You can view the video here.

Van Jones is a former White House Adviser, an environmental activist and social entrepreneur and currently a distinguished fellow in the Center of African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University.

Jones said, “The next American economy should be characterized by production, thrift and ecological restoration. But can our political system meet the challenge of helping America transition to a green economy? Or will a politics of fear ultimately derail the politics of hope?” In his lecture, he links green environment initiatives with the economy, bringing to light that athe United States is in a state of crisis both environmentally and economically. For more information on the climate crisis, read Cosimo Book Earth Fever, Living Consciously with Climate Change and for more information on how to move to a green economy and toward sustainability, check out Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative.

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Hazel Henderson will be speaking on “Transforming Finance” at this week’s Enlightened Business Summit teleconference for The Shift on Friday Oct. 28, 11:00 a.m. ET. You can register for the free call in here.

Hazel Henderson is a leading expert on sustainable development and the environment. She has written nine books, including the award-winning Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006). She is the founder of Ethical Markets Media, LLC and the creator and co-executive Producer of its TV series. She also wrote the Foreword to the 2010 Cosimo title Earth Fever: Living Consciously with Climate Change:

Welcome this English edition of Earth Fever, a timely and highly original approach to climate change. The authors move from a rigorous analysis of the latest scientific findings to the political social, cultural, and spiritual lessons we humans need to learn. They review the multidimensional actions that may keep our planet’s atmosphere from further warming beyond the average of 2 degrees centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) considered vital to prevent catastrophic outcomes. Beyond the careful analyses of all those issues and choices for our common human future, this book then breaks important new ground. The global climate crisis is viewed as a systemic learning experience and an opportunity for a rapid evolution of humanity’s planetary awareness and expansion of consciousness of our interdependence. It is as if Gaia, our wondrous living planet, is now our programmed learning environment, teaching us directly about our myopic thinking and careless technologies.

While the authors of Earth Fever examine the technological possibilities for approaching the climate crisis and the many ways those technologies can be accelerated, they also provide the deepest analyses yet of the possibility that humans are becoming more aware of our place in the planetary biosphere. Mass media, the Internet, socially responsible investors and asset managers, companies discovering the savings in energy efficiency, even the “green washing” of much corporate advertising: all are contributing to this growing awareness.

Money is not wealth, but merely one form of information—a brilliant invention to track and keep score of human transactions between each other and the ecosystem services of our planet. Economic textbooks are obsolete, disproved each day by new research into the value of ecosystem services (roughly equivalent to the money-denominated production we count in GDP), the value of unpaid human services (volunteering; caring for the young, elderly, and sick; growing food; building houses; etc.), which constitutes 50 percent of all annual production in OECD countries and as much as 65 percent in more traditional, developing countries. All this is ignored in economic textbooks and even their core tenet—that rational humans maximize their own self-interest in competition with all others—is now disproved by behavioral sciences and brain researchers.

Earth Fever explores our ability to cooperate and how this human skill can be amplified by the challenge of climate change. I have been operating on this same assumption, and today, its application to the climate issue is vital. We must change the debate over climate: from the economic approach (which believes that money is the constraint) to a more realistic view that money is not the issue, but time is the real constraint. Even the studies with the best intentions, such as those of Britain’s Sir Nicholas Stern, are still in the language of economics and money. Costs to the incumbent fossil fuel sectors are still the focus, while the positive benefits, savings, and revenues for ramping up the low-carbon economy globally (estimated for those who think in money terms at over $1 trillion a year) are not well analyzed.

My colleagues around the world in the Climate Prosperity Alliance and I are proposing investments of $1 trillion per year for the next 10 years to double annual installations of solar, wind, geothermal, and ocean technologies, which will save forests and create smart electric infrastructure, for a total investment of $10 trillion. This is less than the U.S. has spent in bailing out Wall Street, auto companies, and other unsustainable sectors, and is only 10 percent of the world’s pension fund
assets of $120 trillion.

My colleagues, including Jim Garrison and others interviewed in this book, and I understand that even though money is worthless (it is just a numeraire), one must engage a money-obsessed society in the metaphors of finance and investment. Our conscious evolution can be mapped by our understanding of the role of money in our societies and how it is evolving in this Information Age, as in Jordan Macleod’s New Currency (2009). Ever more trade and transactions are made without money, as pure information-based trading (see diagram below), e.g., eBay, Craigslist, Freecycle, GlobalGiving, Microplace, and P2P lending sites like Prosper, Zopa, and Qifang in China. Thus the twin crises of our global financial casino and climate change are indeed providing the breakthroughs in our understanding of how to create a saner, ecologically sounder, and more equitable future. In the depth and breadth of understanding of humanity’s real options for the future, Earth Fever breaks important new ground for us all.

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Last week Cosimo unveiled a brand-new book, Cloud-Clad Angel, Selected Poems, A Bilingual English and Serbian Edition. It is rare when we publish poetry in our Cosimo Books collection, an imprint dedicated to publishing new works, often of social, economical, or environmental significance. In the case of this extraordinary author, however, we felt that readers around the world deserved to read her beautiful, award-winning poetry. Vera Srbinovic has authored more than 21 books of poetry and won two awards for her poetry. This collection of selected poems includes poetry from many of her other books as well as an introduction by Dr. Drashko Redjep, a leading Serbian writer and literary critic. Below is an excerpt from the book:

WHEN YOU FALL SILENT

by Vera Srbinović

When you sing a song, the stars begin to twinkle
Groves that knew you start to tremble
When you say the words, the zephyrs shudder,
They quiet down and hide from shame
And when you fall silent, so do the does
Flowers close so that they don’t rouse you from
your sleep
When you sing a song, the trees sing along
The blue mermaids start humming with the sea,
Forest spirits dance around
The body quivers, joyous from the sound,
But when you fall silent, all dies away
Fires burning in the distance start to fade.

You can pick up your own copy today with this and many more poems at The Cosimo Bookstore and other online retailers!

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The Broadway show “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” a play modeled after the book of the same name by George Bernard Shaw, opened in New York on Sunday October 3 at the American Airlines Theater. It was on Broadway more than 100 years ago, for one night, before the “filthy product” was banned by Anothony Comstock of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. The New York Times reported this in 1905. This year the Times had more pleasant news to report, in a “glowing” review of the play.

As anyone knows, if the play or movie is good, the book must be even better. Shaw wrote a social commentary that was largely considered taboo for his time, yet his message pervaded–women are strong, deserve to be treated with respect, can have their own opinions and ideas. And while we in the U.S. don’t really condone prostitution as viable career even today (and actually, neither did Shaw-go read it!), we can still take away the idea that women are capable and intelligent and all around impressive. Good for Shaw, sticking up for the ladies!

UPDATE: Interestingly, it has come to my attention that Anthony Comstock, the writer of the original tirade against George Bernard Shaw and his work, also wrote some books to further his cause of the suppression of vice. The books, Frauds Exposed, or How the People are Deceived and Robbed and Youth are Corrupted and Traps for the Young contain “warnings, restraints, guidance and sympathy” that “alone” might “save the youth” from vileness and corruption, and compulsively itemizes the “traps” that were seducing American youngsters into lives of debauchery and vice, including “pernicious literature,” gambling, “free love,” “lewd art,” and more (from the back cover). Delightfully, Cosimo offers both of these hard-to-find editions, available in our bookstore.

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The Free Burma Alliance, Amnesty International, and Network 355 websites are raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Burma with New York conference on Oct. 16 & 17. Read about the organizations below and help support their cause!

Free Burma Alliance is a coalition of human rights and humanitarian relief organizations dedicated to raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Burma and providing support to the ill-treated and oppressed women and children of Burma (Free Burma Alliance).

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all (Amnesty International).

Network 355 is a NYC based network of socially responsible professional women who volunteer their expertise to raise awareness about humanitarian and cultural causes (Network 355).

For further information and tickets, click on http://burmaevent.eventbrite.com

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Danny Schechter, author of Plunder, Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal and director of the movie Plunder, the Crime of Our Time, and its companion book, The Crime of our Time, has written an inspired blog post about his experiences marching on Washington and reporting on marches for almost 50 years. He discusses marches from the ’60s, when Dr. Martin Luther King was promoting a non-racial America, to economics, jobs, and tea party marches happening today. Included in the post is an interview by Democracy Now! about his experiences. You can read the whole post and watch the video here.

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Oct. 8-10 Jean Houston Mystery School—Spiritual Life in Tumultuous Times: The Mystical Path of Purpose and Meaning

Dr. Houston explores the archaic concept of relationships and brings new insight to the expanded concepts of relationships. She reveals the treasures of untraditional learning and through dramatic theatrical performances, engages all participants in a field of experiencing relationship from the perspective of the seen and unseen. You’ll learn the sacred psychology processes of marrying the inner Lover and the spiritual Beloved, opening up a new level of personal and spiritual union and joy.(Next weekend is December 3-5)

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From the Power of One Invitation:

Power of One is inviting the world to make a profound and historic “Declaration of Interdependence” on 10.10.10. We are calling for all of humanity to join together, either physically at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall or virtually, from wherever they are around the globe from 10:00am to 10:00 pm on October10,2010 (10.10.10.) to declare their commitment to the survival and evolution of humanity and all life on earth.

There is a clear need for a major shift in consciousness worldwide and 10.10.10 is a day when humanity can begin to acknowledge and experience the depth of our interconnection with each other and all life.

Our hope is that this Declaration of Interdependence will become a global statement of resolve that helps to inspire humanity to unleash its unlimited creative potential and initiate its entrepreneurial drive to co-create a peaceful and globally sustainable society.

For further information, see quick links below or visit our website at www.powerofone.org

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