Humanity needs a new story. Humans live by the stories they believe in. The stories modern societies enact are stories of hoarding so-called wealth, exploiting others, dominance of nature, and depleting and destroying the Earth's life-support system (ELSS) for individual benefits today. Most of these stories originate in the North Atlantic male-dominated culture of white people. We need a new ecosystem of stories that changes the way in which we are in this world and how we relate to the world and to each other. These new stories can hardly come from old white males. In this VCC, our diverse community is open to all ethnicities, genders, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and generations. We aim to write and enact the new stories that can transform the virus we currently are in the ELSS into the healer of both humanity and the ELSS.
[Mar 07, 2026] Union of Concerned Scientists Training for Activists: The UCS is offering the training webinar “Science Advocacy 101” on Thursday, March 12, 3:00-4:00 pm ET. “UCS is offering a series of virtual, skills-building webinars to provide experts in our Science Network with practical guidance on how they can engage in policy advocacy with confidence and clarity.” Registration is required to get the Zoom link.
[Feb 23, 2026] New Story Blog on Medium: Follow Barry's New Story blog on Medium.
[Jan 21, 2025] The Story: The Story project is a main activity on Place4Us. In the Deliberation Room "The Story", we are currently discussing the main focus and content of The Story, the process of how to get participation, and the questions we need to address in The Story. Come join us in the Deliberation Room and help us with your remarks and comments to get this project going.
[Dec 06, 2024] Call to Participate in THE STORY Project: We are pulling together a team to work on THE STORY - Of a Thriving Humanity on a Healthy Planet. The project will create new ecosystem of stories humanity could live by and transform the virus we have become in the Earth's life-support system into the healer. There are many roles for participating: co-author, graphic designer, reviewer, commentator, audience, promoter, ... you name it. If you are interested, join us in the Deliberation Room "The Story" for a first deliberation on the contents of the book. To contribute to the deliberations, you will need to join the New Story VCC.
[Jun 04, 2026] ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: This is what the Global Justice Report published today by the World Inequality Lab makes very clear. Read the article by Jonathan Watts in the Guardian as an introduction. In an Opinion article also in the Guardian, several of the authors of the report, Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky and Anmol Somanchi, state that a good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream, and they explain how it can be done. “Our plan is radical – but by transforming how we live on a finite planet, nearly everyone gains.”While this equal and habitable world is still possible, it is very unlikely that we will transition to this world as long as greedy and unethical billionaires supported by governments they own compete to be the first trillionaire. The report underlines that the fight for an equal and habitable world has to be a fight against a system that rewards extraction and depletion of all resources and requires infinitely growing consumption devouring the Earth's life-support system; a system designed to increase inequality and sustain the exploitation of almost all to serve the greed of a few!
[Jun 04, 2026] ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: This is what the Global Justice Report published today makes very clear. Read the article by Jonathan Watts in the Guardian as an introduction. While this equal and habitable world is still possible, it is very unlikely that we will transition to this world as long as greedy and unethical billionaires supported by governments they own compete to be the first trillionaire. The report underlines that the fight for an equal and habitable world has to be a fight against a system that rewards extraction and depletion of all resources and requires infinitely growing consumption devouring the Earth's life-support system; a system designed to increase inequality and sustain the exploitation of almost all to serve the greed of a few!
[May 28, 2026] No King Day on June 14, 2026: The No Kings movement has announced a nationwide event on June 14, 2026, directly counter-programming the 80th birthday celebrations for Donald Trump and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bout on the south lawn of the White House.
[May 09, 2026] Doomsday Clock is Getting Closer to Midnight: In January, the Doomsday clock was set to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest setting since it was established in 1947 in response to the threat of nuclear war. Sophie McBain in her article “‘The odds are not in our favour’: who sets the Doomsday Clock – and what can they tell us about the future of humanity?” emphasizes that with the wars on Iran and on the Ukraine, the rapid and largely uncontrolled development of AI and the climate breakdown all together increasing the likelihood of a nuclear war, the clock now stands closer to midnight than ever before. She asks the question of whether we can buy ourselves more time.
[Apr 25, 2026] World Happiness Report Finds Positive Impacts of Collaborative Platforms: The World Happiness Report 2026 has a strong focus on the impacts of social media and the Web in general on human happiness. The results of most studies indicate that the use of most social media seems to have a negative impact on happiness, while those tools that generate trust and collaboration have a positive impact. The report sumarizes: “Internet activities fall into two groups. Communications, news, learning, and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction. Social media, gaming, and browsing for fun are associated with lower life evaluations.” This supports the mission of Place4Us as a trust-focused collaborative platform for intercreativity and learning.
[Apr 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.
