What is the Breathe Foundation?

The Breathe Foundation is an non-profit organization set up to investigate, communicate, undertake direct action and fund raising activities surrounding the broad range of issues facing our planet and the future of humanity's relationship with it. The urgent need to re-examine our interaction with the planet and the fragile ecosystems that define it will be the single most pressing issue of the 21st century and beyond.

Humanity's ability to change is only matched by it's unwillingness to voluntarily do so. Considering the overwhelming, mind numbing monotony of the mainstream media combined with the sophisticated mechanism of marketing fueling the consumption society. A collective apathy and conspiracy of silence has been drawn over the pressing issues and positive actions being undertaken by motivated and enlightened individuals across the world working on addressing the balance. Change is possible, and change starts at an individual level, with us

The Breathe Foundation does not confine itself to a specific field of expertise, rather works to identify and promote all individuals or organizations working on positive ideas, practical solutions and sustainable systems for a world gone mad. Our world can be broken down into three main areas:

Breathe Events challenge people to leave their regular surroundings and to re-immerse themselves with a isolated, vibrant, living, ecosystem. A chance to take direct action with organizations on the ground. A chance to stop for a second, take a deep breath, to interact and re-examine our place on the planet from a completely different perspective. Put simply, Breathe events offer a unique experience with like-minded people interested and working for change...

Breathe Documentaries and media output work in tandem with the events on the local level while creating a global communication platform presenting the invaluable work and initiatives by local organizations, while following international developments on a diverse range of issues and solutions.

The Breathe Foundations third main area of work is creating fundraising activities and partnership investing time, money and manpower directly to organizations we have identified who are working directly on the ground on creating real solutions for ecological and social issues.

In one sentence, the Breathe foundation works tirelessly to raise awareness.

STOP. BREATHE. THINK. ACT.

The Breathe Foundation is open to members who will define where we go, what we cover and the most critical issues or most practical solutions we follow. The founders and present Board are:

Human history has always experienced politics, power struggles and disparity between the haves and have nots. Great civilizations, have grown, reached an epoch and promptly disappeared under their own weight and corruption, or through outside influences. Man, or better, humanity for several thousands of years has been the dominant species through its own guile, cunning and intelligence. However, the physical toil required to build these ancient civilizations was limited to human effort and beasts of burden. Let us not leave any romance hanging over this period of our development. Social inequity was rife, the rights of whole sections of society - such as slaves - were non-existent, while the aristocratic and gentry ruled with an iron fist, milking their territories natural resources and citizens for all they were worth.

Yet, over the millennia, human societies and the civilizations they bore have continually morphed, leaving us with esoteric concepts of modern 'Civilized' behavior. This has created a complete mind shift in what we now consider 'moral' or 'ethical' . It led to a massive human rights movement, political reform, and social upheavals that completely changed the paradigm of how we live together. At least this could be said of the Western world. Assisted and lubricated the whole way with science, philosophy, technology, the sublime intellectual problem solving capabilities of human intelligence and ingenuity. Though weaker and slower than most of its prey and all of the competing predators, humanity clawed it's way to the dominant species, ruler of the planet, guardian of the earth.

Then, in an instant, it forever changed. Unlike the centuries past, the advent of the Industrial Revolution a mere 250 years ago resulted in human technology exponentially overpowering nature and allowed exploitation of natural resources faster than all previous centuries that came before it. While there were many benefits that it brought - medicine, availability of products, transport, trash collection, food production to name a few - It also created social, economic issues and unbridled destruction to natural ecosystems. No sooner than some of these effects were starting to be understood, the Age of Oil arrived and everything went into hyper drive.

For it's entire existence, humanity has fed itself, built societies, civilizations, created engineering wonders from Pyramids to Aqueducts - all from the energy of the sun hitting the planet in a single day. The discovery of oil and it's uses hit us like a child in a candy store. We tapped this billion year old resource and exploited it as if there were no tomorrow, and sadly with even less regard if there was. In fairness to the generations of that age, the detrimental effects may not have been completely transparent. The standing wisdom of the time believed that this control over nature, exploitation of natural resources and complete populations in the developing world was all part of progress - a giant leap into a brave new world. Little did they understand the unseen consequences that it would bring. Apart from the exploitation, it fueled a whole new manufacturing system creating products that were as toxic as they were impossible to recycle. With the carrot of financial gain and without control or oversight, our own technology set about poisoning and destroying the very systems our entire species relied on to survive.

It took the human population over ten billion years to reach an estimated one billion people on the planet by the start of the 1800's. Now, merely two centuries later, the human population is predicted to hit seven billion by 2012. It is possibly unfair to lay the blame at the feet of these early initiators - after all, the prevailing consensus for centuries was the earth was flat - but today, you don't need to be a scientist to understand that things are going terribly astray. Today’s ‘for profit financial system is based on ever increasing consumption and is a totally flawed concept when living in a fragile, finite resource cycle. It is no more than common sense to question today’s system, something humans proudly expound to possess in abundance, yet seem unwilling to apply in any great quantity.

The ability of humanity to quickly change and adapt is infinite. Periods of history have proven this time and time again. The industrial revolution, for better and worse, is a good example. The complete conversion to a war economy during the two Great Wars of the early twentieth Century are sad but compelling examples. It is possibly best demonstrated by the fact that in 1904, the Wright Brothers put the first manned vehicle into the air. Now, only 105 years later, we as a species are sending satellites outside our solar system and beginning a voyage of exploration as daunting as that of Christopher Columbus in his time. Yet, as we look to the stars, the very planet we live on, our potential for continued survival or very least, the quality of our survival is in serious threat. It is all but ignored as we methodically grind into the ground what we have left of surviving ecosystems and resources - human and natural.

Faced by an ever more sophisticated marketing machine, an ever increasing central control of media, and the emergence of untamed, for profit Multi-National companies our work has never been more challenging or more pressing. In the 21st Century, with the accumulation of knowledge and advances in technology, it is again time for a complete paradigm shift. A return to greater consciousness of the ecosystems that support us and that we cohabit-ate with.

We do this because there is no single answer to the issues that we as a species face. We do this because change starts from within, with the individual. We do this to support anyone and everyone who is working on some part of the question, toiling to bring a small part of the solution. We do this because we believe, given a chance to stop for a second. To breathe. To think and become aware. That more and more people will make the decision to act to address the social and/or ecological challenges we face. We do this because we believe there is the wisdom and the will to preserve our home for the generations who follow us.....