Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability

Vol. 20, No. 2, February 2024 Luis T. Gutiérrez, Editor

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Evolution of the Collective Unconscious The collective unconscious is made up of experiential knowledge, symbols, and imagery that humans are naturally born with (no tabula rasa) and are rooted in ancestral experience and shared by all persons in all cultures. After millennia of evolution, the current collective unconscious of humanity would seem to include human exceptionalism, patriarchal hegemony, short-terminism, delusions of grandeur, illusions of unending growth, and the idolatry of technology. As the planet becomes overloaded with industrial civilization, our collective mindset seems to be unwilling to think long-term and face the realities of ecological overshoot. It remains to be seen whether our collective mindset can evolve to voluntarily refocus human agency toward contraction of the human enterprise, simplification of lifestyles, and peaceful resolution of conflicts before it is too late to prevent a chaotic collapse of industrial civilization. The Patriarchs The Anthropocene I=PAT Equation and Ecological Overshoot We Are Trashing the Planet. Now What? Human Behavioral Crisis Driving Ecological Overshoot Global Tipping Points Recalibration of Limits to Growth Is Natural Population Decline a Concern? The Maximum Power Principle Getting Honest About the Human Predicament The Green Mirage The REAL Green New Deal An Intelligent Energy Transformation Plan Beware Climate Populism The Future ~ What Future? World Resources 2023 Degrowth Database Laudato Si' Action Platform The Economy of Francesco Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research CONTENTS Significant New Initiatives and Emerging Trends Neoclassical Economics and the Demise of Capitalism Steve Keen Ecological Footprint and Sustainable Population Denis Garnier Unchecked Human Activity Is Pushing Ecosystems Toward the Brink Erika Schelby The World4.5 Demographic Model Barbara Williams Approaching the Energy Cliff ~ Perpetual Economic Growth Cannot Be Reconciled with Energy Limits Dave Rollo Money Talks: $150 Trillion of Climate Calamity Scott W. Schwartz COP28 a "Tragedy for the Planet" as Stockholm Syndrome Took Hold David Spratt & Ian Dunlop Promiscuous Crossings: A Foot in Both Worlds Cara Judea Alhadeff End the Insanity: For Nuclear Disarmament and Global Demilitarization Eileen Crist, Judith Lipton, David Barash A Primer for Paradigm Shift: Part 1 ~ Deconstructing Current Capitalism Jan Spencer A Primer for Paradigm Shift: Part 2 ~ Some Aspects of Paradigm Shift Jan Spencer A Primer for Paradign Shift: Part 3 ~ Additional Aspects of Paradigm Shift Jan Spencer Pivotal Moment for Humanity as Tipping Point Threats and Opportunities Accelerate Caroline Zimm et al Degrowth: A Hard Truth John Mulrow Accelerationist Possibilities in an Ecosocialist Degrowth Scenario Jason Hickel "Realistic" Global Warming Projections for the 21st Century Nicola Scafetta Mind the Gaps: How the UN Climate Plan Fails to Follow the Science Fred Pearce Climate Change is a Narrow View of the Human Predicament Art Berman We Built the Technosphere ~ Now We Must Resist It Andrew Nikiforuk Why Small Farming Is Essential for Creating a Sustainable Future Chris Smaje The Maths of Rightwing Populism: Easy Answers + Confidence = Reassuring Certainty Dorje C. Brody Hospicing Modernity: Not a New Idea, But a Critical Necessity Eliza Daley Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Healing Human Inequities, Healing Earth Liz Cooledge Jenkins Significant New Initiatives and Emerging Trends Forthcoming Book ~ A Livable Planet: Human Rights in the Global Economy, Madison Powers, Oxford University Press, February 2024 Book Summary "Humanity faces an ecological predicament, consisting of a cluster of concurrent, mutually reinforcing crises. They are causally intertwined and resistant to resolution in isolation. In addition to climate disruption, the cluster includes land-system change, loss of biodiversity and biosphere integrity, alteration of biogeochemical cycles, and decreased freshwater availability. Madison Powers argues for a targeted human rights approach to the resolution of our predicament. He assigns priority to a bundle of rights strategically important for counteracting ecologically unsustainable, economically predatory market practices. These practices exhaust natural resources or degrade the environmental conditions essential for a livable planet. Their harmful ecological effects result from or are exacerbated by the structure of the global political economy, especially institutions that influence the acquisition, control, and use of land, energy, and water resources. These institutions shape the economic decisions that have transformed every region of the globe and altered the planetary conditions that support life on Earth. "A livable planet thus requires changes in humanity's relation to the rest of nature, which in turn, requires transformation of our economic relationships and the political and economic ideals underpinning them. Specifically, the balance of power between states and markets should be reversed by implementing an enforceable institutional bulwark against market practices that subvert the ecological conditions essential for the secure realization of human rights. These practices enable the powerful to hoard economic opportunities, crowd out sustainable alternatives, extract resources from vulnerable communities, shift environmental and economic burdens, dodge political and market accountability, and hijack public institutions for private purposes." A Think Tank on Innovative Communication for Social Change Planning Underway for November 2024 Inspiring Transition is organizing a think tank on innovative communication for social change. It will be held in Australia, November 2024, and will consist of three days of intensive interaction. The outcome will not only be amazing new perspectives as participants cross-fertilize different ideas; very likely participants will also form new alliances. The objective is to attract thought leaders and organizations with a wide variety of perspectives, including businesses, progressive and conservative think tanks, climate activists, peace advocates, psychologists, environmental groups, regeneration advocates, local government, healthy child rearing advocates, journalists and more. A premise of this Think Tank is that global environmental trends are disastrous, as are hyper-militarization and the threat of nuclear war. A more positive premise is that we have techniques for improving both mental and emotional functioning. This leads to the possibility of accelerating healthy cultural evolution. it is imperative to accelerate healthy cultural evolution as best we can. This will take innovative communication in addition to communication techniques that are already being used. We will review innovative communication strategies and tools, and possibly devise additional ones. Point of contact: Andrew Gaines. Emergence of Trumpism and Authoritarian Revanchism Trumpism in the USA and Similar Cases Worldwide ← Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Fountain Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona, 19 March 2016. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0. Click the image to enlarge. "Trumpism is an authoritarian movement that consists of the political ideologies and political movement associated with Donald Trump and his political base. Scholars and historians have identified Trumpism as consisting of a wide range of right-wing ideologies such as right-wing populism, national conservativism, neo-nationalism, and neo-fascism. Anti-immigrant, isolationist, racist, nativist, and anti-LGBT beliefs are aspects of Trumpism... "The label Trumpism has been applied to national-conservative and national-populist movements in other democracies. Many politicians outside of the United States have been labeled as staunch allies of Trump or Trumpism (or even as their countries' equivalent to Trump) by various news agencies; among them are Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Geert Wilders of Netherlands, Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, Viktor Orbán of Hungary, Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Shinzo Abe of Japan, Javier Gerardo Milei of Argentina, and Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea." Trumpism, Wikipedia, as of 23 January 2024. It is noteworthy that, during the 2017-2020 Trump administration, many environmental protection regulations were weakened and the decision was made to withdraw from the Paris agreement. Furthermore, there is increasing concern that Trumpism may lead to some form of Fascism. This book is highly recommended: Prequel ~ An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Penguin Random House, October 2023. See also Oath and Honor ~ A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney, Little, Brown and Company, December 2023. Teaching Social Action Initiative Spring '24 Institute on Teaching Social Action Scheduled for March 9-10, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Click here to apply (applications due on Friday, February 23). This spring semester 18 social action courses will be taught across the nation in a variety of disciplines. These cost-free institutes are designed to give faculty and staff the knowledge and tools to incorporate student-led social action campaigns into a current or new course (or co-curricular activity). Social action is a transformative experiential learning model where students in a college course launch their own campaign or join a community organization's campaign to enact a policy change by making demands of a target (i.e., decision-maker). See the Teaching Social Action website for more information. The following are links to upcoming courses: Summer '24 Institute (virtual), Fall '24 Institute (University of Michigan), and Winter '25 Institute (virtual). Point of contact: Scott Myers-Lipton. |Back to Outline| LINK TO THE CURRENT ISSUE          LINK TO THE HOME PAGE

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