How Community Solutionswill heal the planet, meet our needs and transform our cities.

©2009, Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project

FREEDOM FIGHTING WHILE DEFENDING THE EARTH:

Definition: Frontline Community

Community who sees how they are directly impacted by the root causes of, impacts from and false solutions to the ecological crisis.

Humans have always modified and impacted their environment in different ways…

PUERTO RICO

NEPAL

What has changed is the scale…

and intensity…

This image depicts 2.5 million plastic bottles – This image depicts 2.5 million plastic bottles – the number used in the US every hour.

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours.

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

This image depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

This image depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

This image depicts 75,000 shipping containers, the number of containers processed through American ports every day.

Image by Chris Jordan

Image by Chris Jordan

What is causing this?

Globalized, Industrial, Capitalist

Production Industrial – meaning most commodities are made in large-scale industrial processes by mega-corporations that make 50 million shoes instead of 100.

Globalized, Industrial, Capitalist

Production Globalized – meaning the components of each product are made in multiple countries, wherever the most profit can be made.

Globalized, Industrial, Capitalist

Production Capitalist – meaning the sole goal of the system is making profit.

Resource-Intensive Industrial Production Who Benefits? Who Pays?

80% of Forests Destroyed

75% of Fisheries Fished at or Beyond Capacity

Our ecological crisis can be broken into parts:

A clean water crisis

A waste & toxics crisis

A climate & energy crisis

A food and agriculture crisis

A biological & cultural diversity crisis

This creates problems for people:

WATER

This creates problems for people:

TIANANMEN SQUARE, CHINA

WASTE & TOXICS

This creates problems for people:

Climate disruption discriminates against the poor

ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE

Pakistan New Orleans

This creates problems for people:FOOD & AGRICULTUREA few global corporations have seized ownership of all aspects of the food system – from land ownership, to seed and farm inputs, to distribution, processing and retail sale. This has driven traditional farming cultures all over the world to collapse.

Crisis of space and place:

Displacement

6th Mass Extinction of Life on Planet EarthCULTURAL & BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Diversity is truly our best defense

CULTURAL & BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Photo Credits: Amazon Watch; Women of Color Resource Center; Via Campesina; Nigeria Solidarity; Chinese Progressive Association; Gopal Dayaneni

Our People Must Lead the Way: RESISTANCE

We Must Foster Our RESILIENCE

We Must RESTORE and HEAL

Restore the web of life

We must REIMAGINE a World of Many Worlds

Creating the transformative narrative for our collective liberation and ecological restoration

So what will it take?

We must build community institutions.

Rebuild community control.

IMAGE: HESPERIAN FOUNDATION

People take care of the place they live in.

...and what does that look like in the urban context?

COMMUNITY SOLUTIONSHEAL THE PLANET & MEET OUR NEEDS

RESISTS systemic ecocide

RESTORESthe web of life

REIMAGINES by revealing a better way

RESILIENCEat its

BEST

cities that run on the sun

small scale, closed-loop, locally produced, community controlled, renewable

cities that go with the flow

de-industrialize our water supply: slow it, spread it, sink it, store it, share it and circulate it

vs. pave it, pipe it, pump it, pollute it and profit off it

cities that know how to grow

short-chain and known-chain exchange, culturally appropriate, seasonal,

healthy, organic, diverse, participatory, and hella yummy

cities that move in mass

accessible, public, free, frequent, appropriate to place, integrative

cities that know where they are

from borders to boundaries: food sheds, water sheds, energy sheds, trade sheds...

cities that we all call home

where everyone lives well and nobody lives better

The Earth:

• Operates based on mutually beneficial relationships

• Seeks balance

• Has limits

• Operates on zero waste

www.movementgeneration.org

Design: micahbazant@gmail.comPoster: Jesus Baraza & Melanie Cervantes

Definition: Frontline Community

Community who sees how they are directly impacted by the root causes of, impacts from and false solutions to the ecological crisis.

THREE STEPS TO GET US WHAT WE REALLY NEED.

Decentralized and Democratic control over the production and distribution of resources.

Phase-out of fossil fuels and false solutions.

A global framework for a Just Transition for all to resilient communities.

what they say“THE SOLUTION TO POLUTION IS DILUTION”

what we say“THE SOLUTION TO POLUTION IS REVOLUTION”

When we have cut down the last tree, polluted the last river, and cooked the last fish, then we will realize that we can’t eat money!

The truth is…corporate control is bad for our health and the health of the planet

IMAGE: HESPERIAN FOUNDATION

So how do we build a Just Transition?

• Resistance: Movement Building for Power

• Resilience: To survive and thrive through

ecological transition

• Restoration: Return to the web of life

what has been forced into the chain of the

market; and allow for planetary systems to

heal

• Re-imagine: To weave an irresistible,

transformative narrative of how we could

live.