Giving a speech to 24,000 earth and space scientists at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held annually in San Francisco, Geophysicist, Dr. Bard Werner remarked:
In sum, the dynamics of the global coupled human-environmental system within the dominant culture precludes management for stable, sustainable pathways and promotes instability.
Beyond Capitalism is a working group created by Faramarz Farbod, and embraced and welcomed by the Steering Committee of Alliance. The group, now two years in the making, meets once a month at Moravian College, in the Air Products room at the HUB, every second Friday of the month, from 10-12pm. Here the group debates and discusses the dynamics of capitalism, and how might this system account for the environmental destruction of our planet. What would it require to develop a new system, one that didn’t lead us into self-destruction? What kind of action would it take?
A few of the many sources we’ve used to generate discussions:
- Gar Alperovitz’s, America Beyond Capitalism.
- A panel presentation by both Gar and Richard D. Wolff at the 2014 Left Forum
- Series of interviews with Ralph Nader and with Gar by Paul Jay of the RealNews.
The working group also oversees the publication of Left Turn, which presents essays and articles by community members and others on subjects related to the challenges of global capitalism, its local manifestations, and on moving beyond it to create a more sustainable world.
People who have attended discussions have come from a diverse set of backgrounds as workers, students, professors, and humans of this planet. We have also gained the support of groups around the Lehigh Valley, who share the same concerns and hold the same values towards saving our planet and co-creating a better world for all.
Although we still regularly meet at Moravian College, we have since taken the discussion out of the institution and into the community. In an effort to reignite the conversation Occupy Wall Street began four years ago, we believe that this flow of conversation will help us cultivate an agenda that we can act on to make our community more sustainable.
What concerns you? Want more parks? Want a better, more accountable mass transit system? Let’s talk about it, so we can take action!
For more information please contact: fara@sustainlv.org