Criteria Review: Human Development

In order to be considered for inclusion in the Environmental Success Index, NACES' Criteria Review examines the organization in this and the foregoing eight steps, asking questions that have to do with the program's sustainable focus. By answering the questions below, the ninth step, people in the EarthSafe 2022 program have a way to consider how they involve Human Development, one of the three broad areas of activity from which the EarthSafe 2022 Mission was chosen. The italicized questions are those in the NACES form, modified for this context.

• 1. NACES: What is the size of the community that will be affected by EarthSafe 2022?
• By almost any measure, the arts, crafts and design community is very large, and this program is planned to work outward from a set of principles central to their traditions. The core of people numbers one-hundred, for example, in the region of the program's origin, e.g., Washington State's Central Puget Sound.
• 2. NACES: Does the program reach a unique population?
• Insofar EarthSafe 2022 was inspired by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the unique population that comprises the core group are not only artists, crafts people and designers renown in their fields, but they are interested in sciences, too. They feel a kinship with scientists and technicians and they work on dissolving the borders separating them (e.g., art versus craft, craft versus science). They also feel a kinship with creative technical people and research scientists.
• 3. NACES: Do different sectors of the community benefit from the program in different ways?
• Yes, because different sectors (groups of practicing creative and technical people) are in different stages of their development. They differ by their ages, their renown and degree of financial independence. Some people benefit from the personal rewards or the joy of giving; others benefit by reward of learning from their peers in the community. Some gain a sense of freedom and perspective because of their association with the EarthSafe 2022 program and its projects, and others thrive on the diversity of the participants who are committed to the program.
• 4. NACES: Is the fact that people in low-income communities often face disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards considered in the program?
• The stress of poverty is the greatest contention of EarthSafe 2022, for it is here where people are often attacked and are most vulnerable. Anti-Earth industry, military, government and bureaucratic ignorance and indifference to human values and cultural needs also destroy cultural ties, community social life and health. We see physical hazards, in the end, as evidence of deeper, more sinister forces that eat at the roots of cultural values of arts, crafts and design.
• 5. NACES: Does the program increase access to financial resources for low-income neighborhoods?
• Indirectly, EarthSafe 2022 increases access to financial resources by restoring an ingredient to ecologically economic proposals: Creativity. Financial resources for human development are usually provided by hard-line traditional vested interests to magnify their economic, political or social agendas which may preclude creative or cultural ideals. The work of EarthSafe 2022 participants is typically creative, taking different paths to solve old problems with new ideas--ones that restore the cultural value of human ingenuity, dignified by beauty and recreation.
• 6. NACES: Does the program address a community health concern?
• The health of a community may be expressed in its outward appearance, such as in the maintenance of its living and recreation facilities. The presence of a cultural center, school, or a resource center for healthy, beneficial activities and education or training is a sign of a successful community. EarthSafe 2022 program teams seek to establish facilities through artistic, well-crafted and appropriately designed work.
• 7. NACES: Were collaborative planning or consensus-building part of the process?
• With a speckled tradition of collaboration and consensus, creative individuals needed to build on the example of the scientific community. There was much to be learned. The tools developed by and for the science of cybernetics (such as computers) have the potential to expedite the learning process. Methods such as concurrent engineering have value for developing information, control and communications for creative and technical people. Progressive literature can help focus attention on reinvention, redefinition, ecology and economics. These are essential building blocks to use in an effort by artists, crafts people and designers to reinvent arts' studios.
• 8. NACES: Is there an outreach component?
• A major strength of EarthSafe 2022 is its participants' deep well of experience in outreach work, the natural gifts of creative artists, crafts people and designers. To effectively reach the goal of Redefining Progress and Ecological Economics, participants blend their innate hopes to reach out with appropriate technologies. An example is their work in improving the communication channels through their artistry and, at the same time, reaffirming the positive value of what it is that is being communicated, e.g., the content. The outreach component is "an original form, a new sort of epic filled with jokes and songs, as well as complicated characters and emotional richness."* The working title of the original form/epic is "Emeralda."
• 9. NACES: Does EarthSafe 2022 have particular educational characteristics?
• Two essential strengths of EarthSafe 2022 are its conception as an educational program and, secondly, its participants' commitment to the merits of continuing education. There is an element of entertainment in the educational work of artists, crafts people and designers, sometimes referred to as a "zone in-between two spheres of reality." The dynamics of esthetic experiences are akin to learning, and this brings EarthSafe 2022 participants close to their roles as teachers, mentors and the guides who have in their minds and hearts the whole community's benefit.

*Quote Professor Salzer of California.