Welcome to Iona's Writing Work.
Fighting global warming with inspiring educational materials.

Life-long activist and author
Iona Conner has been an environmental activist for more than five decades. The birth of her first child 57 years ago catapulted her into the realization that her daily choices had a direct bearing on the health of her son and the well-being of the Earth. She has been an active participant in the movement ever since.
 

As Co-Director of the Grassroots Coalition for Environmental and Economic Justice, Iona traveled with her (now deceased) husband John throughout the Northeast and Midwest for 15 years organizing meetings and presenting programs. Then she decided to stay home and publish a global warming newspaper, which she did for 15 years. Iona just finished researching and writing a book about Violence titled Why Was Wycliffe Beaten to Death? So many reasons for violence; how many reasons for love? This is not an ordinary book. Many people shared their stories and their work; also, if you find that you are concerned about a particular issue, there might be a group working on it and the link to their website is provided. 

Anneke meets Iona for Deep Transformation Network.

Why I Wrote This Book: Wycliffe

After devoting 57 years to the environmental movement from the tiniest steps to full-blown activism, I knew we were losing the War Against the Earth on all fronts.

I have purposefully avoided reading about violence so I decided it was time to understand how so many men in particular can do such bloody, brutal things. For the most part, they are the ones ruling the world, fighting wars, doing mass shootings, abusing women and children Two incidents made me aware of the fact that I did not understand why men in particular are so violent. What is going on?

First, I watched the movie “Braveheart” and then a man in Africa I had grown to love
electronically, was beaten to death. Even my husband says he used to like to play football, box, wrestle, fight. This is so foreign to me; I had an unpleasant visceral reaction just hearing this. I don’t get it.

I decided to research violence and put my findings into a book, which might be shared with others who care about the Earth and about poor people. Some say we are in a mass extinction; some say our American culture is insane, some say technology is killing the planet. I say these are all true.

Why Was Wycliffe Beaten to Death? So many reasons for violence, how many reasons for love? Is the result of my recent inquiry.

What are we to do? Some answers to this question are positioned in the last sections of this book, many provided by other people. I’m still trying to figure out what my next move will be after a self-care sabbatical.

The day I received David Pinto’s book Fulcrum: Generational World Transformation, I opened to page 152 and found an extremely useful quote: “A second rule-of-thumb is to match your capacity to strategise (sic, UK) with your own sense of social power.” I had not read his first rule before spotting this one. I’ll be reading the entire book during my break.