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"It turns out that this involves a new ecological understanding of life as well as a new kind of thinking in terms of relationships, patterns, and context. Indeed such a new understanding of life has emerged over the last 25 years or so.

At the forefront of contemporary science the universe is no longer seen as a machine composed of elementary building blocks. We have discovered that the material world ultimately is a network of inseparable patterns of relationships."

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“At the Center for Ecoliteracy we spent the last fifteen years or so developing a special pedagogy for teaching the knowledge and skills that are necessary to build and nurture sustainable communities. We call it schooling for sustainability. It is a pedagogy that offers an experiential participatory and multidisciplinary approach.

What is sustained in a sustainable community is not economic growth or competitive advantage or anything like that, but the entire web of life on which our long-term survival depends. In other words, a sustainable community is designed in such a way that its ways of life (businesses, physical structures, technologies, and social institutions) do not interfere with nature's inherent ability to sustain life.  Now to design such a community obviously we first have to know how does nature sustain life?"

(See videos: Ecological Literacy Part 1. and Part 2.)
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A Vision for the Future - Excerpt from Ishmael Pt. II

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A Vision for the Future - Excerpt from Ishmael Pt. II

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“People need more than to be scolded, more than to be made to feel stupid and guilty. They need more than a vision of doom. They need a vision of the world and of themselves that inspires them.”

“Yes. Definitely. Stopping pollution is not inspiring. Sorting your trash is not inspiring. Cutting down on fluorocarbons is not inspiring. Thinking of ourselves in a new way, thinking of the world in a new way [is inspiring.]”

⬥

“You can’t just root out a harmful complex of ideas and leave a void behind; you have to give people something that is as meaningful as what they’ve lost - something that makes better sense than… wiping out everything on this planet that doesn’t serve [our] needs directly or indirectly.”

⬥

“One thing I know people will say to me is ‘Are you suggesting we go back to being hunter-gatherers?’”

“That is of course an inane idea,” Ishmael said. “The Leaver lifestyle isn’t about hunting and gathering, it’s about letting the rest of the community live - and agriculturalists can do that as well as hunter gatherers.” He paused and shook his head. “What I’ve been at pains to give you is a new paradigm of human history. The Leaver life is not an antiquated thing that is ‘back there’ somewhere. Your task is not to reach back but to reach forward.”

“But to what? We can’t just walk away
from our civilization.”

“That’s certainly true. You must be
inventive - if it’s worthwhile to you.
If you care to survive.” He gave me a
dull stare. “You’re an inventive people,
aren’t you? You pride yourselves on
that,  don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then invent.”

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Excerpt from Ishmael Pt. I

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Making things that "fit" in the natural world.

Ecological design competence is "incorporating intelligence about how nature works into the way we think, design, build, and live."

- David Orr

Good characteristics of ecological design:
scale, simplicity, efficient use of resources, durability, resilience

Promotes: human competence, efficient use of resources, strong regional economies, social resilience

Check out some of John Todd's Projects... one of which you can visit in Naples, FL! https://www.toddecological.com/projects