Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: We must do this and have a lot of such communities. A lot of people, maybe, don´t know about this because mass media are more concentrated on some sensations, you know, such as how people die, how they are killed, drugs, life of famous stars, private life and so on. So we take the people away from problem because the problem is too difficult for us. Why is it difficult? Because we don´t want to move our brains. We all in these countries, we all think somebody must do it for us - this comfortable life and other things. We are user but we must create our happiness ourselves, you know. And there are a lot of people who create such communities in Amerika, Italy or India. They make this. I know this experience to create such community where people live and don´t depend on government. They grow vegetables, not genmanipulated, natural products. They use natural materials. They are working together for some fantastic life of their members without using this slavery. It´s a very good and very nice experience And we must show the public this good experience, you know, and not think it´s utopia or fantasy because it is created by people.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: Again the problem of education. We must make people aware of the importance of stopping using up resources. We must educate people since the very beginning of the their life. Education is the only possible solution.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: We have to start thinking and tell like the refrain which says give the people who learn to fish a line, to get sustainable communities, and therfore we have to provide the farmers, behave friendly towards our environment, to improve their agrarian output. We also have to support these farmers, these associations, these small firms in order to guarantee their independence and their incomings. We have to permit them their independence. In future, there have to be governmental politics which facilitate those processes, so that already existing agreements on a global level will be respected.

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Cat, I think your question is very important, but I regret I don’t really know – you know indigenous communities used up resources that were never replaced. It’s just that there’s so many people now so that that usage becomes far more noticeable. The world is completely overpopulated and its current approach to energy means that we have to use that which is actually available to us right now. So how can we create communities? Well, we can not create communities but we can create alternative forms of energy, and think about how we can do that. I’m not exactly sure whether we can create that in sufficient time to deal with the rate of depletion. I know for instance tribal communities or indigenous communities certainly live more harmoniously with nature, but I also know that they do – that knowledge of living intimately with nature seems to have been lost, so it looks like we all are depleting our resources, and it looks to me like these vast deforestation and depletion taking place and I think it’s – as I said I really believe people will have to be reactive now rather than proactive.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: I think that the question of sustainable development is an important one, but I don’t think it can be addressed at the community level. Ultimately, it is impossible to separate oneself off from a system and create pockets of sustainability in a world, which is still dominated by a set of priorities that are ultimately so destructive to the environment and destructive to human interests. And so, really, there is a danger in this question of adopting a model of carving out for oneself, I kind of see a little pocket of liberty, I miss to see oppression and exploitation and environmental destruction, and really if we are going to get at sustainability, it has to be addressed on a global level. Now, through local actions, local organization, we can begin to make changes that will begin to have that kind of global impact, but I think we have to have it mind that that is what our struggle is to achieve that we are not going to achieve it through isolated changes but we are going to change it to major profound changes in the nature of production, not just in the nature of consumption, but in the nature of production, in the nature of how things are produced, how decisions about production are made. And ultimately, it is going to take confronting the domination of our lives by the principle of profit, by the principle of short-term gain.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala:

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: For communities to be created that are sustainable, we would have to have these communities based on the principle of local economy, where we just don’t see ourselves as consumers. We have to think of the word consumer as coming from the word consumption tuberculosis or the fire that consumes, but to really build relationships in the community where we are seeing ourselves also as the stewards of the land, not just something that extracts and uses but is also giving back. This is not just about our rights as consumers, but it is really also about us as communities as the caregivers and the caretakers.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: I find interesting this question, because how can we create communities is a big question. And the key to creating genuine community. And what is a community? A community is an energy field in which the individuals who make it up share in deep equality an awakened sense of their connection with each other. And with the entire ecology and with all other people. So that the model of community is not the same as when one is an ego-based culture and consciousness, in which you see individuals first. And that a community is a cluster of individuals coming from the egoentric position. So that community is aderivative reality. That is not what genuine community is. So the key to creating true community is creating and opening up and cultivating the awakened consciousness. The global consciousness, the global spirituality, in which we experience a connectivity with ourselves and we share with each other and with the entire ecology. When we are in that kind of awakened global citizenship and consciousness, we will automatically be respecting the use of resources. And living a lifestyle of renewable energy and a lifestyle of less greed and less consumption. And find that we can flourish by using much less. And that there’ll be ample resources for all the people of the planet to share. So that would be a self-regulating idea. When we become a true community, this will automatically happen. This sustainable culture.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: This question assumes that the people within the communities are willing to exercise restraint and not practice unbridled consumption and consumerism of material goods and resources in a way that is wasteful, in a way that is not necessary, and that we are willing to give up as a goal to strive towards to have unbridled access and use of our natural resources and of materials. So the individuals within these communities must be willing to change their way of thinking to embrace different values, values that will not speak about the goal of life being to acquire more and more things, but rather to be able to understand that our resources are here for everyone, and that we must exercise personal discipline so that we don't consume more than we need and be willing to share what we have with each other and to create those social and political policies that will help to make our communities and our world a more just and sustainable place to live.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: Resources will never be spent faster than they are produced or if they are spent, there will be others, which will replace them. This is just the power of demand. I don’t believe there can be any power, which can manage all this and which says: “We are allowed to eat so-and-so much from that, but not from that! We are allowed to spend so-and-so much from that, but not from that!” A lot of dictators tried this. Maybe something like that can work in times of war, but it doesn’t exist in everyday life. The market, the demand, they will arrange this and the resources will be there forever. If there aren’t any left, we will just use other resources or we will create new resources. We can do this with the help of our funds, our research and our science. We have to take care for this.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: We can create communities that are sustainable and there is great models out there of communities that are sustainable. And I would even challenge this question to, how can we create communities that are regenerative? So, that they can actually produce resources at faster rate than they are using them. Take on a permacultural model of a holistic design that is working on building up the natural support systems that we are reliant upon, by building up the soil, by building up the physical structures of the soil and the water by enriching the water, purifying the water, by enriching the plants. And also the invisible structures, by building up the communities, the people that are within them, to step in to their power, so that the people themselves are sustainable in their own actions, in their own ways at which they interact with their other community members. And Donato again, if you’re listening to me finishing now, it's a good one. And just like everyone else here has good inputs to offer to this, because there are so many great communities that have already been created and we all have the potential to create the community that we want to live in, in the life that we want live in. And this is crucial to a more regenerative system is to build up our communities in which we live ourselves. Create, we are creators.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: Shall we create communities? Or, should we learn from those communities that are already putting into practices what some - this integration of the use, the sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources. If the consideration is the second one, then the answer to the question would be how can we create possiblilties or mechanisms that can allow us, that this knowledge, this experience of these communities that succussfully are, at the same time, ending poverty but they're also protecting their environment, can be transfer to more, thousands, millions, of other communities around the world. There is where the right question we need to ask and there is where we should find the answer. And I know that there is many many many efforts that are trying to do this with very very limited resources, and there is where we need to call a public attention that for us to really spread these good example, these good practices, we really need to invest in a process that can really exchange, create the space for people to share knowledge, to exchange knowledge among peers, and also that it can build a capacity in this process for us to really have communities that really can use resources in a more sustainable way.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 2:30:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger