A Letter to the Signatories of the Kyoto Protocol

December 27, 2003

We wish you all a New Year full of wisdom and compassion.

As representatives of people and their habitat in the complicated game of world politics, may you consider our proposal as one of the many steps that can be taken - NOW - toward a more hopeful future!

This letter is being sent simultaneously to all governments who signed the Kyoto Protocol with the assumption that their signatures represent an earnest desire to act on that commitment in as many ways as possible.

While opportunities to do so will, of course, be nation-specific, in each country some grass or grain is cut in a manner which:

1. pollutes the environment
2. depletes non-renewable resources
3. demands domestic and imported capital that could be put to other use
4. disempowers and impairs the health of its people ~ the nation's most precious
resource.

At least a portion of the areas presently cut with machines could be very effectively harvested or cared for by men, women and even children using scythes. ^Note1

Some may dismiss the idea as naively "old-fashioned". May we remind those individuals that many examples of even more "primitive" tools enjoy widespread use in nations where more modern versions are affordable. ^Note2

To draw international attention to the unrealized potential of this tool in helping to prevent further destruction of Earth and its inhabitants, we are now co-ordinating the Scythe Symposium and Festival (notice attached).

Please consider this letter as an invitation to participate - and so contribute to our collective sustainable future!

You can do so in one or more ways:

1. Circulate the notice of the Symposium, along with reference to our Network's website: (www.scytheconnection.com), to organizations and publications to whom you think the subject may be of interest.
2. Commission someone to represent your country at the Symposium
3. Support the efforts of your citizens who learned of this tool's potential elsewhere and may approach you directly.
4. Communicate the hand-tool related needs of your agricultural community to our network. (Please read Note 3)
5. Lastly, let us know your reaction to this proposal - be it positive, critical or indifferent.

NOTE 1:
However, many versions of this tool do not meet the parameters of the kind of scythe we are recommending here. It may be analogous to improving the fuel efficiency of the American cars of the 1950s with the added challenge of ignorance within the international scythe distribution system. Hence our plan as outlined in Note 3.

NOTE 2:
We are not suggesting a return to a period in history when farm labourers everywhere had to work exceedingly hard ~ and certainly not the exploitation of children. Using this tool at its best requires no more energy than do many activities indulged in for pure pleasure (See "Mowing with Ease").

NOTE 3:
Our two most immediate goals are:

1. to establish a network of qualified teachers with humanitarian rather than commercial goals who will, by means of written and visual aids to learning as well as live demonstrations and workshops, carry the skill of hand mowing further afield and
2. to "rehabilitate" certain aspects of international scythe distribution as well as organize an alternative system which is oriented to serving people with limited economic means.

Those with special interest in this project should contact us directly, preferably by fax - (01) 506-273-2977. (A more roundabout route is by e-mail via our website.)

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Modified 8 Feb. 2004

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