From: Chella Rajan [mailto:crajan@...]

Please circulate widely.
Thanks,
Chella

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PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Orion Kriegman
Tel: 617.266.5400
GTI Paper Series Released

Boston, MA, Oct.1 -- The Great Transition Initiative (GTI- www.gtinitiative.org
<http://exchange.tellus.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://exchange.tellus.org
/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gtinitiative.org> ) is a collective
endeavor by scholars and activists who share a broad commitment to addressing
the major problems confronting humanity: poverty, security, and the environment.
GTI's mission is to imagine, assess, and advance a great transition to a global
future of enriched lives, equity, solidarity and a healthy planet. It takes
seriously the slogan of progressives everywhere that "another world is
possible," but proposes that such a world must first be imagined creatively as a
plausible human project.

GTI's network of 200 participants from 40 countries contributed to the
preparation of this series (http://www.gtinitiative.org/default.asp?action=43
<http://exchange.tellus.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://exchange.tellus.org
/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gtinitiative.org/default.asp?action=43> )
through a more than year-long process of general exploration of ideas, thematic
working groups and review. The 15 papers in the series elaborate the global
challenge, future visions, and strategic directions in various domains of
culture, politics, technology, economy and society. The papers offer no
"blueprint" of the future, but are meant to be imaginative ventures that engage
and intrigue others to contribute to the enterprise of inspiring change beyond
the crisis and despair of the day. According to Paul Raskin, the Coordinator of
GTI and President of the Tellus Institute, the GTI's paper series will " sharpen
the critique of conventional thinking, deepen the understanding of the global
possible, identify critical levers for change, and promote a coherent popular
movement."

The GTI is facilitated by the Tellus Institute (www.tellus.org
<http://exchange.tellus.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://exchange.tellus.org
/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.tellus.org> ), formed in 1976 as a a
not-for-profit research and policy studies organization based in Boston, and now
a world leader in assessing critical environment and development issues. Tellus
has worked at every level -- global, regional, national, local, and enterprise
-- bringing both vision and analytic rigor to fashioning strategies, policies
and decision-support tools. Key foci have included energy, water, sustainable
communities, corporate social responsibility, and climate change. Our projects
are distinguished by an integrated perspective that illuminates linkages across
spatial scales and the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of
development. The Institute's sponsors -- foundations, government agencies,
multilateral organizations, civil society organizations, and business -- reflect
this diversity.