ECO Bell Glossary of Terms
- 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
- Within an isolated system, heat energy will always transfer towards a state of entropy over time. For our purposes, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
- Activists’ Research Center
- ECO-Bellingham’s Activists’ Research Center, located at 1515 I Street in Bellingham in the early 2000s supported local activists who were working in the areas of environmental protection, environmental and social justice, participatory democracy, permaculture and economic equity by providing a meeting space, Internet access, a browsing library, and other resources.
- Alternative & renewable energy
- Alternative energy in our model refers to virtually any form of energy that can substitute for fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
Renewable energy is the term for environmentally friendly, sustainable energy sources such as wind, hydro-electricity, photovoltaics and tidal power that are replenished continuously by sunlight, gravity and Earth’s rotation. - Alternative Health Practitioner Coalition
- represents a new model for health care for the twenty-first century. At its core is the spirit of community and a desire to integrate a multitude of wellness and healing modalities from around the world.
- Appropriate Technologies
- Technologies that are sustainable, clean, and renewable.
- Bio-global Equity
- Bio-global equity is simply recognizing that everything in an ecosystem makes a vital contribution to the system and is therefore to be valued and respected. Other terms for this are ‘ecological sanity’ and ‘the sanctity of life.’
- Bioregionalism
- Bioregionalism is a grassroots, “bottom up” approach–led by communities themselves–to work at the scale of the ecosystem.
Bioregionalists aim to find a balance between the resident community’s needs for livelihoods and the potential for natural resources in their bioregions, as defined by ecological, economic, and social criteria. They refer to “homeland” as a geographic space that encompasses their water sources and other key ecological features, food production, forests and wilderness, villages and infrastructure. - Carrying Capacity
- The average size of a population that can be sustainably supported with available resources. The CASI (Community Assessment and Sustainability Inventory) is a tool for determining the carrying capacity of autonomous bio-regions.
- Coalition-building
- A process which brings together organizations and individuals to assist communities in better addressing their quality of life issues and developing long-term solutions to complex and interrelated issues. In order to accomplish systemic change, building national and global coalitions of mutual support will be needed as well.
- Commons
- The commons are a medieval European concept. The Commons included the oft-unspoken awareness that we belong to a greater whole, something larger than the self that we share with others. The Commons include the environment and Web of Life we depend upon for our existence. See Enclosure.
- Community Assessment and Sustainability Inventory (CASI)
- The product of a community exercise to determine the resources a community has to work with from a sustainability perspective, assess what’s missing, and uncover as many barriers to becoming sustainable as possible.
- Community Hub-Citizens’ Think Tank and Action Center
- The concept has a 3-pronged mission:
- To help create a seedbed and platform for a discussion of new ideas and a vehicle to spread progressive political philosophies, social policies, and to further environmental issue advocacy;
- To help develop a structure and coordination to support research bodies and think tanks to present new alternatives for public debate, with an impact in advocating policy and informing public opinion.
- To build and unite progressive advocacy groups and the progressive movement for things such as the widespread adoption of the Earth Charter.
- Corporatism
- A political system organized into and controlled by industrial corporations. Corporatism is the loss of people’s sovereignty to a merger of state and corporate power (the definition of Fascism) financed by usury to central banks and financial interests.
- Critical Mass
- The smallest quantity needed to sustain a chain reaction. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead. Current research tells us that a coalition of 25% of a population will be enough.
- Cultural Creatives
- From “The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World“, authors Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson introduced the term to describe a large segment in Western society who since about 1985 have developed beyond the standard paradigm of modernists or progressives versus traditionalists or conservatives.
- Development (vs. growth)
- The improvement of quality of life, as opposed to an increase in production, “growth” or GDP.
- Disconnect
- To withdraw from or terminate any connection. In this context, losing our connection with the Natural World and Web of Life as well as our own inner nature and all that is naturally fulfilling.
- Diversity
- The condition of having distinct or unlike elements or qualities that, while different, are interdependent, mutually supportive, and required for sustainability. In our model, respect for diversity comes through reconnecting peoples’ intelligence, emotions, and spirituality to the greatest creator of diversity there is-Nature-and helping them get beneath differences to the underlying unity.
- Dominance Hierarchy
- A system or set of relationships in animal groups that is based on a hierarchical ranking, usually established and maintained by behavior in aggressive encounters: one or a few members hold the highest rank and the others are submissive to those ranking higher and dominant to those ranking lower. From Dominance to Partnerships.
- Earth Charter
- The Earth Charter, a people’s treaty issued by The Earth Charter Commission of the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all peoples a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family and the larger living world. It is an expression of hope and a call to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history. The Earth Charter is also known as the People’s Declaration of Interdependence.
- Ecological Integrity
- The ability of an ecosystem to naturally sustain the native life within its region unimpaired by human impact
- Eco-education
- Eco-education is a process that enables people to intellectually understand their role in natural systems, and then move beyond mere understanding to actually experiencing their connection to the natural world through their many senses. As they become consciously, personally aware of this connection, they become highly motivated to sustain the Web of Life of which they are a part. This motivation, which begins by becoming and remaining healthy themselves, is reflected in lifestyle choices that are more sustainable, more inclusive of diversity, and which contribute to the building of healthy communities.
- Eco-justice (respect for diversity)
- Treating and honoring the Earth as a living organism.
- Economic Justice
- Economic Justice is a system of relationships where true labor is the most fair and reasonable way to acquire property, and the preservation of fair distribution is protected by the government and connected to our moral values.
- Ecopsychology
- A therapeutic technique and ideology that treats people psychologically by bringing them consciously, emotionally, and spiritually closer to nature. A central premise is that while the mind is shaped by the modern world (cultural stories), its underlying structure was created within the web of life–and that personal, societal, and environmental health improves when people sense their connection to the rest of the natural world and begin to think and act the way nature works. Ultimately, it seeks to expand and remedy the emotional connection between humans and nature and promote sustainability. Applied ecopsychology is a subset of the field of ecopsychology developed by Dr. Michael J. Cohen that enables participants to reconnect with the rest of the natural world through their 54 senses via a series of activities.
www.ecopsych.com - Ecosophy (ecosophical self)
- Ecosophy is a branch of practically oriented philosophy which has its roots in the ecological movement and philosophical empiricism. The Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss coined the term in 1973, saying that it is a “responsible commitment to the existing life, with focus on the ‘quality of life’ where human and non-human life on earth have equal value.”
- Enclosure
- Enclosure was a process of using ditches, hedges and fences to inhibit the free passage of people and livestock and put the land into private control. See Commons. The enclosure movement, also known as the privatization of the commons, but which I believe is more accurately described as piratization, is the physical process to enforce the Enlightenment philosophy of our separation from nature. It involves removing people from their ancestral grounds and using money to substitute for community obligations and relationships that had functioned just fine for over 600 years. The value of a person became tied to how much money they were worth instead of the value of their contribution to a healthy, well-functioning community.
- Enlightenment
- A 17th and 18th century elite intellectual movement emphasizing reason and individualism for the purpose of overall “freedom” and quality of life. The “Enlightenment” included scientific and rational validation of the dominant Western religion of the time, paved the way for our intellectual and emotional separation from nature, and cleared the way for our physical separation in the enclosure movement as people were removed from their ancestral grounds. Some historians call this the revolution of the rich against the poor.
- Entropy
- the universal process of matter into disorder or decay. In this context, constant “growth”/Industrialism requires turing low-entropy resources into high-entropy wastes at ever increasing rates and accumulates the benefits to a self-selected elite.
- Environmental and Economic Carrying Capacity
- The total population sustainable through available resources before environmental degradation sets in. See CASI.
- Enviro-health Issues
- Physical and mental health as well as quality of life issues that are a result of industrial pollution and chemical toxins on humans and other species.
- Environmental Justice
- Environmental justice includes a bit more than is commonly defined. It’s not just the impact that environmental polluters have on the health and well-being of low-income and minority communities. Environmental justice also addresses the way in which exploitive business and government policies and regulations (or lack thereof) adversely affect all species and the very planet itself. Environmental justice puts health, quality of life, and sustainability above profit, greed, and self-serving self-interests.
- Environmental justice is built upon the natural systems principles of mutual support and reciprocity. It means fairness more than it means equality. The health of the environment, its safety in not being toxic or otherwise harmful, and its intrinsic value of beauty is to be preserved so it may be enjoyed by all.
- Future Focus
- Looking forward 7 generations to determine the impact of our actions today.
- Global Warming
- Global warming is caused by an increase in what are known as greenhouse gases. The most prevalent of this gases is carbon dioxide, emitted from factories, coal power plants, and automobile exhaust. Methane gas is another, and while it exists in much smaller quantities, is actually more damaging in trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere. This is one reason we need to be especially aware of the calls to release methane hydrates to address the looming energy crisis.
- “Green” and Recycled Construction Materials
- Use of the many manufactured earth-friendly construction systems now available: ICFs (formerly rastra block)–a revolutionary building material made from 85% recycled Styrofoam and 15% cement–and other insulated concrete form systems, structural insulated panels (SIPs) made from ozone-safe polystyrene and oriented strand board, and compressed-straw wall panels which can be used to construct high strength, super-insulated walls or combined with straw bale walls, rammed earth, cob, and other natural building methods. Structural integrity, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and code-compliance are all important considerations in green building projects.
- “Green” waste management
- Implementation of numerous methods for conserving resources as well as reusing and recycling wastes (i.e. “reduce, reuse, recycle,” grey water recycling, compost toilets, etc.)
- Growth
- Growth (vs. sustainable development) An increase of production, without consideration of quality of life. The inconvenient truth is that the “Western Lifestyle” of increasing consumption and infinite economic growh is slowly killing us and the planet.
- Handbasket to Hell
- Or to hell in a handbasket. A common American English phrase meaning the quick means to one’s own downfall.
- Hegemony
- The political, economic and/or military predominance or control of one state over others : domination. As the only major industrial nation still intact at the end of World War II, in 1945 the United States eagerly assumed the role of global Hegemon.
- Holistic
- The view of something as an interconnected system, as opposed to a disconnected collection of individual parts.
- Imperialism
- The extension of a nation’s power and influence over foreign areas, often by force. Greed and arrogance drive imperialism, and is little different today than it was for the ancient Romans.
- Indicators
- An individual or group of values that point to the relative health of an environment. Negative indicators include diminished water and air quality and supply, habitat loss, degradation of natural resources the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Positive indicators include higher Quality of Life, Happiness index, vitality and diversity in Nature, etc.
- Industrial Empire and Global Corporatization
- The industrial practice of transferring control of resources and organizations into the hand of corporations with the primary goal of ever increasing quarterly profits – the current deadly dominant global economic paradigm.
- Industrial Growth Society
- A system that’s driven by profit and exploitation over sustainability. Economic Cannibalism.
- Industrialism
- A society dominated by industry and industrial growth. Economic Cannibalism.
- Instant-runoff Voting
- Ranked system of voting in which voters choose candidates in order of preference and that can result in much more democratic outcomes and better representation than the current winner-take-all systems. How RCV Works
- Intentional Community based on Natural Systems
- The EcoIntegrity Center of Bellingham (“ECO Bell”) was an urban intentional community in Bellingham, WA in the early 200s. Founders Dave and Allison Ewoldt used Nature as a model for sustainable and equitable living. Built upon a foundation of applied ecopsychology, permaculture, intentional communities, and bioregionalism, it supported local living economies, environmental and social justice, and a healthy, sustainable community comprised of healthy individuals making a minimal ecological footprint. Our mission was to demonstrate how to increase urban density in a highly sustainable manner, network with the larger community to increase mutual support and reciprocity in support of common values and goals, and live simple, naturally fulfilling and Life-supportive lives using the Natural Systems Thinking Process.
- Job Creation (sustainable)
- Living wage jobs created as a result of replacement industries that do not produce waste or toxins, or increase air and water pollution.
- Living Wages
- The prominent definition of living wages is the assumption that wages paid (or a UBI or social income that) will support an adequate standard of living including food, housing, health care, transportation, and other needs.
- Local Currency
- Local currency represents value in a given region. It can be exchanged for goods and services, is accepted throughout the trading region, and can usually be used in conjunction with U.S. dollars. For more background and information go to Beyond Money
- Local Living Economy
- A local living economy provides secure and fulfilling livelihoods for all people, works in harmony with natural systems, supports
biological and cultural diversity, and fosters fulfilling and enjoyable community life. They are made up of human-scale enterprises locally owned by people who have a stake in the many impacts associated with the enterprise. - Movement of Movements
- The coalescing of the hundreds of disparate single-issue Movements currently working for positive change as a powerful force to accomplish revolutionary change. In this context, sustainability provides a common goal that can be effectively used by more than just the environmental movement. Peace, justice, solidarity, and democracy advocates can use sustainability as the “big tent” that can support both effective coalitions for systemic change as well as providing a conducive environment for reaching their own goals. See Sustainability and Coalitions.
- Natural Balance Curriculum
- This curriculum designed for children integrates music, art, stories, journal-writing, poetry, systems science, creative movement,
games, and sensory activities in nature to foster emotional growth, improve social skills, develop cognitive abilities, increase self-esteem, and enhance intuitive qualities of the mind. - Natural Consensus
- A modification of the formal consensus process that uses Nature as the foundation for the creation of a base of trust and shared commonalities.
- Natural Systems Principles
- The philosophy outlined as mutual support and reciprocity, no waste, no greed, and increasing diversity.
- Natural Systems Thinking Process
- The Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP) is a readily available, accredited, easily learned educational tool-an enabling social technology and psychology that has been researched and developed by Dr. Michael J. Cohen of Project NatureConnect at the Institute of Global Education (IGE). It helps the thinking of contemporary people safely make genuine sensory connections with authentic Nature and its energizing, rejuvenating properties. It also enables an individual to benefit from the healing and health-sustaining balance of natural system relationship-building powers. Ultimately, it brings individuals into balance within themselves, in their personal and societal relationships, and with the rest of the natural world.
- Natural Systems Workshops
- Workshops which teach the Natural Systems Thinking Process from a variety of different perspectives-including relationships, diversity, natural health, rational spirituality, organic psychology, peace and non-violence, and natural consensus.
- NCEP (Naturally Creative Earth Politics)
- The vision of the NCEP, a coalition of New Progressives, is to facilitate peace and democracy in a manner that is Earth honoring and in balance with Nature and people’s inner nature. The coalition consists of four currently existing constituent groups: the Cultural Creatives, the US Green Party, the Earth Charter Initiative, and Project NatureConnect. These four groups already have a core set of common, shared values which can cohesively develop into an integrated strategy model–a model that can provide a progressive agenda in policy formulation that supports social and environmental justice as well as democratic political reform. Combined, this coalition has the potential to build and deliver the 45% electorate base in the US that Paul Ray calls the New Progressives.
- Neighbornets
- “Neighbornets” are affinity groups of people who live in the same general neighborhood who choose to form closer bonds with one another. In some cases, these people are already acquaintances who wish to deepen their friendship. In other cases, they may come together initially around one common area of interest (for example, gardening), and then decide to broaden their scope of activities (for example, to include service projects, a monthly potluck etc.), and thereby increase their sense of community.
- Neoliberalism
- An economic term referring to an “updated” form of laissez-faire “classical” capitalist economics that has become globally widespread since the 1970s. The main tactics of neoliberalism include the rule of the mythical “free market”, cutting social services, deregulation, privatization/piratization and elimination of the concept of the Public Good or Community. Note: For short-term ultra-partisan political purposes, the term neoliberal is often misinterpreted as a slur against people who are socially “liberal”.
- Networks of Mutual Support
- A system or community in which all members maintain and enhance the life of all other members, with no dominating authority.
- Non-hierarchical Tools, Methods, Processes
- The practical, applied means of overcoming Dominator Hierarchies. Techniques that enhance inclusion in democratic decision making.
- Objectivism
- The adolescent moral and philosophical belief that individuals have a moral obligation only towards their own happiness and well-being. Rand-Rage.
- Occupy Movement
- An international series of protests in the early 2010’s against capitalism, economic inequality, and the influence of large corporations.
- Oligarchy
- A government in which a small group asserts control and domination over the whole.
- Organic Health and Healing
- A holistic perspective that taps into the healing and sustaining properties and processes of Nature, and doesn’t rely on the allopathic model of disease care or pharmaceuticals.
- Organic Psychology (ecopsychology)
- A therapeutic modality that examines the psychological roots of the environmental crisis and the negative impacts of this crisis on human and social health. Organic psychology presents a way of living and relating that promotes harmony between the individual and the environment, as well as all the other relationships the individual is a part of.
- Overpopulation
- When the size of a population exceeds the environmental capacity of a geographic area, bio-region or the planet. A negative indicator for sustainability.
- Paradigm
- A set of concepts or philosophical framework, or a clear example of a broader idea. In the socioeconomic realm, the current global paradigm is a fossil-fueled form of capitalist consumption, exploitation and pollution machine and the endless wars that feed it. Perhaps the greatest barrier to a paradigm shift is the reality of paradigm paralysis: the inability or refusal to see beyond the current models of thinking. Connecting the Dots seeks to provide a path out of the “current mode of thinking”.
- Participatory Democracy
- Broadly speaking, Participative Democracy subordinates to the citizens of a municipality, state, or country the tools they need to fully control their social and political destiny. In its full flowering, citizens enshrine and amend their constitution, form policy, and shape their laws and priorities. Participative democracy comes in many shapes and forms and may be applied to any level of government. At its best, it ensures that citizens – not lobbies, not big business, not politicians – have the final say when they choose to assert themselves.
- Partnership Culture
- As eminent social scientist, Riane Eisler described for us, a partnership culture is a trust-based system characterized by equalitarianism organization, flexible hierarchies of actualization (where power is guided by values such as caring and caretaking), by a nature-based spirituality, a low degree of violence built into the system, and gender equality and equity. Partnership cultures are in direct contrast to dominator systems which are fear-based, and are characterized by rigid hierarchies of domination (where power is equated with giving orders that must be obeyed), an ethos of conquest (including the “conquest of nature”), a high degree of institutionalized or built-in violence, male domination, and contempt for “soft” or stereotypically feminine values.
- Peak Oil
- The point at which the maximum rate of oil extraction will be reached, after which it will fall into terminal decline. It is often confused with oil depletion; however, whereas depletion refers to a period of falling reserves and supply, peak oil refers to the point of maximum production. The concept of peak oil is often credited to geologist M. King Hubbert whose 1956 paper first presented a formal theory. Peak oil occurs when the cost of oil extraction exceeds the price consumers will pay. Most early analyses concentrated on increasing costs of extraction and assumed that demand would drive costs higher. More recent analyses concentrate on drop in demand as alternatives to oil become more attractive.
- Peace/Non-Violence
- Living in harmony, respect, and as equals in a manner based on cooperation instead of competition.
- Permaculture
- Permaculture, originally ‘Permanent Agriculture’, is often viewed as a set of gardening techniques, but it has in fact developed into a whole design philosophy, and for some people a philosophy for life. Its central theme is the creation of human systems that provide for human needs, but using many natural elements and drawing inspiration from natural ecosystems. Its goals and priorities coincide with what many people see as the core requirements for sustainability.
- Piratization – Privatization
- The transfer of wealth and/or resources from public to private ownership. The conversion of the Commons into commodities.
- Power of Stories
- Words and stories have a phenomenal power to color our perception of reality and convince us that they are more real than the natural world and what our senses inform us through direct experience. Bad stories and good stories have the power to guide our perceptions and actions in negative or positive directions.
- Quality of Life
- The degree of health, comfort, and/or overall enjoyment of life experienced by an individual or community.
- Ranked Choice Voting
- An electoral system in which voters choose from among multiple candidates for multiple offices by specifying choices in order of preference. One form of RCV for single winner elections is Instant Run-Off Voting
- Rational Spirituality
- Presents the scientific basis for spirituality and human belonging in the natural universe–based on complex adaptive systems, co-creative evolution, and the Natural Systems Thinking Process.
- Regulations and Policies
- This component of our model works toward ensuring that citizens have meaningful input into the processes that create regulations and policies that effect their lives and livelihood.
- Relocalization
- The act of making a community self-sustainable through local production and development of food and other resources.
- Resource Depletion
- When the supply of a natural resource is used or consumed at a faster rate than it can be replenished or reproduced.
- Right Livelihood
- Part of the Eightfold Path in Buddhism. To live ethically and compassionately, without causing suffering to others.
- Scientific Reductionism
- To observe and study something large or complex by viewing it as a sum of its most simple and/or fundamental parts. This method can yield misleading or entirely inaccurate results if applied to very complex and/or only partially understood systems.
- Scientific Objectivity
- To observe without the interference of outside biases or beliefs. This method can also yield misleading results if internalized biases or beliefs block consideration of important, unrecognized factors.
- Social Justice
- The four key principles of Social Justice are equity, access, participation and rights. Social justice it is a recognition of the importance of attaining substantive equality for diverse groups of people who have been under-represented in both education and employment. This includes (but is not limited to) Indigenous people, people with disabilities, women in areas of under-representation, people from culturally diverse backgrounds and people from lower socio-economic and rural backgrounds in relation to education. The goal of social justice is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs.
- Standard of Living
- The amount of wealth, material goods, and necessities available to any individual within a group or area. As we can see from out present reality, increased “Standard of Living”, an increase in the quantity of material goods or paper wealth does not result in an increased Quality of Life.
- Steady-State Economy
- A steady state economy is an economy of stable or mildly fluctuating size. The term typically refers to a national economy, but it can also be applied to a local, regional, or global economy. An economy can reach a steady state after a period of growth or after a period of downsizing or degrowth. To be sustainable, a steady state economy may not exceed ecological limits. See Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
- Sustain
- to continue without lessening, to nourish, to allow to flourish.
- Sustainability is:
- The integration of human social and economic lives into the environment in ways that tend to enhance or maintain rather than degrade or destroy the environment;
- A moral imperative to pass on our natural inheritance, not necessarily unchanged, but undiminished in its ability to meet the needs of future generations;
- Entails determining and staying within the balance point among population, consumption and waste assimilation so that bioregions, watersheds and ecosystems can maintain their ability to recharge, replenish and regenerate.