Institute of Global Education
Special NGO consultant to the United Nations Economic 
and Social Council Integrated Ecology/Project NatureConnnect

Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
Chair: Greenwich University Applied Ecopsychology
Faculty: Portland State University Extended Studies

P. O. Box 1605,
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
888-285-4694 (toll free)
360-378-6313

Why not use and encourage this potent tool ?

Increased sensory awareness improves personal and environmental relationships.
You may enhance educating and counseling with nature and make a difference. A newly researched process empowers individuals to grow by genuinely participating in the web of life.

"Until mankind can extend the circle of
his compassion to include all living things,
he will never, himself, know peace."
- Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize, l950

Educating and counseling with nature help the human race survive the destructiveness of the human race. Increased sensory awareness of the environment improves personal and environmental relationships. A newly researched learning-with- Nature sensory process empowers individuals interested in responsible relationships to grow by genuinely participating in the web of life.

"Until mankind can extend the circle of
his compassion to include all living things,
he will never, himself, know peace."

- Albert Schweitzer

In nature, acting destructively is abnormal. However, when you separate any organism from its natural environment you force it to act abnormally. You disconnect it from Nature's constructive ways and integrity.

An essence of Nature is its self-organizing intelligence. It creates and maintains Earth's optimums of life and diversity without producing garbage, pollutants or our forms of madness, including war. It also sustains ecosystems and their members in supportive balance. Its unifying, community-building, knowledge promotes wellness for people and the environment.

"One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin"
- William Shakespeare

People are part of Nature. When connected to nature, every person biologically, psychologically and spiritually contains Nature's non-polluting intelligence. We create our great personal, environmental and global troubles because we spend over 95% of our time and 99.9% of our thinking disconnected from Nature.

Our extreme disconnection from Nature is similar to growing up imprisoned in a closet. It's like spending only twelve hours of our life learning how to read and write and then expecting to be proficient at it. It separates our thinking from its wise biological roots. This alienates us from how nature works to produce its perfections. For example: we seldom recognize that in the survival of the fittest, the "fittest" are those who best build diverse, mutually supportive relationships with their surroundings. They are excellent cooperators, not competitors.

Our nature-separated "brainwashing" influences the way we experience most things, including our sense of self. It estranges our psyche from its origins and nurturance in ecosystems. This numbs 53 natural senses that we inherit. They would normally enable us to relate more intelligently and responsibly. As the state of the world presently shows, numb makes dumb with respect to living in balance.

Like a child separated from its mother, we psychologically want from the loss of nature in our lives. When we want there is never enough. This makes us crave and psychologically addict to relationships even when we know they are unreasonable, hurtful, or greedy.

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed,
and to have my senses put in order."
- John Burroughs

Psychological problems demand psychological solutions. The process of educating and counseling with nature psychologically reconnects people to nature and its essence. This nurtures and restores our inherent natural intelligence. It helps us transform our painful disconnections into more responsible relationships.

The reconnecting process consists of making thoughtful sensory contacts with natural areas. The contact rejuvenates our 53 senses, recycles our destructive thinking and improves ourselves and the environment. The excellent results speak for themselves. Truly nature-connected people seldom display our problems or cause them, nor are these problems found in natural systems.

Unfortunately, reconnecting with nature is suspect in our nature-conquering society. It is seldom encouraged, often disparaged. Yet most people have had at least one significant nature connected experience. Somewhere deep within us we each know its value.

"At root, ecology is an erotic attitude of closeness,
relatedness and care. We have made it into a
rational/activist project and lost sight of its heart."
- Thomas Moore

To our loss, people who recognize the importance of reconnecting with nature seldom have a process that enables them to reconnect, or teach others how to reconnect. Now, a readily available nature-reconnecting, psychological science, the Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP) gives people this tool. It is a teachable social technology. It recognizes that with respect to nature and its eons of wisdom, there is no substitute for the real thing. For this reason, NSTP reconnects our thinking to authentic nature's reality, backyard or back country.

NSTP's hands-on ecopsychology helps us co-create with the environment and each other. We learn how to think harmoniously, like nature works. We more sensibly relate to life and love. Sensitivity, responsibility and peace increase. We restore our personal and environmental integrity.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Online, any caring person can take courses in NSTP. They can also obtain a B.S., MS or Ph.D degree in NSTP educating and counseling with nature.

The NSTP program improves a person's effectiveness, marketability, and credibility in any field. It helps them increase wellness within and around them, reduce hurtful relationships, and teach others to do the same. Its courses and degrees are inexpensive because they are

- online,
- cooperatively taught,
- heavily subsidized
- incorporate a person's prior experiences.

Adults, students and professionals use them to meet their deeper 
ideals. For complete information visit The Institute of Global Education. 
It links to many free nature reconnecting activities, articles and courses.

The most efficient way to become adept at NSTP is 
through a 7-21 day, online Online Orientation Course:

Psychological Elements of Global Citizenship:
-The Science of Connecting With the Web of Life;
-The Art of Thinking With Nature.

"Scientific research is based on the idea that
everything that takes place is determined by
laws of nature, and therefore this holds for
the action of people."

"Our task must be to free ourselves from
(our) prison by widening our circles of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and the whole of
nature in its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

article sent to us by Dr. michael J. cohen

Climate Changes

An unprecedented shift in our climate is underway. 1998 was declared the warmest of the second millennium; the top ten warmest years have all been since 1983, with seven of them since 1990. In fact, the world is warming at a faster rate than during any period in the last 10,000 years.

Why is this happening?

The Earth’s natural greenhouse effect, which traps some of the Sun’s energy and makes our planet habitable, is being thrown out of balance by increasing amounts of heat-trapping air pollutants. The leading global warming gas, carbon dioxide (CO₂), is released in large quantities mainly when coal, oil and gas are burned for energy. CO₂ emissions increased 12-fold during the 20th century. There is now 30% more CO₂ in the atmosphere than when the mass burning of coal began in the Industrial Revolution. The first impacts of global warming are being felt on every continent and in most nations either through floods, droughts, the melting of glaciers or the spread of infectious diseases. There is worse to come unless responsible steps are taken to reverse the rising trend of CO₂ output.

Atmospheric levels of CO2 today are the highest in 420,000 years.

CO2 emissions worldwide are now around 12 times higher than they were in 1900 as the world burns increasing quantities of coal, oil and gas for energy. Levels of global warming gases in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the past 420,000 years, according to samples extracted from deep in the Antarctic ice. The global temperature build-up is seriously disrupting the natural balance of the world's climate.

It's 10 years since scientists alerted the world to the dangers of climate change. We're still waiting for governments and business to introduce effective measures.

• carbon dioxide accounts for over 80 per cent of global warming pollution
  

• in 1990, 97 per cent of the CO2 emitted by western industrialised countries came from burning coal, oil and gas for energy
  

• around 25 per cent of the world's population living in industrialised nations consume almost 80 per cent of the world's energy. It's a leading reason why developing nations look to the industrialised world to take the first decisive steps in cutting CO2
  

• there's now over 30 per cent more CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere than before the Industrial Revolution. (An increase from 280 to around 370 parts per million by volume (ppmv) today).

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it would take an immediate reduction in CO2 emissions of at least 60 per cent to stabilise concentrations in the atmosphere at their present level. Making this kind of immediate reduction is impossible but it indicates the kind of pollution cut that's needed to put the brake on global warming.

Unless effective climate protection policies are introduced, carbon emissions could increase by between 4 per cent and 320 per cent above current levels by 2100. Year-by-year this would add to CO2 levels in the air which could reach nearly 550 ppmv by 2100, for the lowest emission scenario, or over 830 ppmv in the highest scenario. This is between two and three times higher than the "natural" level before humanity began the large-scale burning of coal, oil and gas.

The world is warming faster than at any time in the last 10,000 years. The 1990s was the hottest decade in the past millennium. As global warming tightens its grip, its effects are being felt from the highest mountain peaks to deep in the oceans, and from the Equator to the poles.

 

• Europe's Alpine glaciers have lost half their volume since 1850. The US Government predicts there will be no more glaciers left in Montana's Glacier National Park by 2030.
  

• North Pacific Salmon populations crashed after ocean temperatures in the region soared 6 degrees C (9 degrees F) above normal.

• Food shortages linked to warming seas led to hundreds of thousands of seabird deaths off the coast of California.
  

• Coral reefs around the world have been severely damaged by unusually warm ocean temperatures.
  

• Cities like Chicago, Athens and New Delhi have sweltered under heat waves and seen death tolls rise.
  

• Rising sea levels threaten entire nations on low-lying islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

• Super-hurricanes  like Mitch and Floyd could well become more commonplace.
  

• Floods, drought  and the spread of infectious diseases,  like malaria, into new areas will put food and water resources under severe stress. Global warming could spark regional conflicts as large numbers of environmental refugees are driven from their homes.
  

• The rapid rate of global warming puts one-third of the world's forests [link to  at risk, as well as the species that depend on forests for their survival.

• Buy the most energy-efficient household appliances you can afford. In Europe, look for "A" class products. Refrigerators in particular are large domestic electricity users that operate throughout the day. An energy-wasting refrigerator will be burning a hole in your pocket for 10 to 15 years. But if you buy an energy-efficient model you'll more than earn back any extra costs through savings on energy bills over the lifetime of the product.
  

• Replace normal lightbulbs with energy-efficient compact flourescent lamps. They use around one-quarter of the energy to deliver the same light. Start with lamps that you use most - you'll save the most money and prevent the most CO2 emission.
  

• Turn off equipment like TVs, stereos and printers when you're not using them. That little red light means they're still using power even when not switched on. If you're buying a new model, look for a type that uses little or no power in "standy" mode.

• Avoid using your car for local shopping or short journeys.
  

• If you buy a new car, ask about a model with a hybrid engine. This uses the engine to drive an on-board electric motor. The performance is similar but fuel consumption is roughly half of a conventional car. Or look for models with gasoline direct injection engines. Their fuel consumption is around 20 per cent less than average.
  

• If you want to avoid being a climate destroyer, don't buy a sport utility vehicle. If you live in the United States, why not help WWF in making sure SUVs are cleaner and at least conform to the same fuel consumption standards as normal cars? Click here to find out how to support higher fuel efficiency standards for sport utility vehicles, minivans, and other light trucks.

• Check out web sites that allow you to do your own home energy audit. Type "home+energy+audit" in to search engines and let them do the research for you. If you live in the United States, try ENERGYguide.com for unbiased advice.
  

• Don't use electric heating - it's extremely energy wasteful.

• Ask your energy company whether you can buy "green electricity". Increasing numbers of utilities are selling renewable energy. It doesn't mean you have a windmill in your garden: the utility guarantees that the "green electricity" you buy will be generated elsewhere from renewable energy sources and fed into the grid. It helps the renewable energy industry develop more rapidly and push out more polluting forms of energy.
  

• Look into buying solar photovoltaic (PV) panels for the roof of your house to generate some clean power of your own.

• If you have investments, wouldn't it be a good idea to make sure your hard-earned money is benefitting companies that are manufacturing and trading in the solutions to global warming, or at least in sectors that don't contribute to the problem? Ask your financial adviser about the pros and cons and how best to arrange this. In general try and steer clear of oil companies, the coal industry and car companies - they are among the main groups which have contributed millions of dollars to lobby against action that would limit carbon pollution.

• Tell your family, friends and colleagues about global warming. Get involved in starting a program where you work or study to save energy, use renewable energy and cut global warming pollution.
  

• Suggest your company arranges an energy audit of its premises and production processes. Buildings are big energy users, so are industrial electric motors. Technology is developing all the time and what was energy efficient 10 years ago is now probably obsolete. A commercial energy auditing company will probably conduct an audit free of charge and recoup its fee by sharing in the cost-saving that your company realises by following the auditors' recommendations.

• Ask your political representatives to do more to reduce CO2 emissions in your neighbourhood, city and country.
  

• If you're active in politics, or just interested in inspiring examples of what cities are doing around the world to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, check out the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). It's the antidote to the snail's pace of the international climate negotiations. Is where you live one of the 300 municipalities involved in ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection campaign?

The global environmental campaigning tool, allowing you to go anywhere in the world, and take effective campaigning action using the internet.

It costs nothing to get your own virtual Passport, which you will need to take do some serious campaigning action (click here if you haven't got one already).

Many thanks to the World Wildlife Fund for  the information contained on this page World Wildlife Federation 

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