Listening to the Earth: The Bioregional Basis of Community Consciousness
A Public Symposium, April 7-10, 1979, San Francisco
Our Society is Heading in Two Conflicting Directions. One of these is the attempt to preserve regional culture, community identity, natural resources and political autonomy. The second retains the impetus of the Industrial Revolution and involves an expanding economy, increased urbanization, and the spread of what might be called a global and largely homogeneous way of life. The conflict between these is expressing itself in some of the most crucial issues of our time—crises in energy, natural resources, growth and development, and cultural priorities.
California is Proving to be a Major Testing Ground for the Resolution of these Issues. All of us living here are being affected by the kinds of energy choices being made; by conflicts between industrial development and environmental protection; by rapid technological innovation; and by the struggle to maintain a sense of community and cultural identity. In both voter referenda and public debate, California has been the stage of a number of initial confrontations regarding these issues.
These Issues Exist within a Bioregional Context. All of the activities of human society are ultimately supported by the Earth’s biosphere, the web of life which covers the planet with the essential air, water, plants, animals and materials our lives require. Our lives and the life of the planet come together in bioregions, “home places” united by particular natural characteristics and human influences which are specific to these locales. Relating these issues to the specific nature of the Northern California bioregion may open up new possibilities for resolution.
What Could a Bioregional Perspective Hope to Achieve? Could it emphasize diversity, seek solutions to our problems that are place-specific? Could it also emphasize unity in attempting to reestablish a sense of connectedness between urban, suburban and rural locales? Could it relate these locales to the natural systems that they all share? Finally, could it extend the concept of local identity to include a recognition of planetary interdependence?
This is what we seek to explore.
On April 7, 8, 9 and 10 leading environmental thinkers, representatives of government agencies, scholars in the humanities, innovators in alternative energy and agriculture, social critics and authors will meet in a public symposium to address these issues, and to examine what possibilities exist for social and individual action.
You are invited to join them in that effort.
Admission to all four days of the conference is S10. It will be held at the First Unitarian Church and at Fort Mason, in San Francisco.
SATURDAY, APRIL 7
First Unitarian Church, Starr King Room
10:00 a.m. . .Reception
10:30 a.m. . .KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Finding Our Way Back into
the Northern California Bioregion
DR. RAYMOND F. DASMANN, Environmental Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
1:00 p.m. . . . .Music—Moiré Pulse
2:00 p.m. . . . .T’ai Chi Ch’uan—Bing Jiang
2:30 p.m. . . . .How Energy Choices Affect
Communities
JERRY YUDELSON, Director, SolarCal, State of California
Grounding: New Approaches to the
Problem of Energy
DR. DAVID KUBRIN, Historian of Science
PETER SCHWARTZ, Portola Institute and SRI
JIM HARDING, Friends of the Earth
8:00 p.m. . . . .INTRODUCTORY
Energy is Eternal Delight
Fort Mason, Building 312, Room 3H
An inexpensive lunch concession will be available during all four days of the conference. Day care provided during conference sessions.
SUNDAY, APRIL 8
Fort Mason, Building 312, Room 3H
Technology, Diversity and
Bioregional Identity
MORNING SESSION
10:00 a.m. . .Technological Influences on American
Culture
JERRY MANDER, author, Four Arguments for the Elimination
of Television
Panelists
DR. MARTIN JAY, History, University of California,
Berkeley
DR. MORRIS BERMAN, Humanities, University of San
Francisco
SANDY CLOSE, Pacific News Service
PAUL RYAN, video artist; editor, Talking Wood
2:00 p.m. . . . .Authenticity and Nativeness
DR. JACK FORBES, Native American Studies, University of
California, Davis
Panelists
PETER BERG, Planet Drum Foundation
RASA GUSTAITIS, Pacific News Service
DR. ROBERT CURRY, Geology, University of Montana
The First Unitarian Church is located at 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary Blvd.) The address of Fort Mason is Laguna and Marina Blvd.
MONDAY, APRIL 9
Fort Mason, Building 312, Room 3H
Rediscovering Northern California
MORNING SESSION
10:00 a.m. . .Our Place in the Water Cycle
PETER WARSHALL, watershed consultant
Panelists
RUSSELL CAHILL, Director, California Department of Parks
and Recreation
DR. RODERICK NASH, History, University of California,
Santa Barbara
DR. PHILLIP LEVEEN, Agricultural Economics, University
of California, Berkeley
2:00 p.m. . . . .Revisioning Natural Resources Policy
DAVID SIMPSON, Mattole Valley Community Center
TOMAS FRICKE, alternative energy consultant
CHRISTOPHER SWAN, author YV-88
LINN HOUSE, Planet Drum Foundation
Tickets for the conference may be obtained by mailing the coupon at right, along with a check or money order, to Planet Drum Foundation, P.O. Box 31251, San Francisco, CA 94131.
TUESDAY, APRIL 10
Fort Mason, Building 312, Room 3H
Alternative Directions in Growth and Development
10.00 a.m. . .The Conflict between Unity and Growth
DR. CRAIG SCHINDLER, Environmental Studies, University
of California, Santa Cruz
Panelists
LEE SWENSON, Director, Farallones Institute
LYNN NELSON, Director, The Habitat Center
CHARLES R. LEWIS, IV, Association of Bay Area
Governments
EUGENE WEDELL, Wedell Group Architects
2:00 p.m. . . . .A New Context for Growth and
Development
Panelists
GARY SNYDER, poet and social critic
ERNEST CALLENBACH, author, Ecotopia
MURRAY BOOKCHIN, Director, Goddard College
Institute for Social Ecology
STEPHANIE MILLS, free-lance writer and editor
PETER BERG, Planet Drum Foundation
8:00 p.m. . . . .Poems and Stories of Place
Fort Mason, Building 312, Room 3H
GARY SNYDER, LENORE KANDEL, JAMES DODGE,
JERRY MARTIEN, and others.
Admission $3.00
CREDITS
Co-Directors. . .
PETER BERG,
MORRIS BERMAN
Advisory Committee. . .
RAYMOND F. DASMAN, LINN HOUSE,
JERRY YUDELSON
Art. . .
MICHAEL MYERS
Design. . .
SHARPSHOOTER STUDIOS, Berkeley, CA
Typesetting. . .
RANDOLPH-HARRIS, INC., Berkeley, CA
