Living Future Europe @ COP
Storms or Starlight
With COP27 officially kicking off in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt today it is with pleasure to announce that I will be returning to COP with Amira Ayoub and Carlo Battisti for a Living Future Europe session.
COP27
I still remain somewhat conflicted about attending COP27 for a number of reasons - but this is an opportunity to bring the climate issues I/we are passionate about to that bigger stage. These are the issues covered in our Regenerative Playbook such as the regenerative self, (see Regen/Notes inner/outer). our connectivity with nature, the social justice dimensions that weave through all we do, the power of the Living Building Challenge as a visionary pathway, the vision of Living Future Europe and the built environment’s journey into a regenerative space that will enable life to thrive.
Storms or Starlight
Our Storms or Starlight session in the Blue Zone Action Hub is on Friday 11th Movement at 2 pm. The event description reads:
We are on the cusp of something wonderfully regenerative or disastrously irreversible. Since 1987 and the Brundlandt definition we have strived to "do nothing today to compromise future generations" and failed in doing so.
This session will present a visionary pathway to living futures for the built environment and for those who live, work and play within our buildings and cities, exploring what a regenerative built environment would look like.
However with the recognition that being regenerative is not just what we do, what we design and build, but who we are and who we will become, the session focuses on our regenerative self in addition to the regenerative organisations that collectively shape our built environment.
Storms or Starlight reflects whether we see fixing problems (Storms) or working with the potentials (Starlight) as our course of action.
We need a shift in mindsets, seeking potentials and solutions, not barriers or placing band-aid fixes on problems we have failed to solve for decades. Giving ourselves and each other the time and space to ask better questions and understand how each decision and action is either degenerative or regenerative. This means not only questioning and changing the ‘outer’ (what we do), but also seeking to change the ‘inner’, our mindsets, behaviours and how we, and our organisations, show up in the world. Martin Brown, 2030 Sustainability Predictions Thinkers360
There will be feedback at the Zoom Regenerative 50th edition on the 15th November
Earth Shine
On a recent trip to Scotland, amongst a number of books left in the Inverness hotel room was a copy of Earth Shine by American writer and aviator, Anne Morrow Lindbergh from 1969. Described as ‘experiences and meditations on the earth's life and man's reach to the moon’, Earth Shine explores the juxtaposition of wilderness and cities, of nature and technology, with which Storms and Starlight resonate well … Take a read of this wonderful passage from Lindbergh’s introduction.
But if the inventions of modern civilization seem miraculous in the wilderness of Africa, the opposite is also true. In the canyons of a city’s skyscrapers, in the smoking factories, in the whirring power plants of civilization, the mysteries of life, nature, and wilderness seem miraculous. From a spacecraft on its way to the moon, it is the earth which is the miracle, “a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.
The roots of life are in the wilderness, even as the flowers of civilization rise from cities. But can one separate root from flowers? Can the flower exist torn from its soil? We need wilderness as a source of life, but we cannot retreat from civilization. The Garden of Eden is behind us and there is no road back to innocence; we can only go forward. The journey we have started must be continued. With our blazing candle of curiosity, we must -like Psyche- make the full circle back to wholeness, if we are ever to find it.
And it seems to be what we seek. The new studies of the environment and the new exploration of space both bring us a terrestrial view. Glimpses have flashed upon us from the wilderness and from the skies. Now that we have seen ourselves from lunar space, the vision may be clearer, and the journey may mean more.
the Regen/ Notes subscriber chat
With the social media conversation landscape changing and Twitter feeling increasingly uncomfortable, we have a new addition to this Substack publication: the Regen/ Notes chat
Regen/ Notes explores how we as individuals, our organisations and our built environment can enable life to thrive through symbiotic connectivity with nature.
The substack newsletter approach for Regen/ Notes has enabled a subscribing community to emerge and grow as a companion to Zoom Regenerative, exploring wider aspects of regenerative with a sideways focus on the vital connectivity between the natural and our built environment. And now, with Substack launching a conversation space exclusively for Regen/Notes subscribers through the Substack App, this feels more and more like a good and safe place to be now.
I’ll post short prompts, thoughts, and updates that emerge from the newsletter posts and you can jump into the discussion. I’ve already started so come on over and say hello!
… and a big welcome to new subscribers from the last Zoom Regenerative session - good to have you here - and of course you can read back through two years of previous Regen/Notes posts here