positioning the concept of sustainability as a global goal

The Global Vision Project aims to harness individual common sense and public imagination to position the concept of sustainability as a global goal. The project was conceived by the Irish information-artist Michael O'Callaghan in 1972, and was launched in 1981 by Global Vision Corporation, an NGO accredited to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Participants include UN agencies, NGOs, universities and leading thinkers around the world.

We have developed a catalogue of world-class media projects about sustainability, which are now in various stages of pre-production, production and/or post-production." As Victor Hugo said, "there is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come."

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"Coming by different roads out of the past, all peoples of the Earth are now arriving in a new world community." – Margaret Mead

"We are now about 25% to 30% over carrying capacity. If everyone on the planet today consumed at the level of North Americans, we would need 4 additional Earth-like planets to produce those resources and assimilate those wastes." – Bill Rees

"The planet's ecological, social and economic systems are on the verge of catastrophic change, for which few societies are prepared. Efforts by governments to respond to the impending emergency are thus far grossly inadequate. Efforts by corporations and industries to reform their behaviors remain largely enclosed by systemic limits that require continued growth and profit above all other standards of performance. With each passing month, the probability of very grave outcomes increases, and will continue if we do not immediately alter course. Some say global ecological and social breakdowns are already inevitable. With great crises sometimes comes great opportunity. The very urgency of the situation, and the imminence of global upheavals, bring new incentives toward more viable economic and social choices that operate within the ecological limits of the planet. But we are nearing the 11th hour..." – Manifesto on Global Economic Transitions, by the International Forum on Globalisation, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Global Project on Economic Transitions (download).

"The problem of how to transmit our ecological reasoning to those whom we wish to influence - in what seems to us to be an ecologically good direction - is itself an ecological problem." – Gregory Bateson

"The greatest hazard in such a transition is that the anxiety level can rise to where the society responds with irrational and self-destructive behaviour. The best safeguards are widespread understanding of the need for transformation, and reassurance that there is someplace good to get to on the other side... We need a new vision." – Changing Images of Man report, SRI International.

"The world has divided into rich and poor as at no time in history" – Maude Barlow at the G20 meeting in Toronto 2010.

"Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear." – Naomi Klein

"As our new century unfolds, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the major problems of our time – whether economic, environmental, technological, social or political – are systemic problems that cannot be solved within the current fragmented and reductionist framework of our academic disciplines and social institutions. We need a radical shift in our perceptions, thinking, and values. And indeed, weare now at the beginning of such a fundamental change of worldview in science and society." – Fritjof Capra

"I write these words against a background of seemingly ungovernable crisis. It's the Age of the Apocalypse, for no-one any longer can say whether humanity will survive. The world's leading scientists in the relevant fields seem agreed about this: we've created for ourselves as set of... crises, which may prove impossible to contain... Repeatedly, we attack dysfunctions in our social organisation while the symptoms continue to worsen... I submit that what causes the helpless feeling is the inadequacy of old forms of thought to cope with an historically unprecedented situation. We can't even think of solutions without correctly recognising the problem, and its now commonplace to pose our problems incorrectly. We tend to focus on what's seen rather than on our way of seeing... Instead of focusing on how we produce and consume, we must focus on how we perceive and on how we communicate." – Gene Youngblood

"The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think." – Gregory Bateson

"The new age of education is programmed for discovery rather than instruction. Art as radar environment, radar feedback, early warning system: the antennae of the race." – Marshall McLuhan

"When people share a common goal, their natural tendency is to co-operate in realising it." – Confucius

projects in production

Interview with the Dalai Lama DOCUMENTARY FILM: Filmed in India before 9/11 and the so-called war on terror, the Tibetan leader said: "It is quite obvious that solving disagreements using force is no longer effective. Although it may solve one problem, the violent method creates a more complicated situation with immense side effects. The time has come to find an alternative way to solve our conflicts. The best way is dialogue, in the spirit of reconciliation. Non-violence does not mean to disengage or remain indifferent! Non-violence means you fully engage the problem but not using the violent method. The more human way: talk, face to face, and keep the other's interests. This is our only planet and all human beings are our brothers and sisters. All the conflict within humanity is a kind of internal problem. Under such circumstances, using the violent method – killing – is inhuman and can not solve the problem." For release in Spring 2012.

Be The Change! DOCUMENTARY FILM: Half the world is under the age of 20. Climate change, unsustainable consumption, resource depletion, the rich-poor gap, social unrest and war are aspects of the global crisis that will go critical during the lifetime of these young people. This film documents a gathering of 1,000 teenagers who came to discuss their future and participate in 100 sustainable development action projects at the World Youth Congress hosted by the King of Morocco and Peace Child International in 2003. Peace Child is a youth-led network of 1,500 groups of teenagers from 180 countries who take responsibility for peace, human rights and the environment through education, leadership development and direct participation in the events that shape our world - inspired by Gandhi's motto "You have to be the change you want to see in the world". Now in post-production.

Worldview 2002 DOCUMENTARY: While governments and corporations fail to act, there is an emerging global civil society consensus that: (a) another world is possible, (b) governments will not implement solutions before it is too late, (c) time is running out, and (d) you have to be the change! Includes interviews with NGO leaders at the 2002 United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (the Rio+10 conference). See interview transcripts and videos. Now in post-production.

"Solutions will come when the world becomes educated about global values: the common values of its inhabitants and communities."

– Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum

Ireland: a GMO-free biosafety reserve for Europe FOOD AND FARMING POLITICS: Global Vision founded the GM-free Ireland Network in 2004 as a multi-stakeholder coalition collaborating to keep the island of Ireland free of genetically modified seeds, crops, trees, fish, livestock, animal feed and food. This network now has the largest number and diversity of stakeholders of any NGO on the island, with 130 institutional members and 19 local authorities representing over 1 million citizens. In 2005 we declared 1,000 GMO-free zones. In 2006 we hosted the Green Ireland conference on GM-free branding for food, farming and eco-tourism, and also forced BASF to abandon its experimental release of 250,000 GMO potatoes. In 2007 we collaborated with Greenpeace International to shut down EU imports of US animal feed contaminated with illegal GMOs, and persuaded the Irish Government to cancel its pro-GM food and farming policy.

We launched our initiative to designate the island of Ireland as GMO-free Biosafety Reserve for Europe at Food and Democracy (the 5th European Conference on GMO-Free Regions) in April 2009, to safeguard Europe's agricultural biodiversity, food safety and food security for future generations. Finally, in October 2009, the Irish Government officially agreed to (a) ban field trials and cultivation of all GM crops in the Republic, and (b) introduce a voluntary GM-free label for food (including animal produce) produced without the use of GMOs. But the government failed to implement the policy with legislation. The new government elected in 2011 has not yet declared its policy. Website: www.gmfreeireland.org

projects in development

"I want to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." – James Joyce

Sustainability: the best investment: DOCUMENTARY FILM + CURRICULUM PACKAGE: This film and multi-media package is conceived as the world's first global curriculum on solutions to world problems, aimed at the global teenager. The project is co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNFPA, WHO and UNESCO. Includes a 54-minute documentary film and 20 TV spots with a celebrity line-up of world leaders and stars from the movie, music and fashion industries; 13 x 12-min. videos; a DVD; a 240-page book and an interactive web site. Funding proposal.

Population Explosion: SCULPTURE - An electronic time sculpture displaying the past 500 years of human population growth on a Dymaxion world map, in a repeating 60 second cycle. Starting with just a few points of light, the map will illuminate itself slowly at first, accelerating to a climax representing the population explosion now underway.

Global Vision: FEATURE FILM

"This film is an artistic attempt to focus the viewer's attention on the process of his own perception, and evoke the pattern that connects the world situation to one's own way of seeing it." – Michael O'Callaghan

The Global Vision movie is an impressionistic musical feature film conceived as a collective self-portrait of Humankind and the biosphere – a concept without precedent in art or motion picture history. It will also be the first feature film to be collectively designed by its own audience on the web.

The content will form a mythopoeic sales pitch for a sustainable civilisation, and an artistic attempt to express our human identity at the dawn of the global age, in an inspiring way that is meaningful for the global public. Looking at the pattern that connects humankind, the biosphere, technology, and the collective unconscious, the film is also a metaphor about the connection between the world situation and one's own way of seeing.

Now in development for theatrical release.

Bronze, LEDs, microchip, data, and one minute of your time. In development.

Image Resonance: SOFTWARE APPLICATION - This revolutionary music-driven film- and video-editing software was conceived by Michael O'Callaghan especially for the Global Vision feature film (see right). The aim is to create a new cinematic language that is isomorphic with the way the mind thinks. Now in development.

Imagine Peace: SEMINAR & DOCUMENTARY FILM - A trans-disciplinary learning experience for young people from Israel and Palestine to meet with leading thinkers for in-depth trans-disciplinary whole system exploration and creative thinking about bringing peace to this geo-strategic conflict zone. The seminar will be held at our base in Cennina, Italy, and made into a TV documentary. Now in development.

Sustainable City: SOFTWARE APPLICATION - This GIS (geographic information systems) software is designed for any town or city to see itself - and its surrounding environment - as a whole system, measure its ecological footprint, carry out scenario planning, build resilience for climate change, and manage its transition to sustainability. Nominated as a best corporate practice at the World Business Forum on Enterprise, the City, and Sustainable Development, Istanbul, 1996. Funding proposal.

Science and the Sacred: LEARNING PROGRAMME - This trans-disciplinary learning programme is designed to integrate the views of biology, neuroscience, consciousness research and spiritual traditions to foster the emergent global vision of the identity of Humankind, our perception of each other, and our place in the universe. The programme will include informal private meetings, expert workshops, seminars, conferences, graduate research, and faculty training. The target audience includeds influential individuals from the field of science and religion, corporate and government policy makers, academics and students. The principal aims are to heal the false epistemology which claims monopoly on truth, and to address the systemic causes of religious, scientific, economic and political fundamentalism in the context of psychology, history and globalisation.

Faculty will include world-class teachers in comparative religion and mythology, anthropology, cultural history, psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, epistemology, biology, astronomy, quantum physics and international affairs. Funding proposal.

Astroarchaeology: RESEARCH - Ireland's megalithic artworks and landscapes include the world's oldest known buildings and astronomical observatories - chambered passage mounds, dolmens, stone circles, standing stones and petroglyphs aligned to the sun, moon and stars on astronomically significant dates. Built by pre-Indoeuropean stone age indigenous people as far back as 4,800 BCE, these proto-scientific instruments seem to have first enabled humans to observe and synchronise the sun and moon cycles, with revolutionary implications for accepted notions about the origins of the scientific method. Having survived millennia, the monuments are now being damaged during renovation work by archaeologists who deny or downplay their astronomical design. Michael O'Callaghan wants to set up an International Institute of Astroarchaeology to research, understand and inform the public about the astronomical, anthropological and artistic aspects of these artworks, so as to conserve and transmit this legacy from the ancient past for future generations.

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URL of this page: www.global-vision.org • updated 3 January 2012