Where does a drop of water go?

  A truly fascinating program where you can start anyplace and follow the eventual dispersement of that water drop.

Try it!

River Runner Global

The actual map is much bigger than this screen shot.

Today's quote:

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art. -Frederic Chopin, pianist and composer (1810-1849)

The results of using the Doughnut Economics model

 These people have done it!

The town of Ladywood, Birmingham, UK not only worked through the model of a doughnut to evaluate their needs both social and environmental...and published their efforts. Here's the link.

Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait Launch

We're excited to introduce you to the first Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait, painted by many people together in Ladywood

Posted by CIVIC SQUARE  December, 09, 2022

“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently.”

—David Graeber

Building on over 3 focused years of taking the ideas of Doughnut Economics off the page with neighbours, researchers, partners and visionaries, and many more previously exploring what the Doughnut could mean in our context, we're so excited to celebrate all those working to move us towards safe and just futures for our neighbourhoods as we launch the first ever Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait in Ladywood, Birmingham UK.

Following an in person celebration and portrait launch in our neighbourhood Thursday 27th - Saturday 29th October 2022 and a digital portrait launch event on Hopin on Wednesday 7th December 2022, we couldn't be prouder to make our portrait available online here on the DEAL platform first, in contribution to the abundant commons being stewarded here by Doughnut Economics Action Lab.

Introduction

You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”

—Angela Y. Davis

Today we are seeing how multiple globalised systems are entangled in ways that have cascading impacts on society and the natural world we rely on. This global ‘polycrisis’ affects every aspect of our lives, and is experienced most viscerally as multiple impacts begin to converge on the places we live, play, eat, rest, learn, love, heal and grow. Our homes, streets and neighbourhoods bring together the big picture, our bold goals, expansive dreams, immediate everyday challenges and opportunities, as well as the experience of crisis, mutual aid, and real barriers to overcome, which manifest in a way that we can interact with, share in and feel the effects of as neighbours.

Our neighbourhoods are also where our agency and ability to organise is highest, and are sites that can help to alleviate our grief and sense of powerlessness, making them the foundations of the hopeful, creative, just transition that we know is in our hearts. Movements, stories and organising for new economic possibilities is nurtured, demonstrated, and crafted through everyday actions, and we have the collective energy to rehearse and manifest bold visions for our futures if we can change the goal, create a compass like the one we present in this Portrait to guide us, establish new shared metrics, take up roles stewarding the miracle of our abundant commons, and demonstrate the different transformations that are required in governance, finance, and many other areas to deeply (re)design and build life-affirming realities.

Approaches from the neighbourhood up are, therefore, not only a moral imperative, nor simply a ‘nice to have’ or a way to consult on decisions that have already been made. Our neighbourhoods are a fundamental unit of change that we need to understand, without which we render ourselves unable to meet the challenges of this century. Just as the founding of the NHS brought national and regional infrastructure, but also required crucial democratic access to healthcare at the neighbourhood level through GPs, and as public libraries and social housing movements acted as a means to distribute access to knowledge and safety, such is true for 21st century transition infrastructure to be built at the scale of our streets and neighbourhood in this time of deep transformation. These are the drivers that carry this Portrait forward, and we invite you to carry these words with you as you explore this picture painted by many people together.

Design

“The future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being.”

—Donella Meadows

What happens when a neighbourhood starts to tell its own story, from all its different vantage points, through the many lenses we see our lives, our place, its challenges, its opportunities? The chance to paint our own portrait gives us an opportunity to not only see ourselves and celebrate our strengths, but also notice where we fall short, share stories and hopes of how we wish to be together in the future, and reframe what might be possible.

As we find ourselves in increasingly difficult, uncertain, complex times with many crises being felt all around, what power do we have together? When we can tell a new story of who we are, reframe our collective goals, and build out civic power, we can unlock the collaborative, creative, courageous communities that we know we can be. The beautiful thing about a portrait is it doesn’t have to perfect, there doesn’t just have to be just one, it can be created by looking through many lenses and from a range of vantage points. When we make our portraits visible to one another, we can also see what and who is missing, where we like what we see and want to do more, where we don’t and want to change and, when we invite our imagination, we can envision more beautiful futures than we dared to dream of, and bring them, lovingly, into being.

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Both hard and soft evidence is used, thereby avoiding the common trap of giving preference to the quantitative above all else, which is especially dangerous when working in areas of knowledge where reliable measurements do not yet exist or data is overwhelming.”

—Helsinki Design Lab, Recipes for Systemic Change

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The tools by Doughnut Economics Action Lab encouraged us to explore our portrait and, along with hundreds of neighbours and partners over 3 years, we unrolled the Doughnut and surfaced our Community Portrait of Place and Data Portrait of Place. We are incredibly inspired and thankful to the work of Leeds, Amsterdam, Brussels, Cornwall and others who pioneered this work, and motivated and supported us to build upon it. We of course will do the same to others who follow afterwards.

The Doughnut Unrolled set of tools suggests a number of ways to create this portrait, through the four lenses and specific dimensions within those. At this stage we have taken a bespoke approach to each aspect of the portrait, related directly to the context of and what matters most in our work, our location and other interdependencies. We are now in the early days of synthesising the learnings and weaving together the different elements, which we invite you to explore.

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The above is quoted from this link to DEAL Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait Launch

The following are clipped from their workbook. Of note is their 3 years of implementation.

Activist detained from protest action

 Thunberg joined thousands of other activists and protesters taking part in weekend demonstrations against the razing of the German village that would make way for an expansion of the Garzweiler lignite coal mine, which is owned by European energy giant RWE. Once the eviction is complete, RWE plans to build a 1.5-kilometer perimeter fence around the village, sealing off the village’s buildings, streets and sewers before they are demolished.

The expansion of the coal mine is significant for climate activists. They argue that continuing to burn coal for energy will increase planet-warming emissions and violate the Paris Climate Agreement’s ambition to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Lignite is the most polluting type of coal, which itself is the most polluting fossil fuel.

Thunberg tweeted on Friday that she was in Lützerath to protest the expansion, and asked others to join. On Saturday, Thunberg addressed the activists. “The carbon is still in the ground,” she said. “And as long as the carbon is in the ground, this struggle is not over.”

“We need to stop the current destruction of our planet and sacrificing people to benefit the short-term economic growth and corporate greed,” she said.

Climate activists have long been protesting the expansion of this coal mine, which cuts into the village of Lützerath.

Story of a possible future

 I have subscribed to this on-line magazine for a few months. emergencemagazine

It is very inspiring. I took the time to listen to the author reading this essay, story if you will.

What caught my attention (I know many of you already have considered this) is writing the story of our future that we want, not the armegeddon that gives supposed entertainment on the screen.

Prophesies of Possibility, A Ripening of the New World, by Jamie Figuero.

Tara-Anand

I was first interested in her experience of having water difficulties in the middle of a city. It reminded me of our recent weeks long struggle in Asheville and the surrounding areas which had no wateer....or intermittent water.

This was the blurb describing the article, which could then be clicked on and listened to or read. 

“A story can be living. It can be an activating force that alters vibration, transcends time, and shifts not only how we perceive, but our shared reality itself.”

When we imagine the future, words like “Armageddon” or “apocalypse” or “collapse” may come to mind. But to what extent do the stories we tell ourselves create the world we are living in? In this essay, Afro-Taíno author Jamie Figueroa considers the kind of world she wants to inhabit and the stories that will make it so. When a difficult living situation confronts her with narratives of catastrophe and colonialism that restrict her spirit, she draws upon the guidance of three Indigenous women to help her access her own embodied knowing. Embracing the unknown, she summons the imagination, sovereignty, and courage needed to restory herself and help rebirth the world.

I really enjoyed listeing to it, going to another situation, lifestyle choices, and imagining myself going through those events. But the impact was that it didn't point to continuation of the way things were, but to another future that existed only in the participants' imaginations.

Today's quote:

We have to imagine things for them to happen. We have to imagine differently. I don’t know how people can get though great tragedy and loss without a story. The key to what the world can be is in the imagination. That’s where we’re going to find it.” Dr. Renda Madrigal, a Chippewa author, clinical psychologist, and mindfulness facilitator. 

“Western civilization diminishes intuitive, instinctual knowing and turns it into something silly.” She related the body’s knowing and intuition to power. “Power in an Indigenous way. When we build our inner power, the power that we have, we can hone and develop it instead of being afraid and cutting ourselves off. It’s so vital in figuring out how to navigate ourselves in this world.”

Big Oil vs Vanessa from Uganda, Greta from Sweden, Helena from Ecuador, Luisa from Germany

Please see my post on Living in Black Mountain today, focusing on an important  personal message from Greta Thunberg. (Update, the original post didn't come up, had too many formatting issued. So it has now posted on that blog.)

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The Forum in Switzerland:

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

16–20 January 2023  DAVOS-KLOSTERS, 16-20 JANUARY

The world today is at a critical inflection point. The twin triggers of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine rattled an already brittle global system. Economic growth in the world’s largest economies is stalling, while navigating headwinds from rising food and energy prices. For the first time since the 1970s, the world is facing a precarious disequilibrium with growth and inflation moving in oppositive directions. This is occurring alongside heightened geo-economic fragmentation, financial sector vulnerabilities, including stretched asset prices and high debt levels, and a climate crisis spiralling out of control, which could magnify any growth slowdown, particularly in emerging markets. Unless these systemic and interconnected risks are addressed, the promise of a “decade of action” may become a decade of uncertainty and fragility.

Against this unprecedented backdrop, the World Economic Forum is convening its 53rd Annual Meeting in January to reaffirm the value and imperative of dialogue and public-private cooperation, not only to navigate the current cascading crises but, more importantly, to drive tangible, system-positive change for the long term. For over 50 years, the World Economic Forum has provided space for leaders to engage in peer-to-peer deliberations in the spirit of improving the state of the world. Never has this mission been more important. Therefore, finding ways to reinstitute a collective sense of agency and to turn defensive measures into proactive, vision-driven policies and business strategies will be at the heart of the meeting. The magnitude of current crises and the potential of future ones demands no less.

The Programme

The basic tenet of the programme is the premise that the current crises, as serious as they are, are manifestations of larger systemic deficiencies accrued over time. They are also the result of a narrow vision of systems as sectors rather than true multidisciplinary, networked entities that are highly dynamic, particularly in the context of the meta trends of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and climate change.

Therefore, thematically, the programme will have the dual focus of looking at levers to address the current challenges while at the same time setting them against the backdrop of attendant system transformation imperatives.

Concretely, we will look at:

1. Addressing the Current Energy and Food Crises in the context of a New System for Energy, Climate and Nature

Energy transition and climate change are inextricably linked, with its impact being felt in recent months. While a global energy transition is under way, further action is needed to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. Critical measures to accelerate energy transition include decoupling economic growth from energy consumption, particularly in emerging economies, mainstreaming breakthrough technological innovations and addressing equity. Rather than using the ongoing crisis as a pretext to forego policies that support the transition to more sustainable energy sources, this moment should be utilized to develop more ambitious, comprehensive, and sustainable infrastructure investment plans that helps the world to meet the 2030 targets.

2. Addressing the Current High Inflation, Low Growth, High Debt Economy in the context of a New System for Investment, Trade and Infrastructure

Policymakers are now operating with limited fiscal space, while inflationary pressure is forcing a tightening of monetary policy. Tighter monetary policies are also having knock on effects on emerging markets, with many now struggling to service their debts. Protectionist measures also threaten the global trade agenda which was at the centre of economic prosperity of the last 30 years. This comes following the COVID-19 pandemic which has pushed 120 million additional people into extreme poverty and exposed the underfunding of critical infrastructure across markets. In a multipolar world, refashioning the economic agenda along strategic lines and rebuilding trust in the international system will take careful collaboration between all stakeholders and a new vision for economic prosperity and development.

3. Addressing the Current Industry Headwinds in the context of a New System for Harnessing Frontier Technologies for Private Sector Innovation and Resilience

Industries are being forced to reassess their investment, production and innovation decisions with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), climate change and geopolitical fragmentation of recent years. To navigate the current friction points and to strengthen future competitiveness, companies will need to foster emerging technologies of 4IR as well as optimize for agility. They will also need to realize stakeholder capitalism through core business and operating models not only to drive resiliency today but also to shape the future socio-enviroeconomic prosperity. To do so successfully, collaboration must be strengthened across increasingly diverse ecosystems, including competitors, companies in other industries and innovators.

4. Addressing the Current Social Vulnerabilities in the context of a New System for Work, Skills and Care

Official statistics show that despite a growing global economic crisis, workers are continuing to leave - or considering leaving - their jobs. Notwithstanding high numbers of unfilled jobs and tight labour markets across many of the world’s biggest economies, real wages are also declining across many job categories in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. In parallel, emerging markets are facing pressure of significant unemployment driven by the economic slowdown, leading to heightened social pressure. This moment calls for a new social contract that supports strong investment in education, skills and healthcare that fills unmet demand, lays the ground for social mobility and ultimately future-proofs economies.

5. Addressing the Current Geopolitical Risks in the context of a New System for Dialogue and Cooperation in a Multipolar World

Systems that brought common benefit, such as trade, have been used as weapons to punish rivals, and areas that were once paragons of cooperation, like climate change, are at risk of becoming frontlines of competition. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the latest move away from what was, for the first quarter century after the end of the Cold War, a largely cooperative global order. The geopolitical vane turned from cooperation to competition. There is a growing need for a new global system that is more stakeholder based and equipped to handle the dynamics of the 21st century

A special workstream across these themes will be dedicated to leadership, with a particular focus on resilience both at the individual and organizational levels.

The meeting will also enable the Forum’s Global Collaboration Village, a pioneering effort to further scale public-private cooperation on the world’s foremost challenges utilizing immersive digital environments.

The Meeting

The meeting will take place from 16 January to 20 January. The four days will cover a wide spectrum of formats for interaction and learning, giving leaders the necessary tools to address the current complexity and build for the future. They will revolve around the following three archetypes:

Dialogues to forge understanding and alignment and exchange insights

Gatherings of communities of purpose to drive tangible action on key global issues

Opportunities for foresight and discovery to scale society critical innovations

The meeting will feature addresses by key heads of state and government as well as various geo-economic and geopolitical deliberations such as the Country Strategy Dialogues, Diplomacy Dialogues and the Informal Gathering of World Economic Leaders (IGWEL) meetings. It will also gather the Forum’s foremost business communities, such as the International Business Council, the Community of Chairpersons and the Industry Governors.

Many sessions will be livestreamed publicly on the Forum’s website and social media channels, as well as its state-of-the-art digital app, TopLink, providing an opportunity for the Forum’s Digital Members community and the public to engage in deliberations. In addition, timely expert briefings will help participants and the public gain insights on the latest developments in current affairs at the time of the meeting.

Participation in the Annual Meeting is by invitation to the following Forum communities:

Chief executives and chairs of the Forum 1,000 Partner companies actively engaged in initiatives and communities such as the International Business Council, Community of Chairpersons and Industry Governors

Public figures from across the world including G7 and G20 countries, as well as heads of International Organizations

Leaders from the foremost civil society, labour, media organizations as well as top thinkers and academics

Members of the Global Innovators and Technology Pioneers community, the Community of Global Shapers, the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

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You know, this all sounds very good. How it's implemented is the question.

Excerpts from England Banning Single Use Plastic cutlery and dishes (announced Jan 14, 2023)

 

England Is Banning Single-Use Plastic Cutlery and Plates
A public consultation revealed 96% approval for the decision.

England is set to ban single-use plastic cutlery and dishes. The announcement, which will be officially made on January 14 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), follows a three-month consultation that gathered public opinions on items such as plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks, and extruded polystyrene.1

The idea of a ban was "backed by overwhelming public support," according to the Daily Mail, and Greenpeace UK reports that 96% of the 51,000 consultation participants said they'd support a ban on all of the items under consideration.23

It's estimated that the average person in England uses 18 disposable plastic plates and 37 pieces of disposable plastic cutlery every year, with a mere 10% of that getting recycled.4 This works out to 1.1 billion plates and 4.3 billion pieces of cutlery being used annually, most of which get tossed in landfill after their fleeting usefulness. Litter relating to takeout food and drink packaging dominate plastic waste in the ocean, according to a 2021 study.5 So it seems logical to want to tackle this issue.

The ban will apply to restaurants, cafes, and takeout foods, but not stores or supermarkets, where such single-use plastic is considered to be "primary packaging" and will be addressed by other means. 

Richard Swannell, interim CEO of WRAP, an NGO working to reduce waste, said his organization is in full support of this announcement.

"[It] marks important progress in the wholesale removal of problematic and unnecessary plastics that can end up as plastic pollution. WRAP is working with UK businesses to meet ambitious targets in this important area, and our latest results show an 84% reduction in problematic and unnecessary single use plastics by our UK Plastics Pact members since 2018. We're delighted to see these efforts being backed up by regulation, which will accelerate efforts to keep plastic out of the environment."

This ban follows another that was implemented in England in October 2020, banning plastic straws, stir-sticks, and cotton swabs with plastic stems. Scotland's single-use plastics ban came into effect in August 2022 and similar laws were approved in Wales this past December.

by Katherine Martinko  Published in Treehugger Newsletter on Jan. 13, 2023

Article Sources

1. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. "Single-use plastic: banning the supply of commonly littered single-use plastic items." Gov.uk.

2. Ellicot, Claire. "Ministers will finally ban throwaway plastic plates, cups and cutlery killing our wildlife by the end of the year." Daily Mail.

3. Sedgwick, Alexandra. "Public tells government to ban polluting single-use plastics now." Greenpeace.

4. Treisman, Rachel. "England will ban single-use plastic plates and cutlery for environmental reasons." NPR.

5. Morales-Caselles, Carmen, et al. "An inshore-offshore sorting system revealed from global classification of ocean litter." Nature Sustainability, vol. 4, June 2021, DOI:10.1038/s41893-021-00720-8

6. 
   

And another article (first printed in 2020) in the same newsletter reminded me that:

 France banned plastic shopping bags as part of a 2015 energy bill, and a ban on plastic produce bags went into effect in 2017.

A Safe and Just Space for Humanity (Updated to include Fig. 1)

 Can we really live within the Doughnut?

The first written use of the Doughnut model by Kate Raworth in an OXFAM paper in 2012, as linked above in it's total 23 pages. 

Here's the first page of the Executive Summary.

This Discussion Paper sets out a visual framework for sustainable development – shaped like a doughnut – by combining the concept of planetary boundaries with the complementary concept of social boundaries. Achieving sustainable development means ensuring that all people have the resources needed – such as food, water, health care, and energy – to fulfil their human rights. And it means ensuring that humanity’s use of natural resources does not stress critical Earthsystem processes – by causing climate change or biodiversity loss, for example – to the point that Earth is pushed out of the stable state, known as the Holocene, which has been so beneficial to humankind over the past 10,000 years. In the lead-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 (known as Rio+20), and the High-Level Summit on the Millennium Development Goals in 2013, there is a growing debate on how to draw up renewed and expanded global development goals which bring together the twin objectives of poverty eradication and environmental sustainability. Figure I below brings them into a single framework. The social foundation forms an inner boundary, below which are many dimensions of human deprivation. The environmental ceiling forms an outer boundary, beyond which are many dimensions of environmental degradation. Between the two boundaries lies an area – shaped like a doughnut – which represents an environmentally safe and socially just space for humanity to thrive in. It is also the space in which inclusive and sustainable economic development takes place. Figure 1. A safe and just space for humanity to thrive in: a first illustration,

 

 

What really can be recycled?

 Asheville's Recycling Info.

What is Recyclable

 

Guidelines below explain what items may be placed in your blue recycling carts. For information about bulky items, hazardous household waste, or other hard to recycle items, see how to dispose of large, seasonal, or unusual items.

 

Yes! Recycle Right

• Plastic – including bottles, tubs, jugs, and jars (please empty)
• Metal – including metal cans (please empty)
• Glass – including glass bottles and jars (please empty)
• Paper – paper including all paper, cartons, and cardboard (please flatten boxes)

 

Please Don’t Bag Your Recyclables.

 

Know Your No’s

• no styrofoam or peanuts
• no plastic wrap, pillows, or bags
• no tanglers like cords, hoses, wires
• no scrap metal
• no clothing or textiles
• no food waste
• no hazardous or medical waste
• no receipts, shredded paper, paper towels, or napkins

 

Keep these items out

• all batteries
• aluminum foil
• ceramic items
• diapers
• disposable cups or lids (plastic and coffee)
• electronics
• household glass or mirrors
• scrap metal and wood
• straws
• tires
• toys

Black Mountain may have at least one difference! We are required to jam all our recyclables into a blue (no other color please) plastic garbage bag. It is collected every 2 weeks.

I'm calling Black Mountain Town to find out what other differences we may have. The posted list that I have reflects when the Asheville refuse company was picking up our trash and recycling. I know  since then that Town of Black Mountain decided to do their own.

OK, you never need to call any more, just go to their web site, and ask for recycling info...and there you have it. Now I just need to figure out how to put a PDF doc into this blog...OK, screen shots it is!

What I'm glad to read is to put tops on bottles and jars. Yay, since I've been doing that.