"Mission

We are an agroforestry resource center helping people in developing countries improve their rural livelihoods through the introduction of environmentally sustainable land management projects focused on beneficial tree planting.

Most communities around the world recognize that they need to plant trees on their degraded lands if they are to improve their lives. We provide technical knowledge on agroforestry and sustainable development, along with planting materials so that communities can return their degraded lands and struggling farms back to sustainable production.

Beneficial trees minimize soil erosion, supply forage for animals, and provide a source of fuelwood, but planting trees is difficult when the canopy has disappeared, topsoil has been eroded, and the climate and growing conditions have changed. Through our network of technicians, volunteers, and community leaders world-wide, our program reaches remote areas and gives local people the knowledge and ability to rehabilitate their environment.

Since 1988, Trees for the Future has helped thousands of communities in Central America, Africa, and Asia improve their livelihoods and their environment by planting nearly 65 million trees. We calculate that these trees remove over one and a half million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.

We are also active locally, educating students and communities about global issues, our role in the environment, and energy efficiency."
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If you think the earth could use a few more trees, here's a great way to plant many trees at very little cost. http://www.treesftf.org/

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as delivered.

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Five Ideas To Change Your World

Christopher M. Quigley

B.Sc., M.M.I.I. Grad., M.A.

1. Precession: The Intercomplementary Integrity Of The Universe

Buckminster Fuller in his consciousness-raising masterpiece "Critical Path" presented the idea that precession, i.e. the laws governing the interbehaviours of all bodies in motion, had relevance to human history.

In essence he believed that consciousness itself was far too significant a reality in the cosmos for it to be without purpose. He therefore asserted that nature was supporting the success of human development despite mankind's error, stupidity and corruption. He conceived of a force that actively helps and assists those who use their individual talents for the greater good of the greatest number. He named this phenomenon; "precession". He explains it as follows:

"The big question remained: how do you obtain the money to live with and to acquire the materials and tools with which to work? Since nature was clearly intent on making humans successful in support of the integrity of eternally regenerative Universe, it seemed clear to me that if I undertook ever more humanly favourable physical-environment-producing artefact developments, that did in fact improve the chances of all humanity's successful development, it was quite possible that nature would support my efforts, provided I was choosing the successively most efficient technical means of doing so. Nature was clearly supporting all her intercomplementary ecological regenerative tasks-ergo; I must so commit myself and must depend upon nature providing the physical means of realization of my invented environment-advantaging artefacts. I noted that nature did nor require hydrogen to "earn a living" before allowing hydrogen to behave in the unique manner in which it does. Nature does not require that any if its intercomplementing members earn a living.

Because I could see that this precessional principle of self-employment was a reasonably realistic probability, I resolved to adopt such a course formally.

I assumed that nature would "evaluate" my work as I went along. If I was doing what nature wanted done, and if I was doing it in promising ways, permitted by nature's principles, I would find my work being economically sustained and vice versa."

Please note that Mr.Fuller made this commitment when he was broke, disheartened and had just suffered through the death of his first baby girl.

He went on to become one of the most influential modern design engineers of all time.

2. The Natural Law Of Money Issue: Anybody has the right to issue money once they can provide value

In a life spanning over 70 years, one of the greatest students of money, and it's meaning, was the American E.C. Riegel. In his book "Flight From Inflation", he identified money as the mathematics of value and argued, that for a democracy to thrive, the money power must be free. He spent his life pointing out that this money power is YOU AND ME. He was amazed that very few knew this life-changing secret.

The freedom of exchange is the foundation of all freedoms, according to Riegel, and the freedom of exchange unencumbered is the truest democratic freedom of mankind. He felt the best way to vote was to vote every day with your actions.

In a free community money is issued by a buyer. Such a money issuer must, in exchange for the goods and services he buys from the market, place other goods or services into the market place. Thus money as a money instrument is evidence of a purchase that is issued by a purchaser to a seller. Therefore, MONEY IS ACTUALLY BACKED BY THE VALUE SURRENDERED BY THE SELLER AND POTENTIALLY BACKED BY THE VALUE IN THE POSSESSION OF THE NEXT SELLER.

Thus, in essence: money is issued by a purchaser, but it must be issued by a purchaser who can, and is, prepared to issue value; it is a tradesman's agreement to carry on split barter among themselves. From this analysis we can deduce that commercial banks do not "lend" money. They, in fact permit the "borrower" to issue money {which everybody should have the personal unencumbered right to do if a free democracy}. Once given "permission", the borrower now has the "legal" authorization to write cheques to the extent of the loan and tenders them in trade. ONLY UPON THEIR ACCEPTANCE by a seller, who in fact provides value, does new money come into existence.

From this reality of the natural law of money issue, it must be understood, that governments cannot qualify as issuers because they are not in the real situation of personal enterprisers who can provide value.

Thus, in essence, money is a social phenomenon based on mutual respect, co-operation and interest. When this natural contract is broken, through abuse of power, the result is usually inflation. Simply put, inflation is the over issue of money without the required provision of value. Such a situation can be entertained in the short term but in the long term this fraud destroys the social system.

3. Metanoia: Embracing thoughts beyond present limitations;

The present World psyche needs to move from a zeitgeist of paranoia to one of metanoia. In other words we need to move beyond fear and learn to embrace joy and hope and faith.

The World recovered swiftly from two world wars and moved forward but the present mind-set of permanent and unending war is wearing down even the most optimistic of souls. Currently everything seems increas- ingly to be scripted by socialist engineering types who care more about change for the sake of power rather than for the benefit of some common good.

We need to believe again in each other and the community of good. This belief would allow us to transcend the mundane, the cynical and drudgery of modern systems. We need to accept the limitations of scientific reason and engage the reality of the unknowable. Life is a mystery. Metanoia could give us inner space for joy and courage and grant us the confidence to try the road less travelled.

Human beings need freedom and meaning as well as security. Let us limit our need for money and accordingly increase our capacity and opportunity to grant our life its unique and special meaning.

4. Individuation: The process of self-actualization=the individual matters

According to Carl Gustaff Jung in his "Man and his Symbols", to fulfil one's destiny is the greatest achievement. But to Jung this was a goal not only for champions but for every human being; for him to be human meant to be oneself. During the course of a lifetime of study he discovered that within the human personality there was a psychic energy available within us, which could assist us in our personal self-development. Jung called this process individuation.

The centre of the psyche is the self. When a person is individuated or individuating they have a successful dialogue between the unconscious and the conscious. This " narrative" is normally executed through dream image, intuition and symbols. The main result of this activity is a more resourceful, balanced, courageous, creative and self-reliant individual.

It is useless to compare yourself to others when one realises the importance of individuality and uniqueness. Modernity has tried to impose crushing conformity through educational indoctrination and generic mass media. A society that supports individuation is the exact opposite to a mass socialized culture. It nurtures creativity, self, purpose and meaning. In the words of Jung:

"As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin within an individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do."

Thus the psychological process of individuation allows the individual time and space to open up a framework of development between the unconscious and the conscious; the possible and the actual; the past and the present/future. To "escape the horror of history" we must all help to find new ways to live; everybody matters.

5. Civitas: Thinking and acting for the greater good

Giambattista Vico in his classic book "New Science" pointed out that the greatest achievement of mankind was the growth of civil society out of the terror of barbaric nature. In his view God had created man, but man and man alone had constructed civilization. Thus, for Vico, the greatest investigation man could undertake was to truly understand how this miracle of order and achievement was made manifest through the passage of time.

In the course of his study Giambattista came to comprehend the importance of moral order in the development of societies. This Civitas, or sense of the greater good, formed the bedrock of the social contract that built Alexandria, Sparta, Greece and Rome.

Unfortunately it is all too obvious that this old natural civic sense is dying in modern society and unless we educate our youth about the fragility of society I fear civil order will continue to breakdown. The end result could be an ongoing civil war within "developed" nations that will eventually lead to a new Dark Age of city-states and self-preservation.

In his book "The Evolution of Civilizations" Prof. Carroll Quigley summed up the problem succinctly:

"The third age of conflict of our society began to display the ordinary marks of such a stage about 1890. At that time, in the principal industrial countries, it became clear that the rate of expansion had reversed itself....

All the characteristics of an age of irrationality began to appear on all sides. Increased gambling, increased smoking, the growing use of alcohol and narcotics, a growing obsession with sex and perversions of sex, an increased mania for speed, for nervous tension, and for noise; above all, perhaps, a growing tendency to regard violence as a solution for all problems, be they domestic, social, economic, ideological or international. In fact, violence as a symbol of our growing irrationality has had an increasing role in activity for its own sake, when no possible justification could be made that the activity was seeking to solve a problem.

All the characteristics of any age of conflict are too obvious to require further comment. They arose because the organizational patterns of our culture CEASED TO FUNCTION AS INSTRUMENTS........Religious organizations no longer linked men to God but adopted diverse mundane purposes. Our intellectual theories no longer explained anything or made us at home in the Universe. Our social patterns no longer satisfied our gregarious needs, even when we fled from the lonely anonymity of the city to the rat-race uniformity of sub-urbanism. Our political organizations increased the burden of their demands on our time, energy and wealth but provided with growing ineffectiveness the justice, public order, education, protection, or incidental amenities we had come to expect from them. And on the military level costs rose at an astronomical rate without being able to catch up with our increased danger."

Thus, the culture of the west needs to reconnect with its roots. Philosophy, learning, investigation, discipline, self-sacrifice, future orientation all these attributes need to be focused upon and nurtured for out youth. Sport, lotteries, quiz games, celebrity, reality shows, crime, are all very well but if they become the essential core of modern mentality then it bodes a society trending towards narrow self interest and terminal decline. We need to start believing in meaning again and the place to start is to believe in yourself and the power of a human life.

References:

"Critical Path" Buckminster Fuller

"Flight From Inflation" E.C. Riegel

"Man And His Symbols" C.G. Jung

"New Science" Giambattista Vico

"The Evolution of Civilizations" Prof. Carroll Quigley

Friends,

Wow! What an amazing few days.

We're pleased to offer our congratulations to President-elect Obama and remind him that one of his victory prizes (a trip to Poland!) is still waiting for him.

At the end of this historic week, we wanted to send you an essay by 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben on what's ahead for our movement. Will you take a look and forward it on to your friends?

With excitement for the road ahead,

The 350.org team

Welcome to Reality, Mr. President-Elect
by Bill McKibben

Our eight-year interlude from reality draws to a close, and the job of cleaning up begins. The trouble is, we're not just cleaning up after a failed US presidency. We're cleaning up after a two-century binge.

Barack Obama won an historic victory this week, and with it the right to take office under the most difficult circumstances since Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Maybe more difficult, because while both FDR and Obama had financial meltdowns to deal with, Obama also faces the meltdown meltdown - the rapid disintegration of the planet's climate system that threatens to challenge the very foundations of our civilization.

Do you think that sounds melodramatic? Let me give it to you from the abstract of a scientific paper written earlier this year by one of the people who now work for Mr. Obama, NASA scientist James Hansen. "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleo-climate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 [in the atmosphere] will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm [parts per million] to at most 350 ppm." In other words, if we keep increasing carbon any longer, the earth itself will make our efforts moot.

The world is meeting in Copenhagen in December of 2009 to come up with a successor to the Kyoto treaty, the modest first international effort that George W. Bush walked away from weeks after taking office. If Hansen and others are even close to right, this will represent the last legitimate shot the world has at putting itself on a new carbon regime in time to make any difference.

Any hope of succeeding will require Obama to grasp, deep in his guts, the fact that climate, energy, food, and the economy are now hopelessly intertwined, and that trying to solve any one of these problems without taking on the others simply makes all of them worse. More, he needs to understand, again viscerally, the single stark fact of our time: No matter how many votes, no matter how much lobbying, no matter how much pressure you apply, you can't amend the laws of physics and chemistry. They aren't like the laws that politicians are used to dealing with. They will be obeyed, like it or not. 350 is now the most important number on the planet, the red line that defines reality reality.

It doesn't define political reality, however. The political reality goes like this: George W. Bush was so terrible on this issue that the bar has been set incredibly low - Obama will get all the political points he needs with fairly minimal effort. Doing what actually needs to be done will be politically…unpopular isn't even the word. He has spoken of both new politics and sacrifice, and both are required of him to see his part of this thing through.

My guess, from the outside, is that all Obama's instincts are centrist, though his sophistication and engagement have grown during the campaign, which is a good sign. A better sign is simply that, by every testimony, he's one of the smartest men ever to assume high political office in this country. Not just smarter than Bush. Really smart. Smart enough, if he sits down to really understand the scale of the problem he faces, that he might decide to take the gambles that the situation requires. He said, not long ago, "under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket" - which is a sign of someone who is aware there may be a reality to come to grips with.

First sign to watch for: Does he go to Poland next month for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and in so doing electrify the international talks over carbon?

All of us, you and I and all our partners, have been hard at work to collect over 44,000 invitations for President-elect Obama to attend that meeting. We have heard him say he's interested and will, at the least, send a high level representative next month.

Obama, and the rest of us, have a lot more to fear than fear itself. We've got carbon, and right now that's the most frightening stuff on earth. Nonetheless, we're feeling inspired and hopeful about the new possibilities that exist after this election - for the US and for the world. It's now up to us to make sure the steps for Obama and for our global movement are laid out in rapid succession. The next step is in Poland: www.350.org/invite

We're in this together,

Bill McKibben

P.S. Thought this was worth a read? Send it on to 5 friends and help build this movement.

P.P.S. The original version of Bill's essay appeared in Yale Environment 360 and The Guardian.


350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.
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