Discuss: How to Be a Climate Hero

Don’t panic.

You are witnessing how we change right in front of your eyes.

People not commonly thought of as leaders step up and help our herd change direction.  First a few drips, then a trickle.  Then a stream, a river and finally a sea change.

Meanwhile there is plenty for all to do.

My sense—and this is not meant cynically as some might take it-- is that life will go on, that many of us will survive and adapt. 

What we have to do is call on our inner conductor—and that to me means daily exercise, good food and our best efforts at loving kindness.

Don’t forget what Seamus Heaney wrote:

Doubletake
by Seamus Heaney

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home

History says, Don’t hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
if there’s fire on the mountain
or lightning and storm
and a god speaks from the sky.

That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.

Seamus Heaney,
The Cure at Troy

In Australia things are beginning to move beyond the deer caught in the lights, but the reactions are still rather slow.  Your reflection on the slowness of people to take up the urgency of the crisis we are all facing is also due to the long period of denial by our leaders and the conservative advice that has come from scientists.  Both are reasonable in normal times, but we are beyond normal times now.  Thank you for your article.

Jim

Great article! Your “bystander effect” is certainly on the mark, but I’d like to add that with all the current information about how the production of “meat” creates more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector alone, most people still refuse to either reduce or remove meat from their diet. There’s no “bystander effect” going on here. When change involves “food choices,” something happens to even the most sensible, intelligent human and whether it’s denial or arrogance, it’s VERY difficult to get people to make this important and necessary change in their lifestyle!

I find it very frustrating to see people around me do nothing.  I take cloth bags to a “discussion group”, and find no-one wants them.  In this group are people who believe the climate is changing, but seem to feel that no matter what we do, there will be no
way to improve the condition.  I do all the eco. things such as rainwater collecting etc. etc. I believe it will take mandates from the govt. to make substatntive change.  This country is run by an oligopoly no matter which party is in power.
Oh, for a one day dictatorship of a “green” person!!!!

In the meantime, let’s all do the very best we can.  It’s a moral/ethical issue.

Maggie Tatum

I also think life will go on, but I worry about how much will be lost. 

And being a mother changes my viewpoint considerably, the luxury of my ability to stand back emotionally.  I used to imagine I would spend this time worrying about the future SATs or colleges of my children, Instead I worry about their climate. 

I throw myself at the problem again and again, battering myself against the inertia of those who have not started to change.

I try not to decide if I’m making a difference or if we are all changing ENOUGH, for that is a fast way to get depressed and end up curling up into a fetal position, unable to do anything. 

Instead I try to wonder if I’m leading a moral life, if I’m reacting to the situation as the person I’d like to be.  Reacting this way I can hopefully lead others to do the same.  And at least on my deathbed I won’t be a smaller defeated person. 

Aside from the moral and emotional perks of this response, I find it allows me to be motivated to do more and fight more strongly.

Wonderful, haunting essay. Wow! Thank you, bless you and KEEP WRITING!

We have a on going, two+ year grassroot’s action in Minnesota to encourage motorist’s to just drive the speed limit.  It is simple, basically free, and effective…

http://www.greenslowmovingvehicle.com.  Take a minute and come on board.  It is a baby step, but oh well.  We are getting emails from all over the U.S. and many foreign countries.  This effort challenge’s behavior and has the opportunity for success.  We have supporter’s in every state in the U.S. and started in very rural Pine County, Mn.  If we can make a contribution...everybody can.