INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON GLOBALIZATION Saturday & Sunday October 25-26, 2014 From 10am to 10pm (6pm Sunday) Cooper Union 7 E. 7th Street New York, NY 10003 Modern Life Mountain-top Removal TEACH-IN: Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth This is a project of The International Forum on Globalization in collaboration with The International Center for Technology Assessment and The New York Open Center. 45 Leading scholars, authors and activists will convene at The Great Hall of Cooper Union, New York City, for a public "teach-in" on the profound impacts-- environmental, economic and social-- of runaway technological expansion; the tendency to see technology as the savior for all problems. A change of direction is required, returning the fate of nature to the center of economic and social decision making. BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW ! Save with advance tickets available through August: $35 for Saturday/$30 for Sunday/$50 for both. (Regular prices will be $45 for Saturday/$40 for Sunday/$75 for both. $25 for students and seniors.) Or contact:   Brown Paper Tickets, the International Forum on Globalization or the New York Open Center. SPEAKERS In addition to those above, speakers will include: Debbie Barker, Chet Bowers, Tom Butler, Eileen Crist, Marcy Darnovsky, David Ehrenfeld, Aiden Enns, Dave Foreman, Bruce Gagnon, John M. Greer, Clive Hamilton, Randy Hayes, Richard Heinberg, Michael Huesemann, Andrew Kimbrell, Dave King, Lisi Krall, James Kunstler, Winona La Duke, Jerry Mander, Stephanie Mills, Anuradha Mittal, Pat Mooney, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Kirkpatrick Sale, Linda Sheehan, Katie Singer, Gar Smith, Charlene Spretnak, Jim Thomas, Doug Tompkins, Severine von Tscharner-Fleming, Ralph White, Langdon Winner et. al. Full program/speaker schedule TBA soon. Plus films, workshops, and bookstore. This event comes at a crucial historical moment.     Ecological systems are near collapse--global climate, soils and fertility; fresh water supply; deep ocean life, forests, biodiversity; diminishing global food production; and unprecedented rates of species extinctions. Human life is also threatened by these, as well as by shocking rates of economic inequality, and the expanding threat of wars to control lands and scarce resources. synthetic biology (creating new artificial life forms, including genetically redesigned humans--taller? smarter? better looking?; and nanotechnology (to replace the planet's billion-years-old molecular structures for greater efficiency.)     We prefer the old planet. This will not solve our problems. It does not bring us together; it does not bring happiness. It is isolating our minds and feelings within computer algorithms. As Sherry Turkle writes, we are now "alone together." But proposed solutions rarely stray off the corporate message: "Technology will solve our problems. Leave it to technology." We do not share this optimism. SUBSTITUTE NATURE Many in our society see the ecological crisis as a grand new economic opportunity for growth and profit. If nature is being destroyed, we can create new nature. Technologies are rolling out to introduce substitute nature. For example: geo-engineering (to "solve" the climate crisis by "re-seeding" the heavens and inventing techno-climate); GMOs (to re-arrange the genetics of food, animals, and trees, making them more profitable); We can also look forward to intelligent robots on farms and in factories and homes (eliminating need for human workers!); and vast numbers of military household drones, as well as a potpourri of such inventions as Google glass, driverless cars, app-after-app-after-app, and ever more handy instruments for cyber-envelopment of our consciousness and everyday lives. Did anyone ask for these? They are all expressions of science in service to corporate profit and growth. They do not serve people, but do serve the needs of desperate capital, running out of nature's resources. Meanwhile, human experience--now increasingly embedded within our new global technological cocoon--is losing its awareness and connection with nature. NEW CONSCIOUSNESS What is needed is new consciousness, and new economic strategies that break from the assumption of human dominion over nature and the planet ("anthropocentrism"), while rejecting the idea that more technology is the way to save the world. What is required are new economics that will bring us together; reforming our economies toward fairness, and placing the health of nature as the final measure of success. Tweeting won't save us. Alternative ideas, policies, programs and actions will be pursued and discussed in detail. Forward this email STAY CONNECTED              We thank our co-sponsors, The Foundation for Deep Ecology, Foundation Earth, The Schumacher Center for New Economics, Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture, the Greenhorns, and Agrarian Trust. Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved. International Forum on Globalization