Well, easy no (Kermit, my friend), but possible. You will have to make changes in how you live that seem so small they couldn’t possibly have an impact. You will risk making friends uncomfortable. You may be labeled Treehugger — like there’s something wrong with appreciating a reliable source of oxygen. Don’t be surprised to learn that innovation will probably begin at the grass roots — hey, that’s us, particularly those of us old enough to remember when Global Warming was barely a blip on the radar. If we keep working, our solutions and ideas will percolate up to those in power, or maybe we’ll create a new power base.
We have to embrace activism but without the us vs. them, blame-and-shame game that tends to alienate people when we can spare no one. We need to “act as if what we want is already true,” to paraphrase a quote circulating in New Age circles. Author and expert on the power of intention, Lynne McTaggart had a radical suggestion about the spill in the Gulf in the three-part teleconference series: The Gulf Call to Sacred Action. She suggested to her listeners that we stop demonizing BP for this disaster which could have occurred at any one of hundreds of deep water drilling sites, and start imagining that BP engineers are successful at capping the leak. And then, imagine that the massive cleanup that follows unites people and resources in unprecedented, effective ways. McTaggart is best known for her research into the power of intention (The Intention Experiment, Free Press — Simon & Schuster 2007). Other visionaries on the call: Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston.
We need to find, fund, nurture, and support people who are working on solutions:
Here are a few examples:
- City of Curitiba, Brazil — a model for sustainable urban design
- On the Water — Palisades Bay Rethinking “the thresholds of land, water and city” in coastal New York and New Jersey
- Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth and other faith-based initiatives
“It’s not that easy being green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves…
But green’s the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree…”