Deep Ecology

Profile of the tireless Rosa Maria Chan and the team of ProPeten, one of Guatemala’s most important environmental organizations. The group is working to give Mayan communities a sustainable economic alternative that will help re-establish forests in this troubled region, which comprises a third of Guatemala. Home to Tikal, this was the heart of the ancient Mayan kingdom; now it’s succumbing to pressure from cattle ranchers, multinationals buying up land for oil palm and the impoverished Mayans themselves. Read the story at www.TheEsperanzaProject.org.

Ecosphere is a social enterprise working in the cold deserts of Spiti, a valley tucked away in the Trans-Himalayas of India. Ecosphere works on a range of activities that enable the crucial link between local economies, conservation and development. For more details please visit our site www.spitiecosphere.com

In a new report, the Presidents Cancer Panel emphatically reinforced what public health officials and activists have been saying for decades: Toxic chemicals in the environment are killing people. Scolding regulators for taking a reactionary rather than a precautionary approach, the panel, attached to the National Institutes of Health, noted that only a few hundred of the 80000 chemicals used in the United States have been tested for safety.

Experts will announce this month the world has failed to meet the target set by international leaders to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by this year. Professor Joseph Alcamo, chief scientist of the United Nations Environment Program told the London Guardian: “Since 1970 we have reduced animal populations by 30%, the area of mangroves and sea grasses by 20% and the coverage of living corals by 40%. These losses are clearly unsustainable, since biodiversity makes a key contribution to human well-being and sustainable development.”

Make sure and visit www.quantumshift.tv and or www.bravenewearth.com for more of this series. Series #2 introduces Father Thomas Berry, a 91-year-old pioneer of the deep ecology movement who delivers an urgent message to build an Ark. Inspired by visionary Dr. Robert De Ropps’,†Church Of The Earth ARK. Brooke†and Sunny echoed Ropps’†vision†for the Ark which includes a garden, a university and a temple. Essentials for human beings to know our true nature, symbiotically bound to the earth.