Since there are no currently active contests, we have switched Climate CoLab to read-only mode.
Learn more at https://climatecolab.org/page/readonly.
Skip navigation
12comments
Share conversation: Share via:

James Greyson

Aug 16, 2011
05:58

Member


1 |
Share via:
Hi Linda, Great to see you here, many thanks for visiting us from wiserearth and warm welcome to the Climate CoLab. Would you like to copy across your profile photo and some of the 'about me' text? Other members will enjoy knowing a bit about people making proposals. I've given your proposal a name so people can see more about it when they look at the list of proposals. Please feel free to update this to any title you prefer. Would you like to add text now so the proposal gets built up and people can see what is planned and get behind it? If you make the proposal open (in the admin) area then others will be able to help with filling it out. I wonder how a 'global' ark works at EU level? Is this something that could work anywhere? How would it go from idea to action on climate and economy? It looks like this could be a very interesting 'grass roots' type plan that complements other proposals very well? If you like, after there is some more text up, we could tweet about this proposal along with others and ask for more support and help? Best wishes James (blindspotter)

Mike Matessa

Aug 25, 2011
01:48

Fellow


2 |
Share via:
Creating a way to tap into the human 'global brain' to find sustainable solutions is a great idea. I like the new graphics. You can add them directly to the page by clicking on the fifth icon to the right that looks like a mountain range and sun (Insert/Edit Image). Let me know if you'd like help with editing. Yes please! (And "thank you") - I really would like help editing! I found that when I tried to add an image, I wasn't able to access my pictures on my laptop, only online?

James Greyson

Aug 29, 2011
08:46

Member


3 |
Share via:
Great to see more text up, thanks Linda. Wondering if the history of your project may be better placed on another site and simply referenced here? This could make it easier to see what you're proposing and how it would work. Is the Ark an architecture business or an online community preparing for climate disasters? Is there also activity to scale up actions to the point where climate disasters may be avoided? I am an architectural business, the proposals were originally for my own Eco-Village showcase community, which would have been shown online to help others as a social enterprise anyway, but when we lost the proposed land in 2009, I simply continued to form the proposals and community online... And continued to expand and include all the exclusions which I found as I did so. Both as an online community and an 'on-site' community, Ark's built to show the predicted disasters - and the potential solutions, based on what's been proven as viable elsewhere. Ark's been built etherically, in order to regenerate the bio/diversity needed to try and turn back 180 degrees, but also allowing for the fact that there may be some climate distasters which cannot be avoided, Solar Winter being the worst. It doesn't matter whether we have re-greened the entire Earth & provided water, homes, education, healthcare & alternative travel plans ethically to the world, if at the end of the day, the children have to contend with at least ten years of solar winter - which could come from either an asteroid or seismic activity. We can potentially eradicate an asteroid - via the organisation started by Arthur C Clarke for instance, but when it comes to the build up of molten larva, unless someone has an ecological design to stifle the full eruption of a volcano, then the children still need totally sustainable indoor planting, with a way to light their futures and grow enough food/spirulina to live through the darkness. "The key to ensuring that everyone floats through climate change, is simply to connect everyone who cares, onboard the Ark." I guess people are already 'drowning' (both literally and in other ways - eg starvation) due to climate change so can we really help everyone to 'float through' the disasters that we fail to prevent? Or is the Ark more about rescuing a select few 'who care'? How best to 'connect everyone'? I've not seen virtual or real-life ways to do this yet but would love to be introduced to them if they exist! Indeed!! :D Sorry James, I'm trying to write this all as fast as I can, in order to get the boxes filled by the end of today - as this is the cut off point for editorial help, or I read it to be so? (I need help editing the writing, so that I can get on with the graphics which I will need to load very soon.) The one levelling denominator, is that the people who are suffering the most, are ALL those without the money to buy the boats they need to float...! (Water, storm, or finance.) If we can't win the climate war, (or hit solar winter), then people will need a way to 'float through' which is quite dynamic. As the planning guidelines ask for 'totally inclusive policies', I've tried to protect the most vulnerable first by my proposals. I will be refining everything which I have written, as soon as I can. (But I'm trying to get it all loaded onto all of the boxes first so that I can present the WHOLE picture for total inclusion - and then prune it back to make it flow better.) My children said I needed to make a 'chaff' folder into which all that is pruned is stored. This is the aim!!

Linda Beamish

Aug 31, 2011
09:31

Member


4 |
Share via:
Proposal
contributor
Sorry if I ramble - this is the culimation of many years work, and I'm used to working alone, 'pinning' drawings or proposals onto a board, and going back again & again to spot the weak points in my design - until it sits perfectly upon the page & my brain. I've been trying to get this proposal entered by the end of 31st August 2011, so that I can have some help editing the words. Unfortunately, I cannot determine myself what the most important parts are - as each point is as important to me as each other, (as an analogy, its rather like looking at the sea, and trying to find the most 'perfect' waves to pick out and use to express the ocean.) Essentially, Ark is a sustainable community living project 'showcase' - which is designed to work anywhere. (It had to, I had no idea where we would end up, as we had no land ourselves, and I've now put conceptual proposals together for about 20 sites - as all was unpaid work, I simply had to find the lowest common denominator/s to re-use without consuming all my time.) The lowest common denominator is the lack of money to buy the essential ingredients of live. The lowest number of people who would live sustainably on Earth, is 0 on 0 land space. The largest number of people who could live sustainably on Earth, is (potentially) 9 Billion. The largest amount of land upon which the maximum number of people could live on earth, is the entire planet, including ships (and other floating communities on the water), submarines (and other 'capsules' or vessels underneath the oceanic surface), plus (some people) may like to live onboard spaceships which float above the storm-clouds, (although this has a limited appeal)! Whether a sustainable community were to live on the water, under the water, in the air, on a mountain, in the desert, in a city, in a wood, under the ground, in a cave - or anywhere else, the same proven exemplars of sustainable design work repeatedly: Eco-Resorts (Participatory & Paying Tourism), Eco-Hamlets, Eco-Villages, Eco-Towns, Eco-Cities, and the Permaculture Organisation. The consensual & democratic systems for any groups of like-minded people forming any community, are likewise approved & accepted: Co-Operative Housing, CoHousing, Community Land Trusts, and World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). Not everyone is allowed to own their own home, (E.G. people who have been made bankrupt), ergo, this can either be remedied by offering Co-Operative housing, or through the support of Housing Associations such as Broadland Housing & Flagship. (Both were empathetic to Earth/Cob/Straw/Adobe/Timber etc.) The problem is that there simply isn't any investment monies available for people to kick-start their projects - or float them through times when they have bills to pay, but no income to pay their bills. (Especially all those who have no money, are black-listed, or otherwise suffer from exclusion.) Housing costs need to meet peoples needs, and not start half-way up the budget ladder - the housing costs need to start at £0 to match salaries, such as my own as founder of my own community!

James Greyson

Sep 5, 2011
08:33

Member


5 |
Share via:
Hi Linda, sorry the comments machine seems to have merged my previous comment with your subsequent one. Readers should attribute just the 1st paragraph to me and the rest to Linda, thanks. 31st Aug was deadline to be put forward to external experts will add comments to some proposals. So you have plenty of time to continue editing until the contest deadline of 30th Sept. Just remember to finish and click 'submit' in the admin tab of your proposal before then. Yes great idea to prune. This will make your ideas stand out more. You could also consider generalising your proposal so it looks like something that could be done anywhere, rather than a proposal for one localised project? Thanks, keep it up James

Linda Beamish

Sep 6, 2011
08:38

Member


6 |
Share via:
Proposal
contributor
Sorry James, I had hoped to submit before the 31st August because I really needed the help of others to edit, but doing this all by myself - while doing all the other things I have to do, means I'm now left to edit alone? Will I still be able to receive yours/others helpful comments to advise me how to do so? Can you please clarify? Also, will I be able to invite any team members who would like to join me in forming the Ecological Co-Operative aboard Global Ark Projects to help me? Thank You! Linda.

James Greyson

Sep 6, 2011
08:27

Member


7 |
Share via:
Hi Linda, even if the external experts cannot get to your proposal, it is still open for comment from 'the crowd' :-) You can invite people via twitter to look and also ask experts that you choose to come and comment. To expand your team just ask others to sign in here (it's quick with a facebook account) and then go to the team tab of your proposal where they can add themselves. Let me know if any difficulty. James

Linda Beamish

Sep 6, 2011
08:22

Member


8 |
Share via:
Proposal
contributor
P.S. In regards to a local proposal, it started as a proposal for a specific site, but as there were so many problems with that site, I designed it to work anywhere, based on 'the worst case' scenario, E.G.: High Risk Flood Risk Zone No Money Proven Need Temporary Eco-Designs to solve the housing crisis in any area. I'll blanket it better!! Thanks for the advice, Linda.

Linda Beamish

Sep 6, 2011
08:45

Member


9 |
Share via:
Proposal
contributor
Thanks - again James!! Thank goodness for that!:D - I was about to panic!! Excellent. (I must say, this really is the nicest way to create a submission I've ever made!) Thank you to all who formed Climate CoLab for this, its really brilliant. Linda.

James Greyson

Sep 6, 2011
08:44

Member


10 |
Share via:
:-)

Linda Beamish

Sep 30, 2011
05:43

Member


11 |
Share via:
Proposal
contributor
HElp!! I can't load my graphics - I thought it was because I was uploading the YouTube video of the presentation, but it isn't. (Possible overload as everyone trying to load up last minutes?) When can I finish editing and adding graphics?? Gulp!! (Will add onto slide-share for now and link.) Cheers.

Moderator Team

Oct 11, 2011
09:02

Member


12 |
Share via:
Thanks for your hard work! Your proposal contained many great ideas on knowledge managment for sustainable products and designs. But the proposal ran so long that sometimes it was difficult to separate out the key ideas from ones that were less central. We felt that your proposal had some affinities with "Change U.S. energy in one growing season," and we hope you might be able to contribute to that proposal or even join that team going forward.