“Resilience in Cuba, India and the U.S.”

Sustainability pioneer, James Merkel, will share images, data and reports from his travels to Cuba and India, two societies that exhibit some of the characteristics of a sustainable society.   His presentation, “Resilience in Cuba, India and the U.S.” takes place on Thursday, November 14th at the Rockland Public Library from 6:30-8PM.  This event is free and open to all.

Presenter Jim Merkel believes the future of our life on earth is in peril and man is both responsible for how that’s happened and required to meet the challenges we now face. While consumerism and human populations continue to grow the planet’s capacity to support them has not. The United States’ own widening gap between rich and poor is a reflection of a world in which widening inequality and the stresses on the earth’s biosphere affect the climate and food and water security. Ultimately, these impacts will diminish our standard of living and destabilize society. Unwanted and unmanageable change is coming if we don’t change first.

Merkel believes that some models already exist for how we will need to cope and adapt. They may appear drastic but are the necessary characteristics of a desirable future planet and will include: small families, modest ecological footprints, and the eradication of poverty.

Merkel, will share images and information from his travels to Cuba and the Kerala region in India, two societies that exhibit some of the practices that may be necessary for sustainable human life. Cuba now ranks second in the world in literacy (the US is 34th) and has a lower infant mortality rate than in the US. With free dental, health care and education, and near exclusive organic farming methods, much can be gleaned from Cuba’s experiments, despite how different our two forms of government may be.  In India the people of Kerala have advanced from poverty to a higher standard of living and a leveling of inequality through land reform, women’s rights and support for the disenfranchised. Kerala is achieving a basic life quality on small incomes and smaller families.

Merkel will also talk about his own experiments in sustainable living in the U.S. and Canada and show that there are low-cost and low-waste solutions that are underway and easily attained.

About the Speaker: Jim Merkel has done pioneering work in sustainability. In addition to his book, Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth, Merkel’s work helped Dartmouth College become one of America’s earliest and highest ranked “sustainable” campuses.  Merkel was elected to three terms on the Sierra Club's Executive Committee and as a lobbyist in Washington D.C., promoted wilderness legislation, peace and Native American rights. Jim currently writes, lectures and consults with campuses and municipalities on sustainability initiatives and teaches at Unity College.

This presentation is hosted by the Rockland Public Library and offered as a free community event in in anticipation of the 27^th Annual Camden Conference: The Global Politics of Food and Water, February 21-23, 2014. 

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world affairs through year-round community events, public and student engagement, and an annual weekend conference. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org, email info@camdenconference.org, or call 207-236-1034.

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