Influential Archives - Green School Bali

Alexandra Cousteau

Wed, 27 May 2020 04:53:56 +0000

Activist in Residence at Green School Bali

The Cousteau family legacy of environmental conservation began with Alexandra’s grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau-a former naval officer, explorer, filmmaker and photographer of the sea and all forms of life under water. Through his work, Jacques Yves Cousteau sought to capture the abundance of the oceans he traversed. However, it was not until Alexandra’s father, Philippe-Pierre Cousteau, came of age and introduced the conservation ethics into Jacques-Yves’ works, as the decline of ocean abundance became prominent.

‘It was my father’s role in this conservational journey to become the voice of reason, the voice of developing the conservation ethic that he could carry forward. And that was the beginning of the Cousteau society.’

Growing up, Alexandra Cousteau’s grandfather and father were significant figures in her life. Alexandra learnt to swim before she could walk and scuba diving at the age of seven, which opened her eyes to the world under water. It instilled in her the same love for the ocean that had driven her father and grandfather before her and inspired her to become an environmental activist and filmmaker. But her life changed when she had her first child and she worried about the kind of world her children would inherit.

She visited Green School Bali in 2020, as an Activist in Residence, along with her kids who studied here. This was a heartening experience for her, to see students with such a deep sense of connection and compassion for nature and the environment around them.

‘Having had the chance to be here and experience the Green School community, seeing the changes it has made in our children, I know my husband and I are just filled with gratitude for the opportunity to be here.’

Alexandra’s own childhood experiences of growing alongside nature mean that she has a special appreciation for Green School’s philosophy of education. Reflecting on the importance of raising children to become future change-makers, Alexandra says that early intervention in children’s life is crucial as it gives them a sense of possibility at a young age. Through the Green School way of learning, students are not limited to the wall-less bamboo classrooms, but further their knowledge by exploring the physical world outside of their perimeters. As Alexandra’s husband puts it

‘We are not going to change people with words, we are going to change them with experiences.’ – Fritz Neumeyer

But Alexandra says her experiences have taught her that conserving and sustaining what we have is not good enough anymore. As a global community, we have to articulate a different future and create a pathway to get to a place where our actions and values are aligned.

‘At least here in Green School we are trying to architect a new way of living.’

In encouraging students to think about global issues, Green School Bali also strives to drive an education revolution, seeking to redefine what a school is and does as a driver of change.

‘I think that this generation today has both a huge responsibility and a huge amount of luck. Theirs is the last generation to have the opportunity to do what needs to be done in the next 10 years and to turn this ship around. We have 10 years – this is both good news and bad news. But it is there, and it’s an opportunity. We have more tools, more technology, more ability, and more conviction than ever before to get it done and it seems to be growing exponentially every year. I do believe it can happen, and together we can make it happen.’

Alexandra recently established Oceans2050 a foundation with the mission of mobilizing a global alliance to restore the abundance of our oceans by 2050, during the span of one human generation. She says,

‘What’s really important to remember is that oceans can be restored extraordinarily quickly, much faster than land. It’s an incredibly productive, rich environment.’

Oceans2050 will soon be kicking-off a regeneration movement, bringing people together to take real action and revive the oceans. Alexandra is committed to building on the Cousteau legacy and expanding the impact of her foundation.

‘If I were lucky enough to die in my bed, surrounded by the people I love, I think that world would be one where our children are able to know the world that my grandfather first explored. And I will work until I’m 100, to make it happen.’

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Ban Ki-moon

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 04:45:40 +0000

“As a secretary general united nation I’ve been traveling many countries and I’ve been meeting many different people, I have been visiting many different places and many schools but this is the most unique and impressive school I have ever visited.”

On Thursday 28 August 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Mrs. Ban visited Green School to tour the school, engage with students, and witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on “Green schools for sustainable development” between the government of Indonesia, United Nations REDD+ and Green School.

Recognising the alarming threat that climate change poses to development and the betterment of living conditions of the poorest, the Secretary-General noted that, decisions makers have ‘tough choices to make’. He ensured the students that,

“Tomorrow you are going to be the leaders. Today we are working very hard to make this world of tomorrow much better for all the people.”

Heru Prasetyo, Head of the Indonesian National REDD+ Agency (BP REDD+), commented that “Green School is an outstanding proof of concept. The next step is to achieve proof of scale. By 2017, we aim to have one million ‘green youth ambassadors’ in Indonesia”. Supporting Green Schools and strengthening environmentally sensitive school curricula, is one of the ten imperative actions of the National REDD+ Agency in 2014.

Mr. Satya Tripathi, Director of UNORCID, assured UNORCID’s continued support to Indonesia to drive forward its REDD+ agenda and noted that “The Green School shows how sustainability principles can guide us towards happiness and wealth in their most meaningful forms.” The Secretary-General had inaugurated the UNORCID Pilot Province Office in Central Kalimantan in 2011 with “great hopes for just the kind of results we see here today”.  Key climate change and education actors accompanied the Secretary Generaland Mrs. Ban during the event, including H.E. Mr. Morten Høglund, Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; H.E. Mr. Stig Traavik, Ambassador of Norway to Indonesia; Mr. John Hardy, Founder of the Green School Bali; Mr. John Stewart, Head of Green School Bali, and Heads of Schoolsfrom across Bali. The over 400 students from the GreenSchool were present to take part in the event and ask questions to Secretary-General.
The event was concluded with the Secretary-General and Mrs. Ban releasing two of Bali’s endangered Starlings, offered by the Begawan Foundation, a non-profit organisation working in Bali to save the species for extinction.

Jane Goodall

kadek — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 05:09:24 +0000

“I think all the students here are incredibly lucky, because there is this great atmosphere of learning about the things you care about, interacting with the environment, and learning some of the core values of success in life, which is respect and kindness and understanding.”

Dr Jane Goodall releases two endangered Bali Starlings in a symbolic gesture at the second ever graduation of Green School’s High School Students in 2014.
The moment marked the end to a seminal four days at Green School in which the honoured British author, primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist gave one public lecture and one graduation keynote address, hosted an exclusive coffee morning and special fund-raising dinner, presented at two press conferences, and spent a day meeting with all the students of Green School.
The children showed their appreciation at a special assembly when they performed a song, especially written for her called A Tribute to Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE: Roots Go Down.

Dr Goodall was in Bali to promote her Roots & Shoots Programme and spread her message of hope. The theme of all her talks centred around the premise “everyone can make a difference every day”.
The planet is in a perilous state and it is this generation of children who will, and can, change the world for the better.

“We can all make an impact,” she says, “and we all have a choice about the impact we want to make.”

The Roots & Shoots Programme, of which Green School is a part, is now in 126 countries with over 150 000 active groups doing what they can “to put it right”.

This success is testament to her “obstinate” character which she says means “she never gives up”.
Each of Dr Goodall’s presentations were layered with anecdotes which, despite her lilting unassuming very British delivery, culminated in a deliberate call to arms.
She spoke of how her time in the hen-house as a child taught her the patience required for scientific observation, of the love she had for Doctor Doolittle, who could speak to the animals, and of how “Tarzan had married the wrong Jane”.
She acknowledged how lucky she was to have a wonderful mother, who had encouraged her to go to Africa to take such risks while living with the Chimpanzees of Tanzania.

Dr Goodall spoke of her mentor, Louis Leakey, Kenya’s National Museum Director, who funded her research in Tanzania and later her Cambridge degree in the 1960s, as well as the other important teacher in her life, her dog Rusty.
Rusty had taught her animals did have emotions and personalities. This knowledge had given her the strength to stand up to the Cambridge establishment who criticised her for anthropomorphising the chimps under her watch.
In 1992 she had her “Road To Damascus moment” when she attended a conference in Gombe Stream National Park. She learned about the extent of the devastation happening in the African environment with regards to the degradation of its land and animals.

“I left the conference an activist”

she says.
She feels a sense of shame and desperation as a member of her generation, having caused such destruction, she says.
And yet, Dr Goodall, ended every one of her speeches by saying there were still reasons for hope. “There is still time. The problems of poverty, the energy of the youth, the human intellect, the resilience of nature and the indomitability of the human spirit… is what inspires me every day.”
It is the children who will change their parents’ minds about the problems of poverty, unsustainable lifestyles and the human population.

“They are changing it right here and now. Right here at Green School!”

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Gunter Pauli

Mon, 28 Mar 2016 10:15:34 +0000

“Green School is not just about bamboo anymore, it is about a new paradigm that embraces first and foremost education, living and sustainability.

Republished from Gunter Pauli’s blog
PRINCIPLES FOR LIFE AFTER GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOLAs I stand here in this student-made hall I remember the day 20 years ago I came for the first time to Bali at the invitation of Linda Garland. It is thanks to her that I fell in love with bamboo. Thank you Linda! John, Cynthia and Elora Hardy have taken my love for bamboo to a new level. This – the Green School and the Green Village – is not just about bamboo anymore, it is about a new paradigm, that embraces first and foremost education, living and sustainability. And I thank you for that.However, driving through the rice paddy fields between the Green School and Ubud these days, I notice that part of the fields are taken over by genetically modified corn. I saw diapers floating in the irrigation channels, and was shocked to see concrete roads pulled straight to the once pristine horizons of Ubud. We knew the coast would be invaded by hotels, but we always believed that Ubud and the highlands would preserve their culture, tradition and integrity of its ecosystems.

It is against this background that I would like to share five core principles that I suggest would guide life after graduation from the Green School here in Bali. These principles cover happiness and joy, the end of a double moral, the challenge to create what did not exist, to stop distinguishing between good and bad, and finally the importance of life long learning.

1. Happiness and Joy at the Center of Your Development
In his remarkable book “Dawn over the Kalahari”, Lasse Berg describes how humans became humane. When the future human decided to run on two instead of four legs, he took a risk. Indeed, running on two legs is slower and less stable than four, but the upside is that now hands are free to carry more food to the refuge. Now when risks are taken and anxiety rises, the warm welcome at home from family celebrating the arrival of food offers a unique emotional experience.
The study of the skulls of the “early Lucy’s” confirm that the first development of the human brain in use and size is triggered by emotions. This provoked the subsequent growth of the motoric and sensory lobe. So it were our emotions and the experiences of risk, love, affection, appreciation that made humans humane, and develop more intelligence and agility with our extremities. And then it seems our brain growth from the size of one fist into two fists stopped. What happened?

It seems that after these enthralling experiences of risk and love, community and resilience, humans started redirecting their attention to their egos. New experiences emerged like jealousy and envy, aggression and anger, stress and bitterness, which colored society with a clear desire by a few to control power and subjugate others. That may very well have stopped both our amazing emotional development as a humane society and the growth of our brain.

If you want your life after school to be one that has a chance again to evolve with compassion and mindfulness, where we balance the sense of survival with a clear passion for life, joy and community, then we will have to embrace these original discoveries again of risk and love, for those dearest to us, those around us, including the social and the ecosystem webs of life.

2. Ethics at the Center of your Life full of Reflection and Actions
Life is not a machine. Rather is it a network of living organisms where we are more connected to bacteria than to plushy bears. Life is about connectedness, relationship, patterns of behavior, time and place-based context. That context is made out of the ecosystems that provide us free services like the creation of soil, the filtering of drinking water, and the buffering of natural disasters; as well as social systems that build up non- commercial capital like culture and tradition, and resilience during adverse times we, and our communities will always face the day we expected it the least.

I expect you as graduates to embrace ethical behavior at the center of your life. I especially hope that you will stop the double moral that my generation, your parents have displayed for too long. While we all agree that stealing is stealing, and stealing less is still stealing, we have different standards when we deal with the environment. How is it possible that we are happy to do less damage to the environment? Companies polluting less receive environmental awards! Stealing is stealing and polluting is polluting. No one should ever deserve recognition for doing less bad. Bad is bad.

However it is not only a matter of being content when someone pollutes less. Our double moral in society also permits individuals and companies to refuse to do more good. And that is bad as well. I expect you to be blunt and clear that this will not be tolerated any more. Permit me to share the reality of a major coffee company that produces millions of tons of coffee waste, extracting the active ingredient from beans to produce instant coffee. The company burns that waste, rightfully claiming to save energy and reducing carbon emissions. But, the company fails to highlight that the waste of the coffee could have produced millions of tons of mushrooms, and the waste after harvesting the mushrooms is great chicken feed, creating even more protein while generating hundreds of thousands of jobs. Are you on Earth to do less bad, and do you have the right to refuse to do more good? I trust you will accept the mission in our lives is to do more good.

I lived through this experience myself. When I took the leadership of a small Belgian detergent company we produced soap from palm oil. We manufactured in an ecological factory made from wood with a grass roof, a series of cleaning products using biodegradable and renewable ingredients. Still, we were not sustainable. How could I clean up the rivers in Europe, while destroying the rainforest in Kalimantan, and the habitat of the orangutan? We have to be clear that a sustainable life requires us to be unconditional about the ethics at the core and I expect you to lead the way where your parents failed.

3. Your task – Create what did not Exist – do what your parents cannot imagine
As graduates from Green School, I ask you not to follow the rules of the game but I am not asking you to break the rules of the game either. I wish you take it upon yourselves to create new rules for others to follow. The rules in the economy today do not reach out to everyone at least 40% of the world population has to survive on less than $3.5 a day, and 90% of Africans work on informal jobs. We are destroying the environment and we are taking social systems apart. We do not have a clear understanding of how life works and therefore we need to have a fresh look at reality.

Ask your parents: how did the apple get up in the tree? Or ask: how did the water get up in the coconut? Now may I submit that when you only know what comes down, and have no idea how it got up defying the law of gravity, what do you know? How can you ever design a sustainable society? Time has come to go beyond the economic system your parents and grandparents designed and participated in. It is one that focuses on cutting costs at all cost. You will change that by creating more value from what is locally available. We have to put a stop to this madness of always producing more of the same, where cheaper is better while we leave no more money to circulate in the local economy. How can we ever have the jobs for the next generation when we do not know what we have and how to respond with it to the basic needs of all. Once we decide to pursue this avenue in life, then you will be able to create what did not exist.

One of these new initiatives we have recently embraced is the making of stone paper. Imagine the waste piled up at mining sites, millions of tons that pollute the air with dust particles, and pollute soil and water. We take those crushed rocks, blend them with plastics and produce paper without a drop of water. This paper is recyclable forever. All graduates today at the Green School receive a copy of a stone paper note book as a small token to remember that you can and should create what your parents cannot even imagine. Stone paper not only undoes the errors of the past, it creates products that will save millions of trees and eliminates costly consumption of drinking water. We need to go beyond what we consider possible, and do the impossible.

4. Be guided by the fact that there is no good or bad
Our Christian logic has created a framework where we quickly separate the good from the bad. I suggest that you, Graduates of Green School of Bali, accept that everyone can always do better. Even when you are the best, you can do much better. And let us strive not only to always do better, but also to do faster and more. However if we want to do more we cannot use the tools that limit us. Let me share with you the work my daughter Chido is doing in Africa. When she sits together with workers on coffee farms in Zimbabwe who survive on less than a dollar a day, and she explains to them that the waste of the farm can be used to grow mushrooms, the women listen, get exited, get up, sing and dance, and they do it!

What does a modern day venture require? You first have to write a business plan, set- up excel spreadsheets, undertake a technology audit, build a pilot project, study the market, write reports, discuss it in a commission, set up to monitor progress, look for funding, and in the end – seldom anything gets done. We need a new generation that gets things done because we cannot simply waste time, we need to focus on implementation with passion and commitment, always striving to do better.

5. Embrace Lifelong Learning
Of course you will now graduate and remember your teachers. You will look for mentors who will guide you as I have benefited from so many mentors throughout the years. As professor at several universities I always maintained that the best moment to learn from my students is during the exams. No, I do not like to listen to the answers to exam questions I already know. I have started to turn the tables and suggest that the students ask me questions. The one who can ask me something I have no answer to gets the maximum of the points. Every year, I learn something new from my students.

The greatest that can happen to a professor in this quest for lifelong learning, is to learn from students. Now the professor is a master of his subject but thanks to the impulses from and interests of the students, the master can become a grand master, and the students may become masters. Now since a professor has many students, he can – provided he has the humility and the curiosity – become a grand master and perhaps motivate his students to be masters. Now once you reach the level of grand master then there is a unique window of opportunity in life to turn to this wisdom into immortality. Lifelong learning is not just about you learning throughout life, it is about building up a community, a social network that will always acquire new insights and always innovate, while at the same time build culture and social capital.

At this point I would like to conclude remembering the wise words of one of my mentors, Mr. Shoichiro Honda, who created the Honda Motor Company. He once said: “Some dream to escape reality, others dream to create a new reality.”

Graduates, go, dream and create that new reality.
Thank you!
Source: http://www.gunterpauli.com/blog/principles-for-life-after-graduating-from-high-school

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Michael Franti

Fri, 25 Mar 2016 05:10:32 +0000

“The most remarkabble thing at Green School is the love that’s been invested by the people, the families, the faculty and especially the kids. There’s so much energy and talent. And for anybody that’s considering sending their kids to school here it’s different from other school where your kids are going to assigned a number and a desk and show up and you do exactly what you’re told. Here, if you have an idea, to do something that is outside the box, that idea is going to be fostered and nurtured rather than pushed in.”

Michael Franti, eco-musician, poet, and social activist continues to engage and inspire Green School’s student with his inspiring presence at our bamboo school. His first led Bali’s greenest music event, the Soulshine Festival at Green School in 2013 which benefits our local scholarship programme and Bumi Sehat’s birthing clinic. He continues to give his endless support to our Balinese student with several music concert fundraiser at Green School.

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Climate Actions: from COP21 to Clean Energy Forum

Sat, 12 Mar 2016 09:01:40 +0000

Words by Sarita Pockell, Performing Arts Teacher.

As Green School matures as a community of learners, our students, who have already cultivated a love of nature and a drive to create a more sustainable, equitable world now want to be active participants in the global movement for climate justice and peace. This is what we have always envisioned for our school. We would educate “green leaders” who would go out into the world and make it a healthier place for future generations. Help to fix the damage we have done with our careless practices.
I am one of these learners. When I first became a Drama teacher at Green School, I thought that meant I would be using more natural or recycled materials in our sets and props and using Wayan Kulit (Balinese shadow puppetry) in our productions. All of this was a great step in the right direction, but it was just the beginning. When I really questioned “What does it mean to be a Green School Drama teacher?” I realized that we had to use theater to help students connect with real world issues on a deeper, more emotional, even spiritual level and we had to use it to inspire change in the hearts and minds of our audiences. This would be integral education for sustainability. My teaching practice transformed.

How can schools make a meaningful and relevant impact on their communities and world?

Students at Green School have been focusing on waste in Bali and Indonesia, where pollution from plastic is visible and extreme. We created, Noble Material a musical which would be a platform for our students to understand the waste problem in a more intrinsic, embodied way. The original musical is about the physical and existential journey of plastic…from its invention, to its ocean fate. And yes, our costumes and sets were made by students from our community’s rubbish, but the performance allows the audience to empathize and connect with….the plastic itself.

When Green School Green Generation, our High School activists, decided that they had to come to Paris be a part of the COP21 and the COY11, it was not yet clear how important the Arts would be in their journey. When the prestigious Sustainable Solutions Forum invited Noble Material to perform at their event (the largest side event of the COP21), GS Green Generation jumped at the chance to use the musical as a platform to bring their important solutionary initiatives to the spotlight. We edited up a 15 minute mobile version of the musical entitled “The Noble Material Roadshow”. It would begin with the tale of plastic, but hold space to include other issues that the students wanted to voice in Paris, such as Indonesian deforestation for palm oil production and inspiring community projects like the Bio Bus.

Parents and teachers designed incredible costumes for our activists out of our community’s plastic rubbish. These costumes ended up being a crucial element in our students’ activism. Before their performance at the COY11, the group drew attention to themselves by walking around the conference dressed in their plastic couture. This facilitated the gathering of over 800 audience members, many of them youth from around the world, to see their Bye Bye Plastic Bag presentation and their performance. They received a standing ovation, inspiring their peers with their art and message.

Here is the introduction to the Noble Material Roadshow:

Besides this performance, the students have been using other art to make a statement. Green School’s grade 2 students made incredible orangutan masks which GS Green Generation have been using in Flash Mobs at the COP21 and as a narrative to spread the word about the Indonesian burning and deforestation for conflict palm oil. (search #orangutansinparis on facebook to follow their journey). They created their own chant and use it to gather press and raise awareness:

https://youtu.be/jV1DNtF0wic

Meanwhile, back in Bali, teachers and students made upcycled signs and a giant orangutan puppet to use in the Climate March on Pererenan beach. Green School teachers and students led the march in chants and songs as we made our way through the crowds on the beach.
And beyond all of the music, performing arts, costume design, and visual arts projects that have facilitated deep activism in Paris, GS Green Generation have used their graphic design skills to create all of their own logos, bookmarks with palm oil and bio bus facts to hand out at events, banners to use on stages and booths, online presentations and more.
GS Green Generation’s Contribution to Green School’s “Shift” Program,
Art and activism go hand in hand. When we speak of experiential, integrated learning, we are acknowledging that art, besides offering creative expression and voice to each individual, is one of the most powerful means by which we can make a meaningful and relevant impact on our communities and our world.
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