Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

David Suzuki at the Canadian National Roundtable

Dr. David Suzuki was the impassioned keynote speaker at a round table forum entitled "Securing Canada’s Future in a Climate Changing World", held at the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Here's a video of Suzuki's address from the Canadian Cable station cpac.

Paradise Unpaved

I can across an extraordinary storyteller the other day: Franke James. Her stories are made of text and photographs and illustrations and they're fabulous! She calls them "Visual Essays" and they're all documents of her efforts to green her life. Here's the latest, called Paradise Unpaved. (Click on the image to read the rest of her story ..)

Eco Anxiety

Linda Buzzell Satzman made me aware of this fascinating video about eco-anxiety, and its antidote:

I was quite interested to see a number of other videos on this subject on YouTube. Have a look (under "related videos")!

Ansel's Activism

I recently posted about Ansel Adams in my own Beauty Dialogues blog, focusing on his photographic art and creative philosophy.

But Ansel Adams was more than "just" an photographer, or even "just" an artist.

Ansel Adams came to the height of his photographic career during the Great Depression, and he was often asked "What's the use of making beautiful images when the world is falling apart?" Adams' love of beauty was not devoid of social and political concern, and the question stimulated him to him articulate his sense of what was important, beyond the social and economic tragedies of the day. Nature was fundamental, he felt, and despite the permutations of the present,

"There is a deeper thing to express. The return of humanity to some sort of balanced awareness of the natural things. Some rocks and sky. We need a little earth to stand on and feel run through our fingers. Perhaps photography can do this."

Adams' photography was a glittering display of the numinous, but it also gave him a powerful platform from which to stand as an activist and conservationist. Because of the beauty of his art and his renown as an artist and spokesman Adams was eventually successful in lobbying Washington to designate great quantities of California's Yosemite Valley as a protected wilderness.

His art and what he was able to do with it remains an inspiration to me, as I'm sure it does to so many other lovers of the natural world. I constantly strive to bring some of that love forward with my own photography, and am very grateful for his example.

Cool Globes

Cool Globes is a US-wide project that was launched in Chicago last year using the power of art to bring a more positive message about the need to "cool" the planet. Here in the San Francisco bay area where I live we're gearing up for a Cool Globes exhibition in Chrissy Field. It opens this Tuesday and will be showing through October 12th.

The San Francisco Chronicle published a video of local artist Lauren Davies creating her piece for the show. It's called "The Butterfly & the Tsunami":

This blog entry re-printed from my post on the World Café Global Climate Change Blog.

Planet Earth

Unless you've been on retreat in a cave or on a mountaintop for the last few years, you've probably seen at least one of the episodes of Planet Earth, the fantastic BBC documentary series narrated by Sir David Attenborough (or "Dickie" as we like to call him :-). I love the fact that they celebrate what is most beautiful in this world...

La Marguerite

Fresh as the daisy she's using on her blog banner, Marguerite Manteau-Rao is a Frenchwoman living in America and writing about life as she sees it, through the lens of what she calls "green psychology".

Her blog, La Marguerite, is a delightful and astute mix of environmental politics, broad cultural commentary, informative green news and philosophy, zen perspective, social networking and life online. I'm hooked! Have a look and see what you think...

Storm Chaser and Vanishing World

Two absolutely stunning books appeared on my doorstep the other day, review copies of new photography books on the theme of global warming, courtesy of the high-quality publisher Harry N. Abrams.

Storm Chaser (Abrams); Photo: © Jim Reed

They are both remarkable works of art, but Storm Chaser, which depicts the extreme weather conditions thrown up by the climactic changes of global warming, immediately caught my attention with its direct visual impact.

In shot after shot, veteran photographer Jim Reed captures the exquisite tension between the beauty and the raw power of nature at its most elemental. The text is fascinating too, as Reed and his crew keep a journal of their travels through disaster after disaster.

This video of their journey has footage of the artist photographing hurricanes Katrina and Isabelle that had me perched on the edge of my seat:

Vanishing World is a bit more cuddly, with its focus on the endangered-species poster-child the polar bear, but no less spectacular; arctic light has got to be some of the most magical phenomena on the planet.

The artist, Mireille de la Lez, takes you deep into a world few have ever experienced, and from the looks of it, this key part of our global climate system is disappearing so fast fewer still will get the chance to see it in the future.

But Vanishing World leaves us on a high note, with the optimistic belief that if this book motivates just one person to take action to protect the polar regions, it will have fulfilled its mission. In my opinion, this optimism is well-founded indeed. I can't imagine anyone not being powerfully moved by this glimpse into the beauty of the region and those creatures who live there.

Roost - Crows in NYC

Kevin Duggan is an illustrator with a twist - his most recent exhibit, Roost, on view in the Mid-Manhattan Library window display case through January 2, celebrates one of the most ubiquitous of our fellow creatures on this earth, the crow.

Gratitude

My friend Kay was visiting last weekend. It's always amazing to be around her, but ever since she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her velocity as a light in the world has been accelerating. For someone who knows that death may be coming soon the beauty of life is even more poignant, and being with Kay is to savor each moment we have.