Once the first multiplier course (with participation from Germany including added activites in Augsburg) took place in Schlierbach/Upper Austria in September of 2007 could the first two Global Marshall Plan Academy courses, each with four seminar weekends, be offered in 2008 and 2009.
After the second course took place the coaches met for two days in Augsburg to share their ideas and suggestions about the previous courses and to develop a new program.
Their first conclusion was that the design of the specific module with discursive discussions between (and contributions by) participants should remain at the core of each Academy.
At the same time they agreed to coordinate the content of each Academy so that it is more closely aligned with the others.
Moreover, future participants will received detailed specification of the development of their own issues and should be involved even more and work independently on the weekends between the seminars.
Similarly, feedback from Academy alumni suggested the possibility of including guest speakers and field trips for each group, which led the coaches to expand the list of speaker. Already member of tt30 of the German Club of Rome have been confirmed to be available as potential guest speakers.
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:4
It has taken humanity less than nine months to exhaust its ecological budget for the year, according to Global Footprint Network calculations.
Today, humanity reaches Earth Overshoot Day: the day of the year in which human demand on the biosphere exceeds what it can regenerate. As of today, humanity has demanded all the ecological services – from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food – that nature can regenerate this year. For the rest of the year, we will meet our ecological demand by depleting resource stocks and accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
“If you spent your entire annual income in nine months, you would probably be extremely concerned,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “The situation is no less dire when it comes to our ecological budget. Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water and food shortages are all clear signs: We can no longer finance our consumption on credit. Nature is foreclosing.”
Last year, the Earth Over Shoot day was on September 25.This is not due to a sudden surge in human demand, but rather to improvements in the calculation methodology that enables to more adequately capture the extent of overshoot.
Source: Global Footprint Network
The local groups in Germany are constantly growing in numbers. The activities are multi-colored, but overall very successful and promising.
In August, the local groups of Bavaria met in Neumarkt in order to plan and organize several projects in the south of Germany. This meeting was also joined by the members of the Ecosocial Forum Germany. The participants discussed topics concerning an ecosocial market society and new ways to increase the attention for a Global Marshall Plan. It was essential to look out for opportunities on how the local groups and the ecosocial movement could cooperate efficiently in the future. Furthermore, the discussion turned to political issues. The attendees came to the agreement that it is necessary to incorporate local communities in the projects concerned in order to multiply the Global Marshall Plan’s ideas and aims. Now the specific processes which will facilitate the cooperation with the political partners have to be planned in detail.
Meeting in Neumarkt
The local groups in Bavaria weren’t the only ones which were active last month. The formation of a new local group – the group “Schramberg” – is now being added to the groups already in southern Germany. Schramberg already consists of ten enthusiastic members. In addition, Stuttgart's local group has renewed its activities so the Global Marshall Plan’s commitment in southern Germany is at an all-time high level. In Munich, the local group supported an event organized by the "North-South Forum of the People of Munich" (Münchener Nord-Süd-Forum). The topics were related to development aid, our globalized world, and human rights.
Meeting in Munich
The alumni of the Global Marshall Plan Academy also support these local activities and broaden the existing network.
If you are interested in participating or in organizing local activities in your country, please send an email to info@globalmarshallplan.org
It is obvious - the idea of a Global Marshall Plan inspires plenty of people around the globe. The increasing interest in the idea and aims concerning eco-social-society and attitude adjustment in general is also to observe on a local level. There are several local groups in Germany which were established this year - with high aims, well-grounded in their enthusiastic approach to the Global Marshall Plan.
Plenty activities are planned, for example several groups aim to convince their local parliaments to support the idea of a Global Marshall Plan. Topics related are sustainable energy supply and the possibilities for establishing an education system which pays more attention to the pupils' talents and needs. Other activities focus on creating awareness for the problems our world faces - the local groups organize lectures, inform people via the net and want to make sure that public or university libraries include literature related to the Global Marshall Plan's topics.
If you have further questions or ideas - or if you would like to become active in your country - please write to info@globalmarshallplan.org.
The last module of the Academy (German) began with the launch of the current action of the Eco-Social Forum of Austria (English) by Klemens Riegler-Picker, during which particular themes of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative were discussed.
The first workshop of the module was held in the afternoon. It included a presentation of the Eco-Social Student Forum (German) as well as a discussion of the goals and methods of the project’s management. Saturday was begun with a lecture in the HUB Vienna (English), during which the project of the same name was presented.
The participants spent the rest of the weekend concentrating on skills-development through the workshop series. Their central focus was on the areas of communication and public relations work. And in spite of the busy schedule there remained enough time between the workshops and the end of the day for the participants to explore the city of Vienna and engage in an informal exchange during the common hours.
On Sunday the participants received their certificate. With this group the Academy (German) has continued adding to its ranks, successfully bringing the total number of multipliers trained to 30 since the academy began 2 years ago. In addition to being connected with many other actors and institutions in the Global Marshall Plan network, the academy’s participants now have been given the tools to develop a local academy in their own region to cover the themes of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative. The participants and advisors of the academy are also fully prepared to give speeches or engage in panel discussions at public events.
Not only did the Eco-Social Student Forum of Austria serve as student supporters and co-hosts of the academy, but the support and partnership of the German Association of the Club of Rome was also obtained for this event. A further extension of this concept will continue to be advanced by the Global Marshall Plan Foundation and its partners. The next course should begin in the fall of 2010. Interested parties can contact us at academy@globalmarshallplan.org. It is expected that the number of participants will be limited to 25.
Although the chances of successfully introducing a worldwide financial transaction tax (FTT) during the G20 summit in Toronto were considerably low, the Network of Christians, which supported the FTT, regrets its failure to be established. The "Network" (German) however has a positive outlook on the establishment of a FTT in Europe. During their summit in Brussels in the middle of June, the 27 Heads of State and Government of the EU agreed "to study and further develop" the idea of adopting a tax on financial transactions. Three or four years ago, this conversation would not have even been possible.
The FTT has its roots in the so-called "Tobin Tax." The idea was first suggested by James Tobin a US economist in 1972 and it was to be applied on international currency transactions and other areas vulnerable to speculation: foreign exchange, equities and fixed income securities as well as for derivatives on commodities and real estate titles.
The FTT would be one possible way to make international speculative money-flows more expensive and less uncontrollable. Because of this the Global Marshall Plan considers the FTT to be an important tool of regulation and a viable way to make financial resources available for other important social efforts (like fighting global poverty). While nearly every transaction in goods and services is taxable, capital flows in most countries are hardly taxed at all (Austria established a stock exchange tax in 2000, and an estate tax in 2008.)
The "Network of Christians" saw that the introduction of the FTT would not only be an important source of income during this time of large budget deficits, but also help to stabilize the global financial system and make it less prone to create more crises in the future.
A scientific background paper for the eco-social market economy has been prepared by the Eco-Social Forum in cooperation with the Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) and the Austrian Economic Institute (WIFO) over a several-month process which included regular exchanges with a large number of experts.
The focus of the paper is on the Austrian perspective and proposes a long-term economic and political strategy containing elements of an eco-social market economy by attempting to consider and balance the three dimensions of economy, ecology, and society in a sustainable way.
In the paper the objectives of the eco-social market economy are presented under current conditions. At the center of our considerations was the pursuit of a higher standard of living for all people as well as for future generations. The key challenges we face and proposed measures of implementation are presented for select policy fields.
The scientific background paper (in German) can be downloaded as a pdf file at the following link: