Put your Senators on SPeed Dial

My brother, John wrote,"Hey, Adam. I really like reading your blog, and getting some ideas of what our economy and environment might look like far in the future. I'm wondering what we might be looking at as intermediate steps to help us get there, and what information sources you would recommend for individuals hoping to tread a responsible path."

I gave this a lot of thought. And I think I'll answer these questions with poetry and rants... like always.

#1, The intermediary step is starting at home. I recommend finding out if your neighborhood, school, or job has an action group of some kind, whether environmental or community building, or what have you. One need never work alone on these kinds of things. If you need to, though you can start an action group. When I was pondering this, I came up with the following dialog, like a poem.

"Good thing I've got this shovel!
And what a shovel it is!
It shines as bright as acorn shells and glistens in the sun,
I got it cause I wanted holes, it hasn't dug me one!"

"Good thing we've got democracy!
And what a system, oh boy!
We got it for to garner peace and bring self determination,
ol' democracy just sits there, though, I thought it ran the nation?"

Asking a Shovel to dig a hole for you is like asking Democracy to represent you. The government only asks you what you think a couple of times a year. I believe that voting is necessary, but it is possibly the weakest form of democracy there is.

"Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence."
-Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

No one who works at the grocery store is going to knock on my door and ask me if its okay that they import all of their food from an average distance of 1800 miles away. That item will not appear on the ballot any time soon either. But its something I care about, so how can I be heard? Well, just speak your mind. Join a group. Talk to them, ask if there is anything they want to do with regards to your issues. Organize fasts, boycotts, sit ins, put up posters, call your senators, go door to door. Don't wait for democracy to ask you what you want, It's a tool that only works once you pick it up and use it. In my brother's case. I encourage you, John to chase that dream of a sustainable theater. Make it work, make it appealing, and sell it to every theater in the world.

#2 In terms of Treading a more sustainable path, I recommend deciding what you need for your lifestyle, rather than what you are accustomed to.

To nurture hearts, make songs and arts,
to keep us fed, farms and bread.
To give us heat, tend woods and sheep,
with Thrift and Peace to safely sleep.

That can be my epitaph if I die before coming up with anything better. I think that your question John, would be likely to direct you to a book called "Tips and Tricks for Sustainable Living." By Papa Greenbeard. This book is hypothetical, but it exists in various forms throughout the environmental movement. The real answer to your question isn't to explain methods of reducing your footprint, its to recognize that rather than using your foot to make a print, you can use it to kick things.

Kick things onto the floor of congress for example. Put your Congressional delegation on Speed Dial! Don't just save oil by insulating your windows, save oil by fighting for a green building code in your state. Don't just carpool, make an oath to never fly in an airplane again. Do huge things that matter, rather than small things that don't.

Most of the tips and tricks out there only end up providing self satisfaction, self motivation's worst enemy.

I've said it before. The only technology we need to save the world is the off switch.