Resistance: A Way Forward

Every day it seems, I read someone's opinions (or even worse, I hear it in person) about their denial of climate change, about their rejection of humankind's effects on this beautiful earth, their refusal to make lifestyle changes for the planet, or in my field, even their resistance to changing the way they do marketing in this day of twittering, facebooking, digging and youtubing.

Usually, I quickly discover they don't read much, or watch only corporate-run TV. They don't travel much, talk to others who do, or read about the world far outside their own parcel of property.

Idea # 1: Isolation=resistance.

Next, sustainability progress needs to come (traditionally) in either a disaster/reaction phase, or as a fashion/sexy craze. A few mild attempts to make green initiatives Hollywood/sexy have fizzled in the masses, partly because of right-wing/giant corporation media messaging to kill progress that might threaten the old profit streams. Expertly, these messages make new ideas seem un-American, anti-patriotic, freedom-reducing, job/prosperity threatening.
Fascinating, as green industry jobs would potentially represent the biggest new job sector since the Industrial Age. The United States is falling behind the rest of the industrialized world in many ways, not as a population but on the federal/state level. Here in the USA, many ground-level, local initiatives are happening (I'm involved in a few), but the problem is that these small-scale operations require grants and subsidies because the changes are rather expensive to implement on such small scales.
True national commitment, from government or large-scale citizen or corporate demands seems to make these beneficial changes faster and create more jobs, benefits and financial positivism.
So, here in America, the sooner large corporations take bold, huge, public steps, with transparency and public/social involvement, the better for us all. P&G, are you reading this?

Idea #2: New Mindset: Green is Patriotic, Profitable and Possible


Lastly, for now, this thought.
The social sites seem to be the ripest for gaining traction for making environmental causes popular. Like everyone else, I tend to look for things I'm already interested in, so I find the eco sites, boards, FB groups and such with little difficulty.
So, invite your not-so eco , less than climate-change-aware friends to a site that gently (or not so gently) tells the story, like http://www.storyofstuff.com or, as I did recently to send friends to carrotmob that most brilliant new idea of all.
Keep doing what you do, make the change, click-by-click.
But do it today, please. I just have.

Idea #3: Doing Something Now Is Easy, And, Best Of All, You're Already Doing It.

Cheers.