For decades, environmental matters have been touted as a prominent element of the progressive vision. But when it comes to real-life prioritizing, that prominence slips far down the list. Push comes to shove and economic concerns always have an advantage in most people’s minds over the environment. This is as true of land-poor subsistence farmers encroaching on gorilla territory in Africa as it is of cheap energy advocates at Daily Kos. In fact, economics and environment are not two separate entities but inextricably interwoven and inseparable except in that neverworld where factory farming doesn’t wreck the land and pumping greenhouse gases skyward doesn’t wreck the atmosphere.
That inextricability requires us to boost the prominence of environmental matters and to think differently about how we use the land and water, how we build our cities, how we move from place to place, how we power our lives, how we produce our food, and how we relate to each other. It requires us to put our shoulder to the wheel trying to prompt the revolution in values and attitudes necessary to deal with the growing environmental crisis, to cease operating through a prism of selfishness and greed. It necessitates moving beyond sustainability as a buzzword and transforming it into reality.
But persuading rank-and-file Americans and elected politicians into the mind-set and action demanded by such a transformation is no simple affair. Take the No. 1 environmental issue: climate change. Scientists sound increasingly desperate as the evidence they are carefully accumulating stacks up but fails to prompt the urgency they insist it requires. Science seems only to create a panicked paralysis: A language of probabilities, statistics and numbers that fails to gain traction in the public's imagination.
Indeed, some foreign leaders consider the U.S. to be climate change illiterate and are concerned that "wavering on climate commitment could undermine action to save the planet." The crisis does not halt in its tracks for society’s failure to take action. Indeed, it seems, every time we hear the latest new report, to be ramping up. Yet our politicians – most of them – seem to think they can play the same game California did for decades with its revenue stream, putting off the future until tomorrow. The future is today.
Climate change is, obviously, not the only environmental matter needing our attention. Which is why DK GreenRoots, a gathering of like-minded, eco-minded Kossacks, got started last summer after a week-long series of green diaries proved that environmental issues matter to the community but that no vehicle existed in which to explore mutual interests and do the kind of political organizing and networking that Daily Kos was instrumental in inventing.
To fill this hole, a DKGR Google Group was established and then a work-friendly private forum. Now there is DK GreenRoots.com, a web site that will provide stories, diaries and other information as well as a progressive organizing platform working in coalition with others to get politicians and citizens alike to take eco-centered public and private actions. The writing and organizing will carry on simultaneously at Daily Kos, and there will be much cross-posting going in both directions.
We have Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse and dsnodgrass to thank for getting the site together. Patriot Daily is well-known here for both her anti-torture diaries, including the weekly round-up that she, I and Valtin collaborated on for several months earlier this year, and her original, thoroughly researched and profusely linked environmental diaries.
dsnodgrass, who also posts at Daily Kos, is DK GreenRoots’ "techie," having put together a site that is both functional and beautiful, tweaking everything, often multiple times, at the behest of his partners in this project.
Once a professional musician and producer, and now a technical writer, dsnodgrass writes regular columns at Celsias, including a weekly piece on organics. As one can see from his Daily Kos diaries, advocacy for people with autism is a big deal for him. He also runs the site, The Autism Diaries.
We hope you’ll come visit, read, contribute a comment or a diary or an idea, and make DK GreenRoots one of your regular stops.
We also hope you’ll join DK GreenRoots in participating in two upcoming actions. The first is tomorrow, Blog Action Today, organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org. The second comes comes on October 24: International Day of Climate Action.
The purpose of Blog Action Day is to unite bloggers to stimulate discussion about the importance of the U.S. and the world addressing climate change and its impacts, such as "famine, flooding, war and millions of refugees."
So far, 5,949 blogs in 130 countries with a total readership of over 10 million will spread the word about climate change. Participating blogs are not limited to political or environmental blogs because blogs on generally all subjects have a nexus to climate change. The coalition of partners for Blog Action Day 2009 provide some suggested topics:
To help you start thinking, here are a few ideas about how you might connect climate change to things that you might already write about:
A Technology or Business blog might write about emerging clean tech and how innovative companies might be able to help address the problem of climate change.
A Health or Lifestyle blog might write about how climate change will affect our children's health and daily living.
A Nonprofit or Political blog might write about how climate change is deeply connected to many other issues - such as poverty and conflict.
A Design blog might write about new trends in eco-friendly or sustainable design.
A Travel blog might write about the places you want to see now before climate change makes them difficult to access or, well, under the sea.
If you’re a blogger or a lurker who’s always had the itch, join us in posting diaries at Daily Kos and DK GreenRoots on Blog Action Day. For the 24th, manipulate the map to find an action near you.