For healthy people on a healthy planet
Background
The Biocentre idea is based on appreciation that
· Human activities on Earth today are on a scale and of a kind that are sustainable ecologically. If present patterns of human activity continue unabated, the collapse of civilisation is inevitable. Climate change is at present the most critical issue.
· The survival of civilisation and the future wellbeing of humankind will require a radical shift in the worldviews and priorities of the prevailing cultures across the world
· These crucial changes will not come about unless, and until, a great wave of new understanding sweeps across these cultures – understanding of Nature and the human place in Nature.
There is therefore an urgent need for a worldwide movement promoting biounderstanding and encouraging informed dialogue on the way forward to a biosensitive society.
The International Biocentre Network (IBN)
The IBN will consist of an expanding network of interconnected groups of concerned people who agree with its aims, and who would like to take part in its activities. These local groups will be referred to as Biocentres.
The aims of the Network will be:
· to promote widespread understanding of nature, and the human place in nature
· to promote a vision of a society of the future that is truly sensitive to, and in harmony with, the processes of life that underpin our existence, and that promotes health and wellbeing in all sections of the human population as well as in the ecosystems of the biosphere.
Members of IBN will engage in a range of activities consistent its aims and philosophy, such as organising and participating in courses, workshops, displays and lobbying governmental institutions.
A small team of scientists who will be responsible for producing educational material in the form of information packages. Themes for information packages are likely to include, for example: biological evolution, population perspectives, healthy soils, climate change. clean energy, human health needs, infectious disease, biosensitive lifestyles, and circular economies.
There will be an important social dimension to Biocentres. They will provide a framework for people to gather together to celebrate life, through art, music, bush walking and other activities.
The detailed structure of IBN is yet to be determined. We suggest that Rotary International might be taken as a model, although we envisage Biocentres will be more widespread than Rotary Clubs, and their aims will, of course, be different.
We believe that the IBN is perfectly feasible. All we need initially is, as happened in the case of Rotary, for one group to start the ball rolling; and then, again as happened in the case of Rotary, other interlinked groups will spring up, eventually right across the world.
If this comes about, IBN will be able to make a major contribution to necessary cultural and social change. Healthy people on a healthy planet.
Comment
The story of life induces a sense of perspective crucial for understanding the human situation on Earth today. It reminds us that we are living beings, products of several billion years of biological evolution, and totally dependent on the processes of life, within us and around us, for our wellbeing and survival. Keeping these processes healthy must be our top priority, because everything else depends on them.
The story also has meaning for us in many other ways. For example, it has much to teach us not only about the health the living environment, but also about human health and wellbeing.
For some people life’s story is an endless source of enjoyment, and the more they learn, the greater their sense of awe and wonderment, leading sometimes to a profound feeling of reverence for life. In some individuals, this understanding has an ethical outcome. They come to see the achievement of harmony with nature as morally right, and the trashing of the natural environment as evil.
The story of life is of immense significance for very one of us, and for society as a whole, and yet it is known and understood by only a minority of the population. If it were shared by the great majority, the prospects for the future of humankind would be very much brighter.
A Biorenaissance 