Posts in category: News

The Biodome

On the 8^th of June 2019, the EOS Biodome in the neighbourhood of Alidhem in Umea, Sweden, was opened in a grand ceremony, where a representative of the urban gardeners received the key from Enrique Lescure. Inside the dome, a green rainforest consisting of squash gradually took shape during late summer, and the structure has now become an important cornerstone of the urban gardener community.

For us in the local EOS group in Umea, this project has been conducted under sometimes hostile conditions, with a limited budget. The entire production during the course of the 2017-2019 project has cost a total approximation of €3500, of which €1000 was a grant from Umea Energi (the local municipal heat provider) and €1000 support from Grön Ungdom, the youth branch of the Green Party. We are thankful to our donors.

We are also thankful to our volunteers, without whom this cooperative effort could not have been realized. We hope that the dome will come to good use for many years to come, and are working on a solution to permanently secure the dome for the community of students, migrants and elders who are currently utilizing it.

It has been an eventful journey, taught us many valuable things about interacting with communities. The structure stands as a beautiful testament to what cooperation can achieve.

The Almedalen journey

Board members Enrique Lescure and Rickard Strandberg, together with Axel Brännström, travelled to Visby to partake in the annual Almedalen event (https://eosprojects.com/post-report-our-almedalen-journey.html) where we represented the EOS. It was a fun and enriching experience, despite the sometimes challenging weather (we had to appropriate park benches to anchor our tent among other things).

We had many interesting conversations and was given the opportunity to hand out cards.

Rise we will

In September 2019, the independent musician Lonian released the single Rise we will, a song made for the EOS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q5Y66XlI1g). An acoustic cover was performed for the participants of the 2019 annual barbeque event.

Welcome, Axel!

On the 21^st of July 2019, Axel Brännström, a law student and multitalented globetrotter, was elected to the EOS Board. He is bringing with him experience in the field of politics. As the EOS is broadening its contact width and seeking cooperation with more partners, Axel is a trusted representative – who already represented the EOS at a meeting in Linköping, southern Sweden. We believe that he has valuable experiences.

Axel will focus on the Svealand region of Sweden, networking with EOS members and sympathisers in the area, to contribute to the building of a sustainable future. His streak of independent thought and love for human autonomy is a valuable asset for the future.

EOS Cascadia and the ERCS

The EOS was always meant as a de-centralized organization with strong regional presence and a horizontal networking structure. Therefore, it is with great pride and joy that we can present the first independently registered EOS association – the EOS Cascadia which is going to facilitate EOS projects centred from the US states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, as well as British Columbia. This group is headed by our colleague Lilium Carlson, who has been of immense help in our organisation.

Lilium is also heading the ERCS project. The Earth Resource Coordination Project is by far the most important EOS project as of yet, as it will tangent the process of the Energy Survey, one of the three important aspects of the Design. The goal is a software programme and a platform capable of offering a visual representation of global resource usage, which can be utilized as a tool for transition.

Lilium has already begun working on the ERCS project, and the wider movement stands ready to support her in that endeavour.

The future civilization

Chairperson Lescure has compiled a PDF text of a hundred pages summarizing the reasons we have a need for a global transition towards a sustainable society and how the EOS Design works. The document will soon be available on this website for free.

All in all, despite the minuscule activity on this website, we have had an active period, which partially is the reason behind the silence you visitors have experienced. For this we apologize, but we look forward to more updates and the successful continuation of our projects. 

The EOS Board has had its first meeting of 2020, and it marks the beginning of a transition process which shall be finished at August of 2020 and will mark the transformation of the EOS into a truly holonic movement, consisting of multiple autonomous local groups. This development will also the abolishment of the global Board and the division of its responsibilities. It should be noted that this does not represent a novelty but rather is adapting form after functionality in a manner which is consistent.

It could be said that the current structure is Ad Hoc-based and arose from 1) the failure of the Terran Technate Consortium to form an umbrella structure with other similar movements within the RBE sphere, and 2) the need to administer and fund projects such as the Biodome. While the Board was intended to work in a specific manner, the de-facto result saw it focus very much on specific projects. Meanwhile, this structure created the impression that the EOS is a centralized, top-down organization with little autonomy for local initiative, which always has been far from the truth. However, what has been closer to the truth is that the Board has more worked like a forum for disseminating and discussing the on-going projects and their development each month, and that without the ability (or need) to set up time tables (except for matters pertaining the website, the organization’s finances and other matters of importance to the organization). Thus, the Board has for all intents and purposes been relegated to the Board Group and to the monthly meetings. This kind of operational structure could be reformed in a manner more consistent with the methodology which has served us best.

A new structure for the 2020’s

The new structure will see the functions of the Board divided into two new organs. Both of these organs will be defined as serving the purposes of the movement, rather than leading it. Coordinator team The coordinator team consists of those members and employees of the EOS who are responsible for the management of the website, the Youtube channel, the pod and other organization communication channels for the movement to utilize, as well as the finances. The CT will be liable before the Holons, represented by the AGMC, and its members can be replaced by the AGMC.

The AGMC

The Annual General Meeting will in the future, as it is now, be the point where the organization’s agenda is set forth. To anchor the decisions within the movement, the organization-wide Board shall be dissolved and its functions transferred to a steering committee elected by the Holons for a one-year mandate, responsible for:

• Setting up a budget for the website, the registrar and other organization-wide expenditures.
• Planning and executing monthly meetings, extraordinary meetings and of course the Annual General Meetings.
• Making decisions regarding complaints, for example from members excluded from individual Holons or from Holons which voice disconcert.
• Ensuring that decisions are made in accordance with the Design, the Three Criteria and the Three L Model.
• Propose amendments before the movement in the Annual General Meetings.

Holons

Holons are autonomous units which may be centred on geographic locations or around projects. Several holons can be subdivisions of one larger holon working on a project. Small holons will have elected task coordinators, whereas larger holons probably will have their own steering committees which will be responsible for overseeing both the coordinators and the progress of the holon at large. The observant reader would have seen the similarity with the structure which will be utilized within the EOS starting from August 2020.

Summary of changes

• From August 2020, the Board will be dissolved.
• It will be replaced by the Annual General Meeting Committee, where all its members will be elected by individual holons (in the future it might be clusters of holons).
• A coordinator team will be appointed by the Annual General Meeting to manage the website, finances and other aspects. These individuals are responsible before the AGMC.

What are your thoughts? Please, don’t be shy and share what you think in the EOS Facebook Group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/eoslife/

Almedalen is a park in the historical town of Visby located on the island of Gotland, Sweden. Since 1968, it has become an annual recurring event that Swedish political and community leaders are converging in Almedalen, where they can interact with media and the public. This was the first year when the EOS would host an event at Almedalen, namely an exhibition area where the public could interact with us and construct their own biodomes. The date: Thursday the 5^th of July 2019.

Leading the expedition were Board Members Enrique Lescure and Rickard Strandberg, and another EOS member. They arrived on the shores of Gotland on the night of the 4^th of July, and then would spend the next day sightseeing before setting up their tent on the morning of the fifth.

Usually, the Almedalen political week is at its most intensive Tuesday and Wednesday – but this year was characterised by bad weather, especially in terms of rain. Thus, Thursday was sunny and therefore more people frequented the convention area in the old city of Visby (a town displaying beautiful medieval buildings and ruins, a testament to its past as an important Hanseatic port).

We had one final hurdle to put up with before laying out our tent – the wind. It was exceptionally windy the morning of the fifth, and it took nearly one hour to get the party tent stable – we had to anchor it in a pair of public park benches appropriated for the event. This inadvertently turned our spot into a “lounge”, which became a popular destination for weary visitors.

And visitors we got many, all from youths to seniors – many of whom were working within environment or academia. This created room for many interesting discussions. It was apparently a novelty to connect the ecological problems plaguing our planet to the monetary-financial system employed by the current civilization, and a few seniors rather wanted to emphasize population pressure issues. In fact, discussing the structure of the monetary-financial system is so suppressed that it is a mere afterthought in today’s discourse. The only exception was the Positive Money movement, which is striving for the ending of fiat money – a policy which the EOS sees as a first step towards a more sustainable system.

A lot of the youths expressed their admiration for our ideas, and we gave away a number of compendiums outlining the Design in an abridged form. This will hopefully serve to spread our ideas, especially as our closest neighbours were tents belonging to the Public Television and Radio broadcasting company, and we got a chance to speak to a few reporters.

We used the most of our day at Almedalen to spread fliers and ideas. One popular feature was our minidomes, which we constructed and displayed at sight. We also helped members of the public to build their own 1V domes. When the day was over, we deconstructed our domes back into flower sticks, and cleaned the spot, restoring it to its former grey dullness.

Bensinupproret 2.0

Sweden has one of the highest carbon taxes in the world, which has pushed the gasoline price to near $2 per litre. This, coupled with higher unemployment and lower real incomes (as well as high energy prices) has provoked a reaction, mostly from Swedes living in smaller towns. Thus, Bensinupproret 2.0 (the Gas Rebellion) was born, with the singular demand of lowering Swedish carbon taxes, with the arguments that:

• Swedish gas taxes are so high that they are damaging the lives of working class people.
• Sweden’s impact on global carbon emissions is minuscule.
• The taxes on road vehicles are subsidizing the Swedish railways.
• The tax is 33% as high as it should be for “compensation for pollution”.

These arguments could seem persuasive, and for a Swedish working family caring about what would happen in 50-100 years is probably of less priority than what will happen the next year, especially for small business owners and seasonal workers, whose margins of income often are very strained. High costs of transport and energy could easily break the economy of a marginal household, and Bensinupproret is for all ends and purposes slightly inspired by the Yellow Vest protests in France.

The problem, however, is that the consensus on the meeting – frequented by the economist Tino Sanandaji, and conservative and liberal politicians – was completely ignoring the environmental factors, especially those pertaining climate matters. Thus, attending the audience, I (Enrique) decided to ask questions whether the participants in the forum envisioned any strategy on how to transition away from a carbon-based economy. This question prompted the interest from a Youtube Channel named Svensk Webbtelevision, which decided to interview yours truly.

It was not a light decision to agree to an interview – I knew that Svensk Webbtelevision is a channel often giving a platform to well-known sceptics and denialists regarding the climate issue, and that most people watching the interview would be hostile to my position no matter what I said.

The interview can be seen here at the five minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVobpEXL7Y4

My statement was very clear – we need to conduct a transition towards a sustainable future. While it is true that the impact from Swedish policies is negligible in their practical outcome, they can inspire other states to conduct similar reforms. This is not a matter of Sweden being endowed with extraordinary superpowers, if Austria, Iceland or the Netherlands conducted similar reforms they too might inspire other governments.

I stated that the greatest need was for a transition towards sustainability, that we do not live in a world ideally suited for conducting a transition but that we nevertheless should try – and that we should “dig where we stand”. I also alluded to the need to conduct a transition locally and organize communities to retake their control of the power grid, the food production and the natural resources. Hardly surprising, those watching Svensk Webbtelevision nevertheless disliked what I was saying, mostly because the audience cultivated by that community is predisposed towards not believing in the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change, and because they chose to interpret every statement in the most hostile way possible.

The only thing I regret from the interview is that I more should have emphasized the transition and how local communities themselves can help to redesign the available car pool to reduce the impact from cars, for example by transforming gasoline and diesel cars into hybrid cars. The EOS is not and has never been about the implementation of policies, but of local communities retaking the power over their own destinies, per our ideas of the power of Social Activism.

Summary

While Almedalen was a moderate success from our perspective, it is my belief that approaching the public should not only be constrained to conventions and large events, but also to smaller venues and to the public space in general. Now when we have invested in the infrastructure to make this happen, with the purchase of two tents (for the price of one), and valuable experience, we are more ready to strengthen our presence in Umea.

We must also become better at streaming and showcasing our presence, and become more available to the public.

These are the lessons we should learn from Almedalen.

Working on a volunteer basis is more complicated than with a construction company. Firstly, our budget is more limited and irregular, especially as the EOS is a small and fledgling but therefore also creative organisation. The early experiences of the Biodome Project have improved both the team spirit and especially our ability to predict irregularities, to not speak of the huge improvement of our logistics. The biodome is now emerging as a beautiful landmark on Alidhem in Umea, not thanks to anything else but the combined will and the emerging culture growing within and around our movement.

Each segment of the construction has been different from the one immediately prior, and thus each step has seen the acquisition of new skills. The construction teams have ranged from large to small depending both on interest, weather and the labour intensity needed to accomplish the goals. Numerous hardships have been endured, the most hilarious and yet potentially wrecking the incident when the dome blew off due to high winds, before the opaque panels on the northern side were put in place. This incident, on June 2018, saw the windows turn into sails, and the dome ascended and crashed on the ground, half-way dislodged from its bed of reutilised tires. Yet, a hastily assembled group of six volunteers led by the team leaders managed not only to restructure the dome on its place, but also to anchor it on the tires, using ropes and screws.

The essential aspects of having a working holon tasked with constructing such a complex building, and have this holon composed of a mixture between EOS members, members from other associations, students and refugees, are:

• Ensure to not have a spiked schedule, but to only plan the date for one event in advance.
• Ensure that all the tools are available and secured on the working site before the volunteers arrive.
• Ensure that the volunteers have water and food. For longer working events, the organisation should also ensure that the volunteers have dinner.
• If the group turns larger than five, there should be two working teams tasked with different operations, ideally they should both be under the coordination of a team leader.
• If participants for one reason or another are feeling unwell, be kind with them and ask them what troubles them, let them observe.
• A good spirit is necessary for a functioning volunteer environment.

The dome itself has under every stage almost grown organically, a beautiful shape unlike anything else in the neighbourhood, and unlike every other greenhouse in Umea. The dome combines the sleek modernism of geodesic domes with traditional architecture and aspects from passive housing, creating a hybrid which has unified the technological with the organic. Against the backdrop of the Alidhem area, this is a striking structure which stands out.

Of course, it will also help the urban gardeners to extend their season. As a student city located in the sub-arctic region, Umea has a short growing season which only partially overlaps with the period that students are present in the city. Alidhem is a low-income area where many students live, and most students are not from Umea itself. A challenge for the urban farmers is the difficulty in thus keeping the students they attract, since the period they can be active (during the semesters, when they aren’t working or having vacation in their hometowns or home countries).

Thus, extending the length of the growing season will strengthen the urban gardeners and also turn Umea into a seed-spreading city, since students from throughout the world will return to their home countries with a knowledge and love of urban gardening in their hearts, and thus can sow seeds, some which may even grow into EOS holons.

The dome is here to stay, but it is but the beginning.

We also would like to extend our thanks to Umea Energi and Gron Ungdom for their support!

This year’s annual meeting saw the entire board present, as well as four regular members. The meeting was held in the apartment of our Board member Markus Modin. The meeting featured a rather austere set of “fika”, namely plums, bananas, singoalla biscuits and tea.

Enrique Lescure was affirmed as Meeting Chair, whereas Thea Larsson was affirmed as Meeting Secretary and did an excellent job during our meeting. Beneath are listed the topic and the decisions which the Board made:

The Biodome Project

The Board received the report on how the on-going Alidhem Biodome Project is going, learning that 99,9% of the exterior now is completed and that the Holon undertaking construction, led by Rickard Strandberg, is moving on towards the isolation.

The ERCS Project

The ERCS project, under the leadership of Lilium Carlson, is forming its own holon and investigating the possibilities under which this project could be manifested. The Board agrees that this project, which is about improving the ability of our civilization to track and monitor raw materials, food, factories and energy usage, in order to provide a foundation for the Energy Survey, should be of the highest priority. A part of that discussion was whether satellite imaging have a few drawbacks and how to address it.

Holons

We also discussed the situation of the new holons forming around us, and how to better help them reach their goals. A part of our discussion was about providing new holons with a roadmap composed of Quests which especially younger people would enjoy.

Funding, Commitment and Social Media

A significant portion of our meeting was devoted to a different form of sustainability, namely our internal sustainability as an organisation, how we should ensure the funding necessary to operate in the future, how to ensure that we continue to engage and activate our community. We agreed to form a podcast within the nearest six months, and also to further integrate our website with our vibrant Facebook and Instagram communities.

A Summary

At the end, the meeting was much about practicalities, but at the core of it all lies our relentless idealism. The EOS is founded on relentless, uncompromising idealism, the idea that we will beat all and every odds and help bring Humanity together for the not only the greatest Transition during our history, but the most conscious one, one where the Human Race will be able to pull itself up from the brink. At the core of everything we do lies our ideology, based on our conviction that Life is itself a meaning and therefore the highest purpose of our civilization should be to protect Life.

Spring is here, and it’s glorious.

It seemed like May and June, which in North Sweden usually are quite “meh” in terms of warmth, went for a holiday and leaving July in command, with temperatures well above the twenties and a sunny month all the year. In fact, during May 2018, Umea has experienced more concentrated heat than during July of the previous year. The weather has been curious, shifting rapidly. The winds from the north and the east are cold, while those from the opposite directions are warm.

This beautiful, wonderful month has brought several successes for our movement. Firstly, the Biodome structure is now complete and erected on Odontologstraket in Alidhem, Umea. Those passing by have expressed astonishment how the circle of dirt-filled tires transformed into something beautiful while they blinked! The construction itself took a total of three days in consideration. The first load of panels are expected the next week, and then the next phase of construction can be initiated. Both the movement and the people of Alidhem are excited to witness the continued progress.

This project is not only going to help the urban gardeners, it will expand the size and seriousness of their activities, invite more people to participate and become a foundation for the Transition in Alidhem. It will also, no matter what, become a physical manifestation of our movement in the area – a piece of space where the EOS has manifested in physical form.

On the second of June, we are going to celebrate the advent of the summer and the Biodome with a barbeque event where we include the neighbourhood. The link to the event can be found here.

The meeting on the 26^th of May was held in the light of our successful conclusion of Phase 2 of the Biodome Project. Our Board Member Rickard Strandberg also had his birthday, so we began the meeting in earnest by congratulating him, he received a birthday gift and thusly became quite happy.

On a practical note, of course we discussed the latest progress on the Biodome project, as well as other issues of importance to our organisation. The Board also made a decision to accept a new Holon in our midst.

We are of course talking about the very talented Chefs of Baham Bohlani, a social company aimed at providing young immigrants from Afghanistan with work experience and a venue to showcase their skills. Their services will also contribute positively to the local ecological Sharing Circle being developed in Umea. Our goal will be to help them with administrative tasks so they can focus on what they’re best at.

We very much welcome our latest members and will work together for a more ecologically and socially sustainable future for peoples everywhere.

The EOS is moving forward on all fronts now, and even greater progress is made outside of Sweden.  

For us, Earth Day – instituted in the year 1970 – is one of the most important days on the year. In fact, for us as a movement it is tantamount to the traditional spring festivity, and this year we had chosen to invite representatives from the Djurens Rätt, the largest Swedish Animal Welfare organisation. One person came from them and we had a good opportunity to network.

The event started at 4 PM the 22^nd of April with a lecture I had the privilege of holding, and I must say that it was one of my most enjoyable lectures ever. I introduced to the public the foundations of our theories and how to implement them, as well as describing why we hold these positions, stating the obvious factor that the interest-based Fiat System is ultimately and fundamentally unsustainable, and that any critique with the purpose of creating a more sustainable future must touch the issue of how capital presently is generated.

The event also saw my colleague Rickard Strandberg playing two songs on the guitar, which were very well received by the audience. My lecture too was very engaging and the audience often interjected and asked questions, which can be disruptive but is also a sign of engagement.

And what an engagement it was!

Following the lecture and the arrival of three late-comers, we prepared the dinner. Sadly, our chefs had all become ill, but we were capable of retrieving the food and two of the guests had volunteered to stand in for the chefs. Our chef is a young very talented man named Tistou Blomberg, and he had chosen to make Afghan Bolani for the event. It was absolutely delicious, all the guests agreed.

Even hours after the dinner, the guests were involved in passionate discussions about sustainability, intentional communities, positive thinking and other topics, and first at half past ten the last of the guests left the event, all surprised it already was dark outside. 

The event happened at Kulturklossen, Alidhem, and was co-arranged with Studiefrämjandet.

We already look forward to the next social event, a barbeque evening in May preliminarily.

See you again! J

On Saturday the 21^st of April we had our monthly Board meeting, this time with four segments. These segments are differing talking points relating to the central aspects of our activities and what we are doing right now. Five out of seven Board members attended. Three were present in Real Life, two through Skype.

The first talking point, and the most boring one was about the Annual General Meeting, which we preliminary has opted to happen during Sunday the 22^nd of July. All EOS members will be able to attend that meeting and to write motions which should be able to go to voting.

Then we discussed the Biodome project in Alidhem Umea. The construction will be resumed during the third week of May, and we discussed the cost for polycarbonates and the storage issue. We will document our process and our successes and setbacks during the summer.

We also discussed the website and how to improve our social media content and develop our presence further.

Finally we had a very good time and very good support from our secretary Thea.

We want to thank all participants, and send our thoughts to those who could not attend, and we look forward to writing another report in May.

The EOS is collaborating with several other associations in constructing a biodome for the Umea urban gardeners. Due to the sub-arctic climate of Västerbotten county, Umea is not ideally predisposed for agriculture, and the establishment of a greenhouse – eventually containing heating systems and perhaps an aquaponics system of good measure – that’s up to the people of Alidhem! We have raised a foundation, but decided to wait for the arrival of spring before we raise the dome itself, especially as we still need to acquire the panels. So, during the dark months of 2018, we plan several workshops

and the first one was held on Sunday the 21^st of January 2018, at the Winter Garden, a large and comfortable neighborhood hall, almost a greenhouse in its own right. We had advertised the event on Facebook. Fifteen brave participants defied the crisp winter’s weather and joined us.

What then was a minidome?

Triangle shapes can lend themselves to many forms, in this case we decided that the participants should test to make their own 1V domes, based on half-icosahedrons, arguably the easiest shape to master for newcomers.

Here is a link to a video on how to make a 1V dome.

The main structure of the event was very simple, the EOS provided construction materials and “fika” (the Swedish term for cookies, fruits, coffee, tea and lemonade). The construction materials consisted of flower sticks, sucker straws and glue, the tools of glue pistols, saws, knives and pencil sharpeners.

After a short introduction by me, about the goals of the EOS and its social activism in Alidhem, the participants began making minidomes and made considerable success. All participant teams apart from one managed to produce a minidome each, which they of course took with them to their respective homes.

The event lasted between 2 to 5 PM, but as late as 7 PM people were still active with the project. The mood was very good, as evidenced by our live-streams.

Alidhem, with ten thousand inhabitants, is a community dominated by tenement blocks, and is dominated by working class people, immigrants and students. When we arrange events such as these, we are marketing to people on Alidhem.

It is in many ways a vibrant community with much energy, but architecturally speaking it is consisting of macro-brick housing inspired by socialist realism, and its structure is in many ways endemic for the social design typical of the 1960’s and 1970’s – where the idea is to segregate city blocks into different income zones and to focus on specialisation and organisation in order to maximise economic growth.

Thus, our endeavour aims to instead creating a new Alidhem – an Alidhem where the people organise themselves for an ecological, economic and social transition, which is necessitated by the deteriorating global biosphere. Our presence there might be a small seed, but all mighty oaks begin as small seeds.

See you at the gardens!