Why Teach Science?

An ex-student of mine whom is presently undertaking teacher training studies asked me if I could present my thoughts regarding the question, 'Why Teach Science?'.


Ever since I could remember I always wanted to find out more about this world that I was living in. A real moment that blew me away and is still etched in my memory was getting to see Halley’s comet when I was just ten years of age. Halley’s comet visits earth’s night sky once every seventy-six years. Trying to think back to this moment all I can recall is that it sparked a great sense of wonder. Wonder that there was something moving, journeying and happening ‘out’ of this world!

I recently went to see as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, a special screening of the film, ‘Hubble 3D’. I studied the Hubble space telescope for a High School Physics project and have always had a strong bond to this marvel of space technology. The film was beautiful. Being able to be transported into a galaxy nursery with actual pictures from ten billion light years away was awe-inspiring. These days, cosmology and the thoughts of Stephen Hawking and Thomas Berry are maintaining and extending my interest and wonder of all things universal. So my first sense of wonder has come from space, but my first sense of care has come from the earth, in particular the Amazon Rainforest.

In the nineteen eighties, as a primary school student I think my compassionate being was awoken by the vision of the Amazon rainforest on fire. I remember clearly the message being communicated by an Amazonian Indian who travelled to the western world telling us about his plight. He conveyed how the devastation was affecting his tribe and how it would ultimately affect the planet. This disaster scenario quickly raised my inquisitive nature to find out how the rainforest was being affected and how one rainforest could affect the whole planet. The development of roads and slash and burn farming techniques were eating into the lush and biodiversity rich rainforest. With basic primary school science knowledge I learnt how letting light under the Rainforest’s canopy affected the sensitive balance of all the living and non-living things. And so it was my first taste of ecology.

From this brief reflection of my inquiring mind, three branches of science are commented on, astronomy, cosmology and ecology. Fast-forwarding a few years from my early scientific experiences, life finds me enrolled in university studying an environmental science degree and a teaching degree. I am inspired to find out more about the world in which I inhabit and also the ways in which knowledge and awareness can be transferred to an audience, in this case secondary school students.

Pressing the fast forward button again I am in my first ever science classroom as a teacher. So it begins, ‘Welcome to the wonderful world of science!’ I opened my first class with this line, as I truly believe that science can create wonder for how the world works and how knowledge can assist in unlocking the mysteries of human existence and progress.

I love words. It was only after a quarter of a century in this world that I discovered another ‘ology’, etymology. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. So I looked up where did the word ‘Science’ originated? and what did it actually mean?

A very old use of the word comes from the Latin language and the word is displayed and used as, ‘Scientia’, meaning the search for knowledge. This discovery made me feel good. It made me feel that what I had studied and what I was going to teach had a history and had an admirable purpose aligned with it; to instil a yearning for the discovery of knowledge about the world.

So why teach science to children?

What particular knowledge will be helpful or useful through the discoveries made by undertaking science based studies?

Fast-forwarding my teaching career and additional postgraduate studies my relationship to the discipline of science has somewhat changed. Schools, school boards, departments of education, some parents and many bureaucrats would like a number associated with the knowledge acquired and the time spent in a classroom, and for the sake of this heuristic journey, more specifically the science classroom. I believe that the most valuable aspect of teaching science is awakening a sense of wonder to a student and through this wonder, engaging them into deeper inquiry.

“Why is the sky blue?”

“Why are some leaves green?”

“What came first? The chicken? Or the egg?”

The power of the questioning, the wonder associated with this is what gives real value to the science topic. Through my own deepening inquiry of questions associated with existence, phenomenon and many other metaphysical aspects of life, another discipline of inquiry that is consuming much of my time and effort is ‘Philosophy’. Yes science is the search for knowledge, but what knowledge?

Is the knowledge deep enough?

And how is this knowledge used?

Recently I had the pleasure of working with many politicians, scientists and professors to discuss and create positive actions in the shadow of a climate-changing world. The insight gained was one of their fear, fear of not wanting to stray too far from the safe realm of the science topic and their own disciplines and niches. The realm clearly identified by a numbers, graphs and figures. The phenomenon of climate change is interdisciplinary. It has firm associations with sustainability that is another interdisciplinary topic of inquiry that endeavours to understand the environmental, social, cultural, economic and political needs of current and future generations of inhabitants of earth. Many scientists will not engage with a sustainability debate. They will argue the science, the graph showing the increasing pollution rate, the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere and the rate of extinction of various species, but will be reticent to engage with a discussion on how this will affect people on many levels and how this information can help create empowerment of the individual. In this instance science fails, it hides amongst its facts, figures and processes and doesn’t dare come from behind its veil of security and jargon.

For the reasons of this reflection it is also of value to discuss the methodological process associated with scientific inquiry. Following instructions, gathering data, making conclusions, repeating, elucidating and innovating. All this can play a major role in the development of a student who is learning to follow instructions, follow process, gather data and then repeat the process, but what cannot be measured still exists. The realm of quantum theory has and will continue to stretch the boundaries of the traditional structures of the science discipline. Does science offer a total worldview?

My opinion is that the answer is no. It does not offer a total worldview, but it does offer a portal to begin, to start, to enter it and also develop a language to describe it at a basic level. Scientific literacy allows a relationship to occur between the phenomenon and the observer. Although some would say that the scientific language used is limited with its descriptions it however certainly provides a valuable perspective that can provide insight and discernment.

Teaching science is a must. Teaching it well is another story. This is just a small glimpse of my science learning and teaching experiences. I am very grateful for the scientists around the world who are peering into telescopes and microscopes and unlocking mysteries about how our world works. I am also very grateful for the teachers and masters who fed my inquisitive nature about the planet and the universe. I value the role that science education has played as part of the greater role of existence in our world.

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Training

I recently attended a training workshop for the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream workshop. The following words are inspired by the intentions from the Symposium structure.

The Power of Intention, The Power of a Dream.

We are here to feel, to connect and to be.
Welcome to your journey.
We hear you.

There is something not right.
You know this.
You know that there is a different reality to choose.
Focussing to the now, outer and inner crises abound.

We have awoken.
We fully sense disparity between a now and the Now we want.

We are One.
One Universe.
We are part of the web of life.
Causes. Effects.
A fundamental of our being, cause and effect.
Causes create effects. Effects have causes.

Change, creation, opportunity and possibility.
We can go anywhere.
We are bound by nothing, nothing but infinity.
What would you choose?

Own your destiny.
The destiny you want.

Connect, bring forth, create and celebrate…


---
Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium.

Training for Community Leaders and Facilitators.

Mt Moreton, Belgrave Heights, Victoria, Australia

September 2010

www.awakeningthedreamer.org

My Friend Arne Naess

In 2002 I read a simple online description about ‘Deep Ecology’. I was preparing a science unit on ecology for high school students and stumbled upon this philosophy that was to place a fork in the road and have me take the road less travelled.

Coincidence?

Fate?

Destiny?

Einstein would say there is no such thing as a coincidence. Maybe it was just the right place and the right time. To the people I describe this experience of my first encounter of deep ecology and recount how I was reading the words as if they were personally written for my soul, a few have remarked that it was simply that I was ready to experience those ideas and thoughts. My early teacher training provided me with many insights regarding human social and psychological development. A definite stand out theory was Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory. Maybe it just was the developmental moment for me to experience those words and to develop my existentialist intelligence. From Howard Gardner himself,

“…there exists a multitude of intelligences, quite independent of each other; that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth; and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against early 'naive' theories of that challenge the natural lines of force within an intelligence and its matching domains.” (Gardner 1993: xxiii)

Deep ecology for me just made very good sense.

Deep Ecology gives permission for a human to connect to nature on a multitude of levels, transcending a shallow, light green experience of life, to the dark green depths of existence created by deep inquiry, deep experience and deep questioning.

Many environmentalists would say the disconnect between the Self and the environment along with our lifestyle choices is directly relating to the global environmental crisis that is currently being experienced. For myself I was awakened to the system, I was given a total world view vision, I was a part of nature, not just physically but spiritually through the wisdom that was unlocked through the ideas bestowed by the wonders from Deep Ecology and its founder Arne Naess.

From that moment I became a new container in the world and I was half full. I needed more. That was the day I formed a friendship with Arne Naess and his Deep Ecological wonderings. Just like any good friendship there have been challenges and obstacles along our journey together, but that has made the friendship an adventure and a journey of growth.

From additional inquiry I have also discovered another of Naess’ terms, Ecosophy, “a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium” that human beings can comprehend by expanding their narrow concept of self to embrace the entire planetary ecosystem. (Grimes 2009)

Arne Naess transitioned from this earthly realm in 2009 at the age of 96. I am writing this to capture the reasons and feelings that Naess allowed me to remember from within myself. Why?

Why do we get up in the morning?

I write this with hope and optimism that maybe somebody else will be ready to remember their own special wonderings about their own place in the universe and their place on this earth. Why?

Naess helped me to develop a will to live and to develop my own ecosophy. I write this that my experience and relationship with Arne Naess is captured for prosperity, for my own record and as a mark of respect for our friendship. Why?

I write this for the planet. I am increasingly taking notice of the patterns that are occurring in my life. One of these reoccurring patterns is the notion of new thinking; This calling for a new way of thinking to assist the quality of life for everything and for all from earth and beyond; New thinking that inspires creativity and love, instead of the thinking that has lead humanity down the path of destruction and fear.

Considering Arne Naess.

Naess, the philosopher, priest, mountaineer, researcher, environmentalist, elf and author.

During a lecture somewhere in Oslo, Naess stopped after an hour and picked a leaf from a potted plant. He then tells the audience, “You could spend a whole lifetime contemplating this”, “It is enough. Thank You”. (Naess, 1983)

This is the beauty in which lies the being of Naess. Sure enough there is the wise and classic professor, but then there is also the enlightened one, the mystic, the man who can see truth in a leaf. He is inspired by the simple and has a love of ‘small’.

In the text, ‘The Ecology of Wisdom’, a compilation of his works, it is documented that he describes himself using a classical Greek term, zetetic, ‘one who seeks truth and knowledge but does not claim it’. I like the use of this term, zetetic. The word really gives the sense of a constant humbleness. Humbleness amongst the profundity that Naess must have accumulated over the years researching and building on from some of the great minds of thinking in their own right such as Wittgenstein, Spinoza, Heidegger and Ghandi.

From his younger days, Naess describes that a pivotal ‘awakening’ moment in his life was when he saw ‘true nature’ during a moment at the seaside. There were flounders swimming around his feet and then-and-there he felt a shift, he felt a developed awareness of being part of a vast world of living beings.

In Naess’ book, ‘Life’s Philosophy: Reason and feeling in a deeper world’, that by the way topped his home country of Norway’s best seller list, in the foreword written by Bill McKibben, Naess is described with the following words and descriptors,

‘He is a troublemaker, but the kind of troublemaker everyone wants to have around - He challenges orthodoxies with an elfin irreverence.’
(Naess 2002, p.xxiv)

Another of the Deep Ecological books that Naess had written for is titled, ‘Thinking like a mountain.’ Much of Naess’ wisdom from life was obtained from time spent in his hut, Tvergastein. This activity in the mountains of Norway, living the free-air-life (friluftsliv) inspired Naess and inspired the deep ecology movement. Naess traverses the boundaries of Buddhist philosophy by stating how ‘Thinking like a mountain’, allows for one to immediately connect with the enormity and wonder of life, to connect to the forces that created such a magnanimous icon such as a mountain. An icon of nature that inspires one to embrace a vast breadth of perspective of life just like that experienced when peering to the world from a summit somewhere on top of the world.

This is just a glimpse, a snippet, and a blip of the man Arne Naess. He has inspired me greatly to take on my own philosophical journey and develop my own ecosophy. I am very grateful for his time on this planet. I am also sure the planet is grateful for his activism in protecting beautiful and vital parts of nature. Hopefully these few words will spark your own heuristic adventure of Self and the wonder that is happening now on this planet.

Think, feel, act. Simple in means, rich in ends.






References Used:

Gardner, Howard (1983; 1993) Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, New York: Basic Books.

Grimes, William (2009), Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, dies at 96, New York Times, Jan. 14
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/world/europe/15naess.html


Naess, A. 2002, Life’s philosophy: Reason and feeling in a deeper world, University of Georgia Press, Athens

Naess, A. 2008, Ecology of Wisdom, Counterpoint Press, Berkeley

Decision Making: A Risky Business? Or an Adventure?

I recently attended a facilitation workshop that focussed on assisting a group through the journey of decision making. It was very enlightening. The topic of decision making allowed for the echoing of my Mother’s wise and advisory comment from her life’s journey that,

“To make a decision is the hardest thing in life to do!”

This was the third workshop in a series in the art of facilitation. The opening quote by the facilitator used a grab of etymology that the ‘facile’ from the word facilitation, its root meaning is ‘to make things easy’.

So, if we have ‘decision making’ as the hardest thing to do, assisted by ‘facilitation’, something that is supposed to make things easier than this is destined to be certainly a marriage made in heaven. The first question that was issued to the workshop participants was,
“Why is it so hard to make a decision?”

The following reasons were voiced:
• It takes a public manifestation of ‘Responsibility’ to make a decision.
• To make a decision leads us most often to the realm of the unknown. A place where we don’t fully 100% know the outcomes of our choice.
• Sometimes we cannot go back from the decision that we make.
• The status quo may be rocked? The decision may cause upset. There is often an innate fear when initiating change.
• On a very basic level there is the notion of laziness. A new decision may have a ripple effect to other parts of the system and this may mean extra work.

Using the Buddhist based paradoxical statement that the only true constant in the universe is change, then decisions are an inevitable aspect of our existence if we are to stay true to the universal constant of change. Many in the realm of environmentalism believe that change in almost everything we do as a society, the way we think, our being and how our economic paradigm operates is what will save humanity and increase the quality of life for all on this planet.

The first technique demonstrated by the lead facilitator on this decision making journey was to map out the decision, the scenarios and the outcomes. Visually mapping out the impact of a decision allowed for a release of the anxiety, the fear of travelling to the unknown or uncharted waters. So rule one was to map the decision.


The next tool demonstrated was the values grid. Simple in means but rich in ends. Values Vs Effort. High value, low effort. Low value, high effort. High value, high effort. Low value, low effort. Immediately these four quadrants display a helpful decision making tool. If your decision fits into the High Value/Low Effort quadrant, the question is why wouldn’t you go forth with that proposal?

What emerged from working through this ‘Values grid’ was a conversation on what are the actual values to be selected and graded against?

And what are the various efforts that we are utilising to make explicit our decision making process on this grid?

It became apparent that it helps greatly for an organisation to be very clear of its own core values and definitions of efforts to aide in utilising the grid. Organisational values discussed included conservation potential, profit, reputation, experience, carbon emissions, resource efficiency, economy and reputation. Efforts discussed included time, resources and organisational/purpose fit.

During this section of the workshop my thoughts wondered to the work I had done for the communities of the Murray-Darling river basin. As part of assisting students to come up with action plans to assist their own communities, the environment and themselves, we asked the students to come up with a list of values that they felt were important. This ownership of values important to the self but also connected to the whole was critical in helping the process and ultimately the decision that was going to be made. This is where it may be useful as part of any facilitation journey that is deciding on an organisational decision that it should also acknowledge and include personal values. These I believe would have a two-way benefit of empowering the audience as well as assisting the whole process.

The next part of the decision making strategy was the introduction of a simple risk assessment, again using a visual tool. And again, very simple, a two axis graph, Cost Vs Probability (odds). This section of the workshop really got my neurons humming as I thought back to a presentation I was privy to regarding the etymology of the word risk. In Cline (2004), he states from citing the Ancient Greek origins of the word Risk that,

“Peirao is defined as: To attempt, endeavour, try to do, to try ones fortune, to make an attempt by sea, to make trial of one (Andrews, 1879).”

Juxtaposing this meaning elucidation to its modern day use there is a clear double meaning associated with the word risk. Cline represents this paradox in the following text,

“The duality of risk becomes clear in this definition, with authors often using the word to denote both danger and a bold or courageous gesture.”



Cline’s spanner in the risky works does add an extra dimension to the process of risk analysis. Cline does however provide assistance to this quandary of danger Vs adventure when using the word risk and conducting a risk assessment. He states quite forcibly that an organisation must come up with its own workable definition of risk.



“Looking into the future, the one constant that we know will exist is change. Technological, as well as social change, are facts of life and this means that more and more people are going to need help navigating uncertainty. Without a clear and balanced lexicon regarding risk and human interaction with uncertainty we face not only conceptual errors, but clear operational costs.” Cline (2004)


Back to the decision making adventure…

The facilitator made another strong point about the decision making process,

“Deliberation is important!”

So if you had to put a phrase to this whole process I would feel comfortable in using the stated term deliberative decision making. This I feel addresses one of the stated earlier apprehensions of decision making, that primal instinct of fear. If we have dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s and the journey of the decision made is transparent then this should alleviate the apprehension to go forth. A process has been used, haphazardness has been denied. We hope!

But is this decision making journey just all well too prescribed?

During the workshop a topic of big discussion was the role that emotions can play in making decisions.

“Who out there has in one instance or another, gone through the evidence and then whammo just gone with the ‘gut instinct' to make a decision?”

It is time now to again jump into the time machine and visit Ancient Greece and in particular the philosopher Aristotle. As a budding philosopher I find it always good value to reach into the depths of wisdom to provide an insight and in this case to shed some light on our emotional decision making quandary. Aristotle turns to the virtues of the rational part of the soul. Aristotle claims that there are five virtues of thought, five ways that we can obtain knowledge about something to assist with our practical goal of finding out what is true and what is false and ultimately make a decision for. The five virtues of thought and their meanings as stated by the Stanford encyclopaedia of Philosophy are:
• Technê: technical knowledge
• Episteme: scientific knowledge
• Phronesis: practical knowledge
• Sophia: theoretical wisdom concerning universal truths
• Nous: intuition

I am a firm believer of nous, intuition, emotional intelligence call it what you may. C.J. Jung writes in, Psychological Aspects of the Modern Archetype,

“Emotion is the source of all becoming-consciousness. There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.” (Jung 1938)

This quote resonates strongly with me. Since the publishing of the important work of Rachel Carson in 1962, ‘A Silent Spring’, regarding the pollution of nature with toxic substances such as DDT, humanity has known that we are doing something disastrously wrong and often irreversible to the environment. Almost half a century has passed since this keystone of environmental thought and awareness was published and today we are still faced continually with a poisoning of the earth with now the consequences of a globally changing climate. With much heated discussion being about climate change and its affects to the globe and to the humanity itself, many in the environment game have seen for decades that the same thinking and the same decisions that are being made are continuing to pollute our pristine environments, extinguish species and diminish our quality of life. If decision making is always going to be such a prescriptive affair will we ever take that leap of faith that so many are pleading for?

What will happen to the possibility of transforming the darkness into light as Jung so eloquently puts it?

And so again quandary and paradox sit in…

Most recently the New Scientist published an article about neuromarketing that quite conveniently expressed the need for emotion in decision making.

“One of the most important (discoveries) is that our decisions are much less rational than traditional economics suggests. "We find that emotions are really important," says Mirja Hubert, a consumer researcher at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany. "Even rational decisions are not possible without emotion."” (New Scientist 2010)

If you think about spontaneous generation well it just cant happen, you need core ingredients. Does this process of deliberative decision making provide enough of the ingredients and conditions for a decision to be made?

It has been demonstrated that evolution however can take leaps and bounds and often in an unexplained manner. I am not the first person to communicate the need for new thinking to help humanity get us out of the mess we are in. What should we decide to do?

Do we draw a graph?

Do we weigh out the pros and cons?

Do we conduct a risk assessment?

In terms of the aforementioned excursion of deliberative decision making yes, for sure, 100% Conduct a thorough expedition to traverse the terrain of the decision at hand. However to take that first step into the relative unknown, to show the leadership that is necessary to go forth with that decision, is a graph or a grid really going to assist a person at the critically vital point of that first step?

The quote that comes to attention is from Kurt Hahn the founder of Outward Bound, the outdoor experiential education organisation who states,

“A ship is safe in harbour, but that is not what it is designed for!”





References Used:

Cline, P.B., 2004, Etymology of Risk, Masters Thesis, Harvard University
Jung, C.J., 1938 Psychological Aspects of the Modern Archetype
Lawton, G. & Wilson, C., Mind-reading marketers have ways of making you buy, New Scientist, Issue 2772, 4 August 2010

No more tree hugging-How about Tree let going!

“In a world of disconcerting change, when large and complex forces threaten familiar and comfortable guideposts, the natural impulse is to grab hold of the tree trunk that seems to have the deepest roots and hold on for dear life and never question the possibility that it’s not going to be the source of your salvation.”

Al Gore New Yorker September 2004

It's funny how society needs to label things.
Is it comforting?
Does it transfer a sense of power?
Does it feed the ego?
I'd say yes to all of the above.
How many environmentalists out there have been labelled a "Tree Hugger"?
We have all been there when at a dinner party you let your guard down and confess to feel something for the planet. Is it the pelican that is being covered by BP's oil? Is it the rainforest that's being cut down to grow soya beans?
As quickly as your concern is verbalised, given a reality outside of the safety of your soul, bang! Some clever person needs to feel secure, needs to take the upper hand and label, "Tree Hugger".

I am inspired by the Al Gore quote mentioned above. I have a Tree Hugger sticker on my guitar case! But maybe it's better to let go of what we know. Maybe it's better to show our love for the planet by disconnecting from our old ways?
That's why I love quantum theory. It gives you the permission to delve into the realm of infinite possibility. Mix a bit of Chaos theory and quantum theory and you get a whole new sha-bang-a-bang of creativity. If the old ways of commerce, politicking, making stuff, and living are causing so much grief, pain and poison around the world, would it not be better to let go of the tree, let go of those Deep rooted 'Same old, same olds', and try something new, think something new, be something new, create something new?
Just a thought!

Quote Link:
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN
Al Gore lives on a street in Nashville.
by David Remnick
Read more from the quoted article: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/13/040913fa_fact?currentPage=all#ixzz0uT98GQyj

The Eco-cell project proposal

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Eco-cell project proposal

View more presentations from Ragnar Haabjoern.

The Proposal-I do!

Hello,
well in a attempt to get more involved with this blog I am currently trying to clear up a few barriers in my life to get myself underway for my true goal. So how does the story go...
So from completing my Masters degree I was bitten by the ambitious bug of continuing my study and pursuing a PhD in Deep Ecology and the opportunities this ecological philosophy could offer education for sustainability initiatives.
Over the space of about three years I have had to submit 3 research proposals and then was asked to submit a fourth. As you can imagine this took its toll on my confidence and my yearning to be creative for the planet’s sake. I think often about the quote from Albert Einstein,
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I love nature. I love beautiful ecosystems, clean water, etc... But I feel as though that the way society is operating and the choices that many of us are making are placing a great deal of stress onto the planet and ultimately ourselves. My belief is that education for sustainability initiatives and their current implementation are merely scratching the surface, they are ‘light green’. That’s why I favour going deep. Changing thinking, changing behaviour, changing ideas of what our place on this planet is and what our purpose is. Through my research I have found many links between sustainability, philosophy, systems theory, chaos theory and Buddhism. I cannot deny the discovered emergent patterns between this literature and through presentations from some of the proponents of these ideas.
A PhD is a sizable endeavour and when deciding to put energy into it, your own self-belief needed must be strong. I lost it. I really thought the PhD was about bringing something new to the world. I respected the process of using credible previous research but was increasingly getting frustrated with having to justify my claims only through modern journal articles. Journal articles that seemed so clinical, so sterilized that the opportunity for something new to emerge was stifled by multiple revisions.
I had to trust my heart. I had to trust that what I was discovering, the heuristic journey that I was on, was right, was worthy of further investigation and presentation. That is why recently I canceled my enrolment at the university and decided to pursue this research, this uncovering in the realm of cyberspace.
Thought, Word, Action. A trinity, a model that gives me strength to continue thinking, writing and hopefully applying this knowledge to the outside world. Action is super important, especially when the planets clock of hope ticks away. I had until 2015 to complete my PhD. Who knows what further damage,will be done to the planet in that time. So the action is needed now. My research I believe is needed now. I am giving it a life…now.
So feel free to check out my proposal, what I endeavoured to do. In this blog I will present my insights and ideas of how deeply going into sustainability can help with personal growth and the health of the planet.
Who knows what this journey will look like and what it will uncover? Maybe it will culminate in a book, a lecture series, a workshop? Regardless of its manifestation I hope it helps you and your own green thinking.

My PhD proposal can be located at http://www.scribd.com/doc/34200970/The-Ecocell-Project-120710

Optimism

"Smooth roads never make good drivers! Smooth seas never make good sailors! Clear Skies never make good pilots! A problem free life never makes a strong & good person! Be strong enough to accept the challenges of life. Don’t ask Life “Why me?” Instead say “Try Me!”

The System begins?

The System begins with the immediate, and therefore without presuppositions, and therefore absolutely; the beginning of the System, that is to say, is the absolute beginning.

…How does the System begin with the immediate – that is, does it begin with it immediately?

The answer must of course be an unconditional ‘No’.

Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846)

Kierkegaard, S. from The Kierkegaard reader

This quote was selected in honour of Arne Naess. Naess used it at the beginning of his book, ‘Ecology, Community and Lifestyle’. Naess has inspired me to exist more deeply in this world…I hope this Blog may inspire others also to gain/enhance their own wonder of place and existence.