{"id":4738,"date":"2013-09-15T01:02:20","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T01:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/?p=4738"},"modified":"2013-12-23T00:40:47","modified_gmt":"2013-12-23T00:40:47","slug":"gemma-tillack-and-chelsea-matthews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/gemma-tillack-and-chelsea-matthews\/","title":{"rendered":"Gemma Tillack and Chelsea Matthews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rainforest Action Network<\/b><\/h3>\n

Gemma Tillack and <\/b>Chelsea Matthews<\/b><\/h4>\n

September 15, 2013<\/h4>\n
\"Gemma<\/a>
Gemma Tillack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) conducts campaigns to protect rainforests, their inhabitants, and the natural, life-sustaining systems through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.<\/p>\n

For updated information on recent success follow this link:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Updated-info.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Gemma Tillack directs RAN\u2019s agribusiness campaign. She will talk about RAN\u2019s newest campaign, Last Stand of the Orangutan. This campaign exposes the dark secret of palm oil usage in the US snack food industry, and its effects on the natural habitat of the Orangutan. The Network calls on companies to commit to purchase only responsibly grown palm oil.<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea<\/a>
Chelsea Matthews<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chelsea Matthews, Forest Program Coordinator at RAN, will talk about RAN\u2019s current campaigns to address the root causes of climate change, deforestation, and the oppression of forest peoples. She will also give an overview of RAN’s success in transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.<\/p>\n

Gemma Tillack directs Rainforest Action Network\u2019s Agribusiness campaign which is addressing one of the main drivers of rainforest destruction in Indonesia: industrial palm oil. The campaign is focused on shifting demand away from socially and environmentally irresponsible palm oil, creating incentives for the responsible production of palm oil and transforming global supply chains. RAN\u2019s campaigns create the market leverage necessary to improve both corporate and government policies and practices.<\/p>\n

Prior to this position, Tillack worked for 10 years for The Wilderness Society in Australia. \u00a0Tillack played a key role in the campaigns that contributed to Gunns Limited\u2019s decision to transition out of native forest logging in Tasmania. Gunns Limited was Australia’s largest native forest logging and wood chipping company. For the past two years Tillack has been involved in negotiations that lead to the signing of the $274 million Tasmanian Forest Intergovernmental Agreement (TFIGA). This agreement was reached between environment Non-Government Organizations, the forestry industry and unions and aims to support the protection of important natural forests and a transition to a plantation based forestry sector in Tasmania. Tillack has a background in environmental science and community organizing.<\/p>\n

Here are a few links you can share with people who want to learn more about Rainforest Action Network:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ran.org\/our-mission<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 learn more about Rainforest Action Network and its campaigns\u00a0for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/understory.ran.org<\/a>\/ – read RAN’s blog for breaking stories.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ran.org\/palm-oil<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 learn about RAN’s campaign to protect rainforests and Indigenous Peoples and rural communities rights from palm oil expansion.<\/p>\n

Conflict Palm Oil report:\u00a0http:\/\/www.ran.org\/conflict-palm-oil<\/a><\/p>\n

Petition calling on the Snack Food 20 to cut Conflict Palm Oil from their supply chains:\u00a0http:\/\/act.ran.org\/p\/dia\/action3\/common\/public\/?action_KEY=8546<\/a><\/p>\n

Webpage for donations:\u00a0https:\/\/salsa.wiredforchange.com\/o\/6022\/t\/6444\/p\/d\/rd_ran\/donations\/public\/ran_donate_custom.sjs?donate_page_KEY=7315<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ran.org\/take-action-online<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 find out how you can take action to support RAN’s work.<\/p>\n

———————————————————————<\/p>\n

The Humanist Community<\/b><\/h3>\n

September 15, 2013<\/p>\n

Addendum<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

Frederic March, a past president of the Humanist Society of\u00a0 New Mexico, has written an essay titled \u201cUtopian Visions and the American Dream\u201d <\/i><\/b>published in Volume 21 (1) 2013 of Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism\u201d. <\/b>This \u201cAddendum\u201d is an abstract from his essay.<\/p>\n

Utopian narratives express a universal yearning for a better human society. In his description of Plato\u2019s ideal social fantasy, Bertrand Russell categorizes its attributes as education, culture\/economy, biological control, religion, and justice. Although Frederic March develops all of these attributes in his essay, in this \u201cAddendum\u201d we shall deal primarily with education.<\/p>\n

As our nation\u2019s leading advocate for humanism, the AHA helps defend our democracy against breaches in the barriers of church-state separation. It promotes science and evolution teaching unadulterated by theology. It defends freedom of thought and religion.<\/p>\n

The AHA recently issued its Ten Commitments: Guiding Principles for Teaching Values in America\u2019s Public Schools<\/i><\/b>:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 Altruism –<\/i> Altruism is the unselfish concern for the welfare of others without expectation of reward, recognition or return.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 Caring for the World Around Us <\/i>– Everyone can and ought to play a role in caring for the earth and its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Critical Thinking –<\/i> We gain reliable knowledge because we are able to observe, report, experiment, and analyze what goes on around us.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 Empathy <\/i>– We human beings are capable of empathy, the ability to understand and enter imaginatively into another living being\u2019s feelings, the sad ones and the happy ones as well.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0 Ethical Development <\/i>– Questions of fairness, cooperation, and sharing are among the first moral issues we encounter in our ethical development as human beings.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0 Global Awareness <\/i>– We live in a world that is rich in cultural, social and individual diversity, a world where interdependence is increasing rapidly so that events anywhere are more likely to have consequences everywhere.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0 Human Rights <\/i>– Human Rights is the idea that people should have rights just because they are human beings.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0 Peace and Social Justice <\/i>– A curriculum that values and fosters peace education would promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among nations as well as among cultural and religious or philosophical groups.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0\u00a0 Responsibility <\/i>– Our behavior is morally responsible when we tell the truth, help someone in trouble, and live up to promises we\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n

10. Service and Participation <\/i>– Life\u2019s fulfillment can emerge from an individual\u2019s participation in the service of humane ideals.<\/p>\n

These Commitments clearly encompass Education for Democracy. The AHA has the capacity to organize and coordinate the resources of many organizations that also seek to educate for a humanist democracy<\/p>\n

These addendums<\/i><\/b> are an attempt by Hilton Brown to bring some aspects of Humanist Philosophy to the attention of persons interested in The Humanist Community. The source material for all Addendums <\/i><\/b>is to be found in the lead paragraph of each addendum.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rainforest Action Network Gemma Tillack and Chelsea Matthews September 15, 2013 The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) conducts campaigns to protect rainforests, their inhabitants, and the natural, life-sustaining systems through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action. For updated information on recent success follow this link:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Updated-info.pdf Gemma Tillack directs RAN\u2019s agribusiness campaign. She will talk … Continue reading “Gemma Tillack and Chelsea Matthews”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[57,56,58,163],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4738"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}