Earthlinks India Projects                  

   

projects for renewal in energy, life, spirituality, and philanthropy

 

The physical project will be centered around :

 

• Ecological / environmental awareness and education. 

 

• Spiritual Dialogue and Enquiry  in the tradition of the Mind-Life dialogues between the Dalai Lama and Western Scientists .

 

• Eco and Earth-friendly travel and leisure

 

• Land Conservation

 

• Renewable Energy

 

 

How do we see the project:

 

 

How does it work?

 

Earthlinks will create a settlement / village/ community in India to provide the bridge between the East and the West. It will bring together values of human existence in the modern context (Western knowledge ) but with a very sharp and clear reflection from the past ( Eastern wisdom ). The West is now focusing on localization, which in many ways is still very alive in the East. Our vision is to juxtapose the two in an active working eco settlement that will provide learning and living opportunities from each.

 

In practice, programs in all three centers on the project in India, will liaise with ongoing environmental awareness programs in the UK and the rest of the world.

 

 

The Context of the Project

 

 

·         The ideas for Earthlinks have come from the deep belief that what is needed as we approach the end of the industrial age is active settlements of people living in harmony with each other and with nature. On a physical level, what is needed are settlements of ecological housing, offering sustainable employment and responsible waste management. 

 

On a metaphysical level, what is need is spirituality, learning and leisure practised sustainably and consistently.

 

Unless sustainability can be seen to be working at all levels in the community, it will remain forever a concept, a theory.

 

Earthlinks and its projects will express how this can become a global reality.

 

·         Global warming, caused principally by our overuse of fossil fuels, is a reality acknowledged by most scientists. The main ‘greenhouse gas’, carbon dioxide, is generated in almost every area of human activity, and its reduction is now vital. Getting the majority of the world’s population to switch to using renewable energy is not just an aspiration. It is an urgent priority.

 

The west is facing an overdrive of industrialization and is increasingly taking this dependency to the east. The east too is adopting a western lifestyle with the same reliance on fossil fuels . The traditional voice of the east needs to be heard. We all need to reduce our use of fossil fuels.

 

The mechanisms are there. Renewable energy exchange projects linked with carbon credits, meet this objective and give them a secure foundation.

 

Earthlinks will provide ways to work those mechanisms in a socially responsible, financially viable and globally equitable manner. The east will have a growing voice in the exchange. This is the unique strength of these projects.

 

·         Alongside the work of governments and other bodies in the field of sustainable development, global environmental problems can best be tackled with the inventiveness of individual grassroots initiatives. It is a local solution that will help this global pollution – both spiritual and physical.

 

How can we address the divide between the West and the East at all levels rather than the financial as with aid? Aid alone creates divisions and disempowerment – it does not create a bridge for equal exchange.  A bridge can be created only with fair exchange between the West and the East.

Earthlinks and its projects will demonstrate just how effective and empowering, grassroots level work, with equality and self reliance can be, both in the west and the east.

Aims  - Tangible

 

Earthlinks India aims:

 

·         To create a meeting-place of the East and West and establish free communication of ideas and action between the two hemispheres. 3 main elements working through 3 main Centers on the one physical site:

 

-          Environmental Awareness and Learning Center

-          Spiritual Center for Dialogue, Enquiry and Practice

-          Eco Leisure Center 

 

• To initiate practical connection between academic study and field experience in all the three centers of the project.

 

·         To create working models of sustainable 21^st Century living, applicable to both east and west.

 

·         To create opportunities for residents to earn-a-living in the community by way of a range of sustainable businesses

 

·         To demonstrate working settlements which can be self-reliant / local in food, energy and housing.

 

·         To work with new approaches to rural regeneration, showing the potential for agricultural and economic productivity of land through the application of ecological sustainability and Permaculture design principles.

 

·         To initiate a Land Conservation Trust. This is to conserve what remains of the green belts to save them from short-term gains and inadequate and unsustainable planning. This is of a greater priority at the moment. Eventually, parallel programs in regeneration of degraded agricultural lands and other wastelands will also begin. (Please request details)

 

Aims  - Intangible

 

·         To create a bridge between the West and the East – based on equality and exchangeable empowerment as opposed to charitable financial aid to alleviate only physical poverty.

 

·         To redefine Globalization in terms of friendships and support networks between communities across the world.

 

• To help in empowering individuals to lead increasingly sustainable lifestyles in the modern world – side by side with keeping tradition alive.