Mobilizing to address climate change
It looks to me like it's up to us to hold the banner and forward the motion to address climate change. I was disappointed to hear Roger Duncan, the leader of Austin Energy and a key player in our local carbon footprint, sounding resigned, saying that we can't really make enough change to make a difference and save ourselves. He says we'd have to stop using all energy today, and it probably still wouldn't be enough, and the generation plan they have proposed is really the best we can do. Really?
As former Mayor Will Wynn pointed out, the US has been the worst polluting country in the world (this was before China pressed ahead). Texas has been the worst polluting state (I believe I've heard that we would be 7th in the world if we were a nation). And Austin, which under Wynn adopted a visionary Climate Protection Plan promising to be a leader in climate protection, has the opportunity to be at the forefront of the turnaround. Mayor Leffingwell campaigned saying climate change is his top priority and we have a heavily green-leaning council. THE TIME IS NOW!
How about some world-changing visionary thinking and collective action? With urgency! If we knew that Austin, or Earth, was going to be hit by a meteor unless we changed our behaviors radically and all worked toward real solutions, would we get the collective buy-in? Well there is a something hitting us with global impact greater than a meteor. It is causing environmental refugees, causing mass extinctions and much much more. How about a new Apollo Project or our local Pecan Street Project as starting places. We have to dedicate resources, R&D brainpower, and political will to figure out how to live sustainably on this precious planet. In addition to stimulus funding, there is SOOOOO much money in investment portfolios and hedge funds and foundations and private trusts with people actively looking for the best ideas to invest in.
William James in 1910 wrote about the "moral equivalent of war" to mobilize young people in service to their country doing meaningful service work. What's the equivalent motivation we need to take big steps in the face of climate change? The "enemy" is invisible but everywhere.
Can we muster the urgency to act in the face of something so nebulous? I think we can. I'm not sure what the motivating factor is. There are many potential motivators. We need to tell the story in a galvanizing way where people don't feel like they are being asked to sacrifice but they feel compelled to do whatever they can to contribute, like WWII-era everyone chip in, save your tin cans and metal, give up wearing nylon stockings (that's easy), and more. The greatest generation earned that title by everyone doing their part.
If the goal is a mobilized citizenry taking meaningful action, who do we need on our team to succeed?
We need graphic and video artists to tell the story of stuff as it applies to everything we do, and help paint the picture of what better choices are available.
We need PR/Mktg/Advertising/Media people to help us message and mobilize.
We need religious leaders to instill in their congregations a collective call to serve humanity and the planet.
We need political leaders to implement the Precautionary Principle and start making all policy and budgetary decisions through the filter "Could this be harmful to people or the planet?"
We need accountants to provide full-cost accounting (financial, social and environmental costs) for our chosen actions?
We need lawyers to stop the polluters and help formulate new laws that make it illegal to harm
We need educators from Pre-k through business school and law school and every school to teach from a philosophy of at least "do no harm" and even better, be restorative.
We need kids to motivate and hold us accountable for creating a future they can live into.
We need farmers to grow sustainably, property owners to maintain their land with chemical-free restorative practices.
manufacturers to produce with minimal environmental impact,
builders to build restorative developments that are net zero or energy positive
and so on and so on...
We need EVERYONE to conserve energy and water, eat local, reuse everything possible, and passionately use their abilities and do everything in their power to be a part of the solution.
We can cover to do lists in a separate thread. Kerry Stevens and Chris Searles' Journey of Environmental Stewardship has a buch of great tips to get started with.
I'm interested in this conversation and the follow-up actions that go with it. Who's in?
Change is Coming
Brandi,
As you've made very clear, this is no small effort. It will take changes in attitudes, technologies, processes... people.
Change is coming. Change is coming faster than politicians can comfortably predict. So, policies and regulations and laws will inevitably reflect the overly conservative estimates that they are based upon.
I will absolutely continue to do my part. I love being here in Austin, where I am surrounded by others who are so willing to promote the positive changes that will lead to a more responsible balance of environment-energy-economy.
thanks Brandi -
perhaps we can extend invitations to this particular forum out to City leaders, utility leaders, business leaders, and faith leaders. it'd be great to get comments, at least, so as to understand each person's sense of urgency. maybe a "you're so invited ... to state your views on climate change" ... invitation via email. might make this forum the destination for collecting lay & leaders's views?
also, anybody reading this, please check out our citizen petition, urging Austin City Council to recommit to "leading the nation in Climate Protection."(http://tinyurl.com/austinclimateleadership) thanks again--
The Transition Model, created by UK Permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins ("The Transition Handbook," www.transitionculture.org) offers proven ways to do all of this and more. The wheel does not have to be re-invented. Totnes, England, home of Schumacher College (http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/), had the first Transition Town (www.transitiontowns.org). Transition has become a cottage industry in Totnes, but they have yet to create their Energy Descent Action Plan.
And that's the bottom line. Burning fossil fuels to power the Industrial Revolution (humanity's largest error) caused the ecological crisis that scientists have talked about for the last forty years with ever-increasing urgency. We have to stop burning fossil fuels by 2015 and invent ways to sequester massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere to have a future on this planet that's worth living.
If we don't do that, everything else is, as the old Jerry Jeff song said, "pissing in the wind."
Transition Austin (www.transitionaustin.org) is up and going and a member of AEN. There is a way to do the right things now. All it takes is enough people to learn the way and get willing to give up how it is in order to give our children a future worth living.
Smiles.
Tommy
Brandi - thanks for the inspiration. We've got to transform our own lives and our city's policies away from the business-as-usual models.
Keep up the good work.
Colin