Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

June 28th, 2023

Virtue means doing the right thing, in relation to the right person, at the right time, to the right extent, in the right manner, and for the right purpose. — Aristotle

The sky is sunny and blue today where I live in Haarlem. Yesterday we got our first good rainstorm in the past six weeks. That’s very unusual for the Netherlands which is known for frequent rain, cool weather and overcast days. Evidently western Europe has already reached 2.3 degrees of warming. Yesterday in San Angelo, Texas it was 117F/47.5 C. The predictions are that Texas will have the warmest summer ever, like most of the states. And, maybe as to be expected, the Himalayan glaciers have accelerated their rate of melting, reported yesterday. At the same time the world is struggling to make the kind of changes necessary to stop the warming or even limit it. We talk of renewables replacing oil but my grocery store is filled with single use plastic wrapping on everything. Are things really better in plastic?

Our world is changing and it’s not for the better for us humans.

Most of us are unnerved by these challenging weather conditions. While it’s all in our hands, the way the world goes, it’s not really in my hands — as in, I am not the ruler of the world. So what do I do? Certainly do the small things that help, reduce, reuse and recycle, drive less, consume less. Most of us can do that but how do we deal with the larger issues of our responsibility of what kind of world are we leaving to our children and children’s children?

Philosophy is the science of asking the question, what is a good life? Aristotle is the originator of what is known as virtue ethics. His idea was that our character is what determines whether or not we are virtuous. Our character is built up of character traits that have to be balanced to have a eudaimonic (flourishing) life. Courage is good. Too much courage is reckless. Too little courage is cowardice. Aristotle believed that we could do the right thing if we possessed the character traits. Having the traits meant doing the right thing, so we could build those traits by our actions, our practice of being virtuous.

Emanuel Kant prescribed deontological (duties and rules) ethics that show up in the Victorian Era and continue in socially conservative culture where there are clear rules about what is right and wrong. In this ethics the duties and rules are more important than the outcomes. Kant believed that we could use reason to come to the morally correct action in any given situation. I’m guessing he was never cut off by an enormous SUV whose driver was texting rather than watching the road.

Joseph Fletcher proposed that our ethics are actually based upon the situation we find ourselves in. John Doris went on to develop Situational Ethics as a way to better describe human behaviour. He argues that any character traits that we have are based upon our local environment and situations that come up again and again, thus it seems that we have character traits when really we are a product of our environment and the specific situation we are in. Two social psychologists, Bibb Latané and John Darley, conducted an experiment where they simulated a person in distress to see if bystanders would help the person. If there were one or few bystanders they would render aid. But as the number of bystanders grew, at a certain point, no one rendered aid. It turns out the more people you have the less likely one person will take action. This is now known as the bystander effect. Latané and Darley followed this up with an experiment where students were told they were participating in a religious studies experiment and that they had to prepare a talk about the good samaritan. To give the talk they had to walk to another building where a person in distress was staged. They added a variable of telling some participants that they had to hurry to be on time for the speech. 63% of those with a low hurry condition helped the person, while only 10% of those with the high hurry condition stopped to give aid.

This certainly is good evidence that our situation or circumstances have a big effect on our ability to make ethical choices. It is important to note that even in the hurry group 10% did stop. What made them do that? It seems unlikely that Kant’s deontology (duties and rules) was on people’s minds. And if they were reasoning about the situation they might likely determine that their personal urgency was more important, considering that someone else would likely render aid. It seems to me Aristotle’s virtues ethics would better account for those who did render aid. Those who are likely to render aid, render aid regardless of the circumstances.

Thank you for sticking with me for the short ethics lesson.

Now what do Aristotle, Kant and Doris have to say about the weather?

We all have our lives to live, including all of our daily responsibilities to family, job, community etc. We are living in the busiest time ever with our 24/7 work from anywhere connectivity. When it comes to the environment, pollution and the climate crisis we are like the good samaritan test subjects, likely to walk by and assume that someone else will give aid. But this is clearly not the ethical thing to do. Ethically we must do whatever we can to avert the harm being done today and to future generations.

How do we improve upon the 10% who stop and help?

I believe that both Aristotle and Kant’s ethics can help. If we can practice virtuous behavior then we develop character traits that lead to virtuous behavior. In this case we must consider the most ethical choices we can make in regards to the environment, pollution and the climate crisis and we make it a daily practice to make ethical choices. Then when we are confronted by a situation where we may be tempted to push off the ethical choice, we are more likely, by habit, to be ethical.

Finally I do believe that we can begin to apply Kantian Ethics to examine our duty to our environment and to future generations and begin to make some rules that insure that our current generation doesn’t bring about the end of human civilization, as we know it on the Earth. We must select government representatives who will govern for the people rather than for the special interests that drive much of our policy making.

This week the Swiss people approved a net-zero climate law, adopting rules that will require climate ethical behaviour from Swiss corporations and businesses that operate in Switzerland. At the same time the people approved a minimum 15% corporate tax rate, adopting a global initiative to hold our multinational corporations accountable to paying taxes.

Our future depends on our ability to take a long and wide view of what is best for our human global civilization. Long in time, we should be planning 100 years out for the benefit of our descendants who will literally inherit the world that we leave to them. Wide in including all of humanity in our considerations. For too long the prosperous northern countries have stacked the deck in their favour. We citizens of these countries have been too prideful of the quality of our societies and the quality of our own lives. We now know that much of that prosperity has come at the expense of the global south and predominantly the world’s poorest people.

It turns out that we have a lot to do to become ethical. You and I are the place to start, as the decisions we make individually and collectively will shape life on this planet for the next 100 generations. This is a wonderful responsibility which makes our lives meaningful.

The generations alive on Earth today will be remembered…

…for all of the great, ethical decisions we made.

I believe that is what is possible for us all.

In the meantime, we’ll be looking for PROOF of a thriving future for humanity.

The Generative Futurist
Editor PROOF

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Proof 53 – The Good Life Blueprint: Unraveling Virtue, Value, and Vision for a Better World

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

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Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post The Good Life Blueprint: Unraveling Virtue, Value, and Vision for a Better World appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

June 1st, 2023

I woke up this morning, uneasy. Was it a dream? Something I ate last night? I sat up confused by the dull headache, reminiscent of a hangover — impossible as I had had nothing to drink the night before. “All is not well this morning,” was the broadcast I was receiving. What then? News on the feed was bad, is bad, is always bad. Maybe it’s a news hangover, I thought. I need to swear off the default American news sources.

Who am I this morning? Uneasy, not at home in the body.

Breathe then, always the breath. We take 17,000 of them a day. I try to make at least 500 of those conscious ones. In…hold…out…hold…repeat…times 10. Green tea and then a stretch into my body. Starting to feel — a — bit — more — like — the — becoming — me.

My spiritual practice is to take everything in every moment as the path to awakening. Poison as path. Joy as path. Work as path. Boredom as path. Path as path.

I have a craving to know what is going on in the world. I want the news of the day, everyday. I take it in full firehose. Like all cravings it comes with a clear cost — mostly my tranquility. I close the traditional feeds and switch to my PROOF feed, everyday the AI sends me a collection of positive stories about the future. Stories from people who give a damn about the future. My nervous system resets and I start feeling a glimmer of excitement. There are good things going on out there.

As is inside so is it outside, as it is outside so it is inside — clear — but what to make of it? If I am uneasy is that because the world is uneasy, or is the world uneasy because I am uneasy? Until I shift my attention to the outside piece that is positive, and then I am positive. I am what my I put my attention on, or where my attention gets grabbed. Rabbit holes are everywhere: 12 notifications have gone off in the last 4 minutes, updates and responses, notes to read and research

Snap awake, question: How do we transcend who we are to make way for who we are becoming?

We don’t have the life we want today, the world we want to live in today. No one likes the state of the world today. My inner cynic knows these roads only too well.

Yet we can see what is emergent in the world. A growing movement of world designers are sharpening their imagineering pencils and designing their way out of the chaos. New economic systems, new physics, new governance models, new transport and energy systems. All we need to do is let them get their hands on the wheel and drive this old world forward into a thriving future.

How do we get the powerful of this world to step aside?

As it is outside so it is inside. What is it in me that is standing in the way of that which I am becoming? Fixed, attached, impatient little old me. How do I get you to stand aside to let love and wisdom emerge?

Time to meditate, to be.

Evolution is messy. Our evolution is uneven, more of a probability cloud moving in the direction of a better future than a linear progression. We have remnants of Neanderthal DNA in our genetics. We are a mishmash of everything that has gone before with some really cool features, like thinking, imagination, laguage, empathy, love and compassion. The same is true of our civilization. We have Hamurabi’s eye-for-an-eye code of justice living side by side with the International Court of Justice (World Court). We have pollution spewing 200m super yachts ferrying champagne guzzling elites alongside radical gift economists who refuse payment for work and live off the gifts of others. Evolution is here, just unevenly distributed (Wiliam Gibson, on the future).

We are evolving towards becoming a new kind of human and we are stuck in the past and we are playing with technologies that threaten the very viability of life on earth. All of these things and more are a part of the emergent future.

Same on the inside. Most of us are at war with ourselves, belittling ourselves with our imperfect bodies, our imperfect minds, our left/right broken hearts, all the while doubling down on courses, workout classes, yoga retreats, low fat-keto fat-animal protein-vegan diets, all the while measuring our self worth by the likes our — superficial, glossy, made for streaming, I am camera ready always, even when I am crying my eyes out — social communities.

How do we transcend who we are to make room for who we are becoming.

The answer is that we must transcend our current self without leaving it behind. This means that we can erase ourselves, even the parts we may not like, rather we have to include who we are today as we become our future selves. That rings true, right?

So I get out of bed, uneasy, and breathe…and stretch…and settle into my future self, without having to reconcile or repress or make my uneasy experience wrong. It is just what it is, an uneasy feeling today, a sad one tomorrow, and something else the day after. I am just how I am. Who I am becoming is okay with that, more okay than today’s self is.

That feels a lot like evolution. It’s a good day to become. That’s true for me. That’s true for the future of humanity.

In the meantime, we’ll be looking for PROOF of a thriving future for humanity.

The Generative Futurist
Editor PROOF

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Proof 50 – World Building from the Inside Out

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post World Building from the Inside appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

June 1st, 2023

My journey down the Nile, into the heart the Egyptian soul.

I have just returned from leading and facilitating a life development and spiritual growth retreat in Egypt, visiting the pyramids of Giza and temples and tombs on the Nile between Luxor and Aswan where I had a startling insight about my work as a generative futurist.

Over the past eight years I have dedicated my life to the emerging movement to re-imagine, and re-create this world to be a place that works for everyone and everything. With my film WeRiseUP I documented how we can shift our global success models from consumption to contribution, from the me to the we. At Boldly YOU we have built courses and meditation programs to help people to discover their gifts and purpose and find ways to make a difference for their communities with big and small projects. I am honored to be a part of the impulse to build a better future for humanity and the planet.

Yet there has been one element of this work that has never felt right to me, which is that we have a tendency to want to fix the world and make a positive impact on issues that we care about.

The problem with fixing things is that our global systems are so complicated that fixing one thing can exacerbate a separate problem across the world. For example, using western style industrial agricultural production in Africa has produced an increase in crop yields providing increased food security for the hungry, yet it is causing great economic damage to the small farmer who could not afford the fertilize and till approach of big ag. A knock on effect was the loss of food diversity and nutrient content of the food produced.

Currently Germany is caught between two forces as they try to green their energy production. On one hand they want to transition away from petroleum based energy production towards sustainable energy. On the other, they are closing nuclear power plants across the country to protect the environment and safeguard against potential future nuclear meltdowns. As a result of these two competing solutions there is really nowhere to turn but to coal which accounts for 30% of their production. Coal is by far the dirtiest fossil fuel that they use to produce power. Two steps forward, five steps back.

We can’t apply linear solutions to complicated problems.

The second element of making the world a better place, is the notion of being or creating a positive impact on the world. At its root level, impact is a word that points to a collision between two objects. A car impacts a wall damaging both the car and the wall. A bomb creates an impact crater. Positive impact would be to use a collision which results in a better state or a better result. Again we are back to a linear approach to problem solving.

Complicated problems require complex solutions.

Complexity is found in nature. Living ecosystems are built of complex chains of symbiotic relationships, where the by-product of one species helps in some way the success of another species. Fixing the environment has often caused more damage than help. This has given rise to the rewilding approach of restoring the environment. Wilderness has its own intelligence. The question is how do we get the wilderness to return when it is wild by nature. The answer is to provide the conditions that allow for the regrowth of the wild.

Could we work to provide certain conditions for civilization that give rise to complex solutions?

The birth of ancient civilization took place in floodplains. The floodplains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in Syria and Iraq, gave rise to Mesopotamia, “the land between the rivers.” The floodplains of the Indus River, in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan, gave rise to the Harappan/Indus River Civilization. And the river with the world’s greatest delta, the Nile, produced the ancient Egyptian culture. The floods brought nutrient rich silt and sediment to the soil of the floodplain creating fertile soil for farming.

Human civilization was an emergent creation of the floodplain ecosystem.

Sometimes we forget that they are a part of the ecosystems that we live in. This forgetfulness leads to the simpleminded linear thinking that plagues our approach to making the world a better place.

The ancient Egyptians harbored no such foolishness over the course of their 4000 year time span. They celebrated and honored the fertility that the floods brought to the land. They worked both spiritually and physically to ensure that the floods would bring life and prosperity to the land and their people.

In 1902 modern civilization built the first of 14 dams on the Nile and brought about the end of the floodplain fertility. We conquered the wild unpredictability of the floods and achieved linearity. And lost biodiversity, like the blue lotus that previously had flourished on the Nile. We submerged ancient temples where the Egyptians had carved the blue lotus on the walls. And the Nubian people lost thousands of square kilometers of their homelands between Egypt and Sudan.

Walking through the ancient monuments that the Egyptians built and floating along the Nile, the story of fertility was deeply moving. We are beings that live by the cycles of day and night, flood and drought, life and death. Our place is not outside and above these cycles, like an all knowing deity, but rather inside the rhythm of life.

It’s time for us to set aside the notion that we are the masters of this planet and to return to the wild wisdom of the planet. From now on I am relinquishing my drive to make and impact. Rather I am going to dedicate my life into creating a fertile environment for complex life affirming growth to take the lead.

We can help to usher in a new age of fertility where everyone can contribute to the dance of leaving this planet more fertile for the next generation. And our descendants can do the same for their descendants, generation, after generation. We can gain wisdom on how to support the growth of complex systems solving complicated problems, but to do so we have to give up fixing, give up impact and ultimately give up on our entitlement as a species.

On our last day in Aswan we took a boat to the gate of the old Philae temple. Philae was a temple built for Isis the god of fertility. The temple had been flooded with the building of the Aswan Low Dam in 1906.

In 1971 the temple was moved 500 meters to higher ground and reconstructed block by block. The old gate was left to mark the spot where the temple had stood for 2300 years before the flood. I swam reverently through the gate and out into the open water thinking of the blue lotus that we went to visit earlier in the day.

Even though the temple had seen such dramatic changes, and although the blue lotus no longer grew wild on the Nile, I felt happy and hopeful for the future. I sensed Isis, the profound power of fertility, and I knew that the flood would come again, the cycle would be restored and civilization would be reborn on the banks of the Nile.

In the meantime, we’ll be looking for PROOF of a thriving future for humanity.

The Generative Futurist
Editor PROOF

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Proof 49 – Reimagining Making a Difference

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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• Instagram
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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post Reimagining Making a Difference appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

November 10, 2021

COP26 – a heady melange of triumphant world leaders, angry dissatisfied sign hoisting activists, fat-cat-petro-lobbyists, back room meeting system changers, groupies and real working diplomats and scientists who know that this should be much easier than this, considering that the house is on fire.

It’s enough to give you the worst hangover of your life in exchange for a party that never really seems to get started.

The 26th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference is an ongoing global exercise in cognitive bias. For 26 years scientists have been giving us accurate models of the impact of climate change and how to avoid the most catastrophic of those impacts – CUT CARBON AND METHANE NOW! It’s dead simple, still we get timelines and commitments from leaders that kick the can down the road in terms of making hard choices and getting humanity on the road to regeneration. Politicians and diplomats “do what they can” never diverging from the limited scope of actions. If their hands aren’t tied then they act as if they are.

Every year the conference has laid bare the brutal politics of tribalism. Each country represented works to get the best deal it can. It’s like negotiating where to put your chair on the deck of the Titanic to get the best view of the sea. And worse yet it’s a slow rolled stage play, scripted months before the actual event. We learned this week that the US and China are going to “ramp up cooperation tackling climate change”. This surprise announcement came at the end of ten months of negotiating. No commitments to targets or policies or well anything but the afore mentioned ramping up of cooperation. Ten months to agree to announce that they had an agreement to cooperate, something that any rational person might have assumed given wide scale distraction the climate crisis is bringing to us all.

It’s both clear that the UN and the Climate Change Conference are inadequate tools to help us deal with the climate crisis, and that the UN and the Climate Change Conference are the only global tools that we have to do the job. It’s enough to have you running stark naked and mad over the Scottish Highlands looking for way out of the hall of mirrors.

This editorial is being released a few days before the closing of the conference and I hope that I will be proved wrong and lambasted for my lack of belief in the process. But none of that really matters. We have no choice but to get this right and take the clear steps that must be taken. The only question is what will the cost of inaction or inadequate coordinated global action be? The answer to that ranges from human extinction to a rough hundred years on the planet.

Now that that is cleared up, I want to acknowledge the scientists, diplomats, bureaucrats, activists, indigenous youth leaders, press agents, celebrities, CEOs and anyone who has had a hand in creating policy, targets or actions that lead us to achieving the agreed upon 2016 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5° C. Thank you for your work and service on behalf of the rest of us who are trying to figure it all out.

This issue is dedicated to helping you do just that, figure it out. You will get an idea of what is needed, what is being done and what might help us bridge the gap. We are very excited by our podcast interview with Kim Stanley Robinson who lays out a futuristic vision of a UN based agency that is responsible for the rights of future generations in regards to global climate policy, The Ministry for the Future.

We hope that in our new PROOF in ACTION feature will help you to move beyond understanding into action in your own life, oriented to ending the climate crisis and generating a thriving future for humanity.

We believe it’s the only game in town, and the best ever cure for a COP26 hangover.

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Letter From the Editors:

Welcome to the new home of PROOF at proofzine.com.  PROOF of a Thriving Future started one year ago as an email update on news that provided proof that there are people and projects that are taking action that are generating a thriving future. At Issue number 16 we moved the newsletter onto the internet as Bold.ly NOW’s blog.  By issue 34 it was clear that you, our readers wanted more, so we set about building PROOF as a standalone magazine – hence proofzine.com.

Over the coming months we will be adding more content areas and guest writers.  We are very excited about our new column PROOF in ACTION where in every issue we give you a concise list of actions you can take to align with and bring about a thriving future.

The Bold.ly NOW Show, our podcast series has also grown both in audience and ambition.  We now have three sub-brands to the show so you can tune into the conversations that matter most to you.  The Bold.ly NOW Show name will continue with conversations with thought leaders, businesses and organizations that contribute to a thriving future. 

Generative Futures Initiative (GFI) conversations is a series of conversations that directly relate to Generative Futurism.  We will be hosting fellow futurists and those who are leading long-term to multi-generational impact projects.  Look for our second episode of this series with Sci-Fi author and futurist Kim Stanley Robinson. We will be digging deep into his new book The Ministry for the Future.  

We will also begin a series of transformational/educational conversations with the name Bold.ly YOU, reflecting on how to see and realize a future.  Tune into these conversations if you are looking to discover your purpose, design a thriving future project or get into action on an area of life that is important to you.  

With all these projects we are looking into reliable ways to financially support the work.  You can become a subscriber to PROOF by clicking on subscribe in the menu or scrolling to the bottom of this page.  As practitioners of the Gift Economy, PROOF is our gift to you.  If you are moved to give a gift to us, a subscription or one time donation would be greatly appreciated. By the way, you can become a subscriber with a $0 gift to us. Your time to connect with us by subscribing at this level is appreciated and keeps us going. 

Our transformational and educational courses are available for members of Bold.ly YOU, our app.  Be sure and check out our three-course program, Do What You Love Change the World.  The three courses are: Burning Desire, Big Idea and Bold Action.  Each course features 9 hours of highly interactive content designed to move you in action from one level to the next.  These programs are all unlocked for a monthly membership of $17. 

We value you no matter how you choose to connect with the Bold.ly NOW Movement. If you have ideas or input, you can email us at bebold@bold.ly.

Proof 35 – What’s Up COP26?

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: The Gambia

The Gambia is a small West African country, bounded by Senegal, with a narrow Atlantic coastline. It’s known for its diverse ecosystems around the central Gambia River. It is the only one of the 39 countries being tracked by the climate action tracker whose policies, targets and actions are fully in alignment with the Paris Agreement of limiting warming to 1.5° C

See the the climate action tracker click here.

What We’re Watching: David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

In his 93 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of the planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. But during his lifetime, Attenborough has also seen first-hand the monumental scale of humanity’s impact on nature. With stunning cinematography and a story that exposes the impact that man has had on the natural world, this is a must watch film for anyone who cares about the planet.

What We’re Reading: ReGeneration

Paul Hawken’s Regeneration is a radical new approach to the climate crisis, one that weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation that can end the climate crisis in one generation. It is the first book to describe and define the burgeoning regeneration movement spreading rapidly throughout the world.

The purpose of the book and the project is to end the climate crisis in one generation. Ending the crisis does not complete the challenge of global warming. That is a century-long commitment. Ending the crisis means that by 2030 collective action by humanity will have reduced total greenhouse gas emissions by 45 to 50 percent. At this time, we are going backward and increasing emissions. Regeneration is an inclusive and effective strategy compared to combating, fighting, or mitigating climate change. Regeneration creates, builds, and heals. Regeneration is what life has always done, we are life, and that is our focus. It includes how we live and what we do—everywhere. We have a common interest and that interest can only be served when we come together.

What We’re Listening to –  The Bold.ly NOW Show with Kim Stanley Robinson

Tune in to the Boldy Now Show featuring Kim Stanley Robinson, the Hugo and Nebula-winning author of the Mars Trilogy. He is known as a realistic, science-based highly-literary science fiction author with over 20 books published. Stan’s work often focuses on themes like sustainability, economic & social justice, climate change, and speculative futures.

In this podcast, we discuss these themes covered in Stan’s atypical sci-fi novel, The Ministry for the Future. Stan uses the book to demonstrate a vision of a new future for humanity and investigates what it might take to survive and transcend the climate crisis. 

PROOF in ACTION 35

This issue we have been looking in on COP26. That this UN led conference deals at the level of nations can leave you wondering what is there to do at the personal level.  We’re going to break that down into two parts, the political and the practical.

At the political level here’s what you can do:

At the practical level we can all make an impact on reaching our targets.  Here are a few simple steps:

If you have additional thoughts on actions we can all take, please post them in the conversation below.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post What’s Up COP26? appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Doug Fisher

Publishing Editor

July 8, 2021

You may recall in PROOF #25 Michael Shaun asked us all to speak about what’s happening as a climate crisis rather than “climate change” or “global warming”. In the news in the last few weeks there have been stories about the highest recorded temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the world, and the lowest recorded water levels in reservoirs in the Western US.  Powerful evidence for accepting Michael Shaun’s request.

At Bold.ly NOW we’re dedicated to you, me, all of us taking action to generate a thriving future for humanity and thriving lives for ourselves. In the face of situations as dire as the climate crisis, this can be daunting.  How can we remain optimistic and take bold action rather than get resigned or defeated? How we respond to this challenge will make all the difference in addressing the climate crisis and all the other significant challenges we face.

If we get daunted, it’s easy to avoid the news about what’s happening. Yet, to have any power with our actions to address the issues we face, it is important to know what’s going on.  That’s one action that can help generate a new future – being informed about the current state. In that light, in this issue of PROOF we are offering news and information about what is happening regarding the climate. We are also including news of some innovative things people are doing to address the climate crisis.  

As Michael Shaun has also written about, the shocking news is what gets the most press; for example the record high temperatures and wildfires. What’s harder to find are practical actions you and I can take as individuals to turn the tide on the climate crisis.  

One of our fundamental beliefs at Bold.ly NOW is that you and I, each of us, can take meaningful action to address the significant issues in front of us.  It’s up to each of us to do the work to identify what’s important to us, what are we passionate about, and what are our gifts. From there we can imagine what’s possible and take action to make that possibility real.

Why am I saying all this? Well, the news is pretty daunting! As I have been preparing this issue of PROOF I have found out the current climate situation is more grim than I thought. I am writing to prepare you, and me, to look at what’s happening with open eyes, without looking away. And then, take a deep breath, consider what’s possible, and take action.  

What action? Well, that’s for you to determine.  Maybe it’s contacting someone you know who is actively working on addressing the climate crisis.  Maybe it’s starting a project in your community to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Maybe it’s merely informing others about what you are learning.  There is no action that is too small.  

Right now, no one knows what will resolve the climate crisis. There are many people doing many things to address it, some profiled in this issue of PROOF.  What’s most likely is there will be many different approaches by many different people and there will be breakthroughs in the future that we can barely even imagine right now.

It’s said that we overestimate what can be done in one year and underestimate what can be done in five or ten years.

What makes the difference is taking action today. Some of the actions will produce beneficial results, and some won’t. However, it is in action that the way forward will be discovered by us.

And, your action makes a difference, regardless how big or how small.

We invite you to read this issue of PROOF (and, well, every issue) to provoke yourself to consider: What action will I take today to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for myself?

We hope you enjoy this weeks PROOF.  Please share it with your friends.

Thank you for joining us and other like-minded adventurers in discovering what it takes to generate a thriving future. We’re grateful to be on the path with you!

Doug

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast and subscribe to us on Youtube

Proof 34 – The Climate Crisis

In the News:

What We’re Watching : Hands On: Women, Climate, Change

Hands On demonstrates what’s possible when we begin to take action on the large challenges we face. The film profiles five women from four continents tackling climate change through policy, protest, education and innovation. The film powerfully demonstrates how women are transferring knowledge and local networks into hands-on strategies.

This collaborative doc offers unique perspectives across cultures and generations; A young woman challenges the expansion of oil rigs in the North Sea while a seasoned community organizer interprets satellite weather reports for fisherman struggling to survive on India’s increasingly volatile coast.

What We’re Reading – The Uninhabitable Earth

In his travelogue of our near future, David Wallace-Wells brings into stark relief the climate troubles that await–food shortages, refugee emergencies, and other crises that will reshape the globe.

The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation – today’s.

What We’re Listening to –  TILclimate Podcast

Understanding climate change can be confusing. TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) is an award-winning MIT podcast that breaks down the science, technologies, and policies behind climate change, how it’s impacting us, and what we can do about it. Each quick episode gives you the what, why, and how on climate change — from real scientists and experts — to help us make informed decisions for our future.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Climate Crisis appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Micheal Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

July 8, 2021

“A la mode”, “modisch”, “alla moda”, “fashionable” – up to date with current style or trend. FASHION. We have all been trained to try and keep up with the current colors, cuts and styles. We feel good when we are in fashion and awkward at best when we are out.

We’ve been taught to never judge a book by its cover, while trying to adopt coverings that “make a good impression”, quite the contradiction. So we dress, we dress well, we dress down and we dress for the occasion.

The fashion industry knows that the more we care about our looks the more clothing they sell. They trained us to seasonal looks, and then they revved up the cycle and created fast fashion where style changes every few weeks. And we consume and consume and consume mountains of inexpensive clothing that makes us feel great for a moment.

Dancing on the end of this string we lose our ability to be confident in the indelible self, the enduring self.

If this is not bad enough, fast and cheap clothing has created mountains of waste by over production and disposal of out of date styles.

Our obsession with fast fashion is toxic.

Still, we all do want to express ourselves, to celebrate our uniqueness with our clothes and costumes. There is nothing wrong with that but it’s a fundamental fallacy that we need to follow a brand to do that. The rise of second hand fashion shows us that we can engage in our personal style and expression without being on the fashion hamster wheel.

Thinking through the idea of a growing second hand fashion industry, it’s clear that unlike the products of fast fashion where clothes are made as cheaply as possible, a well made, good wearing piece of clothing can be resold again and again, creating a cycle of earnings for second hand clothing retailers without the negative environmental impacts.

Who knew that one of the ways to fight the climate crisis would be to buy quality second hand clothing, and then sell it on when we are done with it. The good news is that many people are waking up to this idea. Quality and sustainability are suddenly fashionable and that is a trend we all should follow.

In this weeks PROOF we will explore sustainable fashion and the ways that you can shift your dollars from toxic consumption to a closed loop cycle of virtue that gives us a vast amount of freedom to really be yourself.

We hope you enjoy this weeks PROOF. Please share it with your friends.

Join us as we help to invent and invest in a sustainable future.

Michael Shaun

P.S.  I would love you to follow our Podcast, subscribe to us on Youtube, sign up for the PROOF email and subscribe if you love reading PROOF

Proof 33 – The Future of Fashion

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future: Candiani Denim

Candiani Denim was established in 1938 in a tiny town near Milano and is a family-run company ever since.

In 75 years of experience the enterprise grew to become the World’s finest and most sustainable denim mill creating the fabrics that gave birth to the Premium Denim Industry.

Today Candiani is known as the greenest textile company in the blue World and produces for the most prestigious names in the market, such as Levi’s, Lucky Brand, Hugo Boss, Madewell and J. Crew.

See the company’s website here, and read more about the company here.

What We’re Watching : Where the future of fashion is headed

What is the future of fashion and where is the fashion industry heading to? What kind of future do fashion pioneers think of and how do they try to change the way of thinking about fashion? A documentary about the future and a new way of approach to fashion.

Backlight shows five future fashion pioneers who make their industry future-proof by experimenting with new fabrics, reuse and hi-tech design. Their ‘fashion of the future’ goes far beyond sustainability alone. They also force us to look differently at beauty and the role that clothing plays in our lives.

(Note – turn on subtitles to understand the people speaking in Dutch.)

What We’re Reading – Unraveled

A groundbreaking chronicle of the birth–and death–of a pair of jeans, that exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the planet.

A sprawling, deeply researched, and provocative tour-de-force, Unraveled is not just the story of a pair of pants, but also the story of our global economy and our role in it. Told with piercing insight and unprecedented reporting, Unraveled challenges us to use our relationship with our jeans–and all that we wear–to reclaim our central role as citizens to refashion a society in which all people can thrive and preserve the planet for generations to come.

You can read an excerpt here, and listen to a discussion with author Maxine Bédat here.

What We’re Listening to –  Conscious Chatter

Conscious Chatter opens the door to conversations about our clothing + the layers of stories, meaning and potential impact connected to what we wear.  It reimagines the narrative around sustainability, explores the importance of resourcefulness, questions conscious consumerism, and works to deconstruct how oppressive systems impact the sustainable fashion space.

In Episode 237 listen to a discussion with Ben Mead, the Managing Director of Hohenstein Institute USA, about green chemistry and the OEKO-TEX® Association which attempts to certify green practices in the textile supply chain.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

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Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.org

The post The Future of Fashion appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Doug Fisher

Publishing Editor

June 21, 2021

I’ve been thinking a lot about our – Bold.ly NOW – responsibility for the things we share in the pages of PROOF. We do our best to make sure that the articles we post are truthful and lead to a thriving future for humanity, the heart of our purpose.  Yet, if we were to take a hard look at almost any article, company, film or podcast here, I am sure we would discover shortcomings. That likely is human nature.

Not only is it hard to assess the projects and ideas of others, it is also a hard challenge to say what thriving would look like, or better said, what the numerous possible successful versions of thriving might look like. So rather than tell you what thriving is, we simply show things that point in that direction. 

The Buddha said,

“A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.”

Likewise an article in PROOF points at thriving and is not thriving.  Following the Buddha’s teaching here: Don’t look at the finger or you will miss the moon. Don’t think the finger is the moon.  And realize that although we don’t really know what the moon is we can move towards it and as we do, it will become clearer.

This week in PROOF 32 we look at the future of food with some stories, films and companies who are pointing the way.  Food is an incredibly personal topic. It seems that there are a million different philosophies on the food we grow and eat and that they all claim to be the one true way of food.

Regardless of your philosophy of food, there is a shift in perspective that we feel is fundamental to the shift we need to make in regard to how we grow our food and the food by which we nourish ourselves and that is to move beyond seeing ourselves as separate from our ecosystems.  You’ve heard it said that:

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!

This has a common sense clarity. We all know it to be true. And yet we eat all kinds of things we might not want to “be”. If we break this down a little further even if we believe this statement, there is still a separation, a dualism between the food and the one eating the food, “I”. If we are what we eat then there is no distinction between me and what I eat. 

Extending this further we come to, You are “the land/ecosystem that produces the food” you eat. And ultimately we get to:

You are the Earth!

Given all that, it’s time that we reconsider the way we grow and eat our food. Fortunately for us there are a number of large movements exploring what the future of food will look like. You can participate by getting involved with food production, waste reduction and sustainable and regenerative growing practices.

We hope you enjoy this weeks PROOF.  Please share it with your friends.

Join us in generating the future of food!

Proof 32 – The Future of Food

In the News:

What We’re Watching : The Need to Grow

In a race against the end of farmable soil, three individuals fight for change in the industry of agricultural food production, calling for a revolution.
“The Need to GROW” delivers alarming evidence on the importance of healthy soil — revealing not only the potential of localized food production working with nature, but our opportunity as individuals to help regenerate our planet’s dying soils and participate in the restoration of the Earth.

And, if that’s not enough, The Need to Grow is one of 8 Must-Watch New Sustainable Agriculture Documentaries as compiled by the New York City Food Policy Center.  Check out the entire list here.

What We’re Reading – The Zero Waste Chef

There is an enormous amount of waste in our food systems.  Now, there is some guidance about what we all can do to reduce the amount of food waste.

In her debut book, Anne-Marie Bonneau gives us the facts to motivate us to do better, the simple (and usually free) fixes to ease us into wasting less–you can, for example, banish plastic wrap by simply inverting a plate over your leftovers–and, finally, the recipes and strategies to turn us into more sustainable, money-saving cooks.

What We’re Listening to –  Down To Earth – The Planet to Plate Podcast

Listen to a discussion with Jesse Smith, director of stewardship at the White Buffalo Land Trust, discussing designing agricultural systems that improve as they age.

Down to Earth is a podcast about hope. As climate change collides with our industrial food system, the podcast focuses on people who are developing practical, innovative solutions.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post The Future of Food appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

May 4, 2021

In the desert of Southeastern Utah the sand itself is alive. There is a crust made up of cyanobacteria, green algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, and other tiny organisms that protect the soil against erosion, retain moisture and help the grasses and bushes to keep a foothold in the sand. The National Park Service warns: “Don’t Bust the Crust! It’s Alive!”

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend in Moab Utah to do some biking and catch a glimpse of the stars with no local light pollution. It was epic and deeply moving. The desert in Moab, Utah is a mostly intact wild ecosystem. Human activity is channeled in specific areas and trails and the vast majority of the land is untouched. As it does not hold many extractable resources of value, it has not been tamed by humankind.

By contrast, Florida has sold off vast tracts of its wild land for development. Wetlands have been drained and conservation pushed back in favor of extracting value. This has given rise to a number of environmental issues including; nutrient pollution from fertilizers and septic tanks, tourism based waste, wildlife extinction, invasive species and toxic algae blooms. Bit by bit we have developed the wild out of Florida, the wild that had maintained a balance for hundreds of thousands of years. Florida is no exception. Wherever we go, extract and develop, natural systems break down leaving us to chase down a series of endless ecological issues.

The best course of action in this case is to refrain from development without anticipating its impact on the environment. The second best course of action would be to rewild the land. This is more than simply vacating the land and letting it go wild. The changes are too great to make a difference on time scales smaller than a thousand years.

Rewilding is working with natural systems to restore the ecosystem, or maybe better said, rebuild enough of the basic wildlife structure that the ecosystem restores on its own as wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats.

The rewilding of the Yosemite National Park is an example of this approach. Twenty-six years ago wild wolves were reintroduced to the park. The results of this effort brought the grey wolf back from the brink of extinction and restored the balance of park. The wolves brought down the elk populations that had over-grazed sapling willows and aspens, sending populations of birds plummeting and leaving the beavers without materials to build dams, causing fish die offs from high water temperatures. All those issues are now resolved in the park due to the reintroduction of the wolves.

The wolves were just the start of dozens of projects that the park rangers have taken to restore the park. Success in Yosemite has sparked rewilding projects across the US west, including a movement to remove dams from rivers to restore spawning grounds for fish. Time and time again, we see that if we can give nature enough room, she comes back.

This week we share stories about rewilding projects and how we are learning to consider the wild nature of a place to be one of the highest priorities in how we steward that place.

These projects are indeed PROOF that we are heading in the right direction. And yet, I want you to consider that in order for the planet to recover it’s natural balance, we will have to confront our basic western dualistic view of man and nature. Francis Bacon is one of the philosophers who set us out on our present course with his dominion over nature argument. “Let the human race recover that right over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest.” (Novum Organon, Bacon).

With this divinely granted dominion over nature, we have tamed the wild world and have forced it to do our bidding. We cannot rewild the world with the same mindset. Rather we will need to rewild ourselves and relinquish our dominion over nature. We need to contemplate the questions: Who would we be without our planet? Can an Earthling be separate from Earth?

Humans are a wonderful and unique emergence in the history of this planet. We are an expression of the amazing complexity of life. And we are not separate from the planet on which we live.

At Bold.ly NOW we imagine a future where we celebrate our culture and our wildness without having to reconcile the two. We imagine a future where human presence is a net benefit to the Earth and the innumerable species of life with which we share it.

The first step to restoring the balance in your life is to learn about rewilding and contemplate our human place in the global ecosystem. We hope you join us as we work to generate a thriving future for humanity and the wild world.

Proof of a Thriving Future for Humanity

In the News:

Organizations Generating a Thriving Future

Global Rewilding Alliance – WILD Foundation

Since 1974 WILD has put respect for nature at the center of the global leadership community and simultaneously stewarded coordinated action for the protection of Earth’s life-giving biodiversity.

WILD combines on-the-ground projects with subtle activism and policy interventions to achieve lasting protections for Earth’s wildlife and wild places.

In one current campaign, WILD is mobilizing one hundred million voices around the world in defense of nature, so that global leaders are empowered to take the next step to ensure our survival: protecting half of Earth’s land and seas.

What We’re Watching : David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

In every moment of every day, there’s a choice to be made. If we all make our choices with nature in mind, then together we’ll find a way to live in balance with the natural world. After all, we are nature, and we need it to survive.

During his lifetime, Sir David Attenborough has seen first-hand the monumental scale of environmental change caused by human actions. Now for the first time, he reflects on the devastating changes he’s witnessed and reveals how together we can address the biggest challenges facing life on our planet.

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet shares Sir David Attenborough’s greatest story yet – his witness statement for the natural world and vision for the future for rewilding the planet.

What We’re Reading – A New Path: Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone.

So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? That’s what George Monbiot does in Feral, a lyrical, unabashedly romantic vision of how, by inviting nature back into our lives, we can simultaneously cure our “ecological boredom” and begin repairing centuries of environmental damage. Monbiot takes readers on an enchanting journey around the world to explore ecosystems that have been “rewilded”: freed from human intervention and allowed―in some cases for the first time in millennia―to resume their natural ecological processes. We share his awe, and wonder, as he kayaks among dolphins and seabirds off the coast of Wales and wanders the forests of Eastern Europe, where lynx and wolf packs are reclaiming their ancient hunting grounds. Through his eyes, we see environmental success―and begin to envision a future world where humans and nature are no longer separate and antagonistic, but are together part of a single, healing world.

What We’re Listening to –  The Complexities of Large-Scale Conservation

Tom Butler shares how the Chacabuco Valley has successfully been rewilded from overgrazed ranching lands to a thriving ecosystem through the utilization of privately protected areas. We explore the differences between restoration and rewilding and the complex world of large-scale land conservation and wildlife restoration.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself. For more resources please check out our Podcast and Youtube channel.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

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Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post Rewilding the Earth appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Michael Shaun Conaway

Publishing Editor

April 28, 2021

On Earth Day, we at Bold.ly NOW participated in an UP.game event where the speakers were asked to share a vision of the future from 2030. I’ll share my story from the future in a moment, but first I want make a simple request. The time has come for all of us, governments, businesses, non-profits, schools, religious organizations and people, everyday people, to declare that we are in a climate crisis. Drop “climate change” or yesteryear’s “global warming”. It’s a crisis that requires our focus, will, and ingenuity to overcome.

I don’t care about determining if the warming is coming from man or nature. I don’t care to take the time to point fingers and lay blame. That’s all nonsense considering what is coming at us in this climate crisis. We need our best and brightest minds. We need our most capable engineers and project leaders. We need those who can lead people and give us encouragement and hope. We need artists and entertainers to lift us up. We flat out need the best of human capacity to overcome this crisis.

And we need to do it together. There are no enemies here as there are none who will be out of harms way from extreme weather. And should we walk off the edge, into a mass extinction event, we will discover that it is likely impossible for human civilization to survive a collapsing planetary ecosystem.

Now for the good news. If we were to do this as a global project, then a much different future awaits us. One where wonder at the world and our place in it can be revived.

Here is a glimpse of such a future beamed back through time by me in 2030.

April 2030

I am writing to you today to the steady hum of the propellers on our solar powered dirigible. I am on the rear deck of the airship we call the Ever Present Future. We are currently over the largest wildlife corridor in the world, the Great Plains Reserve.

Today we have been flying over what is believed to be the largest herd of bison in modern history. I wish you could be here to see the sight. Over the past six months we have seen signs that the global re-wilding project has produced a steady return of nature. I guess that was predictable, considering what we learned when humanity took a pause and stayed inside during the 2020 pandemic. We saw how once we step back, nature steps forward.

We have seen the kelp and krill come back and whales that are fully nourished after decades of decline. Life is coming back. That is the true essence of thriving for all.

As for humans, we are still an experiment to see if we can get to true equity and equality. The biggest news of the year has been the effects of the Economic Inequity Index. As you know, we now have a global cap on individual wealth at $10M US, Corporations have a cap of $100M of non-deployed capital.

Many thought this was going to be some kind of 20th Century wealth distribution project, handing money out. But what we have seen is a capital reinvestment of phenomenal proportions. Where rather than capital being relinquished, it has been invested into thriving earth projects. The best example is Apple’s investment of over a Trillion dollars of capital into wind/hydrogen generation, urban farming and its Net Zero cities project, with over 100 projects nearing completion. The big side effect of the Index Cap has been that the extreme profit incentive has been removed.

So we are seeing innovation at a scale and a diversity level that is unprecedented. I guess we are like the wildlife, once the predatory pressure is removed, we too begin to flourish.

Perhaps more importantly, there has been a global shift in the way we see ourselves. With sufficiency being the norm for all people, we have been freed in our minds. People are living their best lives, giving their gifts. And bit by bit we are seeing ourselves as the kind of people who can generate futures, as people who can create thriving for one another, and a vibrant thriving life.

On a personal note, our Generative Futures Initiative of a 100 year vision for 2130 is being well received. Teams from across the globe are participating in prototypes which, are as you know, the first step to realizing a future.

A Thriving Future…A Thriving Future for All.

I never get tired of rolling those words around my mouth, around my mind. I am humbled by the will, dedication and heart of a humanity focused on a world that works for all.

The captain is calling us to our morning meal. I’ll sign off and be back with many more updates in the coming weeks, months, decades and centuries.

That’s the news from 2030. As for today, call it a climate crisis and focus on supporting projects for capturing carbon and stopping the warming.

Thrilled you are on the team.

Proof of a Thriving Future for Humanity

In the News:

How YOU can generate a thriving future

On January 27th, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis. This Executive Order directed the Secretary of Agriculture to collect public input on a climate-smart agriculture and forestry strategy.

One of the most powerful actions we can take to advance regenerative agriculture is to encourage our government representatives to educate themselves. Letting policymakers know you care about this solution creates political will. And where there’s a will, there’s a way!

* comments close on April 29th,2021

What We’re Watching : Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World

Thunberg’s activism and message is brought to life in a new docuseries, “A Year to Change the World.” The three-part series, follows the then-16-year-old as she took a gap year from school in 2019 to meet with scientists around the world and spearhead awareness about climate change.

The docuseries shows her visiting people and places that have been distinctly affected by the heating of the Earth, such as Canada’s Athabasca Glacier, a town in California burned by wildfires and the indigenous Sami herders in Sweden where reindeer face starvation. She even sails across the North Atlantic during the ocean’s busiest season to experience how carbon dioxide emissions from ships have altered the chemistry of the ocean.

What We’re Reading – Facing the Climate Emergency

Face the truth of climate change, accept your fears, and become the hero that humanity needs.

Facing the Climate Emergency gives people the tools to confront the climate emergency, face their negative emotions, and channel them into protecting humanity and the natural world.

As the climate crisis accelerates toward the collapse of civilization and the natural world, people everywhere are feeling deep pain about ecological destruction and their role in it. Yet we are often paralyzed by fear. Help is at hand.

What We’re Listening to –  Civilization and Creating a Culture of Resistance

Civilization took millennia to congeal, and in the last few hundred years it has accelerated its world takeover. Derick Jensen shares how to help us interpret these patterns of history, and how to break them. Derrick Jensen is a philosopher, teacher, radical activist and the best-known voice of the growing deep ecology movement.

May this information inspire you to generate a thriving future for humanity and a thriving life for yourself.

-The Bold.ly Now Team

BOLD.LY NOW is a movement of co-creative up-levelers who have a burning desire to step free of our collapsing world & take the most daring leap forward to a thriving world.

Follow us

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PROOF is a Generative Futures Initiative Project

The Generative Futures Initiative
Generating a Thriving Future for All
generativefutures.life

The post Earth Day appeared first on PROOFZINE.

Again, take a moment, maybe even close your eyes, and imagine what you are looking at is the Earth suspended in space. 

What begins to shift for you?

For over four decades, astronauts from many cultures and backgrounds have had that real experience, not just imagined.  They report a common shift in perspective, that “national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this ‘pale blue dot’ becomes both obvious and imperative.”  This shift in perspective has been called “The Overview Effect”.

While many of us will never go into space and have a direct experience of The Overview Effect, we can imagine it and allow it to permeate our perspective;  to allow it to alter how we see the Earth and each other.

Many astronauts also reported that creating such a planetary society and protecting the “pale blue dot” is imminently achievable, if only more people could have that experience, that shift in perspective.

Take another look up from what’s immediately in front of you.  Begin to see the Earth in its totality, to see the innate interconnectedness of each of us.  What stirs in you?  What’s important to you about that? What is your vision for the future of the planet? 

How will you act boldly now?

Quotes taken from The Overview Institute

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