Raffi Cavoukian

Lightweb Darkweb: Three Reasons To Reform Social Media Before it Re-Forms Us

2013-05-13T00:00:57-04:00

This blog is the preface to Lightweb Darkweb: Three Reasons To Reform Social Media Before It Re-Forms Us, to be published in June, 2103
©Homeland Press, 2013

As a troubadour and tech enthusiast, as an ecology advocate and children's champion, I'm moved to comment on what I sense is an opportunity and crisis of epochal proportions: a chance to optimize the social and environmental benefits of a digitally connected global village by acting quickly to subdue the perils of that technology's shadow.

The worldwide web of computer connection has a light side and a dark side.

The "Lightweb" is known to all who use the Internet as a daily part of life. We easily connect to anyone around the world, not just via email, but through a variety of online platforms and texting applications even on the smallest personal computing devices; we have access to a global storehouse of information; powerful search engines find documents, arguments and historical precedents, and almost any online question finds answers; we connect by audio and video with anyone, for free; we can build an online music and entertainment library without leaving home; we have palm-sized devices with dazzling capabilities for learning, recording, sharing and connecting.

The "Darkweb" is there too. Imposters, predators and porn sites lurk in the shadows on the Information Superhighway and all too easily lure unsuspecting users; identity theft is an issue, as is the loss of privacy due to the "data mining" practices of social media companies; online platforms allow stalkers to find the addresses and phone numbers of unwary users who are bullied, shamed and harassed mercilessly; the hundreds of millions of young users who were never intended to be on social media (SM) are most vulnerable to security breaches, sometimes with lethal consequences.

Net evangelists cheer the virtual world with little reservation. Yet while there's scant evidence that daily online engagement contributes to, say, character development in our young, we do have evidence of Net dependence and SM addiction, with negative impacts on personal wellbeing and productivity.

The SM crisis is hard to miss: If kids (the unintended users for whom the Net was not designed) aren't safe on social media, if they can't effectively avoid the worst of the Darkweb, we've got a social catastrophe -- a growing challenge to physical and mental health. The opportunity, simply put, is this: If social media is reformed with systemic safety features, if parents and teachers put sensible limits on screen time and age restrictions on Net use, we just might make the best of a very tough situation: benefit from the Lightweb by minimizing its shadow.

Is this possible? Can we regulate and inspire a digital code of conduct that rewards our highest inclinations and enables connecting for the greatest good?

If you make it past the next four paragraphs, we might well have a conversation. I'd like that very much.

Imagine a highway with no speed limits and no guard rails, where vehicles have no seatbelts and faulty brakes, and drivers (many of them underage) are constantly distracted -- that's the "Information Superhighway." Would you rush to give your kids a sports car to drive on that highway -- a smartphone? Hardly. You would at least wait until they were old enough to have a driver's licence.

Imagine parenting challenges with a quarter to a third of families led by a single parent; where even two-parent families have a hard time making ends meet; where kids now socialize virtually, texting their peers constantly -- welcome to parenting in the 21st century. Harder than ever.

Imagine a pop culture that exploits the young by targeting them for logo identification from birth, relentlessly marketing and advertising to them; a culture that sexualizes young girls, that glorifies violence and uses sex to sell anything--that's the hypersexualized (what some call "pornified") pop culture in which our kids grow up.

Imagine a planet with a global economy on shaky ground, life support systems in peril, species going extinct at record rates and runaway climate change threatening life as we know it. That's the world we're living in -- a polluted one in which babies worldwide are born with a body burden of toxic chemicals that are known health hazards.

The global village -- McLuhan's prescient term -- is in a state of emergency: on the brink of breakdown or, perhaps, breakthrough. If I could wave a Harry Potter wand, I'd summon a grand new ethic to wake us from the Muggle doldrums to our higher sensibilities. I'd conjure a new economic model that might reverse the "money-above-all-else" bottom-line fixation that's killing planetary life supports and poisoning our world. I'd wish for a startling new discovery that could restore the tainted present and reverse the rush into depleted and frightening futures.

Some think digital technology is that magic wand. I believe that in its present form it adds to our problems as much as helps us.

This book provides three good reasons to reform social media and, along the way, rethink our relationship with the Information Superhighway and its "shiny tech" devices. Those reasons are Safety, Intelligence, Sustainability.

Part 1 of this book, "Safety," looks at the vulnerability of SM users, especially the young. Part 2, "Intelligence," deals with the pros and cons of "digitally enhanced" living. Part 3, "Sustainability," sheds light on the ecology of info tech, something we don't hear much about. The global context? A world with much economic instability and an ominous climate threat.

What the daunting big picture says to me is that we need something other than tech miracles in a ramped-up digital culture. I'm as happy to see tech innovation as the next person, so long as such innovation is socially sound and environmentally benign. As many have said, what humanity needs is a new ecological consciousness -- to transcend the myopic shortcomings of our mechanistic past. To me, what the world needs most is to embrace the global ethic we call sustainability, well-known in some circles but hardly a household word in our corporate-dominated societies.

Reforming social media without delay is critical. Without reform we doom ourselves to distraction, tweeting on the new Titanic. The right reforms now can give us the best chance of harnessing our Net inclinations to create a culture of true connection: a culture of respect for Earth and all her children. Without that, I fear for our future.

The conversation we need to have is time sensitive. Let's talk.

For millions of fans, Raffi's music was the soundtrack of their childhood. These "beluga grads" now share his songs with their own kids. Raffi has been described by the Washington Post and the Toronto Star as the most popular children's entertainer in the western world, and Canada's all time children's champion. Raffi is a tech enthusiast, entrepreneur, and ecology advocate. He holds three honorary degrees, is the recipient of numerous awards, and is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Club of Budapest.

When Social Media Is Used for Bad

2012-12-03T12:47:37-05:00

In October 2012, British Columbia teen Amanda Todd ended her life after suffering intolerable bullying triggered by a sexual predator who found and blackmailed her through Facebook. Millions were outraged. We were too. We are social media enthusiasts who care deeply about protecting vulnerable young users in the cyber woods from the predators out to get them.

The benefits of social media (SM) in connecting users worldwide are well known, and we ourselves have cheered the democratization of knowledge and information sharing. However, the proliferations of SM access to an increasingly younger demographic is most worrisome.

Our concern is with young SM users, the estimated 200 million under 17 users of Facebook and similar sites. Amanda Todd's call for help burns our senses and we shout a cry. And a challenge.

We cry foul, that SM providers still enable predators to easily find young victims online. We challenge social media businesses, multi-billion dollar operations, to show some heart. We challenge Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and all such SM companies to soul searching. And real action.

From the start, these free services lacked transparency. We found out after the fact that we were being "data mined," our personal information and online history made available to advertisers to strategically target us with customized ads. We submitted to lengthy "Terms of Use" agreements that most people don't read.

Let's face it, we've been had, seduced by the world at our fingertips. Now we know better, that the dance was not free, the costs have been considerable.

As shocking as Amanda's story was, there is still much cause for worry. Known security gaps in a proliferating host of mobile applications have converted mainstream SM sites into highly effective devices for predators and abusive bullies.

A YouTube channel, The Daily Capper, openly celebrates and promotes sexual blackmailing of young girls, fueling traffic to a dark web of under-age sex sites. Omegle, a Facebook-connected site, enables anyone (including kids) to "Talk to Strangers" via video or text. These are extremely dangerous conditions that leave children in harm's way.

Instagram, a photo-sharing program owned by Facebook, can easily be accessed by young children via smartphones, who can inadvertently publish their home addresses, phone numbers, and even physical locations. Thousands of babysitter images of young children have been uploaded, many with locations identified. Facebook has become a brand feared by parents, when it could be one they can trust.

Educating parents and kids -- teaching "net smart" habits -- is very important, yet insufficient protection for the young. Some parents do teach responsible SM habits and may engage various parental controls. But the task of monitoring and adjusting children's online behaviour, even at home, is beyond the ability of most parents. Parents simply can't police their kids effectively.

SM makes the challenge of parenting that much harder: kids now live in two worlds, real and virtual, and they often behave like they don't know the difference. Many seem to not understand the need to keep private matters private. They don't realize that on SM comments and photos shared may stay online forever. The proximate real world of a few friends, relations and colleagues gives way to hundreds of online "friends" whose text and image sharing can immeasurably amplify these interactions.

Clearly, there is a security gap for young online users, a gap that is best addressed by those businesses that profit from offering SM services. They created the risk for young users. It is their corporate responsibility to build young user safety into all applications as a mandatory design requirement.

Our B.C. community is building a grassroots movement to urge industry reform and consumer protection. We have launched Red Hood Project, on Facebook and Twitter, to rally public demand for systemic safety changes in the SM industry. We invite everyone to join us. An Open Letter to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was posted on numerous news sites. We await her reply.

Dear Sheryl Sandberg: Please Keep Predators Off Facebook

2012-11-16T15:37:14-05:00

Dear Ms. Sandberg,

We are a community of concerned citizens in British Columbia, including Amanda Todd's mother. As
you may know, Amanda was contacted and blackmailed through Facebook by an adult predator who impersonated local teens to enter her circles of friends.

We write imploring you to lead change in the social media industry by correcting the security failures that made such victimization possible.

As shocking as Amanda's story was, there is still much cause for worry. A YouTube channel, The
Daily Capper, openly celebrates and promotes the sexual exploitation of many young girls, fueling
traffic to a dark web of under-age sex sites. Meanwhile, reports out of Indonesia document that predators use Facebook as a key tool enabling them to abduct under-age girls into human trafficking.

Instagram, a photo-sharing program owned by Facebook, now features tens of thousands of images of children uploaded by their babysitters, available for viewing by over seven million daily users. No security prevents the inadvertent publication of profile information such as home addresses and phone numbers, and Instagram has a map function that enables predators to find the location of many photos.

Omegle is a site that invites kids as young as 13 to "Talk to Strangers" via video or text, and integrates directly with Facebook Connect. A simple YouTube search yields online instruction for contacting very young girls, and Omegle itself has a feature through which lurkers can prompt users to interact with each other, and to watch them anonymously.

These examples point to serious systemic design defects that place children and teens in harm's way. Known security gaps in a proliferating host of mobile applications have converted mainstream social media sites into highly effective devices for predators and abusive bullies. And in what can only be described as the cruelest irony, YouTube now sells advertising on Amanda's desperate video cry for help, while in a well-documented trend, her Facebook memorial page was desecrated.

Facebook has become a brand feared by parents, when it should be one they can trust.

We appeal to you as COO of Facebook, a mother, a visionary digital media leader, and member of the board of The Walt Disney Company, to lead industry-wide adoption of systemic security to block predators and abusers from accessing kids on major social media platforms, starting with Facebook itself.

This is a consumer protection issue. Facebook has over a billion users around the world, of which an estimated 20 per cent, or 200 million, are aged 17 and under. Those users should be secure from contact with unscrupulous predators and abusers.

We are delighted to hear of your current initiative to reduce bullying and make young Facebook users
safer through stronger reporting and educational resources, and we applaud your efforts. Yet while
education of parents and kids is laudable, the onus for safety must not rest solely with consumers. Parents are not equipped to navigate complex technology and what their kids (or their kids' friends) do online is often outside their control.

Indeed, the principles of consumer protection are well established, particularly for products intended for use by children. The burden of ensuring systemic product safety rests with the industry that designs, engineers, markets and distributes it.

Real safety in social media requires systemic change across the industry.

We know that everyone in the legitimate social media industry wants kids to be safe. As a society we have a duty to use all our powers to ensure young people are free from exploitation and abuse.

Over the coming weeks and months our B.C. community will build a co-ordinated effort to press for
industry reform and consumer protection. As one final note, we implore you to ensure that memorial pages are monitored and abusive posts immediately removed.

We would love to meet with you to discuss how Facebook can lead that change.

For Amanda,

Sandy Garossino, civic advocate, business owner, View from BC panelist, CKNW
Raffi Cavoukian C.M., O.B.C., Centre For Child Honouring

Carol Todd, mother of Amanda Todd
Kim Cunliffe, bereaved mother of teen Darin Cunliffe, whose Facebook memorial was desecrated
Kip Woodward, Chair, Vancouver Coastal Health
Dr. Marlene Moretti, Senior Research Chair, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Saleema Noon, B.A. M.A., Sexual Health Educator
Out In Schools, Drew Dennis, Executive Director, Ross Johnstone, Director of Education
Maureen Palmer, Director CBC documentary Sext Up Kids
Melissa Carr Vancouver's "Top Mom Blogger" http://thethirtiesgrind.com/
Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW, Corus Radio Network
Bridgitte Anderson, VP, Corporate & Public Affairs, Edelman Vancouver View from BC panelist CKNW
Alise Mills, Strategic Communications & Media Relations,View from BC panelist, CKNW
Jen Shaeffers, Executive Director, CKNW Orphans Fund
Jessica Gares producer, The Bill Good Show, CKNW
Michael Tippett CEO, Ayoudo, Co-founder, NowPublic
Michelle Rupp, Community-builder and Principal, Lighthouse Leadership
Peter Ladner, Author, columnist, former city councillor
Bif Naked, International Recording Artist, author, advocate
Grimes, Claire Boucher, International Recording Artist
Shane Koyczan Canadian poet, anti-bullying author and advocate
Linda Solomon, CEO, Observer Media Group, Publisher, The Vancouver Observer
Mark Busse, Partner/Managing Director, Industrial Brand, Vancouver organizer; Creative Mornings
Meeru Dhalwala, Partner, Vij's & Rangoli, author, healthy living advocate

My Dear Kavna: A Whale of a Love Story

2012-08-10T07:51:40-04:00

My Dear Kavna,

I feel like I've lost a very dear old friend. Yet it's much more than that. Since hearing the news of your death, I have felt the loss of an extended family member -- one who had a profound impact on me. Kavna, meeting you moved me so deeply it changed my life.

You were the most adorable creature I've ever seen. Your playfulness struck such a sweet cord within me I scarcely had words for it, for how graceful you were and how cheerful. To me you're not just any beluga. You're Kavna, the one who played with me and gently kissed my cheek during our first meeting in 1979 at the Vancouver Aquarium. In the years since I came back to see you several times in sheer delight: of seeing your face; admiring your body's sleek moves; your effortless way in the water; your antics before the crowds who'd throng to see you.

Oh Kavna, where do I begin to describe what wells up inside me when I cast my mind back over the 32 years since you inspired me to write "Baby Beluga." Did you like the album cover drawing? Did you like how we embossed the beluga and the bubbles? Trust you liked the song; millions can't be wrong, right?

I'm glad I made it about an imaginary baby beluga, and that dolphins get a mention in verse 2 -- after all, you belugas are related to them. How I've enjoyed hearing audiences sing the chorus with me over the years. And such fun seeing children move their arms and hands to "waves roll in and the waves roll out."

You were the star of that CBC TV special we did in 1981, remember? I sang "Baby Beluga" to you over and over, with great love. I couldn't get enough of seeing your air bubbles and rings in the water, and how you loved chasing those rings all round the pool!

Only five years earlier, in 1976, you were brought to Vancouver from Churchill, Manitoba. However did you survive that shock? And especially when your calf Tuaq died after birth. How did you regain your spirit?

How did you go give so much in captivity after having lost so much? Or was it that in the care of aquarium staff and trainers you rebounded? Was it that in the love of countless children -- who squealed with delight to see you up close -- you felt refreshed? Did you feel their love? Were you singing to them all the while? I like to think so. To me, your spirit felt as pure as the spirit in little children.

They say you've brought joy to more than 30 million people lucky enough to see your aquarium shows. The first time I saw the show with your leaps and playful moves, I felt like a kid again. You squirted water and nearly soaked us, but we were too happy to care.

The aquarium pool enclosures were enlarged some years ago and you had much more space to swim in. Even so, we can still imagine your sacrifice. I'm just glad you had other belugas near you, and some dolphins too. When I heard that you lived to be 46, at least 15 years longer than most belugas in the wild, that gave me pause to reflect.

In 1988 at the Toronto Science Centre I attended a lecture on the St. Lawrence River belugas. Autopsies of the river beluga revealed they carry a huge load of toxic chemicals. This news was very hurtful. My beloved belugas, swimming in an environment so polluted that it poisoned them.

I went out to Tadoussac (Quebec) and got a glimpse of belugas in the river. The following year I took a year's sabbatical from my children's entertainment career and went on to record an ecology album, "Evergreen Everblue." The second verse of the title song goes: "Ocean's wave is rumbling with voices from the seaway..." and ends "beluga whales are singing 'Help this planet Earth to stay: evergreen, everblue'..."

Clearly the threats to beluga well being are also threats to humans: pollution, development, consumption and garbage. And now the culmination of many crises is in climate change, a global threat to our collective future.

That's why I've worked to spread a message of ecology awareness: so this world might be fit for both human babies and baby belugas! So people might feel the spirit to care for & protect what's precious to every child: friends like you, sweet Kavna. For your world is our world, and your friends are our friends. And yes, the more we link together -- Earth and Child -- the happier we'll be.

The point of being alive is to know our loving nature, to reduce suffering and increase joy. It's certainly not about selling more things at any cost. During my career I've never advertised to kids, because that's wrong. I've shunned commercial endorsements. Did you know I even turned down an offer for a Baby Beluga Film? --because it was to be marketed to kids and marketed with junk toys sold through junk food joints. I'd never go for that. I'm waiting for a socially responsible company to agree to do the beluga film in a whole new way: to create and market a family film responsibly.

Reflecting on all this, I'm so grateful for the magic that brought us together. And it's no wonder: belugas are called "sea canaries" because they sing so much, heard even above the water! How lucky for me that "Baby Beluga" is about a creature who loves to sing, just like humans do. We love to sing -- it's our nature.

Now we seem to be mimicking your species. We have pod-pals, and social media lets us podruple our power! (Ha ha.) Millions on every continent want fair trade and social justice for children of all cultures, for generations to come. We can pretend social media is our "wePod" and together we make waves. (Pun intended.)

Over 10 million adults who sang "Baby Beluga" in childhood now sing it with their young. I affectionately call them "beluga grads" and they tell me they love that. How fortunate I am to be in this dance at a pivotal time in history. It's why I wrote "A Covenant For Honouring Children."

All around the world people are inventing benign technologies, supporting clean renewable energy, and renewing democracy. I'm calling for embracing a children-first sustainability that can transform our world! With oceans at risk and Mother Earth in crisis, we have all the more reason to sing out: for beauty, for love and, most of all, in honour of our young.

Your memory will refresh "Baby Beluga" for all who know it. My new verse for beluga grads ends with, "Sing a song of peace, sing with all your friends, we need to hear you!" Many will be moved to join the Child Honouring movement for respecting Earth and Child. We will advance a positive vision born of conscience and collective joy. We'll have emissaries called Joy Envoys.

Can you hear me, Kavna? Thank you so much for the joy you gave to me and to countless others. We will never forget you. Your beauty lives on in our hearts, and you shine every time we sing a little love song on the go.

The Environment Is Dead: Long Live Mother Nature

2012-05-22T14:53:58-04:00

"Environmentalism has failed" is a statement that deserves attention. It comes from famed environmentalist David Suzuki marking 50 years since Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, widely regarded as having sparked the environmental movement.

Suzuki's May 2, 2012 blog (The Huffington Post, rabble.ca) on the fundamental failure of environmentalism is ominous. The world faces not only environmental calamities such as deforestation, coral reef depletion, and freshwater shortages, it is also mired in economic crises and harsh political realities. Despite the promise of "Arab Springs" and the global Occupy movement, we are increasingly in planetary peril. Throughout his life, David Suzuki has been a leading educator on planetary health; his conclusion about the environmental movement's failure must be agonizing. Perhaps that's why his blog offered no new way forward.

What now?

If decades of environmental campaigns produced significant gains but have lost the overall struggle to protect planetary life, that raises key questions:

What caused the failure? What is to be learned?

What do environmental organizations, supporters and concerned citizens do now?

What do we say to children, and to young advocates?

Where's the new strategic road ahead?

As a longtime troubadour and ecology advocate, in word and song I've celebrated this bountiful planet and our place in the family of all life. Besides my eco-awareness songs for kids beginning with "Baby Beluga" in 1980, ten years later I also recorded an ecology album, Evergreen Everblue. I've worked with kids of all ages, attended environmental conferences, and met with leading campaigners such as climatologist James Hansen and Green Party leader and MP Elizabeth May, as well as with eminent thinkers across a number of disciplines. I feel a responsibility to briefly address the key questions this sobering moment holds.

What caused the failure?

Primary among the many factors that can be cited is the growth of corporate concentration, power and dominance. This in part may explain the gridlock among nations when it comes to concerted eco-progress. Perhaps it's also been a failure of imagination and language.

The environmental movement failed to change the way we look at the world and our place in it. Even after the 1970 NASA portrait of Earth from space, we didn't learn to feel our interconnectedness and belonging on this planet, third from the sun.

Nature became "the environment": a reductionist term devoid of relationship. The grandeur of Gaia thus reduced and objectified separated us from our Earth Mother. And environmentalism itself became divisive. While environmentalists struggled mightily to save this species/habitat and protect that, activist hubris pitted "environmentalists" against those who were not.

Environmental challenges were hard to ignore. In 1989 in Vancouver I heard Stephen Lewis say that if China and India were to use coal to fuel their exploding economies in the 1990s, what the rest of the world did in carbon reduction wouldn't matter. He was right. Ten years later, United Nations Environment Programme's GEO 2000 Report decried not only a lack of overall progress in environmental protection but also the loss of ground in the 1990s, which UNEP had dubbed "the turnaround decade." That news pained me as much as discovering in 1989 that St. Lawrence River belugas were riddled with toxins at levels found in hazardous waste sites. Or learning in the mid '90s that human breast milk was contaminated with trace amounts of PCBs and dioxins, among the most of lethal poisons. Belugas and breast milk were new canaries in the coal mine.

A word about language: in the press release for GEO 2000, the landmark UNEP report described as "the most authoritative assessment ever of the environmental crisis facing humanity in the new millennium," the fragmented language is in direct contradiction to the report's stated aim of integration, synthesis:

...full scale emergencies now exist in a number of fields. "The environment remains largely outside the mainstream of everyday human consciousness and is still considered an add-on to the fabric of life, says GEO 2000. Furthermore, "Despite successes on various fronts, time for a rational, well-planned transition to a sustainable system is running out fast," says Klaus Töpfer, UNEP's Executive Director. "In some areas, it has already run out. In others, new problems are emerging which compound already difficult situations. [italics mine.]

The failure of words is as simple as it is stunning. To make the very point that "the environment" remains separate from everyday life, why use that same barren term? That environmentalists still make that linguistic faux pas, seemingly oblivious to the irony, is truly baffling.

Small wonder that what has not changed is precisely what must change: "everyday human consciousness."

What do environmental organizations and their supporters do now?

Well staffed large membership eco-NGO's are institutions in their own right, with a culture, modus operandi, and funding strategies with which they compete for tightly contested funds. In a way, they too constitute a status quo. Do they re-invent themselves now? For example, does the David Suzuki Foundation (to which I was a founding donor) close up shop or retool its aims and operations? Will Suzuki reduce globe-trotting, reuse his fame portals, and recycle global success stories into a rich compost of new ideas?

Sustainable advocacy is an art. Like artists, advocates must grow or stagnate. Environmentalism's failure is bound to spur new thinking and action. Online organizations such as 350.org already display an impressive global reach and response.

It's a time for daring. Funders and supporters are seeking out transformation agents and catalytic ideas. They might look to those with bold visions for societal transformation. Organizationally, "less is more" may be the way ahead. Increasingly, people and groups are enjoying a partnering synergy made easy by social media.

What Will We Say to Children and Youth?

This is the hardest question to answer. The three R's won't be abandoned; kids will learn about them and nag their parents. But it's a different kind of environmental education that needs to begin and ramp up at all grade levels. One with connect-the-dots clarity between, say, advertising, consumption habits, pollution and global warming. The young tend to be well informed, although we can understand the impulse to turn away from overwhelming global crises. Yet a great many stay engaged, in all manner of worthwhile pursuits.

As Earth advocates go, children and youth are among the most inspiring. Their words move you to the core. We'll need to encourage and amplify their voices, and to support their right to be heard. We need to hear from them. And listen.

What's to be learned? Where's the next strategic direction?

Is there a financial bailout for our big beautiful planet? Can we say our biosphere is too big to fail? Despite over 20 years of climate stabilization campaigns, in the year 2010 annual greenhouse gas emissions were the highest ever recorded.

Humanity is in a survival crisis -- a crisis of identity, conscience and spirit. Who are we as an evolving species? Do we really care more about money than our children? Or is a collective spirit stirring millions to rally for more just and equitable societies?

We need a lexicon for reframing global issues into a connected whole, a unifying lens "for seeing the world anew": a language of waves, not particles. One that connects and inspires, uplifts everyday life. Can "sustainability," a current buzz word in business and in education, catch on as a moral code of conduct -- in a mainstream movement with children at its heart? Can this be how a shift in consciousness sparks a deep empathy for the present generation and for generations to come?

Students, teachers, families, corporate executives, and media need a thorough grounding in restorative sustainability: an intergenerational triple-bottom-line economy ("bionomy") that fosters social and environmental well-being. Long term rewards must replace growth-obsessed bottom-line fixation. Without economic maturity, we're still on the new Titanic.

Situation critical: the movement to protect and restore Earth's living splendour needs rebranding. Welcome to the post-environment age. Possibilities abound.

We all remember advertising jingles from our youth. If jingles are that potent in selling things, why not use music to move ideas -- sustainability -- in populist language? For a massive movement to win the hearts and minds of billions? Or at least those of a huge critical mass?

Every society's treasure is its young. Since children are multinational and have the most to gain or lose from our response to environmentalism's failure, we can embrace "a culture of respect" for the world's children and their planetary home. Respecting Earth and Child can offer a universal ethic for honouring all of life. Earth-friendly equals Child-friendly, and we all win.

Daniel Nocera's synthetic leaf for storing solar energy is among the eco-tech miracles needing support and accelerated pathways to market. Also worth noting is a recent U.S. drive for "atmospheric trust legislation" by which governments might rise to meet their "public trust" obligation to youth and future generations. These represent glimpses of new ways of seeing possibility and connection.

There is no alternative to a thorough detoxification of the air, water and lands we inhabit. The longer we put this off, the harder it gets for restorative sustainability to take hold. The Gulf oil spill and Fukushima mega-disasters brought little transparency we could trust, and at enormous cost both economic and in public health. In the U.S., the military is the greatest polluter, and there are hundreds of toxic waste sites that need attention. Worldwide, breast milk carries trace levels of PCBs and Dioxins. Only sustainability is a positive vision broad enough to address all of these threats, whose uniquely vulnerable victims are children.

The needed shift in consciousness may yet win the day. In the cold of winter the forces of renewal position tender buds to emerge from the toughest branches in Spring. Nature's dance is mighty. Wildflowers proliferate. With a profound understanding of the King Midas fable we might yet avoid the Midas curse and hold on to all that's most precious. Long live Mother Nature.

Raffi Cavoukian, C.M., O.B.C., is best known as Raffi, renowned singer, author, children's champion and ecology advocate. Raffi's numerous awards include the Order of Canada, the Global 500 Roll, and three honorary degrees. Fifteen million sales of his children's albums, books, and DVDs have sprouted a generation of fans now enjoying Raffi songs with their own kids. An outspoken advocate of commercial-free childhood, Raffi is founder and chair of Centre For Child Honouring.

My Pete Seeger Spring: A Visit to Say Thanks

2012-05-11T16:16:25-04:00

On a fine spring day with trees in soft green bloom, I left Manhattan for
Pete Seeger's place, near Beacon NY, courtesy of his longtime friend and noted
videographer Jim Brown. During the drive Jim and I talked non-stop: about my
singer-songwriter beginnings, about the early folk music scene, Jim's work
with Pete and other folk greats, the Occupy movement, the state of the world.
From a local Japanese restaurant we picked up sushi enough for us and
Pete, wife Toshi, and daughter Tinya.

A friendly border collie was all over me as I entered the house, the place
Pete is said to have
built himself decades ago (likely with wife Toshi's help) with homebuilding plans
from the library. And there he was, with his back to us, the 92-year-old
icon of folk music and all things good. When he did come over and we shook
hands, he launched into a story about everyone being cousins, as he tells
school kids, and the story turned into a song, and soon I was harmonizing
with him on the chorus. A
surprise duet: unrehearsed, unrecorded and
damn good.

Then Pete was holding court, telling one tale after another it seemed. He first
went on and on about his father who was a musicologist. The details came a plenty, and plenty
quick; it was hard to keep up with him. Daughter Tinya hadn't yet made an
appearance. I'd heard that Toshi, now 85, hadn't been well for some time and
when I saw her in a wheelchair, not quite all there, I
understood. Her presence is lovely even as her lucidity comes and goes. Tinya did come join us,
the sushi got put on the dining table, and we got around to eating.
Good sushi, it hit the spot.

I showed the gifts I'd brought: my autobiography, a DVD of my recent work,
a brochure of my nonprofit organization, and signed copies of my Covenant
For Honouring Children. These seemed to put Pete's stories on pause, giving way
to the necessary descriptions and related information. The autobiography's photos
of my father's portraiture were of interest.

I told Pete I'd come to say thank you for all that he had given me over the
years. For the way his songs had stirred me and got me singing them. For
the example of courage in his life that inspired me and filled me with awe. For all
that his music and his life has given to so many.

At one point I borrowed Jim's guitar and, with Pete's okay, sang him a
few songs: "The More We Get Together," "All I Really Need," "Like Me And You," and
"Baby Beluga," on which Pete softly joined the chorus. His voice has lost
its luster, but not its spirit.

In his day, Pete Seeger was the king of
sing-alongs, a master at
prompting audience participation. He didn't just expect it, he asked for it. Demanded it. I too came to know the pleasure and power of people singing together. That became a
hallmark of my family concerts.

I told Pete I was writing a tribute song for him, so my audiences might come
to know his songs. (Now I'm thinking about a Raffi Sings Seeger CD.) He's about 30 years older
than me, which means that many who know my music may not know his. And what a treasure
trove his repertoire is. Spanning decades, civil rights marches, anti-war rallies,
the feminist movement and more, Pete's musical passion gave people a voice and
songs to sing.

Through the "folk process" by which people change folk songs, Pete
changed "We Will Overcome" to "shall" overcome. That says a lot about the man, his courage
and determination. Over the decades he
took on just about every social
justice issue you
can name. And by the end he took on the Hudson River
pollution with the sloop Clearwater and got the river cleaned up.

Pete is still very much his own man, a principled guy who has sung about and supported a
bundle of causes. That he may have felt conflicted about commercial success
(including his own) is understandable. His ilk never dreamed they'd make any
money, let alone have hits and cover versions of their songs. He speaks not of
fame or celebrities but of millions of people each doing their little bit for a
better world.

Pete Seeger's music should be known to students everywhere. His
book, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, is
an invaluable resource. Adding
to recent Seeger tributes by Bruce Springsteen and others may come a
song (or two) by a
children's troubadour who owes a lot to the guy who
greatly inspired him. Turning this world around is the work of millions. We've got a
hammer, a bell, and songs to sing all over this land.

Raffi Cavoukian, C.M., O.B.C., is best known as Raffi, renowned singer, author,
children's
champion and ecology advocate. Raffi's numerous awards include the Order of
Canada, the Global 500 Roll, and three honorary degrees. Fifteen million sales
of his children's albums, books, and DVDs have sprouted a generation of fans now
enjoying Raffi songs with their own kids. An outspoken advocate of commercial-
-‐free
childhood, Raffi
is founder and chair of Centre For Child Honouring.
www.childhonouring.org

Advice to Harper

2011-05-30T09:00:00-04:00

Prime Minister Harper,

Your first parliamentary majority comes at a time of considerable change in Canadian political culture, liberty movements in many nations and a systemic crisis in the global ecology. It's worth noting that the Conservative party's founding principles include a commitment to upholding our "obligations among the nations of the world," with references to fair trade and future generations, and to "integrity, honesty and concern for the best interests of all."

That, then, should commit you to transparency, civility and co-operation. In this spirit -- and for your legacy -- please consider the following:

- Apologize to Canadians for being in contempt of the House -- the true reason your minority government was brought down, and a rightful concern for Canadians, which you've dismissed as mere "bickering." Have the humility and courage to say, "I'm sorry."

- Stun the country with massive support for clean renewable energies to make the Tar Sands a footnote in the sad history of polluting industries. Make Canada a world leader in the clean jobs sector.

- Respect the clear and compelling climate science that should put Canada in the forefront of climate action. Support "the right to a future" for all Canadian kids.

- Reduce crime by investing in early years and increasing literacy, not by ineffective and costly prisons.

- Show your respect for Canada's children by legislating a ban on direct advertising and marketing to kids 12 and under.

Show us you're truly committed to balancing "fiscal accountability, progressive social policy and individual rights and responsibilities" and want to "build a national coalition of people who share these beliefs" as the Conservative Party's founding principles state.

Canadians want to believe their Prime Minister. We all expect you to set a good example, especially our children and youth.

Raffi Cavoukian, C.M., O.B.C., is a singer, author, children's champion, and ecology advocate, founder of Centre for Child Honouring on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada. Among his awards are the Order of Canada, the Order of BC, the UN's Earth Achievement Award, the Global 500 Roll, and three honorary degrees. Raffi is a member of the Club of Budapest, and he blogs for Huffington Post and similar online news sources.

Cairo Sunshine All Around -- Reflecting on the Rebirth of My Birthplace

2011-02-01T19:16:37-05:00

A siren song is this Cairo freedom fire, the Tunisian spark now a roaring flame.
A new Mecca in Tahrir Square.

I close my eyes and wander to the city of my birth, and I'm just eight years old in the helio-polis my Armenian family called home, playing in the Cairo sands, my father's 1940s Studebaker winding up the road to the Pyramids. And I'm now back in this moment, wondering, what exactly is this social media liberation hour we're in? The words come like this:

regime jam, the people's tram
stronger than the aswan dam
pyramid scheme a nation's dream a peoples' stream
of consciousness

grab your hat, don your fez
caravan down to old Suez
who cares what the empire says
millions jammin in high rez
social media social change
regime jam Arabia!

When life makes a mockery of prediction, you have to tilt your head a bit, squint your eyes to see straight. Dictators fall as they must, but this fresh Cairo breeze was so unexpected, a million strong gust for freedom. Stunning.

One peoples' liberation is potentially everyone's, and actually so. Egyptian courage gives us courage, we re-imagine daring, and we consider fresh responses to the tyranny of globalized greed and excess that passes for normalcy.

Meanwhile, what's waning worldwide is secrecy itself, as peoples' will to freedom rides social media's ease in communicating, planning, and gathering. Egypt's revolution is humanity's. And as a revolution enhanced by social media before the state silenced them, the Cairo scenario begs a question.

Are we witnessing the emergence of a new fundamental human right -- the right of citizens to connect via social media -- the digital right to communicate? Does any nation that disrupts or suspends the people's right to communicate by this most democratic of means thus not suspend its own legitimacy?

And consider the fate of the children of the entire Arab world. Can this "Berlin wall moment" of the middle east bring down the fundamentalist veil of gender oppression and religious intolerance? New support for the rights of all women to self-determination can torch the age-old patriarchal coercion that also keeps children cowed to obedience.

Coercion vs. volition, this primary human choice colors early years experience and can shape misguided belief systems or, of course, quite the contrary. Secure in our being, we can learn to celebrate life's diversity; we can revel in the basics that delight: the delicious foods that sustain families and enliven community, the hot drinks that bring us together, and the stories that keep us through the night and return us to work and play each morning.

We humans were not created for obedience. We are made for creativity, and early on our unbounded spirits dare to sing our own song, our childhood imaginings form original futures in thought, word and deed.

Egypt's jump for joy ends the fear of its ruling despot and the power behind him. One can only hope U.S. foreign policy stops its prop-the-dictator balance of power antics very soon.

We're in a whole new geopolitical era, one with great promise amidst the turbulence, one that calls for new individual rights and new global priorities. The more freedom people have to self-determination and fulfillment of their basic needs, the better our chances of survival as a species.

A new basic right is "the right to a future" for Earth and Child -- for both our warming planet and her children scattered on all the lands called home. The right to a viable future is like a beacon to light universal human needs and hopes in this pivotal time for civilization.

Egyptian courage emboldens the region and the world. Let the song of Egypt's liberty ring in our ears. Her sun is ours.

Raffi Cavoukian, C.M., O.B.C., founder and chair of the Centre for Child Honouring, is best known as Raffi -- singer, author, children's champion, ecology advocate, and entrepreneur. Member of the Order of Canada, Raffi is the recipient of numerous awards including the UN Earth Achievement Award, the Global 500 Roll, and two honorary degrees. His renaissance as a systems thinker includes the anthology he co-edited, Child Honouring: How To Turn This World Around (2006) and two recent companion CDs of motivational songs: Resisto Dancing, and Communion. www.childhonouring.org

The Right to a Future: We Need a New Lexicon for Conveying Climate Collapse

2011-01-18T13:16:27-05:00

"Planet Earth, creation, the world in which civilization developed, the world with climate patterns that we know and stable shorelines, is in imminent peril." -- James Hansen

"We're screwed!" -- David Letterman

Are we tweeting while Earth burns? Is climate collapse our new collective Titanic? How do we best describe the survival struggle of 7 billion in a way that connects?

The science on global warming is clear and compelling. Earth is in serious climate crisis. That's why many writers have recently upgraded climate change to climate collapse, climate catastrophe, the long emergency. We need a new story to convey the threat.

In a well known Greek myth, the very rich King Midas, who loves gold above all else, is granted his singular wish that everything he touches turn into gold. The gift becomes a curse when his golden touch kills plants, food, and even his daughter, who is turned into a statue. Bereft and repentant, forsaking greed, the king begs for deliverance. His curse is lifted by a wash in the river. All he holds truly precious is restored.

The modern version of the story is about a gold rush called globalization, a monetized world order that commodifies everything and poisons all that it touches: air, water, soil, whales, indigenous cultures, mothers' milk, and babies, now born with a body burden of toxic chemicals. Money, as symbolic reward for goods and services, when elevated above all else, becomes a curse. The symbol turns tyrant and casts a plague on the living. We're currently in the atonement chapter of the tragedy, praying we have time to write a happier ending.

But despite the best efforts of climate scientists and environmentalists to explain the dangers of climate inaction, political response is slow, most people don't get the seriousness of the issue. CO2 emissions aren't falling, they're rising.

Experts use escalating phrases to describe climate change. James Hansen: "the coming climate catastrophe," "our last chance to save humanity;" Gustav Speth: "system failure," "looking into the abyss." Lester Brown writes: "The signs that our civilization is in trouble are multiplying."

That's why we need a new lens and lexicon for conveying climate change as the greatest threat on Earth, a tragedy of epic proportions, especially for the world's young.

Here are the main elements of the new story. The lens is Earth & Child--Child friendly means Earth friendly. The lexicon is a whole-brain "linking language" of systems, not fragments. The frame is climate change as The Crisis, the compound threat to the human future. The story aligns present with future, connecting climate change to kids, health, and behavior so families get that it's about them and their future. Just as the loss of King Midas's daughter melted his gold-worn heart, children may yet move humanity to bathe in a new river. The story's protagonist is the Child, our conscience.

The moral of the new story is undeniable: We must not love money more than children. While there is time, societies must reorder priorities towards supporting life systems--what matters most--not maximizing monetary wealth. Worldwide, social inequities are growing, while our planet's life support systems are failing. The choice is clear: Gaia's gift of life, or the Midas curse.

If our species could be granted one wish, what would that be? Wouldn't it be to lift the Midas curse, reclaim what we have lost and restore our sanity?

Climate change is not one among many issues, it is the crisis, the greatest threat on Earth, the cumulative damage that has no partial remedy. It's best addressed with systems change, beginning with belief systems learned very early. To cut pollution and GHG emissions for good, change personal belief systems. Start young.

To grow Earth stewards, steward the children and youth. This is where the restoration must focus--strategically and morally. Not only do kids get sustainability, they have the most to lose or gain.

With all it portends, the specter of catastrophic climate change may offer our best and last chance to work towards a massive green revolution that stabilizes climate with atmospheric CO2 at 350ppm, the mark science dictates.

The young have the strongest moral claim on climate action. It's their future on the line. And they may hold the key to inspiring an emotional tipping point for critical mass.

We urgently need to embrace social and economic systems that constitute a culture of respect for children and their planetary habitat.

We need a stunning paradigm shift that stabilizes climate by reducing suffering and increasing joy. We may need a youth-led cultural revolution to get there. Sixteen-year-old Alec Loorz of California thinks so: he wants people to live as if the future matters. His "iMatter" climate change campaign plans to rally the world's youth.

In 1990, two words (20 characters) brought down the Soviet Union and the Berlin wall: glasnost and perestroikia--openness and restructuring. What if the enormous convening power of social media gave the existing global disorder a "glasnost & perestroika shakedown" just as unimaginable? Can the abusive globalized money system unravel by people flexing their tech muscle to collectively demand "the right to a future?"

We're in the moral moment. We must thoroughly detoxify our world, cool this planet down, and redesign societies to be systems smart. With utmost compassion, let us steer a course away from icebergs and towards a welcoming shore.

Raffi Cavoukian, C.M., O.B.C., founder and chair of the Centre for Child Honouring, is best known as Raffi--singer, author, children's champion, ecology advocate, and entrepreneur. Member of the Order of Canada, Raffi's honours include the UN Earth Achievement Award, the Global 500 Roll, and two honorary degrees. His renaissance as a systems thinker includes the anthology he co-edited, Child Honouring: How To Turn This World Around (2006) and two recent companion CDs of motivational songs: Resisto Dancing, and Communion. Raffi networks to advance Child Honouring as a universal ethic for creating sustainable peace-making cultures.