The summit of the mountain,
  the thunder of the sky,
  the rhythm of the sea,
  speaks to me.

  The faintness of the stars,
  the freshness of the morning,
  the dewdrop on the flower,
  speaks to me.

  The strength of fire,
  the taste of salmon,
  the trail of the sun,
  and the life that never goes away,
  they speak to me.

  And my heart soars.

       Chief Dan George

We would like to acknowledge and thank the following for their support of this conference.  This support was in the form of cash contributions, scholarships, volunteer time and in-kind services.  Without the care and dedication of these supporters, this conference would not be possible.

 Environmental Education Resource Council of Northeast Florida (EERC)
 University of North Florida
 NE Florida Sea Grant Extension Program
 University of Florida/IFAS
 Environmental Protection Board, City of Jacksonville
 Rotary International District #6970 of Northeast Florida
 University Center/Continuing Education, University of North Florida
 Pat & Cliff Jeremiah
 John and Sarah Bailey
 Beverly Fleming
 Martin, Ade, Birchfield & Mickler, P.A.

Joe Halusky, Chairman  Sarah Bailey   Silver Fox Mette
John X. Linnehan   Martina Linnehan  John Hammond
Sr. Aileen Miller   David Fenner  Pat Jeremiah
John K. Flowe   John Eisler   Roger Bass
Toni Walmsley-Crawford  Lori Carlson   John Golden
Bill Watkins    Beverly Fleming  Bill Hamilton
Susan Van Hoek   John Jackson   Peter Bystrowski
Jacob Morton   Harold Lock   Bob Ragland

Conference Abstract Compiled By: Toni R. Walmsley
Edited By: Joe Halusky

 Introduction
 by Pat Jeremiah

The New Millennium presents a rare historical milestone, a moment for the human community to critically reflect on the past and the future.  The hope is that we will choose to leave behind destructive behaviors and support in the New Century only life-enhancing activities that foster the well-being of the total community.

In many ways, this year's conference provides a framework for all of our efforts over the years to shape a vision of humans living in harmony with Earth's natural systems.  That framework, appropriately, comes from Earth itself.

The deep human longing to "Come Home," to discover our sense of place, of community, is the inspiration for this year's conference.  As we journey toward home and a more intimate connection with our local region, we will appreciate the larger context of that place in its cosmic and planetary dimensions.  Reflection upon our fourteen billion year story will reveal our deepest roots, events which continue to shape us today.

Primary to our efforts toward a healthy home, is the understanding that Earth is a living planet with numerous highly differentiated regions.  Thomas Berry, cultural historian, author of The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club Books), The Great Work, and co-author of The Universe Story, points out that politics and economics have replaced our sense of the natural community.  We have lost sight of the distinctiveness of the geographical areas of life, or bioregions, which provide the context for our presence within the community.

Berry defines a bioregion as "an identifiable geographical area of interacting life systems that is relatively self-sustaining in the ever-renewing processes of nature."  He describes seven basic patterns of activity, or functions, of bioregions as self-emerging; propagating; nourishing; educating; governing; healing; and fulfilling.  He stresses the necessity for humans to function within these systems so that the whole community can continue into the future.

In this conference our presenters, celebrations and exhibits will reflect these self-regulating activities of Earth's regions and offer ways in which our human endeavors can be integrated with them.  By understanding this dynamic and its possibilities, we can use our creativity to begin to move from exploitation to participation, from dominance to cooperation.  Perhaps, then, we will make real progress.

We are privileged to have as our Keynote presenter, Miriam T. MacGillis, O.P., a practical and visionary educator, whose own story is compelling.  Founding director of Genesis Farm Center for Learning, in Blairstown, New Jersey, Miriam has spent many years providing students the opportunity to explore our sacred story, and offering alternative ways to "re-inhabit" the Earth.

With Miriam, we will come to a sense of our connections with the larger stories of universe and earth, and begin to enter into the creative, healing phase with the rest of the community of life.

Welcome to this exciting journey.  Welcome Home.

 "...in order to survive on this planet, in order to be whole, we need to realize how important it is that we're part of the immediate place in which we live..."
       - Frank Traina

The places where we live can be distinguished by their many natural features including plants, animals, soils, geology, climate and drainage area.

This North Florida area has, as a defining feature, the St. Johns River.  This lower basin of the river serves as our watershed, the body which receives the water discharged from our homes, businesses, highways and agricultural fields.

We might wonder what it would be like to have a river healthy enough for fish and birds, manatees and humans to play and take nourishment from its waters.

The following might serve as a beginning place to learn about the area with which you interact.

What is the history of the land formation in your region?
Trace your water supply from precipitation to your tap.
Where does the waste water go?
Name five native edible plants and trees in your area.
Five resident migratory birds and five mammals.
What is the average temperature and rainfall?
From which direction are the seasonal prevailing winds?
Who are the indigenous people of the region?
Do you know their subsistence techniques?
What species have been destroyed or lost?
Are there toxic waste sites?
Trace the path of the energy that powers your home from its source.

All who live here know how rapidly this region is changing.  Population is exploding.  Modern technology makes it possible to "develop" large land and shore areas before the impact of such changes is understood, before we have any idea who is being uprooted.

We observe increasing loss of topsoil, destruction of forests, elimination of wetlands and spawning areas, contamination threat to aquifers.

What would it be like to have soils beneath our children's feet we know are free of contamination?

What technologies and lifestyles are appropriate to enhance the whole life community?

What is required of us now so that the needs of future generations are able to be met?

When will we learn that our health is inextricably connected with that of our region?

The Earth, within the solar system, is a self-emergent, self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing and self-fulfilling community.  The following are the activities and basic patterns of work for the Earth.  To reinvent the human as an individual, as a member of a human society, as a member of a particular biome, and as an Earthling, we need to reinvent our basic patterns of activities in such a way that the activities of the Earth Community are mutually enhanced.
 

1. SELF-EMERGING.  The Earth's activities are the Earth's activities — what Earth brings forth depends on the innate power of self-assembly possessed by the Earth.  We need to bring forth our own physical structures in ways that enhance the physical structures of the entire Earth Community...  We can begin with a selective replacement of those structures and technologies that are most obviously ruinous to the Earth.  Above all, would be the creation of more biocentric transportation, architecture, business practices, waste management, and appliances.

 Self-Emergent – energy, work, technology, architecture, transportation, housing.
 
2. SELF-PROPAGATING.  The community continues itself through successive generations precisely as a community.  Both in terms of species and in terms of numbers, a certain balance must be maintained.  Each species has an inherent right to its habitat, its place in the community.

 Self-Propagating – population, women, species habitat, poverty/justice.

3. SELF-NOURISHING.  The members of the community nourish each other in the established patterns of the natural world for the well-being of the entire community and each of its members.  The various bioregional communities of the natural world can be considered as commercial ventures as well as biological processes.  The Earth is our best model for any commercial venture.  We have only to learn how to nourish ourselves within the cycles of nourishment of the Earth and Sun.

 Self-Nourishing – agriculture, food, diet, nutrition, economics, sustainabiltiy.

4. SELF-EDUCATING.  The entire-evolutionary process can be considered as a most remarkable feat of self-education on the part of the planet and its distinct bioregional units.  The self education process observed in the natural world form a model of the human.  There is presently no other way for humans to educate themselves for either survival or fulfillment than through the instruction available to them through the natural world.

 Self-Educating – schools, alternative education, curriculum.

5. SELF-GOVERNING.  An integral functional order exists within every regional life community.  The governance is an interior bonding of each of the members.  In human deliberations each of the various members of the community should be represented.

 Self-Governing – ethics, animal rights, politics, community development, land trusts.

6. SELF-HEALING.  The community carries within itself the special powers of regeneration.  When natural disasters occur, the community adjusts itself, reaches deeper into its recuperative powers brings about a healing.  Humans too find that their healing takes place through submission to the discipline of the community and partaking of its nourishing and healing powers.

 Self-Healing – health, toxicity/waste, wilderness restoration, alternative health care.

7. SELF-FULFILLING.  The community is fulfilled in each of its components; in any of its expressions of the natural world.  In the conscious celebration of the numinous mystery of the universe expressed in the unique qualitites of each regional community, the human fulfills its own special role.  In the human, the community celebrates itself in a reflective self awareness.  This is attained in its human component in liturgies, in music, dance, song, poetry, in literature, drama, painting, sculpture and architecture.

 Self-Fulfilling – art, ritual, cultural celebration, liturgy, spirituality.

CREATE an awareness for the need to live in relationship with the Earth through personal action and community building at home, work, and play.

IDENTIFY attitudes that are harmful to Earth Kinship and search for ways to change them.

STIMULATE ideas and discussion on how to build an ethic of Earth Kinship in daily life.

LEARN to connect human behavior with the community of all living things.

APPLY scientific, cultural and spiritual skills and aspirations to foster an Earth Kinship value system, ethic and action.

Miriam T. MacGillis, O.P., 41-A Silver Lake Road, Blairstown, New Jersey, 07825.  (908) 362- 6735.  Miriam is founding director of Genesis Farm in Blairstown, N.J., a learning center where people search for ways to live in harmony with the natural world and each other.  Miriam lives at Genesis Farm where she coordinates graduate and undergraduate courses in Earth Literacy and programs exploring the links between spirituality and ecology.

Widely known as educator, farmer, Dominican Sister, and artist, Miriam holds a master degree from the University of Notre Dame.  She is past program coordinator of Global Education Associates, an international association based in New York.

Miriam lectures extensively and has conducted over 800 workshops and seminars in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Philippines.

Dr. Sandra Anderson Schuh, Miami/Dade Community College, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33132-2297.  (305) 237-2297.  Director of Environmental Ethics Institute.  Dr. Schuh's Ph.D. is from the University of Miami in theoretical and applied ethics.  Dr. Schuh will be presenting Earth Literacy: A New Global Paradigm along with Dr. David Fenner, from UNF.

Susan Cerulean,9601-16 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, Florida, 32308.  (850) 921-1047.  E- Mail: cerules@gfc.state.fl.us Susan is a mother, gardener, writer, wildlife educator and biologist, and a lover of Florida.  She has been involved in conservation issues in Florida for nearly 20 years, working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Florida Defenders of the Environment.  She believes in literature as a transformative art, and is at work on her third and fourth books The Book of the Everglades an anthology to be published by Milkweed Editions in 2001; and Looking After God's Birds, concerning the conservation of swallow-tailed kites and the human quest for wholeness.  In 1997, she received an individual achievement award from the Governor's Council for a Sustainable Florida.  Among Susan's other publications are The Wild Heart of Florida (co-edited with Jeff Ripple, University Press of Florida, 1999); The Florida Wildlife Viewing Guide (co-author); Planting a Refuge for Wildlife,and What Have You Done for Wildlife Lately?  She also writes a monthly environmental column for the Tallahassee Democrat.

Dr. David Fenner, Department of Philosophy, University of North Florida, 4567 St. Johns Bluff Road, South, Jacksonville, Florida, 32224-2645.  (904) 620-1330.  E-mail: Dfenner@gw.unf.edu Dr. Fenner received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami and teaches philosophy at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville.  His specialties are in Aesthetics, Environmental Ethics, and Philosophy of Education.  He is the author of Aesthetics Attitudes and is the editor of Ethics and the Arts and Ethics in Education.

John Lambie, 4600 Beneva Road South, Sarasota, Florida, 34233.  (941) 927-2020.  E-mail: jlambie@gte.net John is the Executive director of The Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development, a non-profit research, education and development organization.  John is the founder and former president of Mirasol International, Subtropical Solar Energy Specialists, which developed a comprehensive solar retail business based on the premise that the whole site is a solar collector, offering edible landscaping, passive architectural design and active hydronic and photovoltaic systems and water conservation products.  He was also the founder and co- director of Earth Metabolics Design Laboratory, a non-profit organization applying the principles of Buckminster Fullers World Game to Southwest Florida.  Produced numerous conferences and workshops including the first solar workshop in the state of Florida for architects and engineers in 1973 and The Future of Southwest Florida by Design or Default, a futures oriented participatory planning event involving over 1500 people in 1978.

Carol Mosley, 10121 SW 104 Avenue, Hampton, Florida, 32044.  (352) 468-3295.  E-mail: fcpj@juno.com Carol is the State Coordinator for the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, as well as the Director of The Teaching Farm located in Hampton, Florida.  Carol graduated from the Florida International University in Miami in Social Ecology.  She is the former coordinator of Nature Studies program at Miami/Dade Community College Environmental Center.

 Marge Powell,3965 Gadsden Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 32207.  (904) 399-3241.  E-mail: margepowel@aol.com Marge is President of the Southeast Region of the International Herb Association (IHA).  She is an herbalist who has been working with herbs for over 20 years.  She successfully completed a medicinal herbalist apprenticeship with the noted herbalist and author, Susan Weed.  She has taught classes on integrating herbs in everyday life for Florida Community College of Jacksonville, Duval County Continuing Education Program and she has also lectured at various herb events both nationally and locally.  She conducts private consultations in addition to being a member of the Herb Research Foundation.

Dr. Anthony M. Rossi, Department of Natural Sciences, University of North Florida, 4567 St. Johns Bluff Road South, Jacksonville, Florida, 32224-2645.  (904) 620-2831.  Dr. Rossi received his Undergraduate Degree from the University of Missouri, St. Louis in 1984.   Dr. Rossi received his Graduate Degree M.S. Biology (1986) from the University of Missouri and his Ph.D. Biological Sciences (1991) from Florida State University in Tallahassee.  His primary research/academic interests include: biodiversity/conservation issues, insect population dynamics and community ecology, plant-insect interactions, especially effects of plant genotype and microhabitat on deme formation in herbivorous insects, plant biochemistry, especially effects of defensive secondary plant compounds on insect feeding, host-parasitoid interactions, and evolutionary biology and speciation.  Dr. Rossi's publications (Authored or co-authored) include approximately 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including 2 book chapters.  In 1994 he was selected to American Men and Women of Science.

Jennifer Sagan, 3718 St. Johns Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida, 32205.  (904) 387-4529.  E-mail:  j.sagan@worldnet.att.net Jennifer is currently working as a biological consultant for the St. Johns River Water Management District.  She conducts studies assessing changes in the distribution and abundance of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation across a range of water quality parameters in the lower basin of the St. Johns River.  She holds a Master's degree in Environmental Microbiology and a B.S. in Zoology.

Steve Torma, 7-1/2 Green Oak Road, Asheville, N.C., 28804.  (828) 254-5613.  E-mail: stevetorma@aol.com Steve has been researching and experimenting with sustainable lifestyles for 20 years.  His life is his research lab seeking answers to the question "How can we create a culture that is peaceful, just, and sustainable?"  He has started and/or helped animate peace and justice organizations, intentional communities, business cooperatives, eco-spirituality groups, and personal growth support groups.  He presently travels nationally to lead workshops and retreats and set up bookstores for social transformation conferences.  He is a member of a six year old ecovillage, Earthaven, near Asheville, North Carolina.

7:00 am Exhibits into University Center, assisted by Sawmill Slough Conservation Club.
8:00 am Registration and Refreshments, Main Lobby - University Center.
8:30 am Fire Lighting Ceremony - Outside University Center. (Joe Halusky & Harold Lock)
9:30 am Introduction - University Center - Dr. David Fenner
  Welcome - Anne Hopkins, Ph.D., President University of North Florida
9:50 am Introduction of  Miriam T. MacGillis, O.P., by Pat Jeremiah
10:00 am COMING HOME: Discovering Our Sense of Place.  Miriam T. MacGillis
11:00 am Exhibits, Bookstore & Breaks (Bookstore - Room 1060)
11:30 am COMING HOME: Part 2 — Miriam T. MacGillis
12:30 pm Buffet Lunch
1:30 pm Discovering Our Place Exhibits - Exhibitors available.
2:30 pm Breakout Sessions 1.   Each presentation to reflect aspects of one of the self- regulating activities of bioregions.  Emphasis on the need for humans to interact in keeping with the needs and limitations of their natural communities.
Room #:
#1008 1. The Future You Would Like Rather Than The Future You Are Likely to Get: Sustainable Development by Comprehensive Anticipatory Design.   John Lambie

#1088 2. Re-Storying Our Bioregion.  Susan Cerulean.
   In this workshop, we will investigate our own understanding of the bioregion and watersheds we inhabit, especially focusing on northeast Florida.  We will explore the role of human story telling in conserving the natural landscape through discussion and easy writing exercises.  Participants will leave with a new "address" for themselves, and a thorough listing of resources.

#1073 3. From Salt Marshes to Seepage Savannahs; Our Inner Connectedness to Aquatic and Semi-Aquatic Habitats in North Florida. Dr. Anthony Rossi..
   Humans have an innate curiosity about, and a direct dependence upon, water; whether its probing the unique communities of the deep oceans with the use of a remotely-operated vehicle or damming a mighty river such as the Colorado to generate hydroelectric power.  Water covers approximately three-quarters of the Earth's surface and life is believed by most scientists to have originated in the oceans.  Indeed, our evolutionary past still links us to this life sustaining substance, terrestrial species that evolved to function beyond the relatively benign conditions of the oceans must carry their own supply of water (housed within their cells and tissues).  Despite our dependency on water, marine ecosystems are heavily over- fished in an effort to maximize short-term profits, and clean freshwater is an ever- shrinking resource, largely due to the excessive human demands placed on this essential substance.  In this presentation, I will address our relationship to various aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats and some of their unique life forms as well as assess our tenure as stewards of the planet in general and aquatic systems in particular.
 

Room #:
#1078 4. The Bioregion as Self-Nourishing: Agriculture, Food, Diet, Economics, and Sustainability - Earth Contains the Plan.  Carol Mosley.
   Our old manner of thinking has led us down a path of environmental and spiritual degradation.

   We will discuss new ways of seeing and acting which stimulate personal empowerment and global healing.

#1095 5. Earth Literacy: A New Global Paradigm.  Sandra Anderson Schuh, Ph.D., David Fenner, Ph.D.

#1009 6. The St. Johns River: Its Health is Our Health.  Jennifer Sagan.
   The St. Johns River provides residents within its watershed with economic, recreational, and aesthetic rewards.  However, as a greater number of people and industries move to the area, threats to the river's health increases.  This session explores what advantages we and other organisms reap by living near, on and in such a productive natural resource.  It will also address the deleterious effects we are having or potentially could have on the river while providing examples of how we can reduce our impact on it and other water bodies.

   The session will delve in detail into one particular program established by the St. Johns River Water Management District which uses data collected by volunteers to evaluate the quality of submerged grassbed habitat as it relates to the overall health of the St. Johns River.  Because aquatic plants provide the base of the food chain in the river they are the ultimate "canary in the coal mine" for aquatic ecosystems.  The session will explore the importance of this project and will include  hands on opportunities to learn more about the ecology of these important plants.

#1090 7. Medicine from the Earth.  Marge Powell.
   I will discuss and demonstrate ways to use locally grown herbs as medicine you can make yourself.  Prior to the demonstration we will discuss the basics of herbal medicine - What are safe practices/What are not.  We will also discuss using herbs to nourish the body and enhance nutrition.  Herbs, in this context, refers to growing/living plants rather than the health food store usage of herbs.  If space, time and class size permit I would like each person to make a tincture and share some herbal tea.

#1097 8. Celebration as a Way into the Future.  Steve Torma.
   The present ecological and social crises are largely the result of the dysfunctional cosmology which is at the foundation of western culture.  We are at a geo-historical crossroad where we have to choose between continuing our dualistic mechanistic and anthropocentric mode of consciousness or evolving into a more mature species which recognizes and behaves out of the awareness of our radical interdependence with the entire community of life.  Celebration will have a significant role in this evolution toward reinventing the human, and in the process it too will be reinvented by the enormous developments that are occurring in human consciousness.

   Celebrations which help us to remember and deepen our connection to the natural world contribute to the healing of a perceived split between ourselves and the Earth community which is fueling our self-destructive behavior.  For it is out of the dysfunction and pain of this dualism that ecological destruction is primarily created.  We generally perceive the universe to be a collection of objects rather than a communion of subjects and thus lack a sense of reverence and awe.  As a result of feeling separate, alone, and without meaning we are trapped in a cosmic loneliness that drives our self-destructive behaviors of consumerism and violence.

   Celebration creates a new vision for humanity that guides us and evokes our wisdom and creativity.  As Carl Jung says, "The dream drives the action."  Just as the present destructive path is the result of our dream of dominating and controlling nature, celebration serves as a transformative agent in our co-creative, self-organizing evolutionary process.  It facilitates intimacy with other beings and activates our sensitivities and spontaneities toward articulating and manifesting a vision of a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship.

   We are a young species and the nature and power of our minds is just beginning to be understood.  In the Newtonian era, the mind was believed to function separately from our surroundings and be able to allow us to maintain objectivity in our relationships.  Now we understand that the human mind was made possible by the incredible complexity and beauty of the Earth process that took billions of years to unfold.  A healthy and diverse planet is necessary for a psychologically healthy human species.  We are planet Earth thinking about itself.

   Our primary role is to understand and celebrate the beauty and wonder of the universe, and to reinvent ourselves as a species, take our place in the community of life, and live in awe, wonder, and celebration.  Celebration is the means and the end of being fully human.
 

4:00 pm Exhibits, Bookstore and Break

4:15 pm Small Focus Groups with facilitators.  Discussion/Clarification of ideas presented; Follow up with panel on Saturday.

5:45 pm  Fire Circle Activities - Music, Storytelling, Poetry, etc.  John Hammond
  * Those interested in short walks on UNF Campus Nature Trails - meet at fire*

7:00 pm  Informal Seminars Organized by Exhibitors.

8:30 am Registration and Refreshments
9:00 am Cosmic Walk - Martina & John X. Linnehan.
10:00 am COMING HOME: Part 3,  Miriam T. MacGillis
11:00 am Exhibits, Bookstore and Break
11:30 am COMING HOME: Part 4,  Miriam T. MacGillis
12:30 pm Buffet Lunch
2:00 pm Breakout Sessions 2.  Repeat of Session 1 from Friday (Same Room #'s as Fri.)
3:30 pm Panel Discussion:  Discovering Our Sense of Place — Panel responds to questions/comments - Miriam T. MacGillis, moderator with all Breakout Session Presenters
5:30 pm Gathering at Fire - Celebration/Steve Torma, Nature Walks/Sawmill Slough, Art Yeaman
7:00 pm Informal Seminars Organized by the Exhibitors

9:00 am Meditation on Home — Pat Jeremiah
9:30 am Walking Into the Future Together, Sharing Next Steps. Miriam T. MacGillis
10:30 am Bookstore and Break
10:45 am Evaluations and Door Prizes.  (Please turn in written evaluations prior to the Closing Fire Ceremony.)
11:30 am Closing Fire Ceremony – Promises to Keep.   Lori Carlson with Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Joe Halusky and Harold Lock.

Each Year we light a ceremonial gathering fire, which is tended twenty-four hours a day by UNF students, conference participants and speakers, for the duration of the conference.  This is your fire, and we hope it becomes a special place, with special meaning and memories for you.  Please plan to spend some time with the fire and with the special people who are drawn to it for sharing their ideas and visions.  The fire was the original television.  For thousands of years, our ancestors gathered around the fire, to "tell-their-visions."  When the conference is over, on Sunday, and the gathering fire put down for this year, we invite you to take some ashes with you, and add them to other fires you may visit in the future, so that our words, ideas, shared visions and collective wisdom may be carried to other gatherings and other fires.

We also invite you to enjoy the refreshments that will be available at the fire area.

"Good words do not last long until they amount to something."   Chief Joseph

This is an EVOLVING EDUCATION and EXPLORATION conference on HUMAN VALUES, ...BEHAVIOR, ...ETHICS, and VISION about our changing Earth.  The history is summarized below:

1988 Workshop on "Florida Coastal Topics for Creative Writers"
 This was a dialogue between artists and scientists about their respective roles in educating the public about human induced environmental changes.  It identified the need for religious leaders to become involved.

1990 "Environmental Issues, Ethics and Religion in the 1990's"
 Explored the need to bring scientists, artists and clergy together, to assess the adequacy of existing environmental ethical models.

1992 "Building an Ethic of Hope"
 Investigated the relation between using "Gloom & Doom" vs. "Hope Building" educational models to shape appropriate environmental ethics.

1993 "Finding Appropriate Roles"
 Discussed the changing roles of government, science, artists, religious leaders and citizens in shaping an environmental ethic.

1994 "A 15 Generation Approach to Living Lightly on the Planet"
 Looked for ways to shift human values from an EGO-Centric (self-centered) to an ECO-Centric (all others-centered) model by considering the long term implications of our actions on future generations.

1995 "Neighborhoods as a Natural Resource"
 First attempt to find a realistic focus (neighborhood) which most citizens are capable of having an immediate effect, without having to depend on the legislative process for protecting natural communities.

1996 "Healthy Neighborhoods for a Healthy Earth"
 Introduction of "Ecopsychology" which explores the link between human health and the health of the neighborhood.

1997 "Re-connecting with the Natural World"
 Ecopsychology - The synthesis of ecology and psychology; application of ecological insight to the practice of psychotherapy; study of our emotional bond with the Earth; search for an environmentally-based standard of mental health and re-defining "sanity" as if the whole earth mattered.

1998 "Sustainable Economics: Earth as the Bottom Line"
 Can we have unlimited resource consumption on a finite planet?  Is it human "progress" to increase our "wants list" when the majority of humans on Earth cannot fulfill their "needs list?"

1999 "Educating for a Future: Learning to be Human in a More Than Human World"
 How do we teach and learn to become responsible environmental citizens?  Are current educational methods shaping values and behaviors appropriate for a sustainable future for humans in the natural world?  Are we teaching people to care?

2000 "COMING HOME: Discovering Our Sense of Place"
 What distinguishes your place?  How do the activities and endeavors of the people affect that place?  And how does it, in turn, shape the human culture?

The conference theme(s) is still evolving representing, we hope, a logical progression of thinking which will lead to fresh ways of solving "tough" environmental problems.

We hope the conference becomes a place for learning new things from the scientific community, from various cultures, religions and points of view.  It is a place we can use this knowledge and collective wisdom to change attitudes, and our hearts about the things we have learned.  It is a place where open, honest and frank dialogue and communication needs to take place.

This conference IS NOT a public hearing!!!  It is NOT a political platform from which to build or destroy support for some local, regional or national issue.  Please use examples of issues as a basis for discussion, but do not expect the conference to resolve them.  This conference intends to explore old issues by using new ways of thinking and using new perspectives.  Perhaps what appears to be an issue, is merely a symptom of a deeper underlying cause which has remained hidden.

We hope the conference is a place where we can begin to build models for our behavior which puts us back into harmony with the pulse of the Earth, its cycles and our vital life support systems.

 The conference's logo is a Sea Turtle, who has come to the surface for a breath of fresh air.  It has left the darkness behind, swimming towards the light and hope of a new day.  The air needed by this ancient surface breathing sea creature, is refreshed from land and ocean plants which have converted sunlight to food and oxygen.  Many of the plant and animal communities never seen nor visited by the Sea Turtle are, never the less, essential to its health and survival.  It has no control over the purity of the water in which it swims and finds food or over the air it breathes.  These things, today, are controlled by us!

 Native American's called North America --- Turtle Island.  We live on the back of the turtle mother.  Turtle is found in many creation myths of native peoples world wide.  The earth is sustained in the cosmos on the back of a turtle.  One native story teller was asked "What is the turtle then standing on?"  The answer "Why on the back of another turtle, of course."  And that turtle?  "Why there are turtles all the way down!!!" came the reply.

"Turtle in many tribes, is a deep and abiding spiritual symbol."

"The turtle is Mother Earth...and represents Earth's many blessings to us."

"Turtle is a circle; its shell is fragmented, but it is bound together."  Just as are the many different peoples of our country.

"Turtle cannot see all of its shell, but turtle knows it is whole and all there.  This is the element that demonstrates faith."

"Turtle is beauty."

"Turtle teaches cleanliness, strength, and protection of all living things."

"The fortitude of turtle teaches bravery, silence, and obedience to natural law."

"Turtle is a truth symbol, so speak what is true when you have dreamed of a turtle.  You cannot speak truth unless you are fair and reverent to all living things.  To be like turtle, is to be of character."

"Keep the turtle in your heart...then you will be kind, unselfish, and happy."

"Turtle is not concerned with speed, but with accuracy.  Completion is more important to a journey than haste, especially on the road of life."

"Turtle is the whole embodiment of wisdom.  The shell rises up towards the Great Spirit, but the shell is also downward in the direction of mother earth...seek balance between these two...seek balance in all things, just as earth and sky are balanced."

"Turtle seems ageless, truth is eternal and wisdom long lasting.  She has helped others to become themselves.  She taught them to swim, and gave her back so they could rest on it when tired.  Just when you feel you have learned all you can from her, turtle will teach you again.  After all she is ageless."

"Turtle seems never possessed of things but carries her home within her own life.  Carry your home in your heart, not in your things."

"Turtle is an example of right living and right action...To Follow turtle is to move towards what your people call God in your life. ...Turtle keeps moving, and may even die while crossing an obstacle before giving up.  Dedication and patience are its companions."

"While turtle is often seen alone...It is content between earth and sky with its ever present home.  Perhaps we too should see our environment as our "ever present" home between earth and sky."

WILD-DER-NESS is not outside of us, but like turtle, is merely our home between earth and sky.  We are of it, not above it.

The Native Americans do not usually use the turtle in their symbols, because the turtle is too important.  They do not wish to corrupt the turtle symbols and lose their meaning.

Ladies and gentlemen, in light of the forces changing the earth today, and the seriousness with which we must search within our hearts to find solutions to Earth's ills, I suggest we first build on the lessons from this turtle mother symbol.  We have selected, with great reverence, the turtle moving from the dark towards the light of the morning sun of wisdom as our symbol for this conference.  Please treat Turtle Island, this great earth of ours, with love and respect.  That is the first plank in building a platform of hope for the future of all earth's children, for all of earth's living things.

***The previous information about the turtle was extracted from a letter written over 50 years ago to Dr. E.M. Hoffman from a Creek Indian elder, by the name of J.R. Daniels.  Mr. Hoffman dreamed of a turtle, and asked Mr. Daniels for an interpretation.

During the last 12 years of the Earth Kinship Conference , I have been privileged to know some really fantastic and enlightened people.  The folks who have made up the steering committee, and the wide variety of speakers we brought to the Northeast  Florida region, evolved an array of ideas and insights which offer hope for natural systems, and the human presence in it.  Many have said the Earth and its living systems would be in better condition today if humans were not around.  I have come to the conclusion that the real hope for Earth's future rests even more with right-minded, intelligent and properly motivated people, who come together for right reason.  This is more true now than ever before, because nature is no longer capable of cleaning up the sophisticated toxic inventions and land alterations of humankind.  We, through our own inventiveness and technology born out of science, have succeeded in becoming a conscious threat to life on the Earth.  Ironically, it will take the same inventiveness to find ways to undo the harm we have mounted on natural living systems.  Most certainly, nature, regardless how resilient she is, is no longer able to do this on her own.

Thomas Berry reminds us that the evolutionary process involving natural selection which led to the myriad of species and living communities on the Earth, is comparatively slow when compared to "cultural selection" invented by the human.  When the Earth came off automatic pilot with the agricultural, industrial and information revolutions, evolution became accelerated by the values, institutions and knowledge gathered and controlled by human cultures.  Thus the ultimate fate of life on the Earth now, for the first time in the history of the Earth,  rests in the hands and heads of the social inventions of human kind. The Earth will become what we are thinking!

The last ten Earth Kinship Conferences have been an exploration of the "Edges of Thinking."  We have been looking for ways to increase our understanding of the implications of "Cultural Selection" on the long-term future of the Earth as a living system.  It has explored the wisdom and insights rooted in science, philosophy, spiritual thinkers, politicians, elders, artists, story-tellers, business leaders, economists and psychologists in the search for appropriate ethical values to guide future behavior and the forces of the "cultural selection" process.  Of course, when the conferences began, in 1988, we did not know or understand this!

We have learned a great deal in the last ten years "Earth Kinship" exploration.  In fact, I believe this year, 2000, marks a milestone in the history of the conference.  For the first time in its history, we are "culturally evolving" into a movement.  During the planning of this years conference, the steering committee began to recognize that we were beginning to find insights that were leading us towards solutions.  When that happens, it begins to take on a life of its own, and becomes a cultural movement. To be a movement, a  force for change, it must be based on a few guiding principles.  So what are some of the ideas and principles we have explored?

Below, are a few examples of insights we have learned during the last ten years of Earth Kinship Conferences.  The titles of previous conferences, are listed in the "History of the Conference" page in this abstract.  The following list is purely my own synthesis of a few conference ideas, and are NOT prioritized, nor have they been discussed or debated by the steering committee.  I hope this paper succeeds in provoking that discussion for the future! So what have we learned?

  Artists, Ecologists, Scientists, Story Writers & Tellers, Poets and Humorists must exchange knowledge, ideas, insights and wisdom if we are going to create appropriate emotions about scientific knowledge.  Science builds knowledge, art builds emotional settings for the knowledge.

  Wisdom does not come from knowledge, it comes from the caring attitude built on the knowledge you have acquired.  Caring, knowledgeable people make the right decisions.
  We need an appropriate "environmental ethic" to guide personal, day to day behavior.
  Earth Stewardship is not quite right, for it implies we have complete and correct knowledge how the Earth works, and the wisdom and right to apply that knowledge.  Stewardship implies that we look at the Earth's "resources" as commodities;  Kinship implies that we see the Earth as a community to which we belong.
  If you must pass more laws to protect the environment, you will only succeed in creating more adversaries, for the law is an adversarial process.  Pass laws when all other alternatives fail.
  Religious leaders must, as professionals, address their communities role's and moral behavior toward acting responsibly for the Earth's living systems.  They must become better ecologists.
  Religious communities, as large land holders, must offer better examples of sustainable land-use practices.  They should be sources of inspiration for caring for the "Creation."
  Hope must be the guiding word for all environmental education efforts.
  Teaching environmental "gloom and doom" creates bio-phobia and hopelessness; teaching joy, gratitude and appreciation of natural systems creates bio-philia and hopefulness.
  It takes a universe to make a child!  (T. Berry)
  All elements of society have a responsibility and a role to play for insuring a long-term future of the natural systems.  If you are alive, you depend on natural processes for life.  If not, we hope nature will recycle you.
  Property owners have property responsibilities to all human and natural neighbors.
  We must take a long-term approach to solving all issues.  We must be responsible for "seven generations" into the future, based on what we have learned from the last seven generations.
  Environmental responsibilities begin with practice in our own neighborhoods.  From there, they extend into the community, county, state, nation and world.
  Human health is connected to the health of the neighborhood natural systems.  Sick ecosystems create sick people.  Sick people create sick ecosystems.
  Ecopsychology is a newly emerging scientific discipline.  We must define mental health based on how well we fit into the entire world, not just the human-made portion of it.
  We must re-connect with the living processes of the Earth's ecosystems, and re-learn how to live in harmony and balance with them.  The first step in this process is to "attenuate to beauty." (Laura Sewell).
  We must look  for new economic tools to measure true human progress.  We must account for the "free" services of nature, such as photosynthesis, pollination, habitat function of the forest before it becomes "wood" and subtract the cost of pollution from the Gross Domestic Product calculation.
  The first economic law, must be to sustain the Earth's economy. (T. Berry).
  Economics begins locally.
  We are all teachers, and simultaneously students.  Children and the elders have much to teach us about the human spirit, for they are both closer to the creator.  Young adults and the middle-aged have much to learn from both.
  Education is not about preparing the children for the world of work, but for life. "Our job as teachers, is to put the gleam back into the eyes of the children." (Greg Cajete)
  Come home and live fully in your place.  Get to know it and begin the "Great Work" there!  The Movement begins in your own back yard!

We invite you to "re-member" yourself and come to know your-self in this Earth Home "place" in The Earth Kinship 2000 Conference,  Coming Home: Discovering Your Sense of Place.  It is an opportunity to listen to many enlightened speakers, open your minds and hearts to their words, ideas and experiences.  Look for ways to turn old paradigms upside-down, in the search for new and refreshing solutions to tough issues we are facing in our future.  Join in their search for finding "Win-win solutions" to difficult issues.  The speakers will bring you to the edges of thinking, looking forwards, sideways and backwards for new alternatives to solve difficult problems. When you join them on the edges, you will be asked to look through your own eyes, and not from the center of the crowd, or over or around the heads of others in front or behind you.  Such new vision, while clear, and sometimes frightening, and not always pleasing, will help you to join"The Great Work" that Thomas Berry writes about.

"The Great Work  now, as we move into a new millennium, is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner."

University of Florida/Florida Yards & Neighborhoods
Joe Sewards - St. Johns County Extension Office
3125 Agricultural Center Drive
St. Augustine, Florida 32092-5172
(904) 824-4564 Phone (904) 829-5157 FAX  Email: jjse@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu
Exhibit and Workshop on Fri. & Sat. Evenings
Title: Florida Friendly Landscaping/Florida Yards & Neighborhoods

Little Talbot Island State Park
Ranger Chad Lach
2157 Heckscher Drive
Jacksonville, Florida 32221
(904) 251-2320 Phone (904) 251-2325 FAX  Email: lach_c@juno.com
Exhibit and Workshop on Fri. & Sat. Evenings
Title: Talbot Islands Parks: Exploring North Florida's Barrier Islands

Wildlife Discoveries
Gail Compton or Sharon Augustinos
Post Office Box 1916
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
(904) 824-0648 Phone (904) 824-8505 FAX  Home: (904) 471-9957
Exhibit
Title: Wildlife Discoveries

TREES of St. Augustine, Inc.
Marilyn Deprey or Karen Lewis
Post Office Box 4133
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-4133
(904) 797-8611 Phone     Email: healthy@aug.com
Exhibit
Title: TREES

Tree Hill, Jacksonville Nature Center
Lucy Cortese
7152 Lone Star Road
Jacksonville, Florida 32211
(904) 724-4646 Phone (904) 724-9132 FAX  Email: thnc@mediaone.net
Exhibit
Title: A Quarter Century of Environmental Preservation Education for Awareness

National Park Service/Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve
Daniel R. Tardona or Craig Morris
12713 Ft. Caroline Road
Jacksonville, Florida 32225
(904) 641-7155 Phone (904) 641-3798 FAX  Email: Daniel_Tardona@nps.gov
Exhibit and Workshop on Fri. & Sat.
Title: Preserving Nature and History in Northeast Florida

The Nature Conservancy
Hallie Stevens
117 West Duval Street, Suite 400
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
(904) 630-1628 Phone (904) 630-2391 FAX
Exhibit
Title: The Nature Conservancy

Georgia Nature Based Tourism Association
Sheila Willis
326 Pineview Drive
Waycross, Georgia 31501
(912) 285-0419 Phone
Exhibit
Title: Coastal Plain Communities: Our Heritage - Our Future

Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Greenways & Trails
Cherie Graves
3900 Commonwealth Blvd.
Tallahassee, Florida 32303
(850) 488-3701 Phone (850) 922-6302 FAX  Email: cherie.graves@dep.state.fl.us
Exhibit
Title: Greenways & Trails - Connecting Florida's Communities

Garden Club of Switzerland
Portia C. Steele
3426 State Road 13
Jacksonville, Florida 32259
(904) 287-1031 Phone
Exhibit
Title: Youth Gardening

Jacksonville Reef Research Team
Jim Barnes
10421 Biscayne Blvd.
Jacksonville, Florida 32218
(904) 757-1928 Phone (904) 542-2873 FAX  Email: JIMOVE@aol.com
Exhibit and Workshop Fri. & Sat. Evenings
Title: Artificial and Natural Reef Systems - Off shore North Florida

Sawmill Slough Conservation Club
University of North Florida - David Fenner
4567 St. Johns Bluff Rd. S
Jacksonville, Florida 32224-2645
(904) 620-1330 Phone/Fenner (904) 620-1018 FAX Email: DFENNER@unf.edu
Exhibit

Roger Bass - River Keeper
10536 Inverness Drive
Jacksonville, Florida 32257
(904) 262-4015 Phone  (904) 262-0244 FAX Email: RDBass@aol.com
Exhibit
Title: The St. Johns River Keeper

Kayak Amelia - Ray & Jody Hetchka
2701 LeSabre Place
Fernandina Beach, Florida 32034
(904) 321-0697 Phone  (904) 261-7591 FAX Email: hetchka@net-magic.net
Exhibit and Workshop on Friday morning
Title: Life in the Timucuan Preserve Workshop: Friday Morning: Tai Chi in the Natural World

Alan Deprey     Committee Contact: Joe Halusky
Rotary International
2225 A1A South, Suite C8
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
(904) 471-2225 Phone  (904) 471-6236 FAX Email: healthy@aug.com
Exhibit
Title: Preserve Planet Earth Project/Rotary

Bill Jones
Project for an Energy Efficient Florida
1260 Cedar Center Drive
Tallahassee, Florida 32301
(850) 222-0808 Phone  (850) 222-3741 FAX Email: bill@creativepursuitsinc.com
Exhibit and Workshop on Friday evening
Title: Energy Efficiency and Clean Renewable Energy Sources - Florida Clean Power Coalition

Gil Marshall
University of Florida Entomology and Nematology
Post Office Box 110620
Gainesville, Florida 32611-0620
(352) 392-2326 Phone Email: marshallgilman@hotmail.com
Exhibit
Title: Insects of Florida

Stephen Conrad, Photographer
Theresa Childs
1421 Jean Court
Jacksonville, Florida 32207
(904) 737-2679 Phone Email: fe4X5image@aol.com
Exhibit
Title: Fire Earth Images

Prissy Bowers
4599 Palmer Avenue
Jacksonville, Florida 32210
(904) 388-6808
Exhibit

Bill Watkins
WAV Project
Post Office Box 1429
Palatka, Florida 32178-1429
(904) 329-4345 Phone (904) 329-4103 FAX
Exhibit   Email: bill_watkins@district.sjrwmd.state.fl.us

Environmental Education Resource Council
Susan Van Hoek and Chris Benjamin
UNF/Dept. Of Natural Sciences
4567 St. Johns Bluff Road, South
Jacksonville, Florida 32224-2645
(904) 620-2636 Phone

NE Florida Sea Grant Extension Program
Joe Halusky
233 Marine Center Drive
St. Augustine, Florida 32086
(904) 461-4014 Phone  (904) 461-4014 FAX Email: neseagrant@aol.com

City of Jacksonville
Air & Water Quality Control
John Flowe & Larry Perkins
City of Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
(904) 630-3404 Phone

Council of Churches
Rev. John Jackson
924 N. Magnolia Avenue, Suite 100
Orlando, Florida 32803
(407) 422-7125 Phone