Do we know what we are doing? New online text and some other things!

Do we know what we are doing?  Reflections on learning, knowledge, economics, community and
sustainability.

 Rolf Jucker has just published what he terms "his farewell text on ESD" text online. I an impressed by the depth and breadth of his thinking. Do have a look.      http://rolfjucker.net/


Abstract: The discourse of education for sustainability has been severely limited by the fact that it
largely refuses to acknowledge important insights from other fields of learning and
knowledge. A denial to engage with central insights with regard to how the world and more
specifically how human interaction with the human and non-human world work means that
it has been to a large extent a self-centred discourse. It is tangled up in reflections on
education without contextualising this in the real world. My main point is that not just
education in general, but also so-called education for sustainable development (ESD) needs
to perform a radical paradigm shift and become communal learning in real-time in a real
place. And this necessitates a willingness to face some tough questions on the prevailing
denial.  (Berne, 2014)


Se-ed are continuing to do great things and are running a series of webinars at around £10 a throw.
http://se-ed.co.uk/edu/

Ellen McArthur is busy at Davos and Unilever have just joined her Circular Economy group. Also The Ellen Mc Arthur Foundation has just published the 3rd chapter of their work to try and mainstream Circular Economy thinking and turn it into practice.
 http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/project-mainstream

"Following the release of Towards the Circular Economy vol.3, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation announces Project Mainstream, a collaborative project which could help businesses to shift towards a circular economy and as a result save US$ 500 million in materials and prevent 100 million tonnes of waste globally."

Saw a 3D printer at work yesterday. Hard to believe what I was seeing and touching.Imagine wanting a part for a machine and living far away from the parts dept. A local 3D printer could be the solution. Find and download the software and away you go.
Here's a tale for you! In 1971 in Mwinilunga, NW province of Zambia, near the source of the great Zambezi river, we were working in a secondary school of 800+ students and  100+ staff when the town water-pump broke. We, well mainly my colleague Steve Bodsworth, kept the school and hospital going for 3 months until the parts arrived. Households had to survive on two buckets of water a day. Luckily we had just installed two 2000 gallon tanks on the school farm. These were uprooted and one placed near the school kitchens and the other by the hospital. Then making one out of two very old 250cc Villiers water-pumps useable, borrowing a 500 gallon water-bowser, putting onto a "donated" gov't trailer hauled by a borrowed land-rover, Steve filled up the two tanks nearly every day for months taking water from the river Lunga. The pupils washed in the river and kept a look-out for crocs!