May 24, 2009
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to announce the speakers for the Twenty-Ninth Annual E. F.
Schumacher Lectures: Bill McKibben, Benjamin Barber, and Alisa Gravitz. The
lectures are scheduled for October 17th in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Please mark your calendars and plan to join us if you can.
• Acclaimed environmentalist, Bill McKibben, is author of "The End of
Nature" (1989) and "Deep Economy" (2007). In 2007, he led the organization
of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history.
McKibben’s newest undertaking is 350.org, an international campaign
dedicated to building solutions to the climate crisis and culminating with a
global day of action on October 24th (www.350.org/mission).
• Benjamin R. Barber is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos
(www.demos.org). He is author of the classic "Strong Democracy" (1984), the
international best-seller "Jihad vs. McWorld" (1995) and the recent
"Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow
Citizens Whole" (2007). Ultimately however, Barber points to possibilities
for liberating citizens from the clutches of consumerism, empowering them to
take informed responsibility for their role in economic exchange.
• For more than twenty-five years, Alisa Gravitz has led Green America
(formerly Co-op America), the national organization advocating for a just
and sustainable economy (www.coopamerica.org). Alisa co-authored Co-op
America’s respected guide to social investing, which is used by over half a
million people to invest according to their values.
Collected over twenty-eight years, the E. F. Schumacher Lectures are widely
acclaimed and circulated. Taken together they offer a blueprint for
renewing our local economies and regional communities.
www.smallisbeautiful.org/publications.html
End of year donations to the Schumacher Society's general operations fund
showed a sharp decrease from previous years. Even after careful reduction of
expenses, additional support is necessary to continue basic programming.
As a team we are smart, innovative, capable, and multi-skilled. For a small
organization we have a large impact. Hits to our several websites are
averaging over 48,000 per day. National and international media are calling
weekly for interviews about the BerkShares local currency program
(www.berkshares.org) developed by Schumacher staff.
At a time when questions about the economy are on the minds of so many, we
feel ever more urgent about sharing the Schumacher Society's strategy for
building sustainable regional economies.
Please help us meet the current challenge and opportunity with a generous
contribution: http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/donation_form.html
Warmly,
Susan Witt, Sarah Hearn, and Stefan Apse
Staff of the E. F. Schumacher Society
140 Jug End Road
Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230
www.smallisbeautiful.org
Board of Directors: Jessica Brackman, Starling Childs, Merrian Fuller,
Hildegarde Hannum, Eric Harris-Braun, Constance Packard, Joseph Stanislaw,
Nancy Jack Todd, and Charles Turner.
Board of Founders: Ian Baldwin, David Ehrenfeld, Satish Kumar, John
McClaughry, and Kirkpatrick Sale.
Advisory Board: Tanya Berry, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Lisa Byers, Olivia
Dreier, Hazel Henderson, Wes Jackson, Amory Lovins, John McKnight, David
Orr, Michael Shuman, Cathrine Sneed, Lewis Solomon, John Todd, Greg Watson,
Barbara Wood, and Arthur Zajonc.
