The New Green Economy

After attending several events today that were part of 350.org’s Global Work Party, I came away with the following conclusions:

1. Learning about sustainability is perhaps the most important thing a person can do in today’s culture. Let me elaborate: There are approximately 80 million adults in the United states who are either passionately exploring the values-based cultural shift that is occurring in the U.S. and beyond or who are at least passionate about some aspect of the values that make it up. What was becoming clear today is that these people are onto something that is happening. And it’s something very big. They are not making it up. The concept of sustainability is based on a deeper reality that will wash over us as a values revolution defined not by consumer, pop culture, but by human evolution. There are deeper forces that are coming to the fore than anything that anyone has experienced in our lifetime. And these forces will completely reshape our culture from the ground up. And when I say completely, I mean imagine that there is no health care system, no money, or potentially even no government. That is the scale of what was being discussed today.
2. The predominant message that I heard today was about community. Over and over again I heard the message: reach out and connect with your neighbors. Connect with your community. Share food with them. Share your time and resources with them because in the cultural shift that is unfolding we are being reminded that we cannot “make it” alone.
3. We are living in a time of change and opportunity. Carolyn Baker, in her workshop “Forsaking the Destruction of Earth, Embracing a New Human Species” asked, “faced with the challenges that lie ahead, who do you want to be”? That question is becoming more pertinent than ever.
4. There are many practical steps that we as individuals can be taking, perhaps the most important ones relate to growing our own food, developing local sources of energy production (i.e. on your roof) and again, connecting more deeply with our communities.
5. Here is the big one and almost certainly the single biggest reason that people seem to operate in a drugged slumber when it comes to climate changes issues: asking people to change their behavior in relationship to climate change is paramount to asking them to change their very identity because they have grown up in a consumer culture. And so while they may intellectually understand the crisis, they are almost paralyzed because to take action goes directly against who they perceive themselves to be. How do we navigate that? Personally, I think the answer lies in incremental changes. For example, www.localshare.org provides people with the ability to start living differently just by making available the multitude of resources they have available in their home. With minimal effort, they can a small step of sharing or gifting something into their personal community and begin to experience the new paradigm that is unfolding.