(From Raise the Stakes: The Planet Drum Review #13, Winter 1988) In discussing the greening of cities, one is reminded of the slogan that the French students used in 1968. On their posters they said “all that we want to change is everything,” which comes from that famous ecological dictum, “everything is connected to everything else.” When we pull a thread, we may in fact unwind a […]
Planet Drum has been collecting organic waste from the Bahía market since September. Several of the vendors help by collecting damaged fruit, plantain stalks, and other pieces of organic waste in 25 gallon barrels. To show our gratitude for their assistance, and include locals in the entire process of compost production to fruit tree production, we hosted a tree donation campaign with our market helpers. […]
Planet Drum Foundation purchased land outside the city of Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador to expand the Bioregional Education Projects to include adults and college students. In 2010 Peter Berg wrote A School to Retrieve the Future, an essay describing the newly initiated BSI—the vision behind the Institute and it’s curriculum. (Note: this is no longer available. It is included as archival historical information.) A Call for […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador These are life-altering times across the planet for practically all major aspects of human endeavor. Arching over the shifts that are taking place in social, political, economic, and cultural areas that all of us are experiencing is the urgent need to recognize and accommodate our species’ utter dependence on the viability of Earth’s natural systems. It is a mutual concern shared […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador It is a particularly hard winter of blizzards this year in the Northern Hemisphere and a hot summer marked by forest fires in the Southern, but in Ecuador where sharply defined seasons elsewhere are equatorially ambiguous it is the time of rain at night and, if there is no blanket of gray overcast, baking sun during the day. Downpours range from […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador October’s gray, overcast skies in coastal Ecuador are generally constant and cover over even sunrise and set (caida del sol or “fall of the sun”). This makes for pleasantly cool weather despite melancholy moods. It has been called “the gringo month” even though tourists are mostly absent because of the resemblance to Seattle or London (and perhaps the tendency to stare ahead […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Bahia de Caraquez is a working lesson in urban livability that collapsing industrial society urgently needs to adopt. For a transition toward a more sustainable future, new techniques and practices alone aren’t enough. By themselves they give off a chilly contrived feeling that rings false and heightens a sense of displacement rather than belonging. There needs to be a spirit and […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Ecuador has just ratified a new constitution overflowing with innovations that make it a trail-blazing 21st Century governing document. Environmental awareness and protection are recognized on a particularly high level in response to present day revelations about local destruction of habitat and species as well as planetary climate change. These are covered as extensively as might be hoped for in sections of […]
Ramon’s Weekly Report #12 Bioregionalism EducationSummer Session, 2008 July 23 & 25, 2008 This was the final week for the first level of Bioregional Education. On Wednesday, after meeting in the park like we always do, I thanked all of the students for having participated in this program. Then we began to talk about all of the different Bioregional topics we’ve discussed over the past […]
Meeting Thomas Berry, Biospherean was written in 2008 to go into a “book of appreciations” celebrating Berry’s 93rd birthday. Thomas Berry watches the same eclipse of the sun that we all see. Many observors are shocked by the gradual loss of light and point at the darkness, shouting alarms. Thomas concentrates on the bright nimbus continuing around the shadow. He believes the full sun will gradually […]