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The Energy Crisis continues to create heavy environmental, political and military fallout. The disastrous conflict in the Middle East is related directly to the oil crisis. How are we as ordinary citizens to respond to this? If like Governor Schwarzenegger, we held a high political office, we might follow a similar conservation program. His actions are most admirable. If our national leaders fail to represent our interests and rights as citizens then we must. We can do this; starting from where we are and using current technology. So let’s answer our initial questions:
This is our focus. What actions can we take as individual citizens and as communities to create clean healthy environments, decrease pollution, and leave a greener world for our children and grandchildren? Consider the power the Internet provides us: Paul Hawken the author of The Ecology of Commerce and most recently, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. In this new book a chapter is devoted to how governments and corporations are stealing the future (our challenge) while the Internet and his own organization the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility—WISER are bringing all of it together to put down the destructive minorities--he called this the Earth's immune system. The world's largest movement has no name, no leader, and no ideology, but may directly involve more than 100 million people, said this green business pioneer. Speaking at a talk sponsored by the Long Now Foundation, Paul Hawken, co-founder of garden supply store Smith & Hawken and today recognized as a leader in eco-minded business and green design, spoke about two of his latest projects: Blessed Unrest, his new book tracing the emergence and growth of this still unnamed movement, and WiserEarth.org, an online community that embodies concepts explored in his book by networking more than 100,000 environmental and justice organizations. |
