[Sdpg] May 18-20, "Transforming Mindscape and Landscape." Joshua Tree Retreat CA

Sat Apr 28 06:48:21 PDT 2007

                        INSTITUTE OF REVERENTIAL ECOLOGY/
             CALIFORNIA STUDENT SUSTAINABILITY COALITION
                                     (www.reverentialecology.org)

		“TRANSFORMING MINDSCAPE AND LANDSCAPE”
                            Envisioning and Designing Hot Age Communities.
			Joshua Tree Retreat, May 18-20, CA

                        JOSHUA TREE RETREAT SCHEDULE

FRIDAY:

12:00-2 PM:       CHECK-IN
2:00-3 PM:         LUNCH

3:30-4:30 PM:    OPENING PLENARY

1. Philip Grant:   Welcome.
2. Andy Lipkis,  “Helping Nature Heal Our Cities.”

4:30-6:30 PM: PARTICIPANT ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES.

Brad Lancaster and Art Ludwig: “Turning Water Scarcity Into Abundance.”
Adam Wolpert: “Designing Sustainable Community: 
How Can We Learn From the Ancients and Innovate For the Future?”

7:00-8 PM:          DINNER

8:30-10:30:         EVENING PLENARY

1. Hooman Fazly: Meditative Interludes: Music and Verse
2. Randy Hayes and Michael Cox: “California Dreaming.”
3. Ariel Luckey and Clayton Thomas-Muller:  "From 
Urban to Earth: Resistance and
    Rhythms".

SATURDAY:

8:00-9 AM:          BREAKFAST
9:30-11:30 AM:  WORKSHOPS (Choose one)

1. Ed Bastian and Nandini Iyer: "A Buddhist-Hindu 
Dialogue on Nature and Human Nature."
2. Sarah Crowell and the Destiny Arts Dance Ensemble: “Moving in the Movement”
3. Randy Hayes and Michael Cox: “Recreating the California Dream (1)”
4. David Bainbridge and Bill Roley: "Sustainable Cities in the Desert."

12:00-1PM            LUNCH
2:00-4:00 PM:      WORKSHOPS (Choose One)

1. Clayton Thomas-Muller: "The Exemplary Indigenous Environmental Network."
2. West Marrin: “Water: A Mediator of Change.”
3. Andy Lipkis: TBA
4. Randy Hayes and Michael Cox: “Recreating the California Dream (2)”

4:30-6:30 PM:  COLLABORATIVE WORKSHOPS  (Choose One)

1. Scott Horton: “Art, Performance and Permaculture.”
2. Dennis Rivers: TBA
3. Ariel Luckey: “ToxiCity's New World Water: 
Thirsty for Environmental Justice.”
4. Heather Flores: "Action-Based Ecological Design."
5. Hooman Fazly: "Super-Adobe Sustainable Building."

7:00-8 PM            DINNER

8:30-10:30 PM     EVENING PLENARY

1. Adam Wolpert: “The Seen and the Unseen: 
Painting Under the Influence of Nature.”
2.West Marrin:  “The Secret World of Water.”
3. Sarah Crowell and the Destiny Arts Dance 
Ensemble: "Power, Healing and Passion."

SUNDAY:

8-8:45 AM:  CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

9-11 AM       WORKSHOPS (Choose One)

1. Panel Discussion: Heather Flores, Sarah 
Crowell, Nandini Iyer: “”Feminism and Eco-Feminism.”
2. Panel Discussion: Andy Lipkis, West Marrin, 
Brad Lancaster, Art Ludwig: “What To Do In A World Without Much Water.”
3. Panel Discussion: Elisabet Sahtouris, Scott 
Horton, Ariel Luckey, Clayton Thomas-Muller: “Can 
the Arts Promote Environmental Justice?”
4. Panel Discussion: David Bainbridge, Bill 
Roley, Randy Hayes, Dennis Rivers:  “The Ethics of Sustainable Design.”

11:15 AM   BRUNCH
12:30-1:30 FINAL PLENARY

1. Heather Flores, Ariel Luckey, Elisabet 
Sahtouris, Sarah Crowell: “Inspiring the Next Generation.”

2:00-4 PM PARTICIPANT ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES

                                WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Ed Bastian and Nandini Iyer: "A Buddhist-Hindu 
Dialogue on Nature and Human Nature." Ecological 
issues have long been a part of the spiritual 
traditions of India and Tibet.  The principle 
that all life forms are sacred and should be 
revered formed the basis of social thinking and 
practices that began with the Vedic literature 
and still continue today. These ideas have great 
relevance for nonviolent living, animal 
liberation, vegetarianism, protection of 
indigenous communities, preservation of 
biodiversity, as well as natural healing, organic 
farming and sustainable community design. This 
workshop will explore the core teachings in Hindu 
and Buddhist philosophy that have enriched these ongoing ecological movements.

David Bainbridge and Bill Roley: "Sustainable Cities in the Desert."
One of the great challenges of the next century 
is improving the sustainability of all cities, 
and especially cities in the desert. Las Vegas, 
San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and Victorville are 
about as unsustainable as any development on 
earth. If redesigned they can be made 
self-reliant  if not self-sufficient. This work 
is critical to reduce their vulnerability to 
natural and social disruption. This talk will 
look at sustainability indicators, opportunities 
for improvement and overcoming obstacles to 
progress. It will also examine lessons from more 
sustainable desert cities of the past, including Petra.

Ariel Luckey: “ToxiCity's New World Water: Thirsty for Environmental Justice.”
 From global warming to Katrina, water privatization to poverty, complex
social and ecological currents boil within the world’s water issues.
Through interactive games, music and activities, we will navigate the
terrain of race, class, water and health to build alliances for social and
environmental justice.

Hooman Fazly: "Super-Adobe Sustainable Building."
We will discuss information on the history of 
Super-Adobe, how/where it was developed, the 
construction process/methodologies, understanding 
earth as a medium, and site specific 
considerations, while discussing selected 
projects built by Cal-Earth alumni around the 
world. Earth home, retaining wall, and shoreline 
management technology will be illustrated with slides.

Clayton Thomas-Muller: "The Exemplary Indigenous Environmental Network."
Clay will discuss how relentless organizing and 
alliances on the front lines of resistance are 
stemming industrial society's juggernaut to 
exploit unsustainable energy resources from 
Indigenous Peoples sacred homelands in North America.

Sarah Crowell and the Destiny Arts Dance Ensemble: “Moving in the Movement”
Destiny Arts will do an interactive exploration 
of the ways that dance, theater and martial arts 
become instruments for personal and community 
transformation through movement, games, improvisation and group collaboration.

Adam Wolpert: “Designing Sustainable Community: 
How Can We Learn From the Ancients and Innovate For the Future?”
What are the fundamentals of sustainable 
communities? What makes them work and last? What 
is it that has made so many recent attempts at 
forming communities unsuccessful? How can we 
design new communities based on the fundamental 
principles learned form the ancients?

Heather Flores: " Action-Based Ecological Design."
Join Heather for an interactive slide 
presentation and design workshop. During the 
session participants will define and discuss the 
concept of proactive ecology, look at a wide 
range of examples, and learn how to apply an 
ecological design process to garden and community projects of any scale.

Randy Hayes and Michael Cox: “Recreating the California Dream (1) (2):
Using ecological economics as a key to societal 
change, the speakers will present a two-part 
workshop focusing on envisioning a fifty-year, 
whole-systems economic transformation of 
California’s consumer culture. The workshop 
series will include identifying key areas that 
could act as a catalyst for such transformation, 
a discussion of how much environmental work has 
already begun to green the state economy, and 
brainstorming goals and strategies for the next five years.

Scott Horton: “Art, Performance and Permaculture.”
Visual and performing arts can both reflect and 
affect social change in deep and lasting ways. 
This workshop includes a photo survey of 
eco-artists whose work is transforming the face 
of design and how we look at and interact with 
the Earth and each other. A discussion and 
breakout groups will explore practical and 
profound ways we can re-incorporate the arts into 
the fabric of designing the future.

Brad Lancaster and Art Ludwig: “Turning Water Scarcity Into Abundance"
This inspiring presentation shares eight 
universal principles of water harvesting along 
with simple strategies that empower you to create 
integrated water-sustainable landscape plans at 
home and throughout the community. Examples of 
thriving local food production grown with urban 
stormwater runoff, cooling of cities with urban 
forestry, passive strategies dramatically 
reducing costs of living and energy consumption, 
simple erosion & flood control, revitalization of 
dead waterways, bioremediating water pollution, 
recharging aquifers, community building, the 
creation of springs, and more. After the 
presentation we'll go outside, and observe and 
connect with the natural patterns that show the 
way to enhancing oases in the hot age.

West Marrin:  “Water: A Mediator of Change.”  As 
we enter the Hot Age, water will ultimately 
deliver either the consequences or the reversal 
of rapid global climate change.  Water not only 
serves as the transformer of solar radiation, it 
acts as a unique information mediator for both 
planetary and biological processes.  Moreover, 
water may represent the observable counterpart 
and mediator of an unobservable (but manifested) 
realm and life force.  Water is a force in 
politics, economics, and energy alternatives, as 
well as an ancient source of Nature’s 
teachings.  Designing sustainable communities 
will demand an expanded perception of and 
reverence for water that goes well beyond its conservation.

Philip Grant, PhD
Executive Coordinator,
Institute of Reverential Ecology
133 East de la Guerra, #328
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
www.reverentialecology.org
(tel) 805.201.2810
(email) <phil at reverentialecology.org>