|
Home Port |
|
Helping people build lifeboats for the transition through resource depletion, climate change & population overshoot The world we know is like the Titanic. It is grand, chic, high-powered, and it slips effortless through a frigid sea of icebergs. It does not have enough lifeboats, and those that it has will be poorly employed. If we do not change course, disaster, perhaps catastrophe, is almost inevitable. There is a reason why interest in the Titanic has been revived; it’s the perfect metaphor for our planet. On some level we know: we are on the Titanic. We just don’t know we’ve been hit. —John Brandenburg: “Dead Mars, Dying Earth Just as the Titanic was thought to be unsinkable, so we’ve grown to believe our culture and lifestyle will continue forever, but they are taking on water. Fast. Like the Titanic, our current culture is on a collision course with the triune iceberg (Peak Oil, Climate Change & Population Overshoot), without enough “lifeboats.” We need to start building them now! How can we independently and interdependently provide for our own food, shelter, clothing, energy, transport, technology, commerce, communication, and spiritual well-being ? As an Outpost of the Post Carbon Institute’s Relocalization Network since our founding in 2005, the Titanic Lifeboat Academy is a center for research and education in sustainable living practices, deep ecology ethics, renewable energy systems and low-impact appropriate technologies. Titanic Lifeboat Academy will always begin with the inescapable fact that ours is a slick but sinking civilization desperately in need of both lifeboats and of training in how to deploy them, equip them, fill them, and keep them afloat. Great Ecological Iceberg. Had such training been given the Titanic crew, even such few lifeboats as she possessed could have saved more lives. When a civilization is sinking, lifeboats are not built with wood, but with ideas, and people must construct their own, in concert with their chosen communities. We provide and facilitate training. A Hopi Elder Speaks “You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the hour. And, there are things to be considered… Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And, do not look outside yourself for the leader.” Then, he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said: “This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now, very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and will suffer greatly. “Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above water. “And I say, ‘See who is in there with you, and celebrate!’ At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For, the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. “The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” ~Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi Nation |
|
©copyright 2008 by Titanic Lifeboat Academy, Astoria, OR All rights reserved worldwide. Site updated July 5, 2008 |
|
Titanic Lifeboat Academy |
|
Research & Education in Sustainable Living |
|
|
|
Home Port |
|
Education Center |
|
The Iceberg |
|
News & Events |
|
Community Action |
|
Publications |
|
Radio Program |
|
Re-Localization |
|
Crew Members |
|
Resources |
|
Donate |
|
Contact Us |
|
Feature Article |
|
FAIR USE NOTICE: |