Blog
Welcome to the new Yale Forum Blog!
We will be sharing a variety of original content including interviews, reviews, reports from the field, new and enhanced resources on the Forum website, content from our new video podcast series, FORE Spotlights, and much more.
Check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new content.
Today, we'd like to turn back to our discussion of Syntropy – this year's blog theme – and some reflection on the human participation in our global ecosystem.
Undoubtedly, the easiest way to see Syntropy in action is in natural/wild, untampered-with ecosystems. Marine environments, forest, jungle, plains, if allowed to flourish on their own without interference (aka an entropic force), will inherently organize into Syntropy, where all members of the ecosystem contribute to the flourishing of the...
There were many gifts from my recent time with the ocean, the deep peace it brings so needed today. But what truly struck me most of all during my seaside reflection was the steadfast insistence of the tides. It's been a difficult few months, and I arrived by the water weary and tearful. And through the following days, I found moments of joy, peace, and lightness. Families around me argued and snapped, laughed and played. Late evenings, couples walked hand in hand and in the soft early morning sun, a dreamy few sifted through...
“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.”
—Rachel Carson
Recently, I was reminded of Rachel Carson's gorgeous, sweeping Sea Trilogy. I'll be spending a few days with the ocean soon, and as I ran my fingers along the books on my shelf to find the right companion to...
In June, we shared about Mary Evelyn and John's great journey to China this summer to engage further with the topic of Ecological Civilization, including the conference in Xinxiang province sponsored by Pan Yue (Deputy Minister of Ethnic Peoples) and talks at universities in Beijing.
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Today is Independence Day in the United States, and to mark the day, we would like to offer you a different perspective on freedom from Wendell Berry.
Below, you can hear Wendell Berry read the poem with animation by Charlotte Ager, as part of the OnBeing “Poetry Films” series.
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,...
Our founders and directors, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, have been in China for the past few weeks, giving talks on Ecological Civilization and showing our film Journey of the Universe. Today, we thought we'd give you a photographic window into their experience and the events being held there.
Minister Pan Yue (in the first photo)–an early promoter of the concept of Ecological Civilization in China–chaired the conference in Urumqi where Mary Evelyn and John spoke about this topic. ...
As we announced yesterday in our newsletter, we are very excited to release the newest section of our website: Ecological Civilization. We at the Forum feel this subject is of crucial importance at this stage in our global evolution.
This is a term that emerged 25 years ago in China and is now being discussed in the West. It is a fundamental paradigm shift toward an ecocentric worldview, rather than an anthropocentric one—an ecological civilization that provides a basis for the well-being and health of both people and the planet. This...
The next International Big History Association conference will take place on June 28-30. It will take place at the NCED Conference Center in Norman, Oklahoma, near the University of Oklahoma campus. The theme this year is “Expanding Perspectives: How Big History Connects Different Levels of Understanding (Individual, Organizational, Planetary, and Cosmic).” The keynote speech on June 28 will be given remotely by Mary Evelyn Tucker.
From the event site:
We look forward to seeing you in person at our 2024 conference from June 28 to 30,...
In the past few years, Yale Divinity School has been sharing profiles about, or pieces written by, their alumni who are doing good work in the world. Today, we've collected some of the ones related to the environment to uplift and honor their contributions.
Jason Brown ‘11 M.A.R., ‘11 M.F.“Ecological chaplain in an age of environmental grief”
This...
Today we’re going to return to our exploration of our blog theme for the year: Syntropy. And we’ll be exploring a few of the themes in this 2022 article from the Syntropic World site: “The Cosmology of a Syntropic World. Do we choose syntropy over entropy in all we do?”
According to this article, there are 6 principles of Syntropy. Some seem straightforward and expected, such as the microcosmic/macrocosmic principle (#6: We live in a fractal Universe. How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale). And...