I truly believe what H.G. Wells said increasingly rings true in our time, that “The world is more and more in a race between education and catastrophe”.

Here, I would like to add another potential tool for this kind of education called WiserEarth (www.wiserearth.org), the brainchild of Paul Hawken whose work you quoted many times in your post. I’m sure you’ve heard of it before, but if you haven’t, I recommend you to do some exploration.

WiserEarth is a platform combining the power of wiki and social networking. Think a cross-breed of wikipedia and myspace (minus advertisement) and geared to help us move “Toward a Just and Sustanable World Created by Community”.

WiserEarth:
“serves the people who are transforming the world. It is a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more. Content is created and edited by people like you.”

More at http://www.wiserearth.org/article/About

In WiserEarth, there’s a place where anyone can learn about all the relevant issues for an “Education as if people and the planet mattered” called the Areas of Focus. Paul Hawken called it the curriculum of the future.

More at http://www.wiserearth.org/aof/browse

Overall, WiserEarth is still a newborn baby, not even a year old (launched on Earth Day 2007), that needs and welcomes passionate and concerned citizens (which includes educators and teachers) to contribute in making it into a true global resource for transformative learning, networking and collaboration.

I’m currently experimenting with it’s group feature to create online learning courses and communities at http://www.wiserearth.org/group/weversity
It’s just around two weeks old, so not much at the moment. But I think and see potential.

I hope to see you in WiserEarth Bill.

Best wishes and be well,
Bowo