Totnes Convergence
4-7 June 2020

‘Air is cleaner than before the Industrial Revolution’: a best case scenario for the climate in 2050

The best case scenario for 2050: an extract from The Future We Choose, a new book by the architects of the Paris climate accords

climate change

‘The only uncertainty is how long we’ll last’: a worst case scenario for the climate in 2050

In their new book, the architects of the Paris climate accords, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, lay out radical but hopeful alternatives...

climate change

JP Morgan economists warn of 'catastrophic' climate change

Researchers say delaying climate change action risks "potentially catastrophic outcomes".

climate change

The end of free movement: This is a nation dismantling itself over nonsense

The Home Office's new points-based system for European immigrants is a self-defeating catastrophe.

Devon's 'lost world' rainforest saved after amazing public appeal

The dense vegetation makes Ausewell woods the equivalent of Dartmoor's rainforest, according to experts

rainforest

New green technology generates electricity 'out of thin air'

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in th...

physics

Democracy is broken. A civic hacker revolution could fix it

Tensions between governments and citizens are running high around the globe. Political technologists provide a glimmer of hope

The End of Australia as We Know It

What many of us have witnessed this fire season feels alive and monstrous. With climate change forcing a relaxed country to stumble toward new ways...

australia climate change

Lost Ways of Knowing

Culture is fragmenting into ideological tribes defined by rigid certainty and reductionist thinking. As a result, we're struggling to find new solu...

podcast Rebel Wisdom

Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World

This detailed visualization breaks down the 100 most spoken languages around the world, by total and native speakers. Can you find yours on the list?

Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record

Scientists describe 20.75C logged at Seymour Island as ‘incredible and abnormal’

climate change

How DMT Switches the Brain’s Reality Channel

Dr Gallimore takes us through how the sober brain perceives the default reality and how the DMT brain seemingly attunes to a wholly different frequ...

DMT

A summary of Bonnita Roy’s ‘Six ways to go meta’

We live in fascinating times, where all this global political turmoil motivates various new ways of thinking and solving problems.

metamodernism @Medium

How to think about the meta-crisis without getting too excited.*

The emergency is about the urgency to act. The crisis is about the need to transform. The meta-crisis is the tenacity of our inertia.

climate emergency @Medium

Why Communism Failed

What went wrong with the Soviet Union and the com­munist revolution can hardly be said to hinge upon the wrongdoings or moral flaws of any single p...

Hanzi Freinacht @Metamoderna

Dr. Robin Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass Hits New York Times Best Sellers List

SUNY-ESF is the oldest and most distinguished institution in the United States that focuses on the study of the environment.

indigenous

Car ‘splatometer’ tests reveal huge decline in number of insects

Research shows abundance at sites in Europe has plunged by up to 80% in two decades

Giant dams could protect millions from rising North Sea

Dams between Scotland, Norway, France and England ‘a possible solution’ to problem

climate change

Picture of squabbling mice wins wildlife photography award

A picture of two mice fighting over some crumbs on an empty Tube platform has won a prestigious ‘people’s poll’ award for wildlife photography. Sam...

How Fear Distorts Our Thinking About the Coronavirus

The solution isn’t to try to think more carefully. It’s to trust the experts.

12.02.20 XR 2020 Strategy – Power : Together

The world has changed significantly since Extinction Rebellion launched just over a year ago.  Inspired by activists around the world, arm in arm w...

Extinction Rebellion @Extinction Rebellion

Why Clouds Are the Key to New Troubling Projections on Warming

Recent climate models project that a doubling of atmospheric CO2 above pre-industrial levels could cause temperatures to soar far above previous es...

Beyond Buddhist Exceptionalism

Evan Thompson— Confusion reigns in the debates about science and religion. Nowhere is this more evident than in the special treatment Buddhism rece...

buddhism

Mark Ovland, Extinction Rebellion, and the limits of revolutionary mysticism

One of the figures in the controversial Tube protest by Extinction Rebellion is a Buddhist teacher who has embraced a new form of revolutionary Bud...

buddhism Extinction Rebellion

Yorkshire residents criticise delays to flood defence scheme

Mytholmroyd community members say slow progress left properties unprotected

Cherokee Nation to preserve culturally important seeds in Arctic vault

Varieties of corn, beans and squash seen as central to Cherokee identity will be deposited in Norway’s Svalbard seed bank

indigenous arctic

Bristol Airport expansion plans rejected

“It is a real ‘David and Goliath’ story”. North Somerset Council has voted to reject planning permission for Bristol Airport to increase its capaci...

Devon traveller John Treagood has died - updates

"John was a private man but I for one am honoured in the fact that he let me into his life"

Native burial sites blown up for US border wall

"Controlled blasting" for Mr Trump's border wall is taking place at sacred gravesites, tribes and lawmakers say.

James Lovelock "We Humans are a Good Thing"

Listen to this episode from Team Human on Spotify. Playing for Team Human today, author, centenarian, environmentalist, futurist, and scientist, Ja...

climate change @Spotify

Compersion or Mudita: Unlearning Jealousy the Buddhist Way

Have you heard of “compersion”? Definitions abound but the layman summary could be: “the opposite of jealousy”. It covers any positive…

@Medium

Luis Cuede | Aragon

Listen to this episode from DAOcast on Spotify. “Because I think, today, a lot of the uncertainty around DAOs is that they cannot grow out of their...

blockchain DAO @Spotify

What happened when I tried to learn Toki Pona in 48 hours using memes

Toki Pona is an invented language that borrows from Dutch, English and Chinese. It has only 120 words but is two days enough time to become fluent?

Jordan Peterson seeks 'emergency' drug detox treatment in Russia

Jordan Peterson, the polarizing pundit and author, is recovering in a Moscow hospital after seeking "emergency" treatment for dependence on an anti...

Dr. KIM TALLBEAR on Reviving Kinship and Sexual Abundance /157

Listen to this episode from For The Wild Podcast on Spotify. Intimacy and sexuality is the soil that gives rise to creativity, pleasure and regener...

indigenous soil podcast @Spotify

The Secret Reason Why Sex Is So Crucial in Relationships

New research on sex in relationships shows the real reason it can benefit yours.

Hopepunk and Solarpunk: On Climate Narratives That Go Beyond the Apocalypse

I hear the following more often than I would like from some of my fellow educators: “My students can’t or won’t discuss climate change. They’re too...

climate crisis climate change

Amazon deforestation for January hits record

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil more than doubled in January compared with the previous year, according to official data published...

physics rainforest amazon

Game Change, Yes Please

Neither game denial nor game accep­tance is a consciously held perspective. They are, of course, mis­takes we make because of unconscious biases an...

Hanzi Freinacht @Metamoderna

THIS IS WHY I REBEL

James ‘Iggy’ Fox died on 6 February. He was 25, had given up a career in science to join XR and fought hard for the cause, especially for Indigenou...

indigenous Extinction Rebellion @Extinction Rebellion

Bumblebees' decline points to mass extinction – study

Populations disappearing in areas where temperatures are getting hotter, scientists say

climate change

Berlin Freezes Rents for 5 Years in a Bid to Slow Gentrification

The move, in a capital once known for its artists and its party scene, aims to reverse a trend that is driving out older and lower-income residents.

Stop Game Acceptance

Readers of a conservative bent have probably felt a streak of satis­faction reading my former post on game denial, while the radicals and liberals ...

Hanzi Freinacht @Metamoderna

Love isn’t what you look for; it’s how you look

It seems that for most people, lovingkindness practice works best if we don't look for feelings down in the heart, but if we look with kindness.

Tipping mechanisms could spark societal change toward climate stabilization

Limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees C requires a decarbonized world by 2050 at the latest, and a corresponding global transformation of...

physics

Burning Man, the Internet and late stage capitalism

Image credit: Duncan Rawlinson Burning Man likes to see itself as a radical counter-culture. But what if it is in fact an incumbent culture and mai...

capitalism

The Metamodern Flame

“Look again and you will see the Gods rise in the most human and unassuming of eyes.” — Kate Tempest

climate change metamodern @Medium

Love is a joint project

For Simone de Beauvoir, authentic love is an ethical undertaking: it can be spoilt by devotion as much as by selfishness

The Universe as Cosmic Dashboard

Relational quantum mechanics suggests physics might be a science of perceptions, not observer-independent reality

physics

Dr. BAYO AKOMOLAFE on Slowing Down in Urgent Times /155

Plunging into deep pools of philosophy and imagination, Ayana and Bayo’s conversation winds through dimensions of the new and the ancient: Yoruba m...

'My silent retreat obsession changed my life'

Gemma, 26, was stuck in a job she hated, struggling with stress and anxiety - then she discovered silent retreats.

Matter: The Future of Feedback

Thousands of professionals trust Matter's peer feedback platform to gather amazing feedback on the skills that matter. Try it FREE - no boss required.

Climate Models Are Running Red Hot, and Scientists Don’t Know Why

The simulators used to forecast warming have suddenly started giving us less time.

climate change

Listen to Rob Burbea - Emptiness, Postmodernism, and Sacred Participation now.

On this episode I'm joined once again by meditation teacher and author Rob Burbea. For this conversation Jamie Bristow and I talk with Rob about hi...

podcast amazon @Spotify

People, Practices & Place

A Simple Structure to Hold a New Microsolidarity Community

@Medium

Blockchain Zero

When I discovered the blockchain six years ago, I was completely hooked. The excitement from this technology and what it can do for…

blockchain @Medium

EP36 Hanzi Freinacht on Metamodernism

Hanzi Freinacht, political philosopher, historian, sociologist, & author has a wide-ranging talk with Jim that starts by exploring what postmod...

Hanzi Freinacht metamodernism @Spotify

Game Denial

Life is a game. Since we inhabit a world of limited resour­ces, our daily lives are full of zero-sum interactions where one party walks away with a...

Hanzi Freinacht @Metamoderna

Towards a Metamodern Spirituality

What would a spirituality look like that actually helped us confront the many crises of our world?

climate change metamodernism metamodern @Medium

Immune discovery 'may treat all cancer'

Research is at an early stage but scientists said it had huge potential for destroying cancers.

The Religion of No Religion

A short commentary on John Vervaeke’s Awakening from The Meaning Crisis (Episodes 37, 38, and 39)

meaning @Medium

How To Weave Social Fabric

3 Essential Pillars For a New Mutual Aid Community

@Medium