Before you assume that my title means that every little small thing helps, please read further. Not that I'm discounting the small things - like changing light bulbs, or recycling, or carpooling - these things matter. Very much.
But I'm really talking about the need for a sea change.
The American Dream means different things to different people, but in general I believe many would define it as the freedom to control one's own destiny by working and striving in a chosen field towards monetary success.
We still may have some freedom (depending on your circumstances in these tough times), but we have the end result/ goal all wrong.
I'd like to use my personal story first then talk about what some other generous people I know are doing to change their world.
I ditched a pair of corporate golden hand cuffs and I hope I never have to go back.
In brief, my background is one of, for the first 15+ years of my adult work career, mirrored what I thought was my American Dream: work my way up a corporate ladder to a nice reward of managerial status and monetary success.
After college, a little bouncing around finally led to a good job with a private corporation where I stayed ten years. (The owners were extremely generous and ethical men, so this is no take down of where I worked specifically, I want to stress). I was good at sales, which led to heading up that department.
And so on. My story is familiar to so many others in our culture; and especially maybe to those that grew up in the Reagan era that was punctuated with movies like Working Girl where the happy ending was a big corner office, a secretary, and a 70 hour work week.
From this perspective, I had "arrived".
Then I sat in my own beautiful wide-window-view office and wondered what the hell came next.
I filled this void with lots of shoes and hand-bags. I spent a lot of money. I honestly don't know where it all went.
Then... a miracle! I was accepted into Al Gore's Climate Project and started giving presentations to my community on global climate change.
That presentation is full of a lot of scary scenarios with scientific models that predict most of the US tacking towards a hot arid climate with a whole lot of drought, flood, forest fires, disease carried by mosquitoes, species elimination, violent storms, and flooding coasts in between. (You know... 2012).
The presentation made me uncomfortable. I was talking the talk, but hardly led by example.
So, I quit. My job - not The Climate Project.
I started over and went to trade school to specialize in building science and residential energy conservation.
I have a very small business now helping builders and homeowners make their homes more energy efficient. I make substantially less money, but I'm happier. Life can still be a struggle, but that's true for everyone, including those lives that appear to be the most charmed.
I think about how all of our troubles in the world are so connected now. For the "lucky ones" these days (those employed with a decent paying job and benefits), we drive solo in our cars, to our glassed-in climate controlled Ivory Towers, to the Big Box stores for necessities and not so necessary things in life. We deposit our pay checks. Maybe if we're really lucky, we are still working our way up that corporate ladder.
We come home to watch corporate television whether it's "fact" or fiction filled with commercial breaks that tell us to buy more, like maybe a new TV, or three cute tops for only $15.99! Much of this merchandise is made over seas, shipped with fuel that our nation ensures is plentiful by using even more oil to fight wars to keep this monster fed. But it's worth it! Having all these things makes us happy!
We can lucid-dream our way out this nightmare. Individually, in our communities.
I understand. We have big, big problems that only a major shakeup in the way our leaders govern, talk and act will start to solve. Yes. We need radical change that can only be spurred by large project ideas like a smart grid, high-speed public transportation and better designed communities. These absolutely need to happen.
However, I am here to say that I cross paths with people in all walks of life, political persuasions, and socioeconomic means. Across the spectrum the winds of change are blowing.
I'll give you one example. Two weeks ago we sold a solar thermal panel system to an older woman of modest means. She knows that it will only save her a little bit of money (water heating in the Midwest really isn't that expensive due to low natural gas rates), and probably won't pay her back any time soon. And she's spending quite a bit of money on it in lieu of something else that might be more "American", like a new car. But she's doing this in order to set an example to her neighbors. She is practicing conspicuous consumption to demonstrate her views that this is what she has to do to salvage a satisfactory life for future generations.
As I drove yesterday to visit her after the installation, I drove through hot, dry winds on what felt like the thousandth hot dry day in this summer and I thought of that Climate Project presentation slide about the Midwest turning into a desert. As I pulled up to her house and saw the solar collectors on her roof, I almost cried. Everyone needs to take a similar plunge. We need to change how we spend our time and money. Immediately.
A stream of conscience list of other good news actions: there is a movement to buy US and locally manufactured products in the building industry association in my city (not just the "green" building industry, I'm talking about the industry in general. I mean, these guys drive 4x4's); keeping up with the Jones' now means installing a ground source heat pump in your house. Building codes are improving around the country because industry processionals recognize the science behind the methods and know that better codes just build longer lasting, better buildings that conserve energy.
I have a friend in a prominent large corporation that for the last three years has pushed the policy to start building LEED-Green certified buildings for all this large corporation's new retail stores. She was just rewarded with recognition at her company, and the affirmation that the company will continue to move forward towards more sustainable practices.
I have another friend that is part of small group of parents that are taking a larger, more active role in building a public community school. This is relevant because our school district is so poorly run that many parents move out of the inner city to live in better districts, thus building new houses rather than renovating the housing we have.
These things all need to continue, but they can't without all of us that feel this way taking bold steps towards active participation. If you can't afford to renovate, insulate and install solar panels for your home, work in your neighborhood association to make sure that those that can afford it have that freedom to do so.
Buy local as much as possible. The power that our corporate overlords have is based on our blind consumerism.
And show up to those environmental activists' rallies, like 350.org. They need us all to be there!
In conclusion, I think a lot about the idea of personal legacy and how it is tied to the environmental movement. Will an uber-rich - that use their money to grasp for more power to squash progress in the broader community and sustainability movement - feel truly satisfied with their life if they have time to reflect on it at the end?
Think about it. Legacy: what do you want yours to be?