Celebrating the Life of Barbara Marx Hubbard

It is with heavy hearts that we make the announcement that our beloved Cosimo author and friend Barbara Marx Hubbard has passed away. Hubbard was the president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution and a cofounder of Washington D.C.'s Committee for the Future as well as co-author of The Power of Yin, Celebrating Female Consciousness. One of her co-authors, Hazel Henderson wrote a moving tribute in honor of the late Barbara Marx Hubbard, to read the full letter, click here. 

"Barbara has inspired millions with her brilliance, reaching people with her lectures, books and course on Conscious Evolution … the next step we humans must now take if we are to survive. Barbara will always be known as the unique planetary futurist … as Buckminster Fuller described her as “the most knowledgeable human” he had ever encountered. Fuller knew that Barbara understood our future choices. She blew the top off future studies, soaring way beyond the thinking and careerism of so many technologically-focused professionals in the field." 
     - Hazel Henderson

Listen to the most recent interview with both authors here, where they discuss space programs in relation to humans. Henderson and third co-author Jean Houston also spoke about Barbara's life in a roundtable hosted by A Better World Radio. There was also a recent New York Times article written about Barbara, celebrating her life, writing, and philosophies.  

Rest in peace Barbara, you shall be missed throughout the world. 

March Book of the Month: The Power of Yin, Celebrating Female Consciousness

March is the start of Women's History Month, and we at Cosimo are celebrating by shining the spotlight on three fantastic authors and their book: The Power of Yin, Celebrating Female Consciousness by Hazel Henderson, Barbara Marx-Hubbard, and Jean Houston as our March Book of the Month.

What are the best tactics to take to head off global environmental disaster? Is industrial society in decline, and if so, how should we manage its dismantling? How can humanity better integrate itself into the continuum of evolving technologies that surround us? Three of the most influential feminist philosophers of the 1970s met over two weekends in 1977 and 1978 to discuss the challenges facing society in the late 20th century... and their revelatory, inspiring conversation, reproduced here for the first time, is startlingly fresh and relevant for us today, as we rise to meet the challenges of the new millennium. With an uplifting spiritual perspective on the human experience and a uniquely feminine approach to interacting with the universe, Hazel Henderson, Jean Houston, and Barbara Marx Hubbard-with an able assist from editor Barbara DeLaney-here offer a magnificently feminist, grandly humanist, rousingly hopeful approach to the myriad challenges facing planet Earth and her people today.

The Power of Yin is more than a brilliant conversation. It is an invitation to women and men everywhere to express their own genius and empower their highest values and goals, to seek out others who attract them in this quest for personal development, to form ever deeper friendships, and to join together in spirit and in action to help evolve the human community on planet Earth.

About the Authors
Hazel Henderson is a world-renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, and consultant on sustainable development. Jean Houston is advisor to UNICEF in human and cultural development, and a principal founder of the Human Potential Movement. Barbara Marx Hubbard is president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution and a cofounder of Washington D.C.'s Committee for the Future.

$7.13 Trillion Invested in Green Economy

Last week on Earth Day, we heard some impressive news from our friends at Ethical Markets. According to Ethical Markets' Green Transition Scoreboard, $7.13 trillion has been invested in a green economy.

The Green Transition Scoreboard tracks investments in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Life Systems, Green Construction and Corporate Green R&D with the following totals as of 2016:

In a press release announcing these figures and the 2016 GTS report, "Ending Externalities: full-Spectrum Accounting Clarifies Transition Management", Hazel Henderson, founder of Ethical Markets, futurist, evolutionary economist and author - including of The Power of Yin (Cosimo Books) is quoted as follows:

“The upward trend in investments since 2007 aligns with our recommendation to invest at least 10% of institutional portfolios directly in companies driving the global Green Transition,” says Henderson. Updating strategic asset allocation models serves both as opportunities and as risk mitigation. Excluding government investments to the extent possible, the $7.13 trillion in private investments and commitments as of 2015 puts private investors on track to reach $10 trillion in green sector investments by 2020."

This is great news for the green economy and for the future of a healthy and sustainable planet.

Cosimo Authors Hazel Henderson & Louis Bohtlingk on Radio Show

Mitchell Rabin from www.abetterworld.tv recently interviewed Cosimo Authors Hazel Henderson & Louis Bohtlingk about Bohtlingk's book Dare To Care.

In a round table discussion,  Bohtlingk and Henderson reviewed how to re-create a health relationship with money and re-design our thinking and actions around money to be life-affirming and used sacredly instead of as a weapon.

To listen to the full radio interview, or read the transcript, please visit A Better World.

About Louis Bohtlingk

Bohtlingk is a visionary who has worked as a counselor for more than 30 years. With his wife Sandra, he has created multiple platforms with which to address the money issues that individuals and companies experience. Louis is also the creator of the "Meeting the Mystery of Money" workshop, which has been held throughout the U.S., the U.K., and the Netherlands and helps individuals to reorganize their finances and lives with a care-first approach. You can learn more about the work Louis and Sandra do on their website, www.carefirstworld.com. 

About Hazel Henderson
Hazel Henderson, D.Sc.Hon., FRSA, president of Ethical Markets Media, is a futurist, evolutionary economist, and author of award-winning Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, among other books. She leads the Transforming Finance initiative, created the Green Transition Scoreboard, co-developed with Calvert the GDP alternative now renamed the Ethical Markets Quality of Life Indicators and co-organized the Beyond GDP conference for the European Commission. In 2010, 2012 and 2013, she was honored as one of the "Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior" by Trust Across America. In 2012, she was named to the Post Growth Institute (En)Rich List as a top 100 luminary inspiring global prosperity beyond economic wealth; and, honored for her lifetime achievement with the Award for Natural Law and Order from the Maharishi University School of Management and with the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Development of ESG & Investing at TBLI Europe.  Henderson is also a co-author with Barbara Marx-Hubbard and Jean Houston of  The Power of Yin (Cosimo Books, 2007.)

Nominations for EthicMark Awards are now open!

Founded in 2004 by Cosimo author Hazel Henderson and supported by Ethical Markets Media, The EthicMark Awards are once again upon us. The rewards recognize socially responsible advertising and media communications that uplift the human spirit and society. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the awards!

Award-winning companies are examined by all-encompassing standards for
- the value of their message,
- the product or service being advertised
- and the merits and reputation of the company itself

There is still time to nominate a deserving company -- the submission deadline for 2015 is July 17. 

For more information, please go to www.ethicmark.org.

About the Author:

Hazel Henderson is a world-renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, and consultant on sustainable development. She has written books and introductions for Cosimo, including: "Uncivil Liberties: Deconstructing Libertarianism," "Earth Fever: Living Consciously with Climate Change," "Dare to Care: A Love-Based Foundation for Money and Finance," and "The Power of Yin, Celebrating Female Consciousness."

May Book of the Month: Uncivil Liberties

Uncivil Liberties: Deconstructing Libertarianism, edited by Georgia Kelly and with a Foreword from Hazel Henderson (founder of Ethical Markets Media), is Cosimo's Book of the Month for May. Uncivil Liberties is an expansion on a pamphlet released in 2012 from Praxis Peace Institute responding to the film Thrive. Contributors* from Praxis expound on the arguments made in the pamphlet, which carefully and concisely laid out the problems inherent in libertarian philosophy and why it is so appealing to today's society. Uncivil Liberties is essential reading for those invested in modern politics, and they will find that the book makes a compelling case against the tenants of libertarianism. By demonstrating the untruths promoted within libertarian culture, they outline how concerned citizens can avoid and refute common myths spread by extreme right-wing ideologies.

Hazel Henderson writes in the Foreword, "The authors of Uncivil Liberties de-mystify the social and cultural myths and religious beliefs that underpin the still prevailing economic fundamentalism that drove corporate executives, Wall Street traders, central bankers, and compliant politicians into denial... This book and the deeply insightful perspectives of its co-authors help us understand how all these travesties could have happened and why they are still occurring... I hope Uncivil Liberties reaches the widest possible audience... The world's people await our culture's maturation from adolescence to more responsible global citizenship--beyond individual human rights to our universal human responsibilities as in the Earth Charter--matching our new challenges in this Solar Age of the Anthropocene."


Uncivil Liberties is available from most online bookstores. Praxis Peace Institute is a non-profit peace education organization based in Sonoma, California, dedicated to deep inquiry, creative problem solving, and informed civic participation. Since its founding in 2001, Praxis Peace Institute programs have addressed the most relevant social challenges of our time, from communication and conflict transformation, to politics and propaganda, to the economy.



*Ben Boyce, Nick Colby, Gus diZerega, Julianne Maurseth, and Barry Spector

"Dare to Care" Author, Louis Bohtlingk, Interviewed by Hazel Henderson

A newly released video interview, Daring to Care: The Love Economy, two of our very own authors chat about Dare to Care: A Love-Based Foundation for Money and Finance by Louis Bohtlingk. Hazel Henderson deliberate pressing issues in the finance and economic world, the the Myth of Money, as well as how to gain courage in the work world in this fascinating discussion with author Bohtlingk.

"Dare to Care" encourages readers to approach money and finance from this new care-first perspective, and shows steps everyone can start making on their own, together with existing communities or in conjunction with Böhtlingk’s initiatives.


About the Author:
Louis Böhtlingk, a visionary, counselor and creator of the “Meeting the Mystery of Money” workshop offers a different vision on how to run our financial lives and businesses with his book Dare to Care. Böhtlingk has developed a collection of ideas and initiatives to change finance from a money-first to a care-first attitude. He showcases fascinating examples, such as the story of an American kindergarten kid Ryan Hreljac, who raised money for a drinking well for children in Uganda and the business of Guayaki Yerba Mate that works with yerba mate farmers in South America creating living wage jobs and restoring the South American rainforest. He describes the success of European ethical banking pioneer, Triodos Bank and shows the impressive trends in socially responsible investing which now surpasses $3 trillion out of $25 trillion totally invested in the U.S. In all those and many more examples, Böhtlingk shows that by replacing fear with care and love as the main driver behind our approach to money, this can maximize our well-being and the common good, and change our economic system.  

Hazel Henderson on Syria and the International Criminal Court

Although the ground on the Syria crisis has started to shift, at this point we don't know how successful the Russian proposal for Syrian chemical weapons disarmament will be, neither what the response of President Obama and the Congress will be in case of failure. What we do know is how President Obama and his foreign policy team has framed the debate a few weeks ago. Now an intriguing article has been written by Hazel Henderson, well known as a sustainable economist, futurist, author of multiple books including with Cosimo, specifically addressing the false dichotomy presented by President Obama and calling for a non-military and legally sound option of referring the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC.) In her article Averting Another U.S. Foreign Policy Disaster published in The Globalist, Hazel Henderson states.

"So far, the public debate in the United States on what to do about Syria has been largely limited to an almost childishly binary proposition: “Bomb Syria — or do nothing.” President Obama has taken a first step out of this box by correctly throwing the decision on Syria to the U.S. Congress, as required by the U.S. Constitution."

Henderson then acknowledges that due to  Russia's initiative, President Obama has "now a way to put the military strike on hold. But should this initiative fail, there remains a strong possibility — given the grave doubts asserted by many, including military officers and other leaders — that Congress will answer President Obama’s request with a resounding “no” vote."

Henderson continues and calls for an alternative to the option of military action:

Streaming Radio Interviews with Dare to Care author Louis Bohtlingk

This weekend, Dare to Care author and inventor of the Care First World initiative, Louis Bohtlingk, interviewed with KGNU radio host Duncan Campbell on his show "Living Dialogues." Duncan and Louis delve into Louis's vision for a care-first approach to money and finance and the principles outlined in his book.

The interview can be listened to in full on the KGNU website or downloaded as an MP3 file. Louis will follow-up this interview on Friday, July 21, along with Hazel Henderson (author of The Power of Yin and founder of Ethical Markets Media), on the KGNU show "Connections," at 10:30 am ET. It will be available online after this time.

Amid Rio+20 UN Conference and Impending Climate Crisis, The Tierra Solution Delivers Answers

With the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development happening this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the upcoming presidential election--where there is sure to be at least some focus on climate issues and a lot of focus on financial issues--this month's Book of the Month is both timely and relevant. The Tierra Solution, by sustainability sociologist Dr. Frans Verhagen, offers a solution to climate change through monetary transformation, essentially killing two birds with one stone.

Dr. Verhagen proposes to resolve to the current financial, economic, and monetary problems around the world with a credit-based financial system, governed by a Global Central Bank, that uses a carbon standard for a newly developed international monetary system with the Tierra as the unit of account--hence, the Tierra Solution.

Basically, Verhagen suggests that by simply holding businesses and governments accountable for the carbon-based energy they use, and basing money exchange on that energy, we can create a cleaner environment and solve the global financial crisis. Separated into two distinct parts, The Tierra Solution first describes the current climate crisis and methods of carbon reduction that already exist (and why they are not ideal). He also lays out the history and present structure of the international monetary system. Then, Verhagen describes the Tierra Fee & Dividend System, why it is the best solution for our ravaged economies, how it will improve the climate and monetary systems, and how it should be implemented.

Hazel Henderson, evolutionary economist and president of Ethical Markets Media, commented that The Tierra Solution is, "a visionary and immensely practical approach to reforming today's bubble finance and taming its global casino. Verhagen... illuminates the win-win solutions possible when we combine monetary transformation with low-carbon, renewable resource strategies and equitable approaches to sustainable development."

In his Foreword, Felix Dodds, executive director of the Stakeholder Forum, said, "This book is an important contribution because it provides some serious ideas for how we can ensure that there is international monetary justice that takes account of social, environmental, and procedural justice and intergenerational principles in the international monetary system."

This is not a light-hearted read.

But it is essential for those in finance and governements (or who want to influence those areas) to understand how our current systems are failing and why we need something new. Verhagen describes it as needing to "repair the present global monetary, financial, and economic systems that enrich the few, impoverish the many, and imperil the planet."

If you're interested in the official press release, you can read it here. Dr. Frans Verhagen is a sustainability sociologist with a Ph.D. in the sociology of international development from Columbia University. he founded the Queens Green party, the Riverside Church Ecology Task Force, and the Ecolinguistics Commission. He has worked around the world and online teaching environmental policies and sustainability.He is online at www.timun.net.

Book review Dare to Care: Why Our Current Financial Crisis is a Crisis of Consciousness

Dare to Care: A Love Based Foundation for Money and Finance has received yet another review. Maddy Harland co-founder and editor of Permaculture Magazine (www.permaculture.co.uk) has written the review which can be found here.  The review discusses confronting the world's financial issues and what a care based economy would look like, based on what Louis Bohtlingk describes in his book and comes to a positive conclusion that not only is Bohtlingk's system a possibility, it would serve the greater good. Read it!

March's Book of the Month Falls in Line with National Reading Month and Women's History Month

March is women’s history month and national reading month. Combining both of those themes, Cosimo picked The Power of Yin, Celebrating Female Consciousness by Hazel Henderson, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Jean Houston. When three of the most influential feminist philosophers of the 1970s meet over two weekends to discuss the challenges facing society in the late 20th century, it’s an event that should be documented. Their revelatory, inspiring conversations were reproduced into a fresh and relevant book.  This book has an uplifting spiritual perspective on the human experience and uniquely feminine approach to interacting with the universe, which fit perfectly into this month’s overall celebrations. 

The Power of Yin is more than a brilliant conversation. It is an invitation to women and men everywhere to express their own genius and empower their highest values and goals, to seek out others who attract them in this quest for personal development, to form ever deeper friendships, and to join together in spirit and in action to help evolve the human community on planet Earth. 

HAZEL HENDERSON is a world-renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, and consultant on sustainable development. JEAN HOUSTON is advisor to UNICEF in human and cultural development, and a principal founder of the Human Potential Movement. BARBARA MARX HUBBARD is president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution and a cofounder of Washington D.C.'s Committee for the Future.

Valentine’s Day and Its Effect on the Economy

Hazel Henderson, co-author of The Power of Yin, Celebrating Female Consciousness and foreword writer for Dare to Care: A Love-Based Foundation for Money and Finance and Earth Fever: Living Consciously with Climate Change , is quoted in an interesting article about the evolution of Valentine’s Day and the effects it has on the economy.

The article, Love, marriage and Valentine's Day, looks at the development of Valentine’s Day and how it came to be a commercial holiday. This can be traced back to when marriage stopped being about money, wealth, and status and started to be more about love. The article is informative, well researched and looks at the past as well as into the future. Whether you have romantic plans or not, this is an interesting article about the development of Valentine’s day and what it does for our currently sinking economy. Read the article here.