THE MANIFESTO

This is a critical time for mother earth and her children. By pretty much all indicators there has never been a better moment to live than now - our health, our life expectancy, our happiness, our ability to travel and explore and experience. We have education and access to so many things even our grandparents could only dream of.

Well, for the privileged few. We are well inside the 1% who own 50% of the worlds wealth and the story of how that happened and its implication for the future of the majority of people is heartbreaking.

We should and do feel lucky, blessed and we should feel privileged and then we must unfuck this situation. The scale of inequality is unacceptable and the threat to civilisation and everything our forefathers and mothers have built is terrifying. It is apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster terrifying. But the effects won't be CGI. Scorched earth, floods and famines - as a Welsh friend once said to me "It's gonna be Biblical".

There is hope. There is always hope. Whether or not we have missed our window to reverse the flywheel of rising climate and a multiplicity of building blocks of civilisation that will cascade into despair. There will be communities displaced, not the telethon friendly poor people in far off continents, but on our own shores. There will be floods, famine, disease and war. There always has been somewhere - but our incessant pillages of the finite resources, and the pouring of toxins into the environment, the destruction of rainforests and reefs and rivers, it was always going to have consequences.

So now we must face it - tell the truth and accept that things are going to change.

The mission therefore, is how we act from this moment forward.. The decisions we make, the priorities we adopt and the way we choose to live and work. Whatever work becomes.

We are a group with influence - and that means many things. We have channels, resources, access to funding, experience and creativity. We can think smart and we know we can succeed because we already have in other areas. We can do this. We can draw on these gifts and strengths and we can use our unbound creative minds to seek out solutions, to influence essential behaviour change, to rally troops and to make a good plan.

We are connected, we are bonded through friendships - new and old, and these bonds will strengthen as we explore the way forward and work together. We have each others backs - in every way.

We will seek out other people with a vision to improve lives and the environment - and we will get behind them. We will help focus them, as we generously and freely share our experience and wisdom. We will help them deliver their plans - we are the wind in their sails, we will have their backs when it gets tough.

WHY THE DOTS

Our three dots, ellipses, are deeply symbolic.

They are the nodes of a powerful network that we are active members of - think of an animated model of synapses firing through a system, we take sparks into ideas and allow them to grow and take shape.

Élleipsis is from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, 'omission' or 'falling short'. We know we have fallen short - we have neglected to see the bigger picture, to protect the living being that is our planet and to see how this plundering would affect our neighbours and our children's future.

But there is opportunity and optimism hidden in those three small dots... lastly they represent an unfinished thought, a momentary pause infused with power and potential - as there is more to come. We will deliver this more to come. That is why we come together under the dots.

OUR COMMITMENT

We have taken so much - and while we provide for our families, we acknowledge that the neo-capitalist model has got us here - and we commit to a transition of reducing consumption, especially in the areas that we know cause harm.

We receive incredible joy from simple pleasures, reconnecting with nature and from being part of a community.

We give generously, from helping others fulfill their potential - especially those who are giving a lot of themselves for the benefit of others.

We look after ourselves - our bodies and minds. We take advice and criticism offered in love and in love we support others on their journeys of personal development.

We embrace connections - on collectivism and community. We are we.

We have work to do.

We're going to do it together, and we're going to become better friends on the way.

This love - for each other and the world we look to, will be our kindling and the fire it ignites will be unstoppable.