Friday 22 November 2019

The Important Role of Praxis in Effecting Positive Societal Change

Praxis (Action/Reflection)

Praxis is a Greek word which means, doing action. In critical legal studies, praxis means practical action. It is the practical application or exercise of a branch of learning. It also means the practice of living the ethical life in conjunction and in cooperation with others.


It is not enough for people to come together in dialogue in order to gain knowledge of their social reality. They must act together upon their environment in order critically to reflect upon their reality and so transform it through further action and critical reflection.

Key Components:

Dialogue

To enter into dialogue presupposes equality amongst participants. Each must trust the others; there must be mutual respect and love (care and commitment). Each one must question what he or she knows and realize that through dialogue existing thoughts will change and new knowledge will be created.

Conscientization

The process of developing a critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action. Action is fundamental because it is the process of changing the reality. Paulo Freire says that we all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs.

The Minessence Values Framework

The Minessence Values Framework [MVF] is an Expert System designed to facilitate this process - see: https://www.mvf-knowledge-base.com/p/mvf.html

Monday 30 September 2019

The Carbon Cycle & Human Induced Global Warming



For all of human history prior to the industrial revolution the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere remained fairly constant due to the natural carbon cycle depicted on the left to the diagram above. 
     Beginning at the industrial evolution, humans added to the carbon cycle. Coal and oil, which trapped carbon millions of years ago, began to be mined for fuel. This human addition to the carbon cycle is depicted at the right of the above diagram. Thus humans through the natural carbon cycle completely out of wack—it was no longer in balance and more carbon dioxide was been added to the atmosphere than was being removed. This imbalance as esabertated through land clearing as, humans were reducing he number of trees on the planet—removing the natural part of the carbon cycle which removed the carbon from the atmosphere.
     In summary then:

    • Humans, via using coal and oil as fuels began adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at unnatural levels.
    • Humans, via removing tree, began removing the natural part of the carbon cycle that removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
    • The only possible result, therefore, being that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere must continually increase.
The video below describes the carbon cycle and explains how the carbon dioxide layer in our atmosphere acts to warm our planet. 

 

Before the industrial revolution, when the carbon cycle was in balance the "greenhouse effect" of the carbon layer kept the planet warm enough to sustain life. When humans started adding to the thickness of the carbon dioxide layer through using coal and oil as fuel and through removing trees, the "greenhouse effect" meant the only outcome could be continual warming of the planet until life on it becomes impossible.


Further Reading