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Simpler OneEarth Living Podcast
A co-production of Simple Living Works! and The Common Good Podcast (Jubilee OneEarth Economics)
SHOW NOTES
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For Jubilee OneEarth Economics, part of positioning ourselves to meet the challenges of the 2020’s is adding John Michno to the leadership team.
John’s Values
Environmental and human sustainability are so important. I can see that the Pearl of Great Price Jesus talks about — is the ecosystem — Earth, our home. Earth provides the right amount of oxygen, water and plant nutrients. This delicate balance is changing, due to the unconscious way that we over- consume. The Good News is, we are creating a new culture of sustainability.
John’s Work & Business
I started work as a Fellow with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, researching mathematical models of sea pollutants and overfishing. With a degree in Physics from UCSD, I worked as a software engineer for a former division of General Electric. I became a software sales consultant to Global 500 corporations, saving building & vehicle operations costs and energy use. Advising a leadership team at the Federal Aviation Administration, I facilitated a $5.2 million software purchase. As a project manager, I directed 44 software engineers, gathering requirements from thirty US Navy managers. I eventually headed a team of twelve software engineers working for the National Science Foundation. We were a $20 million program for earthquake and structural engineering research from a consortium of fifteen universities around the world.
John’s Human-Valued Mission
As this work drew to a close, I was weary of moving up the ladder. My ambition had always been to earn another promotion, challenging myself. But in the competitive world of business, I was wanting more kindness and coaching to develop my growth possibilities.
I had been an Intervarsity Bible Study leader and a camp counselor with inner city Latino and African American youth. I started to study Nonviolent Communication (NVC), a conflict intervention process with roots in the work of psychologist Carl Rodgers, who emphasized the beauty of the individual. I joined a circle of Unitarians, Buddhists and activists who hosted communication workshops. My friends invited me to co-facilitate a monthly NVC practice group. We added Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, mindfulness and Heart Math. I was invited to teach at various universities, synagogues and churches.
After the election of 2016, I became more aware of the bullying of Muslim, Hispanic and other school children. I joined an interfaith team and liaised to social workers at Trauma Informed Care Team. With the school district, we created new procedures and curriculum to protect kids from bullying.
As the climate emergency became apparent, I worked as the Interfaith Coordinator for 350, seeking to reduce the worst impacts of climate change. My job was to form relationships with clergy of all faiths, inviting them to take joint action on climate change, through education about the science of climate change, and through Creation Care circles in their faith communities. I worked with Catholics, Brethren, Episcopalians, Methodists, UCC, Religious Science and Ba’hai.
Through these experiences, I increasingly valued the diversity of spiritual practices, the insight of science, the preciousness of our environment, and of individual humans. We are bringing these gifts to nourish our planet and our peoples.
In 2020, we’ll be holding special events recognizing the 20th year for Jubilee Economics Ministries — A delegation to southern Mexico to learn communitarian practices from the JEM Circles there, 6/6-13; a conference in San Diego, 9/19-20, featuring scholar Wes Howard-Brooke; a 20th anniversary party in San Diego toward the end of the year.
The 2020’s
1. Hopes and challenges of OneEarth (low growth/no growth) economics in the face of unbridled capitalism. Using communitarian (not communist!) models exemplified among the Zapatistas.
Colleagues: GrowthBusters (Dave Gardner)–film and podcast; World Population Balance // OverPopulation Podcast; Post-Carbon Institute programs + CrazyTown podcast (SLW! Ep. 109–Richard Heinberg); CASSE: Center for the Advancement of the Steady-State Economy (The Common Good Podcast Ep. 46–Brian Czech); Center for Sustainable Economy
2. Future of voluntary simplicity; being replaced by minimalism
Overconsumption and Overpopulation as the primary drivers of the Climate Crisis
Earlier Episodes
Ep. 0129–David Hoferer, biology professor at Briar Cliff University, Sioux City, IA, an activist with the Sierra Club and Audubon Society, talks about the reasons for and the effects of a huge, precipitous drop in bird populations.
David serves as an officer of the NorthWest Iowa Group of the Sierra Club. He also leads the local chapter of the Audubon Society. He knows birds–how important they are to the web of life and how threatened they are in the climate crisis.
Only a few months ago co-host Lee Van Ham began reading reports on the loss of birds, nearly ⅓ of all birds in 50 years. That’s less than his lifetime. The skies are emptier, the woods and our yards are quieter. Hanging bird feeders in our yards was once a kind of hobby. Now it’s radical, spiritual activism in resistance to the prevailing behavior of our species.
A New York Times article from 9/19, entitled “Birds Are Vanishing from North America” reviews an article in the journal “Science” that reports on an exhaustive study of bird populations. It left scientists in sad astonishment at the rate of decline. They remind us with urgency of what we’re losing. It’s not only that many birds have nice songs and entertaining behaviors. Common bird species are vital to ecosystems, they control pests, pollinate flowers, spread seeds and regenerate forests.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/science/bird-populations-america-canada.html
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Ep. 1219–Ruth Ann Angus: Yes We Can Peacemakers
YesWeCanPeaceBuilders.org, a member of the Non-Violent Cities Project and Pace e Bene
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This episode is another example of how our podcast raises up the voices of many ordinary people working with ingenuity and great love to foster wellbeing in their communities and in the world.
MISSION
Yes We Can Peacebuilders is dedicated to the education of individuals and communities on the path to nonviolence so as to inspire and engage people to make nonviolent living a part of their everyday lives.
VISION STATEMENT
We envision a culture of peace in a community that fosters respect for all individuals, collaborating to eliminate economic discrimination, poverty, homelessness, racial and sexual discrimination, stereotyping, harassment, bullying, gangs, killing, war, and environmental degradation.
Study Guide:
Engaging Nonviolence: Activating Nonviolent Change in Our Lives and Our World.
John Dear on SLW! Podcast
Ep. 114: John Dear on Peace & NonViolence, part 1
John Dear part 2–Making Nonviolence Stronger in a Culture of Violence
# # #
Ep. 1119–The Liberating Birth of Jesus: A Birth Story Able to Reverse Our Planet’s Perils.
In this episode Jerry interviews Lee about his new, 130+ pages book on how the perils of our planet can be reversed by the story of the birth of Jesus as told in the Gospels. The Gospels give us a story of new creation. Matthew and Luke give us riffs on Genesis, a collection written to protest the Babylonian Empire. Genesis and the Gospels give us stories that radically counter the stories of superpowers. Their stories are about creation of the Earth and new life, and they do so in defiance of the superpower domination and death they were experiencing from Babylon and Rome respectively. Those stories give us what we need in 2020 to live by a different story from the superpowers of today’s world that are destroying life for so much of our planet.
The new book is available both on Amazon and Powell’s Books. It grows out of blogs Lee wrote in Christmas seasons during past years. This is Lee’s fourth book. See http://theoneearthproject.com/
# # #
Ep. 03/19–Inequality Hurts Everybody!–Talking to Chuck Collins of Inequality.org
Over the last few decades 15% of U.S. wealth has been transferred from 99% of the populace to 1%. The 2018 tax revisions continue the trend—something many of us noticed as we filed 2018 tax returns. As Program Director of InEquality and the Common Good, a part of the Institute for Policy Studies, Chuck edits the “Inequality This Week” eNewsletter and has authored many books including the popular book, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good (Chelsea Green) and his new book: Is Inequality in America Irreversible? (Oxford, UK-based Polity Press).
BONUS Podcast! Alternative Radio: Economic InEquality Kills–Stephen Bezruchka
OneEarth Jubilee can now help you offset the carbon you put into the atmosphere. Here’s how. First, we calculate our carbon with the calculator online at www.carbonify.com. Then we donate the amount the calculator totals for us. We can donate it to Jubilee Economics Tree Fund because the two Jubilee Circles in Mexico and the one in San Diego all work with trusted groups that plant trees. Not that this is a perfect solution to putting CO2 into the air. Not by any means. When trees die, they, too, put CO2 into the air. But trees live a long time. And every day they live, they sequester carbon from the atmosphere and enrich the soil while putting out oxygen. The April newsletter, Jubileo, is an Earth Day edition and tells you more. Click BLOG in the menu at the top of the page at Jubilee-Economics.org.
The Simpler Living Daily NUDGEs
How Do It Get It (for free): Send NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@Yahoo.com
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Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist
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