Winter 2015-16

Local Futures
The Newsletter of the International Society for Ecology and Culture

Note from the Director

In this issue:

F• Conferences in US, Korea and Australia• International Alliance for Localization• The Ladakh Project• Local Futures blog

Helena Norberg-Hodgeor a long time we have described how theworld is moving simultaneously in two
opposing directions. Over the past year wehave seen this trend intensifying. As governments
cave into the pressures from a deregulated market,
poverty and ecological destruction are escalating.
But at the same time there is a massive increase intruly significant initiatives that demonstrate hopeand real people power.
The majority of the population is still viewing
events through national or local lenses that prevent
them from seeing the bigger pattern, particularly
the contours of the global economic system. So
there is a tendency to focus far too much on politicaltheater, and there is little awareness of thede facto government: interlinked banks andcorporations.

Without seeing the bigger picture, many people
fall into the trap of believing that human beingsare greedy by nature, and that the destructive,
dysfunctional system in which we seem trapped isa product of that greed. If human nature is to blame,it follows that there’s nothing we can do to bringabout fundamental change. For many, this thinking
leads to apathy or even despair.
I’m convinced that people are neither greedy
nor violent by nature, and that the problems we see
all around us emanate from an economic

Local Futures p. 1

Continued on next pagesystem that reaches deep into the psyches of young
children, perverting a universal need for love andacceptance into a need to consume — and to compete,
sometimes viciously, for the artificially scarce jobs
and resources on which that consumption is based.
At Local Futures, we are working to provide
a big picture, structural analysis of these powerful
economic forces. In doing so, we are helping tocatalyze a worldwide movement that encourages
both “resistance” and “renewal”. We are amazedand thrilled by the countless localization initiatives,
especially those with food at the center, that are
healing ecosystems, local economies and the humanspirit.
We find it equally encouraging that so manygroups have begun to target the trade treatiesthat are key drivers of social and environmental
destruction. If those groups join forces with themany community-based localization initiatives, theresult will be a people’s movement powerful enoughto reverse current trends and create a better world.

The Economics of Happiness
Across the Globe
Anja Lyngbaek, Programs CoordinatorAs the influential NGO Films for Action(www.filmsforaction.org)
pointsout,“documentaries have an incredible power toraise awareness and create transformative changes in
consciousness both at the personal and global levels.”
This is precisely what we were hoping to do when
we released our documentary film, The Economics ofHappiness, in 2011. For that reason we are honored
that Films for Action has put the film at the top of its
list of transformational documentaries three years ina row. Other films that have made the list include
The Corporation, Food Inc., The Age of Stupid, No Logo,
Gaslands, In Transition, and Permaculture: A Quiet
Revolution.
Overall, The Economics of Happiness has been
seen and used by individuals, community groups,

NGOs, educational institutions, social movements,
religious communities and spiritual groups on
five continents. It has been screened well over a
thousand times, in countries ranging from Japanto Mexico. The film is often the springboard tofurther discussion, thereby helping to catalyze local
alternatives to the corporate-led global economy.
To date, the film has been translated into 23
languages — in large part by volunteers eager for
people in their home countries to see the film. The
non-English languages include Cantonese, Croatian,Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hindi,
Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian,Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish,
Turkish and Ukrainian — with Swedish, Norwegianand Persian translations currently underway.
Last year, thefilm was screened by“What’s our favorite
the German airline
documentary of all
Lufthansa on domestic
time? The one film weflights, and shown inwish everyone could
see? Hands down,
the Italian Parliament
this is it. It is truly one
at the initiative of theof the most important
Five Star Movement
and useful films for(M5S). In Romania, theinspiring change that
documentary has been
has been made in apart of a nationwide
generation.”educational
project- Films for Action
aimed at generating
critical social analysis
among students. And in Japan, Korea and Australia,
local government authorities have used the film toinitiate discussion about the need for alternatives to
the global growth economy.
Four years after its release, The Economicsof Happiness continues to attract attention. A
noteworthy example is the Latvian Platform forDevelopment Cooperation, which collaborated withseveral other NGOs in Latvia to organize 100 public
screenings of the film this spring. The screenings,
part of a celebration of the Latvian Presidency of theEuropean Union, took place over a period of threemonths in venues across the country.
We are currently working to make The Economicsof Happiness more widely available in countries
where the film’s message seems particularly timely,
including Greece and Cuba. Simultaneously, we arein the process of developing a one-day workshop
module based on the film, for use by community
activists who want to kick-start effective local action.

Local Futures p. 2

Planet Local Photo ContestO

ur second annual Planet Local photo contest
drew entries from around the world,featuring farmers’ markets in Australia,
native fish ponds in Hawaii, indigenous vegetable
art from India and many other symbols of localized
economies. The photo contest is part of ourbroader Planet Local initiative, which showcases
localization in action. Besieged as we are by bad
news, it’s encouraging to see how many positiveefforts are taking place all over the planet—fromschool gardens to artisanal fisheries, locally-based
conservation projects to community music festivals.
The photo contest gives our supporters a chance toshow what localization looks like in their locales. It
also gives Local Futures a wealth of beautiful images
to illustrate what we mean when we say localization
is a real solution-multiplier. To see all the submitted
photos, take a look at our online album:
http://tinyurl.com/ppcbaz4

Chorotega Artistry, Costa Rica by Kristy Mulcrone

Marrakesh, Morocco by Alice Perna

Nature’s Nurture, India by Basapur Sudharm

Girl fishing for crab, UK by Hilda Feenstra

Caught prawns, Malaysia by Audrey Woon

Local Futures p. 3

The Ladakh Projectworkshop, and especially our stellar volunteers
Henry Coleman and Angie Polkey. We also thankthe Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation formaking Lonpo House available and for providing
delicious, traditional local lunches.

Alex Jensen and Brian Emerson,
Project Coordinators
Once again, it was a busy season for the Ladakh
Project. Here are some of the highlights:
Conferences and Workshops

� In early August, Local Futures ran our Global

to Local workshop at the beautiful, historic “Lonpo
House”. The workshop attracted a diverse groupof over 50 participants from around the world,
including India, Germany, Canada, Greece, France,
Australia, US, Korea, Netherlands, Belgium, theUK, and Japan. We explored issues of development
and sustainability, the true costs of corporate
globalization, and localization alternatives. We
tackled these issues as a group through a combinationof interactive exercises, games, presentations andfilms. Enthusiasm for the workshop exceeded thethree days originally scheduled, so a fourth day wasadded to delve further into local solutions.
“For me, this workshop is a highlight of mysummer holiday.”-Tenzin Yangkey, a student from Ladakh
The workshop offered a unique opportunity fordeep reflections and cross-cultural dialogues about
well-being, the romanticization of Western consumer
culture, “progress”, “development”, and the role oftechnology. A central theme was food and farming,
dismantling the myth that industrial agriculture isneeded to feed the world. We also explored theories,
strategies and living examples of alternatives rooted
in local production for local needs. We’d like tothank everyone who came and participated in the� Local Futures conducted a session on “mitigation,

adaptation, resilience and localization” at a oneday conference on climate change. The workshop
participants consisted of about twenty-five Ladakhi
college students, and included an interactive exercise
on how to increase the economic and ecologicalresilience of Ladakh in the face of climate change.

� In late July, a group of local and regionalNGOs co-hosted a gathering of Ladakhi activists,
politicians, and NGO leaders to discuss ecologicaland socially-just visions for the future. Ladakh
Project coordinators Alex Jensen and Brian Emerson
helped organize the gathering, and Alex gave apresentation showing the connection between
corporate globalization and the growing problemsof plastic waste and processed junk food in Ladakh.
He argued for regulatory action (rather than merely
personal consumption modification) to confront
the growing presence of destructive products andcompanies in Ladakh.
Local Food and Farming� Late August through mid-September is harvest

season for much of Ladakh. During this period theregion becomes a golden patchwork of small fields
of barley and wheat – the traditional staple crops.
Harvesting is traditionally a communal event,with groups of families joining together to work
each other’s fields ‒ combining work with singing
and regular festive breaks for food and drink.
Though this tradition persists in many villages, it
is in decline, as development and modernization
pull people away from the villages into sprawlingurban centers, where educational facilities, jobs andpolitical power are concentrated.
During the 2015 harvest season, Local Futuresorganized a number of ‘crop mobs’. Working withyouth leaders we arranged for groups of tourists
to help with the harvest using traditional hand
harvesting techniques. The crop mobs offeredparticipants a unique hands-on opportunity to

Local Futures p. 4

learn about traditional Ladakhi farming – andthe profound changes it is undergoing. They also
provided useful labor to local family farms, andmost importantly, they helped to raise the status ofrural knowledge and skills. Across the world, thisis needed to counter the imagery in advertising andthe media which makes villagers feel backward andstupid.

� We also continued to run our Mindful Tourism

program, which includes a “Mindful Travel”
brochure (now in seven languages), an “EcoFriendly Guide Book for Leh City” and an “Eco-Map
of Leh”. These publications provide guidelines for
how tourists can play a positive role by supporting
the local economy, helping to protect the local
environment, and supporting local NGOs.

� One of the many highlights of the season was afield trip to the village of Takmachik in western
Ladakh to help officially launch it as an “organic
village”. The entire village of sixty households has
committed to 100 percent organic farming. The
initiative seeks to strengthen the village economy,
providing viable agrarian livelihoods to help stem
the rapid urban migration trend happening acrossLadakh. Many participants stayed the night in
the homes of local families, and teamed up on thesecond day for our first crop mob, helping harvest afield of local lentils and wheat.

� As part of our Traditional Knowledge & Skills

Tourist Education

� For people from the West, Ladakh is a placeseries, which gives outsiders an experience oftraditional Ladakhi culture, we held a workshop in
the village of Hemis Shukpachan that showcasedbasket weaving, traditional meals, and traditional
folk songs. Along with homestays with local families,
the workshops gave outsiders an experience oftraditional Ladakhi culture. It also provided theopportunity for Westerners to contribute to therestoration of respect for place-based knowledge
and skills. Their interest in learning these skills is
helping to restore respect for local knowledge.

where preconceptions about “progress”, “wealth”,
and “development” are difficult to hold onto. For
this reason, a fundamental rethinking of basic
assumptions in Ladakh can remain with travelers
even after their return home. As in years past,
our tourist education program consisted of daily
screenings of either Ancient Futures or The Economicsof Happiness at the Ecology Centre. Following thefilms, there were stimulating discussions led by
Local Futures staff on the impacts of globalizationon Ladakh and other parts of the world.

Local Futures p. 5

Economics of Happiness Conferences
Portland, Oregon
Our ongoing series of Economics of Happiness
Conference continued in February 2015 with a
3-day event in Portland, Oregon. Following on fromsimilar gatherings in Berkeley, California, Byron
Bay, Australia and Bangalore, India, the conference
brought together international speakers, neweconomy leaders from the local area and nearly 400
participants from a wide range of ages and walksof life. The program included plenary sessions
covering a diversity of topics, including law andthe new economy, climate change, trade treaties,
spiritual connectedness, alternatives to GDP, andindigenous traditions.

were pleased to also include talks by Vicki Robin,
Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Chet Bowers, Jihan Gearon,
Janelle Orsi, Sandra Lubarsky and other prominent
thinkers and activists in the environmental andnew economy movements. The conference was
supported by more than 50 local, national andinternational partner organizations that helped us
spread the world about the event and contributed
local expertise. Many exhibited their materials andled workshops, helping to connect the big picture
analysis to the local level.

Bayo Akomolafe, Michael Shuman

In workshops, participants had an opportunity
to delve deeper into certain topic areas, such as
education and schooling; DIY policy-making; race,
gender and food systems; and the health benefitsof nature. There was also a special grief-sharing
circle led by a local activist, to help participants face
the suffering of the world in a way that inspires
action instead of despair. A number of other local
community members also contributed significantly
to the richness of the event with flute, vocal andguitar performances, with an exhibit of photographsof Bhutan, and with the creation of an Economics ofHappiness mandala.
Many of our core Economics of Happinessspeakers gave presentations, including Bayo
Akomolafe, Camila Moreno, Carol Black, Charles
Eisenstein, Manish Jain and Michael Shuman. We

In collaboration with these organizations, we
also organized a number of field trips and off-site
activities on Sunday morning. These included a tourof Portland’s artisanal economy, a walk throughan urban orchard, a visit to a budding intentional
community, and a session on brainstorming a new,Conference Feedback“The conference overall wasoutstanding. Truly amazing.”

absolutely“It was excellent. The only problem was that too
much was happening that sounded fascinating
all at the same time.”“There were such wise words spoken, and it
was so vitalizing to see all the inspiring work
being done around the world.”

Local Futures p. 6

Flute perfomance by Larkin Stentz

more people-centered Declaration of Independence.
As usual, feedback from participants was
overwhelmingly positive, with many asking us tohold a conference in Portland every year. It was
exciting for Local Futures to bring the Economicsof Happiness to a city already vibrant with local
economy initiatives and to have our vision so wellreceived. The energy generated from the event waspalpable and we aim to continue to collaborate withparticipants and partner organizations under our
Economics of Happiness program. We are gratefulto the NoVo Foundation for supporting this project.
Jeonju, South Korea
In early September we held our second
international conference of the year, this time inthe city of Jeonju, South Korea. By all accounts theevent was “a huge success — an historic event” inthe words of the Mayor of Jeonju. The conference
included international speakers Janelle Orsi (authorof Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy), Judy Wicks(founder of BALLE), Keibo Oiwa (founder of Japan’s
Sloth Club and author of Slow is Beautiful), Neil
McInroy (head of the Centre for Local Economic
Strategies), and Helena Norberg-Hodge. South
Korea was represented by professors, activists
and local government leaders, many of whom
are members of South Korea’s Social Economy
movement.
The final paragraph of the wall-sized, handpainted conference Declaration shows clearly theenthusiasm and support for localization:
Together with the City of Jeonju and the participantsof the International Conference on the Economicsof Happiness 2015, Jeonju, we hereby declare our
support for the values and direction of the economics ofhappiness in building a new model for local economies
that looks beyond competition and divisiveness, and ourcommitment to cooperate with the efforts of Local Futuresin helping the movement for localization spread and takeroot throughout the world.
This commitment has already been put into
action by an association of mayors representing 57
South Korean municipalities and towns. Seeking“to show this wonderful documentary to as many
Korean people as possible,” they will be screening
The Economics of Happiness throughout the country,
beginning with a huge event at an upcoming meetingof the Seoul Metropolitan Government. And plans
are already being discussed for another Economicsof Happiness Conference in South Korea, perhaps as
early as 2016.
Castlemaine, Australia
Another inspiring conference in our ongoingseries was held in mid-October in Castlemaine,
Australia. Entitled “Local Lives, Global Matters”,
it was hosted in partnership with Oases Graduate
School in Melbourne and organized by three
remarkable women, Ellen Madigan, Carolyn Nielson
and Nikki Marshall. In addition to storytelling, art,
music and visits to nearby localization initiatives,
there were wide-ranging presentations, panels andworkshops — from media liberation and the gift
economy to local renewable energy and the moral
underpinnings of economics.
The amazing community participation andenthusiasm made it a truly memorable event. In
addition to Helena Norberg-Hodge, plenary speakers
included Raphaël Souchier (a French localization
advocate), Samuel Alexander (degrowth proponent
and author of The Sufficiency Economy), Rob Hopkins(founder of the Transition Towns movement) via
skype, and Susan Murphy (a Zen Roshi and deep
ecologist). Manish Jain (India) and Camila Moreno(Brazil), who have presented at numerous Local
Futures conferences, once again enthralled theaudience with their thought-provoking analyses.
Upcoming conferences
In October 2016 we will be co-hosting anotherinternational Economics of Happiness Conference

Local Futures p. 7

in Florence, Italy. We are pleased to be collaboratingwith the Five Star Movement, members of parliamentand local government, and with Macro Edizione,
one of the biggest alternative publishers in Italy.
Details on these and other upcoming events will be
posted on our website.

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Other Local Futures eventsH

elena Norberg-Hodge had an extensive
itinerary of speaking engagements in Asia,
Europe and Australia this past year. In
South Korea she was not only a featured speaker at
the Economics of Happiness conference in Jeonju,
she also gave talks in Seoul at Friends of the Earth,
Korea, and at an event called “Localization and the
Future of Society”, in which she participated in apanel discussion with several local mayors.
In Hong Kong, she led a two-day workshopthat included group discussions, Q&A sessions,visits to a community farm and farmers’ market,
and a screening of The Economics of Happiness. She
also gave a public lecture at Lingnan University
on “How human scale is essential for solving oursocial and ecological problems”. This event wasat the invitation of Dr. Erebus Wong and Kin Chi
Lau from the Rural Reconstruction Movement ofChina, which has been promoting CSAs and otherlocal food projects in that country. They also invited
Helena to be a co-founding member of the Global
University for Sustainability, an online initiative
born out of the World Social Forum.

Helena was in Ladakh for much of August
this year. In addition to being a guest of honor at
the International Festival of Buddhist Culture, shealso delivered a number of lectures in English and
Ladakhi to tourists, Ladakhi students, local NGOs
and others, and spoke on the local radio station.
Helena also met with local government, religious
and NGO leaders to discuss the direction of change
in the region, and to explore potential collaborationsin the future.
Helena’s travels also brought her to theUK, where she gave a keynote address — “FromGandhi and Schumacher to Russell Brand” — at acelebration of E.F. Schumacher’s work, organizedby the Schumacher Institute in Harbourside. In
Embercombe, Devon, Helena facilitated a 4-day
residential course on how localization can reduce ourecological footprint, create meaningful livelihoods,
and rebuild the fabric of community. The course
included a tour of Transition Town initiatives in
Totnes.
Another highlight was the GEN+20 Summit
at Findhorn, Scotland, which celebrated the 20th
anniversary of the Global Ecovillage Network,
as well as the 10th anniversary of its partnerorganization, Gaia Education. Attendees from acrossthe world listened to stories of ecovillages past andpresent, debated hot topics and future strategies,
and pursued discussion strands from ecovillage
education to disaster relief policies. Helena, a cofounder of GEN and Gaia Education, presented
at the summit and took part in a 3-day meeting tofurther develop the Gaia Education curriculum.
In Australia, Helena gave the 23rd annual
Richard Jones Memorial Lecture sponsored by
the University of Tasmania. Helena also spoke atthe “Think Differently: Communities in Control
Conference”— a huge conference in Melbourne
featuring well-known thought leaders from all overAustralia. She also participated in an event in Byron
Bay called “The End of Earth, Inc. is Nigh!”, at which“handy tips for overturning corporate capitalism”
was the theme.
Not all of Helena’s events could be pinpointed
on a map: in February she joined author and colleague
Charles Eisenstein for a live web discussion, titled“Happiness for All”, about Bhutan’s use of Gross
National Happiness as a guide for development
decisions. The webinar was hosted by Orionmagazine.

Local Futures p. 8

Other Local Futures staff also actively reached
out to the public this year, with Program Coordinator
Anja Lyngbaek screening The Economics of Happinessin Mexico, and Managing/Programs Director
Steven Gorelick promoting local food systems
and decentralized renewable energy in Vermont.
Program Coordinator Alex Jensen was particularly
busy: in addition to organizing and participating inworkshops and conferences in Ladakh (see page 4),
he helped design content for a weeklong workshop,“Mountains and Us: Rethinking Development in
the Himalaya” at the Sambhaavnaa Institute in
Himachal Pradesh, India; he presented his slideillustrated talk on “Globalization and Waste” atboth the Sambhaavnaa Institute and at the Fireflies
Ashram in Bangalore; gave a talk on the globalto-local argument at two other Sambhaavnaa
courses, including a two-week program for youth
involved in social change initiatives; and presented
on Ecological Sustainability at the Vikalp Sangam
gathering in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

The Local Futures Blog

I

f you’re looking for thoughtful commentary on
current events from a global-to-local perspective,
the Local Futures blog is the place to go. Here are
excerpts from some of the past year’s blogs:• Globalization and Terror
by Helena Norberg-Hodge“For people in the modern world, there may
be nothing more difficult to comprehend than
the group calling itself the Islamic State, or ISIS.
The beheadings, rapes, and other acts of cruelty
seem beyond understanding, as does the wanton
destruction of priceless ancient monuments. Perhaps
most mystifying of all is the way ISIS has been able
to recruit young men — and even some young
women — from the industralized West, particularly
Europe: the conventional wisdom is that the curefor ethnic and religious violence is “development,”
education, and the opportunities provided by freemarkets. This seems not to be the case…

To really understand the rise of religious
fundamentalism and ethnic conflict we need to lookat the deep impacts of the global consumer culture
on living cultures throughout the planet. Doing soallows us not only to better understand ISIS andsimilar groups, but also to see a way forward thatlessens violence on all sides...”• Current trade treaties: “a revolution against law”
by Managing/Programs Director Steven Gorelick“A respected human-rights expert at the United
Nations, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, has joined theglobal movement opposing trade treaties like TPP
and TTIP. And he has novel and powerful legal
arguments. In international law, de Zayas says,
there is a hierarchy of agreements, and at the top
is the UN Charter: “in case of conflict between theprovisions of the UN Charter and any other treaty,
the Charter prevails.” In other words, trade treatiesthat lead to a violation of human rights — or breachany other obligation set out in the UN Charter — arelegally invalid...”• We Are All Greece by Helena Norberg-Hodge“Greece reveals clearly where a centralized
economy dominated by corporations and banks
leads…. [But] there is an alternative to starving
our own people to enrich foreign banks: it
involves moving away from ever-more specialized
production for export, towards prioritizing
diversified production to meet people’s genuine
needs; away from centralized, corporate control,
towards diverse, localized economies that are more
equitable and sustainable. This means encouraging
greater regional self-reliance, and using our taxes,
subsidies and regulations to support enterprises
embedded in society, rather than transnationalmonopolies...”• The End of Politics as Usual in the UK?
by Programs Director John Page
“These days, mainstream politics is justabout the last place you would look for genuinely
progressive ideas, for thinking outside the box.
Whether nominally Democrat or Republican, Labouror Conservative, politicians on every continent
read from the same dog-eared script… But thenthere is Jeremy Corbyn… To put it mildly, he is noteveryone’s cup of tea. But one thing is sure: debatesin the Houses of Parliament in Westminster will, forthe next few years at least, be anything but ‘politics
as usual’. And we should all be grateful for that…”

Local Futures p. 9

• Resisting the Technocratic Paradigm
by Managing/Programs Director Steven Gorelick“Ever since the release of Pope Francis’
encyclical, Laudato Si’, people in our circles havebeen waxing rhapsodic about its message: finally,
a powerful global figure is explicitly calling for
fundamental structural change. Unfortunately, themedia has pigeon-holed the encyclical as a ‘climatechange’ document, and so Francis’ deep and broad
critique of the modern economic system – withparticular emphasis on its links to reductionist
science and technology – isn’t getting the attention
it deserves... For this reason it’s worth looking at
Francis’ words in some detail…”• Small Loans, Big Problems: The false promise of
microfinance, by Helena Norberg-Hodge“Ever since Bill Clinton and the World Bank
enthusiastically embraced the microfinance concept
in the 1990s, we at Local Futures have been skepticalof its benefits, seeing it as part of a whole package of‘market solutions’ to our social and environmental
crises that, in the long run, make things muchworse. We have pointed out that these loans often
target rural populations who were not previously
in debt: they represent the long arm of capitalism
reaching into remote rural areas, encouraging a shift
away from dependence on the land and the local
community, towards competition in a resourcedepleting global economy…”

Climate HappinessEver since the historic People’s Climate Marchin September 2014, we’ve seen some very
encouraging signs in the international climate
movement. People are increasingly seeing links
between our social and financial crises and runaway
climate change — connecting greenhouse gas
pollution to racial injustice, Wall Street corruption,
profit-making education, corporate dominatedglobal trade, and other seemingly separate issues.
This emerging big-picture critique is important,but as a movement we still have a ways to go informulating solutions. We need to go beyond
halfway measures like divestment, carbon-trading,or replacing industrial-scale fossil fuels withindustrial-scale renewables. What we really need issystemic economic change.
Our upcoming Big Pictures briefing on climatechange and trade will show how localization can
reduce greenhouse gas emissions while increasing
resilience and our social and economic wellbeing.
We’ll outline both the policy shifts and grassroots
initiatives that will take us from climate chaos toclimate happiness. Timed for release around theupcoming UN Conference on Climate Change,
this report will offer a concise overview of how
shortening the distances between producers andconsumers is one of the most strategic and effective
responses to climate change.

• A Tribute to Eduardo Galeano
by Project Coordinator Alex Jensen“Local Futures wishes to pay tribute to the
Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano, who passed
away on April 13th… He was one of the few writers,from either the global North or South, to understandthat ‘development’ as emulation-of-the-rich was notjust objectionable because of environmental limits
and constraints, but also because even if the project
were physically possible, to succeed at it would be a
Pyrrhic victory of the worst sort. Global industrialconsumerist growth and development aren’t justphysically impossible, they are undesirable, evendeadly...”Check out our current and past blogs at www.
localfutures.org/blog. Please post comments andread what others are saying about the content.

Local Futures p. 10

• share information about the worldwide
kaleidoscope of vibrant localization initiatives;• promote local alternatives, at the grassroots andpolicy levels, to large-scale mass-production;T

he International Alliance for Localization (IAL)
is Local Futures’ most ambitious networking
initiative to date. It was first announced
publicly in November 2014, at our “Voices of Hopein a Time of Crisis” symposium in New York City,
marking the start of a year-long launch of the IAL.
Since then, the ideas behind the Alliance havebeen shared widely through conferences, talks,
workshops and face-to-face discussions in Europe,
Asia and North America. The response has been
almost uniformly
positive.
“That was one of theWebelieverichestprofessional
conversations
I’ve hadthe time is ripe forin years, and I hope
the IAL. Although
to be included in thismany groups are
passionate and diverse
in broad agreement
network.”in their critique of- Vicki Robin,
the global economic
speaking
about thesystem, few havepaid
sufficientattention to localization — and until recently evenfewer recognized its possibilities as a systemic
solution. This is changing, and increasing numbersof people across the planet support a global-to-local
shift. Importantly, the IAL’s international platform
will include both resistance and renewal — countering
economic globalization while supporting steps tostrengthen healthy communities, economies andecosystems.
Our intention is to build bridges among awide variety of interest groups worldwide — fromenvironmentalists to social justice activists, fromfarmers and labor unions to small business groups,
from opponents of “free trade” agreements to thoseworking to protect their culture and environment
from global predation.
In summary, the IAL seeks to:• expose the threats posed by the deregulationof global trade and finance, which include giving
multinationals the right to sue governments
over laws or regulations that might diminish
corporate profits;• foster an understanding of the importance of
cultural and biological diversity for the survival
and wellbeing of people and the planet;• forge partnerships in support of economic
localization around the world.
A full introduction to the IAL can be found on our
website, along with an online sign-up form for bothindividuals and organizations. Those who sign up
for the IAL will receive our monthly update, which
will include:• Policy Watch, with updates on trade agreements
and other policies that tighten corporate control;• Planet Local, with news about inspiring
grassroots initiatives that strengthen local
economies and communities;• Take Action, with information about strategic
campaigns, petitions and protests.
We envision that all three categories will beenriched with contributions from IAL members.
Internal communication between members, as wellas the sharing of materials and other resources, will
initially take place through a listserv.
“It was a shot in the arm for me. I returned
home full of ideas that I shared with local
activists and friends, and already have several
small collaborations in the works with people
I met.”- Severn Cullis-Suzuki,
after the IAL meeting in Portland
Activities planned for the near future include aseries of live webinars on topics related to the globalto-local debate, the creation of an online space forshared resources, a Take Action Calendar, andthe development of DIY global-to-local workshop
modules.
We invite you to join us!

Local Futures p. 11

This issue is dedicated to Hildur JacksonOn September 6, the world lost Hildur Jackson, a visionary leader and co-founderof the Global Ecovillage Network. Hildur had been a close personal friend
since the 1980s. She was brilliant, full of energy, unfailingly warm and generous.
She loved life; she sparkled: you felt better in her presence.
Hildur was also a passionate activist – in fact, I know very few people whohave done as much as she did to make the world a better place. Her vision was torebuild the spiritual connections that have shaped humanity throughout history:
the deep interdependence between people, and between humans and Nature.
With her husband, Ross, she was able to translate this vision into a living reality,
providing thousands of people across the world with the opportunity to rediscovercommunity, to fulfill their dreams, to live in harmony with their deepest needs.
Thank you, Hildur, for everything you brought to our lives. And may theclarity of your vision continue to brighten our troubled world.

Photos: Cover C. Douglas; p4, 5 A. Jensen

p6, 7, 8 B. Kent; p10 K. Steele

Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture
www.localfutures.org
USA: PO Box 36, East Hardwick, VT 05836, Tel: 802-472-3505
UK: PO Box 239, Totnes TQ9 9DP, Tel: 01392 581175
info@localfutures.org
Compiled and produced by Kristen Steele
Edited by Steven Gorelick
Local Futures p. 12