Inspiring autumn events by local Global Marshall Plan groups
Constantly engaged in the raising of awareness about global challenges and problems, local Global Marshall Plan Groups have held various inspiring events this autumn, too. Working towards a world in balance, innovative and creative projects have been implemented. In the following, you find a selection of some autumn-events:
„This sounds really interesting!“, „I will definitely inform myself further about the initiative in the internet.” “I hope you are successful with your activities!” – The talks at the info-booth of the local Global Marshall Plan group of Munich and the Plant-for-the-Planet children Initiative at the Fairena exhibition showed throughout positive response!
The exhibition for fair traded products and sustainable lifestyle connected exhibitors with consumers sharing the same interest in ecological and socially acceptable products. A Global Marshall Plan Academy Alumni, Sebastian Becker, was the initiator of the fair. Inspired by his experiences during the training to become a multiplier of the Global Marshall Plan, he developed this very special exhibition format. Proud about being as efficient as other supporters from within the initiative, he states today: “I let my vision become true, because I wanted to organize screenings and events with lectures about topics related to the Global Marshall Plan Initiative.”
While his first Fairena-Exhibition in October 2010 was almost unnoticed, the one just held was a great success. Benefitting from the connections of the Global Marshall Plan Network, the fair offered more than 20 speakers. Furthermore, 37 exhibitioners and more than 1600 visitors made the event to be a great success. The visitors were very open-minded, hence the local Global Marshall Plan Group of Munich had a lot to do at their info-booth. About 20 participants listened to the lecture about the Global Marshall Plan, which introduced the exhibition program, too. Numerous contacts have been made and people inspired. If you have a similar vision like Sebastian, feel free to contact him via E-Mail. He is looking forward to hear from you!
The local group of Karlsruhe has held a very intense group-working-weekend on campus. Aimed to develop their motivations and group structure for the current term, the group accommodated their project-visions to the current challenges of the world. Examining new projects carefully, the expansion of existing activities was discussed.
The students plan to work out a package of measures for being a sustainable student in everyday life. Furthermore, the group wants to promote the Global Marshall Plan book subscription locally and is organizing a “Save-the-World-Evening” on campus. The major activity will constitute the University Day, which is planned for the upcoming summer term. Furthermore, the group concentrated in the marketing and fundraising capabilities of its members. Taking care about the team spirit and balance of mind, the group spent the evenings with games, good food and a lot of laughing. Consequently, the group is looking forward highly motivated. The next event is taking place in the beginning of December!
As one of the cooperation partners of the hosts of the Climate Week in Bielefeld (October 8 to 14), the local group held many interesting talks and expanded their local network.
One of the highlights were the corso drive of electric vehicles from Aachen to the energy solution park in Bielefeld, as well as Dr. Franz Alt’s bluntly spoken closing speech about the energy problem, its consequences and already existing solution approaches. The all-week program included also a panel discussion with local politicians, scientists and economists.
Among others, the local group assisted in the implementation of the very well visited Plant-for-the-Planet planting session, by giving book presentations at the Social Business Summit and offered a join-in activity, too – a station where you can let calculate your personal ecological footprint.
The group is already planning diverse future activities and wants to implement a University Day in Bielefeld next. According to the group, there is a lot to do in Bielefeld, why the members are looking forward to get in touch with other locally active supporters. If you want to share your ideas and share your experiences, feel free to contact the group at bielefeld@globalmarshallplan.org.
(Photos: Members of the local group of Munich at their info-booth, the members of the local group of Karlsruhe, a participting child of the Plant-for-the-Planet-Academy at Bielefeld with two members of the local Global Marshall Plan group at their info-booth)
Like for instance Manuela Droll, who engages in the raising of awareness at schools
The Global Marshall Plan Initiative acts as a networking movement for the realization of a world in balance. The Initiative brings together a broad alliance of positive and focused members, coming from politics, business, academia and civil society, with the aim of achieving a fairer globalisation as according to the key stipulations.
The bilingual Newsletter (German and English), which reaches more than 10.000 recipients per month, functions like a connection link and mouthpiece of the international Initiative. Activities, project implementations and content-related contributions of the network are communicated. Like a virtual space, supporters come together and are being motivated to get active by themselves, to exchange experiences and collect new inspirations.
You are warmly invited to use this tool actively. Inform the coordination office about your ideas and activities! Encourage further people to be active and strengthen the network and its engagement for a world in balance!
Like for instance, Manuela Droll, an alumna of the Global Marshall Plan Academy - the training course for people who want to engage as multipliers of the Global Marshall Plan.
As the topic sustainability is becoming more and more relevant at schools, Ms Droll got invited to deliver a lecture about the Global Marshall Plan. Opening the lecture by screening the film “Momentaufnahme”(egs. Snapshot), Ms. Droll put the pupils of the business college in the right mood for her presentation about the urgent necessity of global frameworks. She made clear that for the implementation of a Global Marshall Plan, it is necessary that all human beings on our world have to bring in themselves. After the convincing and informative lecture, the school class started an animated discussion. Numerous stimulations and ideas for own projects related to the topic were defined.
Ms. Droll herself, a professor and teacher in Southern Germany, is convinced that there is a huge potential for the 
raising of awareness at schools. Frequently, teachers themselves are not feeling proficient in contents related to the challenges of globalization, why external lecturers are very welcome.
In fact, many local Global Marshall Plan groups are already engaged in the raising of awareness at schools. Because of that reason, the coordination office created a working-page on the online platform Smenos. The usage of the platform shall facilitate the exchange of experiences as well as the approaching with other groups active in the field.
If you are already engaged in the raising of awareness at schools or you are planning to do so, you are highly encouraged to make the materials and resources available on Smenos!
Please contact Gisela Wohlfahrt at the Global Marshall Plan office to get support; she is the contact person for local groups.
(Photos: Prof. Manuela Droll, Raising-of-Awareness-at-schools-page on Smenos)
Head of the European Environment Agency, Jacqueline McGlade, talks about the protection of biodiversity in Europe at an international Event in Vienna
Using many comprehensible examples and demonstrating her comprehensive expertise, McGlade describes how we could face an environmental catastrophe should we not act more decisively against the destruction of biodiversity. One of the examples she uses is the role that bees play in agriculture providing the free service of pollination. If the bees die out in a certain area, this would have catastrophic effects on local agriculture. She also demands to put a cost on those kinds of natural services and to better value the worth of our biodiversity in Europe and to use it responsibly. “If you don’t know what you have, you don’t know how much you can spend”, says McGlade in relation to biodiversity. Biodiversity is capital that we should not waste, like we are doing now, but protect for future generations to enjoy. What do the emerging economic powers and famous personalities say about the financial crisis?
The financial crisis, or better: the many contemporary crises, are neither regional nor European, but global. More and more people come to realise this fact. This is why now also famous personalities voice their opinion and advice concerning the crisis. In the discussion about solutions to the dilemma, the emerging global economic powers position themselves as well:
For all these reasons, the Vatican has recently presented a concrete proposal for solutions to the crisis. An official document of the Vatican administration asks for the establishment of a global financial supervising authority, the implementation of a financial transaction tax and a complete reform of the global financial markets. The papal council for justice and peace calls on the international community to establish a central world bank in order to regulate the financial flows. According to The Telegraph, The 41-page document recommends the strengthening of already existing international institutions, like the European Central Bank (ECB), and demands of the United Nations to assume a leading role in this crisis. More 
British historian Niall Ferguson comments on the financial crisis in a recent article in the German periodical Der Spiegel. In his opinion, the European Union and its common currency are most likely going to fail. It is in the hands of the German tax payers to compensate for the burden of the monetary union, says Ferguson, and it is not very likely that they will be willing to continue this much longer. As long as Germany feels like it is the only one paying for the crisis, the monetary union in Europe will degenerate. More (in German)
The famous German philosopher Jürgen Habermas recently voiced his opinion about the crisis in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung. He severely criticized the crisis management of Europe’s politicians and accused them, especially Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, of selling out democracy for undefined economic goals. The withdrawal of the referendum about the austerity measures in Greece can be seen as caving in to European pressure. More (in German)
The debt crisis in Europe has become so severe that the EU has now initiated talks with emerging economic powers like the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) to ask for financial support in the crisis. Brazil’s minister of finance Guido Mantega answered in the “Wall Street Journal”: “It is up to European Union countries to solve the problems in their financial sectors, and emerging market countries don’t have a role to play in saving foreign banks.” More
The People’s Republic of China has become an important partner who could offer help in the European financial crisis. In October, the Chinese government announced to be willing to help Europe in overcoming the crisis. More specific information as to how this help might look like has not been given by the speaker of the Chinese foreign ministry. Accoding to Asia Times Online, Yi Gang, vice president of the Chinese central bank, clearly made the statement that China’s investment in foreign currencies is mainly dependent on China’s own needs and priorities as well as on the plans of the EU and the European Central Bank. More
Russia, as another BRIC country, criticized the crisis management in the EU as well. Prime Minister Putin considers the establishment of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) as a mistake and announced, according to REUTERS.com, that Russia and other emerging powers prefer sending financial help for Europe through the IMF. He recommends as well that the European Central Bank should backstop the EFSF financially. Here you can read the full article. 
US-investor George Soros also made a proposal for Europe’s way out of the crisis. On REUTERS.com, he recommended protecting the European Banking System and recapitalizing it later on. He further predicted a long-term recession for Europe and bankruptcy as well as the exit from the Euro zone for countries like Greece. This is why he proposes the establishment of a European ministry of finance. More
In a recent video with a REUTERS-Journalist, Soros also makes Angela Merkel responsible for the financial crisis in Europe.
(Photographs: azubi-magazin.com; morgenpost.de, Papst; nsb.com, Niall Ferguson; focus.de, Jürgen Habermas; nymag.com, George Soros)
The European Commission has adopted new guidelines on corporate social responsibility
The new CSR strategy of the European Commission is aiming to create a stronger focus on the social responsibility of companies in Europe and to achieve a better coordination of local CSR guidelines within the EU Member States. Through implementing CSR, European businesses can largely contribute to achieve the EU goals on sustainable development. Helping to mitigate the social effects of the current economic crisis, which has damaged consumer confidence and caused job losses, is part of the social responsibility of enterprises. By renewing efforts to promote CSR now, the European Commission aims to create conditions favourable to sustainable growth, responsible business behaviour and durable employment generation in the medium and long term.(Bildquelle: business-ethics.com, csrwestafrica.com)
A photographic campaign by Michael Schrenk
As part of a photographic project by Michael Schrenk these questions were presented to 24 prominent community members from the fields of science, philosophy, politics and social activism. In response to these thought-provoking questions participants were asked to submit their answers within the confines of a single A4 sheet of paper. These ideas, then paired with poignant photographic portraits of the authors, have been made into a stimulating magazine designed to further engage and arouse the imagination of the reader.
Amongst those involved in the project were a number of supporters of the Global Marshall Plan Foundation:
The full online version can be viewed here.
Picture Source: Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth, Rita Süssmuth, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
UNEP FI project seeks framework for assessing government bonds
Tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies have been largely absent from financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.This project is one of the first that tries to quantitatively and systematically consider the linkages between the use of natural resources and its impact on a country's core economic indicators that in turn influence the quality of its bonds.
New Publication: The DESERTEC Atlas
The DESERTEC Atlas, the latest publication of the German Association Club of Rome (DGCoR) and the DESERTEC Foundation, constitutes the first work which describes the global approach of the DESERTEC-concept. Highlighting the question of energy, the work outlines a broad range of themes, reaching from renewable energies like water and wind up to the power of the desert and related climate issues.
DESERTEC proves with the publication that it is a fully developed holistic concept which offers solutions in many areas. The concept indicates the political and human necessity of its realization if it comes to climate change, to energy security, to drinking water for humans and soil and to conflicts because of resources running short. The atlas shows with a competent knowledge that the human race will face its end if it continues to operate as it does at the moment. To say it with the words of Max Schön, the president of the German Association CLUB OF ROME and co-founder of the DESERTEC-Foundation:
If people continue to treat their world and overburden its natural ability for regeneration as before, they will need three planets of earth by the year 2050.
The same says His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Tala of Jordan, former president of the Club of Rome and as well a co-founder of DESERTEC. As he states in the foreword of the atlas, he is convinced that you can produce enough clean energy with solar thermal power stations and bring this energy to 90% of the global population via high voltage direct current.
The atlas is published in German and structured in 8 chapters: the concept of DESERTEC, climate, energy, water, social implication, security, peace and justice, economy, and realization of DESERTEC.
Among the fifteen international and independent experts with a proven track record in their field there are people like physicist Dr. Gerhard Knies, the “inventor” of the DESERTEC-concept, the energy scientist Dr. Franz Trieb from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the founder and president of Earth 3000 and the head of the sector Geo Risks/Research/Corporate Climate Centre of the worldwide biggest reinsurer Munich Re, Prof. Peter Höppe. All of them worked on a voluntary basis and did not charge any compensation.
You can order the atlas here (published in German) from the website of the German Association Club of Rome. Maybe as a Christmas gift?
(Sources: DESERTEC- Foundation, sz online; Pictures: DESERTEC-Website)
Sea levels will rise for centuries, extreme heat waves will appear more often
According to the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, climate change and CO2 emissions are the main causes for this phenomenon, leading to rising sea levels until the year 2500. The researchers of the study are part of a team that has calculated the long-term outlook for rising sea levels in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases and pollution of the atmosphere using climate models. The results have been published in the scientific journal "Global and Planetary Change".The worldmapper project - An other viewpoint on growth forecasts
The so called “worldmapper project” shows that globally there are tendencies for growth as well as for decline in population depending on the region.
The maps of the worldmapper project illustrates -with its meanwhile more than 700 maps- illustrates a whohle range of categories, from poverty, exploitation up to the cause of death.The global Outcry for Justice can be followed by a worldwide Outcry for Global Contracts!
„We are the majority“ said Frithjof Bergmann at the „summer week” in June 2011, which took place together with the annual meeting of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative. This majority has now become visible. The 99 %, who no longer believe in this system, start to network and go out on the streets.
In the beginning of the year, the coordination circle of the initiative wrote in the opening of the annual report: “The networking of the global civil society is progressing fast.,…, The call for global rules becomes louder. ,…, The next financial crash or another failure of climate negotiations ,…, is therefore expected to lead to a dangerous radicalisation of global civil society. …”
Many people postpone exams, resign from their jobs, freeze night after night in the streets. They want to stay, until the world is a better one. They sacrifice a lot. What unites them is the realisation that it cannot go on like this. They want more democracy, justice and demand a containment of the power of financial markets. What makes the movement strong, is their global networking through Facebook, Twitter and live streams. The administrators of Occupy Germany on Facebook see the movement “in a phase of information and formation of the forces.”
Companies from Russia and China are most likely to pay bribes abroad
However, companies are almost as likely to pay bribes to other businesses, according to the current report, which looks at business-to-business bribery for the first time. This suggests that corruption is not only a concern for the public sector, but for the business sector as well, carrying major reputational and financial risks for the companies involved.Get informed and spread the news!
Dr. Zeki Ergas introduces the new inspiring series of contributions
The regioscouts-project is taking shape while other exciting projects around Munich, Augsburg and other cities invite to take action
The project called “regioscouts”, which we already introduced here, is developing fast. ThinkCamp even applied for a regional grant program, now with a more concrete concept for the project, which includes a management summary, cost estimation and an attractive corporate design. 
Media Reality today and in the Future
At this year's three day-long annual conference of the Club of Rome Schools in Germany many students, teachers and parents discussed the issue of media reality.
After the welcome speech and a little get together on Monday evening, Thiemo Gropp, Director of DESERTEC Foundation, spoke about the energy extraction of in the future. He explained the use of renewable energies and their future prospects. He was followed by Sabine Djahanschah from the German Environment Foundation with a presentation on reducing the energy use in schools. 
At the same time, the students discussed the use of social networks and the knowledge exchange between their schools. The lecture of Dr. Welling about the integration of New Media in schools was transferred to the students who stayed at their schools at home via live stream and it was possible to discuss via chat.
The topic of the next days workshop was about nextmoderator, a kind of interactive online chat forum. Moreover, the workshop was about how New Media is used in the Club of Rome Schools and how they should handle it in the future. Students, Parents and Teachers discussed interactively and evaluated their ideas and arguments afterwards. These were clustered by the team of nextpractice in the evening and night, so that the group could work with the output the next day. The last presentation gave Sven Gábor Jánszky, a trend researcher. He talked about the use of media in the future and showed amazing -and for some participants frightening- visions of the future.
In the evening of the second day, the students had the possibility to discuss with their colleagues at home about the use of New Media in their schools. They had an active live chat and many comments and ideas. At the last day, the participants discussed their ideas from the day before. Inspired by the impressions of the conference, new project ideas and activities were developed.
Closing the event by using new media, the participants and organisors bowed out from a very educative and intense conference.
(Photo: German Association Club of Rome)
Our book "Tree by Tree" is available in more and more languages
Our book "Tree by Tree" can now be downloaded from our website in Italian. "Albero per Albero" is the 4th updated edition.
Soon we will also be able to offer the book in French and Portuguese.
You can Download the book in a number of languages on our website.
Would you like to help us translate the book into other languages? Great! Please click here.
Here you can scroll through the on-line version of the book:
Our new staff member Sebastian coordinates Plant-for-the-Planet from Edinburgh
After the successful implementation of our Academy in Letchworth last March we decided to go further and establish ourselves officially in the UK. That’s why I – Sebastian - am a new member of Plant-for-the-Planet. I’m really excited to be here to help promote Plant-for-the-Planet.
I recently moved to Edinburgh to start a Masters of Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education and to support the Plant-for-the-Planet Initiative in the UK. I will now be your contact person for all the enquiries, questions and proposals that you might have for Plant-for-the-Planet from now on.
My aims for the next couple of months are
To do this of course, we are going to need partners; partners that help us with networking, partners that will help us to organize academies and partners and sponsors that will help us to become known in the UK. So if you would like to work with us, or if you know someone that could be interested, please let us know. All ideas are welcome!
Today's fossil generation is apparently not willing to wake up from the "fossil dream" and we need to help them wake up. Our campaign is designed to deliver that message
After successfully spreading Plant-for-the-Planet in the four African countries Tanzania, Kenya, Lesotho and South Africa in July 2011, the children's initiative prepares to wake up the adults at COP17. This will be the 17th United Nations Climate Change Conference from 28 November till 9 December in Durban. The children fear that the leading adults of the world will again just talk, and not take positive action to solve the climate crisis.
The children therefore have been empowering as many children as possible in South Africa in Academies to help them to raise their voice and be present at the conference itself to fight for climate justice. In October and November several Academies will be held in different South African cities. South African teachers will be trained so that they can organize more Academies in the future and also to put down some solid roots for the Children's Initiative in the country. The South African children will plant trees to save our planet.
You can find more information about the activities leading up to the conference in Durban here.
The children activities are made possible with the support from Deutsche Post DHL and Toyota Financial Services. Both will support the Plant-for-the-Planet Initiative during the UN climate conference COP 17 in Durban and also for the establishment of the Plant-for-the-Planet Initiative in South Africa.
11/22/2011 08:30 am (local time) - 11/22/2011 1:00 pm (local time)
Durban, South Africa
Become a Climate Justice Ambassador!
A Plant-for-the-Planet Academy is a wonderful opportunity for children to come together, to learn about global issues and to create their own action plan as to what they intend to do to solve the climate crisis. Here, the main responsibility for raising awareness and taking action is taken over by young people, by children. They encourage other young people to raise their voices for their own future. Participation is free of charge!
This Academy in the week before COP17 will unite children from different backgrounds in Durban. If you would like to join, please get in touch soon, as there are limited spaces available.
Durban Girls College
Registration and contact:
Julianne Boonzaaier: 072-2600506, jboonzaa [at] dgc [dot] co [dot] za
More information can be found on our website!
11/23/2011 08:30 am (local time) - 11/23/2011 2:30 pm (local time)
Durban, South Africa
Become a Climate Justice Ambassador!
A Plant-for-the-Planet Academy is a wonderful opportunity for children to come together, to learn about global issues and to create their own action plan as to what they intend to do to solve the climate crisis. Here, the main responsibility for raising awareness and taking action is taken over by young people, by children. They encourage other young people to raise their voices for their own future. Participation is free of charge!
At this Academy in a predominantly Indian area of Durban, children are going to be empowered ahead of COP17 to make their voices heard and take the future into their own hands.
Chatsworth Youth Centre, Durban
Registration and contact:
Mr. Clive Pillay, 083-9813506, clivegracia [at] gmail [dot] com
More information can be found on our website!
12/09/2011 - 12/09/2011
Bluff Eco Park, Durban
Become a Climate Justice Ambassador!
A Plant-for-the-Planet Academy is a wonderful opportunity for children to come together, to learn about global issues and to create their own action plan as to what they intend to do to solve the climate crisis. Here, the main responsibility for raising awareness and taking action is taken over by young people, by children. They encourage other young people to raise their voices for their own future. Participation is free of charge!
Registration and contact:
Dawn Mahne, Tel: 031 467 0308, Cell: 079 963 5057, E-mail:dawn [dot] mahne [at] verus [dot] co [dot] za
More nformation can be found on our website!
06/20/2012 - 06/22/2012
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
taking place in June 2012
