Newsletters and Updates

Current Articles New Program Manager (June 2009) China Update (June 2009) Evans Honorary Doctorate (March 2009) Obama Recommendations (January 2009) Emerging China Program (January 2009) Little Rock Peace Network (January 2009) Tallberg Forum (October 2008) Seeking Peace in Colombia (October 2008) Papua Peace Update (July 2008) Evans Reflections on CTF (July 2008) Courant Plowshares Article (July 2008) Interfaith Dialogue Initiative (February 2008) Restorative Justice Work (February 2008)

Tällberg Forum, Sweden
How on Earth Can We Live Together:
In Search of the Common Sense

In June Alice and Bob Evans served for the second time as educational consultants for the Tällberg Forum, a gathering of some 400 government leaders, climate scientists, business executives, and non-profit directors.  The Tällberg Forum focuses on the problems that challenge our ability to live peaceably together.  For the second year, special emphasis was given to the devastating effects of climate change. 

The Evans participated in a two-day consultation on the ethical boundaries of climate change; a parallel group of scientists focused on the scientific boundaries of a sustainable environment.  This was followed by a four-day program which included several design groups which were charged to develop strategies for addressing specific areas affecting or affected by climate change. The Evans coordinated a design group which worked on “forests and sustainability” highlighting the fact that deforestation is only slightly less polluting than coal in the production of greenhouse gases which produce carbon.  A new case study based in Papua, Indonesia focused on the devastating effects of illegal logging on the lives of indigenous populations.

The previous Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan, closed the conference with an appeal for a new world strategy to control climate change in preparation for the international gathering in Copenhagen in 2009 which update the Kyoto Protocol. 

One of the central needs that emerged throughout these sessions was the importance of returning the level of carbon in the atmosphere to below 350 parts per million. It is clear that global warming will increase suffering and tragedy for the poorest regions of the world more than any other single threat.  We must act now to build new levels of political awareness and understanding of the threats of global warming and develop realistic global strategies for returning to 350 ppm. 

Plowshares was one of several hundred international signatories to a full page notice in the New York Times, Washington Post and Financial Times (London) this past June citing the dangers of exceeding “350.”  (The latest figures cited are 382 ppm and climbing.)   For more information about this important movement, refer to http://www.350.org/

.