.
We must never forget that nearly three decades ago at Rio 'Earth Summit' (June 1992)– where Cops were born – nearly 200 governments agreed to implement “educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects”. However, not surprising, precious little has happened since.
But, we should not despair, today's youth, students and activists are changing all that. The era of belha belha and more belha is coming to an end and only fools cannot notice this tsunami of change.
For the sake of humanity, I do hope that the governments gathered in Glasgow, will show signs of wisdom and for once project honesty and truthfulness, although, given their disastrous and dishonest record, I do not hold my breath.
This will bring me back to my earlier point again: The Youth, Students and Pupils will Save the World and will Heal Mother Nature.
This is Why We Need a New Golden Age of Wisdom, Honesty and Hope
Our Children and Grandchildren are Showing us the Path
They are our Hope. They are the Light at the end of the tunnel
Light at the end of the tunnel.- Ryan Engstrom
Rethinking Our Approach to Economic, Social and Environmental Justice
The Time is Now for a Visionary Leadership
World Transformation and the Youth: Youth to Make the World Great Again
Photo:theatlantic.com
This is why I am hopeful for our world. This is why I am hopeful that we will build a better world.
Because, the agenda, policies, dreams and ideas are more and more formulated and suggested by the youth and not my generation that by and large have been found guilty as hell.
Furthermore, everyone, everywhere, especially the youth, are discovering that the current education on offer, divorced and separated from nature, needs to be overhauled. They are now demanding that the time has arrived to rethink education and to explore the benefits of nature-based education in our teaching methods and models.
All in all, they have realised that the neoliberal education has destroyed the heart and soul of teaching and learning, and wish nature to be our wisest teacher.
This understanding, in due course will lead to a better environment in which mother earth and environment will be respected, valued, protected and nurtured.
The IPCC Report- I Refuse to give up Hope: Earth Is A Mother that Never Dies
Greta Thunberg attends a demonstration calling for action on climate change, during the
"Fridays for Future" school strike in Vienna, Austria. (Reuters File Photo)
Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future receive Amnesty International’s top honour
…’Over 50% of the global population is under 30, and with the global population at over 7 billion - that’s a lot of young people. Young people are incredibly important in bringing about change, they are generally less afraid to speak out about what they believe in than older people, and they are the ones who are going to be affected the most by the decisions made today. If we effectively harness the leadership and potential of young people around the world then together we can empower youth for the common good.
We must realise that what the young lack in experience they make up for in courage and vision, dreams and hope for a better, more sustainable future…’- Continue to read
In Praise of Youth on International Youth Day- Monday 12 August 2019
‘What is the unfolding story of the next decades?
‘The rise of today’s youth, leading the world, with hope, inspiration, commitment, imagination and wisdom in the interest of the common good, to change our troubled world for the better’- Kamran Mofid, Founder, the GCGI
This is the Path to Make the World Great Again: A Path Envisioned by the Youth of the World with Hope and Imagination
Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian
World Transformation and the Youth: Youth to Make the World Great Again
The Youth of the World: Their voices will be heard
The Youth for the Common Good to Build a Better World
Nature the Best Teacher: Re-Connecting the World’s Children with Nature
In Praise of Youth on International Youth Day- Monday 12 August 2019
In Praise of the Economic Students at the Sorbonne: The Class of 2000
The Youth of Wales Message of Hope to the World at the Time of the Coronavirus Crisis
The GCGI Call to COP26: Make COP26 The Dawn of a New Beginning
Towards COP26: Education to Heal the World
Anthea Lawson, We Owe it to Our Humanity to hear you, to emulate you
Dr. Larch Maxey, We Owe it to Our Humanity to hear you, to emulate you
Brexit, Trump and the failure of our universities to pursue wisdom
What is the Value of MBA and Business Education?
Britain today and the Bankruptcy of Ideas, Vision and Values-less Education
Neoliberalism destroys human potential and devastates values-led education
The rise in global fascism: A failure of education?
A timeless reflection on two types of teaching and learning
A Sure Path to build a Better World: How nature helps us feel good and do good
Economic Growth: The Index of Misery
Happy Teachers, Happy Pupils, Happy Schools, Better Education, Better Lives, Better World
- The heart and the soul of education is wisdom
- In a world that seems so troubled, how do we hold on to hope?
- A little Gem, So Simple, So Beautiful, and Yet So Profound and Meaningful
- Make COP26 The Dawn of a New Beginning
- Neoliberalism has devastated the world and devalued humanity: Will “The Economy” be the answer to a better world?