“We are in a crisis!” Mary Robinson’s keynote message was the right way to open her Climate Conference – which she promptly re-named the “Climate and Nature Conference – don’t you agree?” The whole audience agreed enthusiastically. Tom turned to me. “Mary Robinson CAN!” he smiled. A fitting acronym for “climate and nature”! Shortly after, …
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Category:5 Environment
Why should we change our minds?
We’ve been exploring human nature from the angles of anthropology, zoology and psychology and recently came upon Joseph Henrich’s WEIRD concept which is helping us to understand the relatively narrow perspective we all grow up with. WEIRD is an acronym for Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic, and delves into the religious convictions, beliefs, practices, technologies …
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Feasting with Friends of the Earth
Hope is not generated through optimism…it’s through agency and action.
…We need nothing short of a revolution!
The Second Holocaust
For 70 years the word “holocaust” has been in common use and we all knew it was about the bigoted murder of thousands of civilians during The Second World War. Schindler’s List and other movies have brought the tragedy alive in our minds. It was about the wholesale extermination of people to make space for …
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Art as Activism at Tullow Community School
We were delighted and grateful for an invitation to meet with a class of 5th Year art students at Tullow Community School, and very impressed with the students’ engagement with the big ideas presented in Feast Upon The Earth. Our presence was part of a day celebrating the student’s exhibition of a project bringing new …
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“I Want A Revolution”
A conversation with Brigidine elders about the future, with 15 minutes of mindful movements at the beginning. This special event took place on 1 February 2024 when we enjoyed an open conversation with 3,000 years of life experience. As you will hear, we approached the opportunity with some references, including elements of our recent timescape …
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What is a system change entrepreneur? : in conversation with KCLR
KCLR’s spoke with us for their Ours to Protect series. In November, KCLR producer Ethna Quirke spoke to Tom Butler about his retreat from the corporate world, a return to nature and his work with the Carlow County Environmental Network and their upcoming “Feast upon the Earth” event. The programme was released in two broadcasts: …
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Feast Upon The Earth – The Book
Back in April when we sat down to brainstorm over a coffee and dreamed up an installation exploring the human relationship with nature we had no idea it would lead to such wide insights and wonderful feedback from visitors. Feast Upon The Earth was a powerful experience and the resulting timescape brought out new understanding …
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Why worry about system collapse?
“Why worry about capitalism when the earth is a pointless ball of shit?” Is this really a question? Well they had a panel… In this clip a way out of the mess is offered, in case you think life is worth living. As for “pointlessness”, it’d be normal if you thought there is no meaning …
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The Death of Life
“This frigid sea was a speckled mass of organisms. Tiny copepod crustaceans, looking like so many animated peas, beat their way in their thousands through the surface waters, feeding on plankton that I knew must be there, but which could not be seen without a microscope.” That picture of vitality in the Arctic begins the …
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