Earth Week 2020
Novasutras has been busy offering online events and discussions during the global pandemic. For the week surrounding Earth Day this year, we started by offering our Earth Week Beginning Online Gathering, followed by The Future of Novasutras Discussions: Co-Creation as a Community. Still to come, April 23rd’s New Moon Meditation, and April 24th’s Reclaiming Hope: Earth Day Comes Back Home. Below are details about each Earth Week event.
In our Earth Week Beginning Online Gathering, we reflected on the meaning of Earth Day, both in guided meditation and thoughtful conversation.
On Sunday, April 19th, we hosted a conversation on The Future of Novasutras Discussions: Co-Creation as a Community. We are looking forward to having more Discussions and other Novasutras Events. Moving forward, these events will be community-led — this means you! Here’s the outline of Novasutras Online Events: Uplifter Roles we discussed. We will be offering free trainings to all who want to help Novasutras produce even more online events.
Video of this conversation coming to our YouTube Discussions playlist soon.
Earth Day proper is April 22nd. There are many other organizations offering events, including Pachamama Alliance’s Earth Day Summit, an En-ROADS Climate Simulator Workshop (How Can Economic Stimulus Packages Help Address Climate Change?), and Earth Day Live 2020.
After this busy day, Novasutras will offer a New Moon Guided Meditation on April 23rd 5:15pm PDT / April 24th 00:15 UTC to help center us. We welcome the beauty of the new moon rising as an opportunity to focus on what we would like to be emerging now, and the pull of a better future for all. This Novasutras meditation on agaya and ubuntu will emphasize global unity and loving-kindness through the disruptions of these challenging times.
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And (perhaps saving the best for last)…
On April 24, 2020, 1:30pm PDT / 20:30 UTC , we invite you to join us for focused reflection on the lessons of the first Earth Day. We will offer a brief presentation – no more than 30 of our 90 minutes together – to get us started, followed by group discussion.
Reclaiming Hope: Earth Day Comes Back Home
On April 22, 1970 some 20 million Americans – a tenth of the US population – took to the streets to defend the health of our people and planet from corporate polluters and extractive industries.
It was the largest demonstration of public will in American history. That year, a Republican President signed the Clean Air Act and created the EPA by executive order. More landmark environmental bills followed, passing with bipartisan support under both Nixon and his Democratic successor, who put solar panels on the White House roof and called for the United States to meet 20% of its energy needs with solar power by the year 2000.
The United States in the 1970s was the clear leader on environmental concerns, among ‘developed’ countries at least, and the impetus for that progress came not from Washington but from the American people. Today that first Earth Day is calling to us across a span of 50 years, like a letter written to today’s climate advocates, as we struggle with the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. A letter bearing 20 million signatures, reminding us not to take the disappointments of recent decades as our only guide to what we can achieve today.
On April 24, 2020, from 1:30 to 3:00 PM, we invite you to join us for focused reflection on the lessons of that first Earth Day. We will offer a brief presentation – no more than 30 of our 90 minute together – to get us started, followed by group discussion. We don’t pretend to have all the answers. We do hope and believe participants will come away feeling better equipped to face today’s urgent challenges.
Here’s a video of the presentation by Paul Schaafsma:
