Fourteen Steps Towards a Sustainable Future

05. 06. 07. 08. 09. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

A new way of living on our planet, which can save the climate, biodiversity, and the foundations for lives of future generations, requires more than just the addition of green elements to established society.

We will therefore hold a funeral on each of the Bottom Meeting’s 14 days. For example linear thinking will be buried on the day where research and education are the main topics. This does not mean that we will never need linear thinking again. It simply means that we have to question linear thinking, we have to put it in a fitting context, we must prevent it from destroying our living environment and our perspectives on reality.

Each of the 14 funerals will present a condensed picture of the qualities and cultural patterns in the industrial era that we must rethink and leave behind in order to move ahead (or return) to a humanity that is in balance with the foundations for our very existence.

The funerals are not to be taken literally. Instead they should be seen as an opportunity to gain new perspectives, where the workshops and the Bottom Meeting in their entirety offer alternative solutions that can be allowed to flourish if we can let go of egotism, free trade, the American Dream, and linear thinking.  

That is why the funerals are not sad events. It's wake-up calls to the realization that our future life will work much better without many of these pillars of the industrial community.

The burials take place at the same time every day at 14:00 at the start of the bottom meeting program afternoon sessions in the big tent at the Meadow of Peace.

Funeral of the Day: 05. 06. 07. 08. 09. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

Funeral of the Day

Egoism - 05.12. 

Climate, Community, and Sustainability
Gravestone: Jens Galschiøt

The American Dream - 06.12.

Cosmology, Culture, and Spirituality (values)
Gravestone: Marianna Rydvald

The Global Free Trade - 07.12.

Local, Regional and Global - North-South
Gravestone: Mahmoud Alibadi

Economic Growth - 08.12.

Man and mint - From Global to Local Economic Exchange
Gravestone: Finn Thorstein

The Military-Industrial Complex - 09.12.

Democracy and Conflict Resolution
Gravestone: Khalil Yassin

Loneliness - 10.12.

Care and Social Ecology
Gravestone: Catrine Hagbang

Linear Thinking - The Reductionist Paradigm - 11.12.

Live and Learn - Training, Research and experiment
Gravestone: Christella Bamford

Television - The Modern Home Altar - 12.12.

Presence / Transparency - Prayer and Song for the Earth
Gravestone: Dorte la Cour

The Universal Glass Box - 13.12.

Ecological Construction and Urban Renewal From Below
Gravestone: Bjørn Nørgaard

The World's Coal Reserves - Coal is Best Left in the Ground - 14.12.

Renewable Energy - The Ecological Footprint
Gravestone: Erik Clausen

The Concept of Waste - 15.12.

Cradle to Cradle, Waste to Design
Gravestone: Anders Hansen

The Industrial Food Production - 16.12.

Organic Agriculture, Forest Gardens and Biodiversity
Gravestone: Esben Klemann

The Pill Glass - The reparation paradigm - 17.12.

Health, Healing and Culture
Gravestone: Per Skovgaard

The Fossil Society - 18.12.

Celebrating Life
Gravestone: Dorte Eilenberger