Bangalore 2013 (Inde) Dialogues_en_humanité

http://pipaltree.org.in/index.php?page=homePipal Tree /  Dialogues en humanité Invites you to February Dialogues on “The spiritual, intellectual and social-transformational Challenges before us” to be held at Fireflies Ashram (Bangalore, India) between 15th-19th February 2012 about :

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Dear Friends,

Greetings from Pipal Tree!

It gives us great pleasure to announce the 2013 February Dialogues, which will take place at Fireflies Inter-religious Ashram, Bangalore, India, from Wednesday, 6th February evening till Sunday, 10th February night (including a spectacular eco-cultural music festival from Sunday, 10th February afternoon till 10:00pm).

The theme for the 2013 event will be “Values and practices to foster sustainable communities”. This event is being jointly organised by the Meeting Rivers programme of Pipal Tree (Bangalore, India) and Dialogues en Humanite (Lyon, France).

Each year many people from India and abroad attend this unique event where values and spiritualities are integrated with social and ecological themes. The programme this year will include an analysis of the consequences of climate change on four eco-systems: rural (arid and semi-arid), urban, coastal and forest. Among the consequences of climate change will be its impact on food production, drinking water, livelihood and habitat. Not only will the impacts be assessed, but practical solutions will be sought.

The impacts of climate change on communities, particularly the poorer ones, have been taken up in previous years as well. But we have found that these are still emerging issues where only inadequate data and understanding exists. The only reality is that small farmers, fishers, forest communities and the urban poor, among others, are beginning to feel the impact, often severely. Therefore each February Dialogues event builds on the outcomes of previous ones, and the process must continue if we are to grapple with humanity’s most critical crisis.

February Dialogues also underlines the fact that we cannot achieve the goal of sustainable communities unless we live and experience the values, spiritualities and ethics which form the basis of any sustainable endeavour. We will therefore be exploring, and living, these values, spiritualities and ethics during the Dialogues itself.
The design of the event will be such that there will be space for meditation, sharing of personal journeys and theological reflections.

In the weeks ahead we will send you a concept note which outlines the central themes (mentioned above) of February Dialogues 2013.

The February Dialogues will conclude with a spectacular music and cultural festival which integrates the themes which we will be addressing. Be sure to attend the festival on Sunday 10th February, which will begin at noon and conclude at 10 pm.

In the meantime, we hope we are giving you enough advance notice to allow you to let us know if you are interested in attending the next dialogues. Do write to us soon as we can only accommodate a limited number of participants.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

With warm regards
Siddhartha

 
What is the good life?
- Values and spiritualities to face the challenges of social justice and
climate change
17-20 February 2010, Fireflies Inter-religious Ashram, Bangalore, India
Never before has human civilization been faced with a challenge of such enormous
magnitude. Climate change is already beginning to have devastating effects on the lives of
millions. In India, the Himalayan glaciers are predicted to melt in the next 30 years or so. The
great rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, are predicted to either run dry or have little water.
There will be millions of farmers and landless labourers who will become climate change
refugees. Much of Bangladesh will go under water in the few decades. Where will the over 100
million people go? Many parts of the world will be in a similar situation.
It is time to act.
It is time to find the psychological and spiritual motivation that can galvanise us into
action.
If we begin to act today we will still be able to avert a major catastrophe. If we begin to
put into practice the mitigation and adaptation strategies needed we can prevent famines and save
the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
It is with these objectives in mind that Fireflies Inter-religious Ashram and
Dialogues en Humanité are launching its February Dialogues: ‘What is the good life?’ The
February Dialogues will begin at 4pm on 17th February and end by 3pm on 20th afternoon.
The all-night music festival will begin at 7pm on 20th February. The venue will be Fireflies Interreligious
Ashram, in a beautiful village, outside Bangalore, in the south of India. Participants will
have no difficulty in arriving at Bangalore, which has direct flight connections from all over the
world. Participants from India will also have no problem to arrive by train, bus or air. We will
pick-up all participants from the airport/railway station/bus stops, as Fireflies is located 60kms
away from the airport and 30kms away from the railway station.
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The participants to this event will come from backgrounds of social and environmental
movements, NGOs working for social justice and environmental action, and activist intellectuals
and religious/spiritual leaders.
The programme will have the following sections:
1. What is the science of climate change, how will it impact us, and what are the mitigation and
adaptation strategies we can pursue, particularly in relation to poor and marginalized people?
This part of the programme will include lectures, discussions and film shows on
• The science of climate change: How carbon dioxide emissions and other green house
gases are dramatically contributing to climate change. How to see that the decisions
arrived at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15) are
implemented and the carbon emissions further reduced in the interests of equitable and
sustainable development, particularly for the poorer countries.
• How climate change is going to impact, in India and other third world countries, the poor
peasants, dalits and indigenous peoples in dry rural areas, or areas that are likely to be
flooded through erratic rainfall patterns or storms. How NGOs and social movements can
create the awareness and understand better the implications on the poor and the exploited
sections of society.
2. What does inclusive and equitable sustainable development mean in practice, in the context
of climate change?
• What are the alternative agricultural practices that will need less water? Since millets
require less water, and are more nutritious than rice, communities must explore the
possibility of shifting to such possibilities. In addition methods like the SRI method of
cultivation require less water.
• Indigenous peoples know about varieties of rice, and millets that grow with less water, or
grow when there is flooding. They also know varieties of rice that grow in saline water.
Modern agriculture research is also working to produce rice that can grow in saline water,
and varieties of crops that can grow when temperatures begin to rise. (How do we
critically look at these modern possibilities?)
• Energy is going to be the key challenge. Can we get away from fossil fuels and use more
solar, wind, mini-hydel possibilities?
• Actually the rich countries and the wealthy in the emerging countries are responsible for
most of the emissions. What are the possibilities of creating political awareness to reduce
the energy consumption of the richer countries and the wealthy in the emerging
economies.
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Can the suffering of poor countries like Bangladesh, for example, who are not
responsible for climate change, be compensated by richer countries who have created
climate change?
• Climate justice means that the poor must be protected for all the years that the rich have
indulged themselves with high energy consumption and consumerism in general.
• How can the planet be greened on an urgent basis through growing more trees and
protection of forests like the Amazon? Trees, after all, are carbon sinks.
• Apart from the personal changes and changes in life-styles, what are the political and
systemic changes needed so that we can have national and international regulatory bodies
that can help with equitable and sustainable development in the context of climate
change.
3. How can we develop an alternative conception of the good life, where we may embrace
voluntary simplicity and still lead happy and fulfilled lives? What can the various religions
teach us to face the challenge of climate change?
• What does Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions and spiritualities
teach us about stewardship of the planet? What can we learn from the spirituality of
indigenous peoples?
• What are the changes in values and attitudes that are needed to embrace voluntary
simplicity, where we can use less energy, consume less and share more with those who
are needy? What is the kind of education that can lead to the new values and attitudes?
Note: Although the focus of February Dialogues 2010 will be on the values and spiritualities
needed to deal with the challenge of climate change, we also wish to give time to the problems
related to religious fundamentalism and religious conflict, and finding solutions to them. These
are not only major concerns in South Asia but in several parts of the planet.
The speakers:
In a few weeks time we will have the programme ready with the list of speakers.
Who are the participants?
Participants will come from all over the world. They will be from NGOs, social movements,
farmers unions, government, religious leaders, women’s organizations, indigenous people’s
organizations, dalit organizations, international organizations.
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Music Festival:
There will be an all-night music festival on 20th February night. Two thousand people will
attend. During the festival there will be short interventions to present the results of the
discussions of “What is the good life”?
Travel costs and food and lodging
We will be able to take care of your food and lodging costs while you are with us for the
February Dialogues 2010. We will also give you a free ticket for the all-night music festival on
February 20th evening. Unfortunately we cannot pay your travel to Bangalore and return.
About the organizers
Meeting Rivers is a programme of inter-religious and secular initiatives for social transformation
and ecological renewal (jointly run by Pipal Tree, Bangalore, and FPH, Paris).
Dialogues en Humanité is an annual international programme of civil society related events
concerned with the social and ecological challenges of the future, held each summer in a park in
the French city of Lyon. http://dialoguesenhumanite.org