Let's Get Started

Dear Reader,

The United Nations Climate Change summit in Copenhagen last December has demonstrated once again that we cannot rely on our political leaders to seriously address the environmental challenges the world is facing, let alone make any constructive contribution to help solve them.

This statement does not only apply to the American government, but to all of them.

Unfortunately, it has become painfully obvious that there is pathetically little difference between the Obama administration and the Bush administration as far as environmental policy is concerned.

Now as then the agenda is determined by short-term corporate interests.
For all the pious talk in Washington, we shouldn’t be under any illusions: Economic, social and environmental policies are dictated by Wall Street, big business and the large trade unions. Politicians are little more than special interests’ executioners.

We, the general public, don’t have much of a say, because these special interests will never allow us to vote away their priviliges. And the politicians have absolutely no interest in challenging the political mechanisms that put them there.

This is illustrated not only by the debates on climate change (a lot of hot air, literally and figuratively), but also on health care (with Democrats like that, who needs Republicans?), the economy (millionaires in Congress voting to bail out other millionaires on Wall Street at the expense of the middle classes and the unemployed) or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (private contractors, mercenaries and arms merchants make a lot of money through wars).

The point of this tirade?

We shouldn’t wait for our political leaders to initiate change: They benefit from the status quo.

There are two big reasons why we should act now to make this world, via our community, a more sustainable place to live:

1. We have a moral obligation as the most powerful life form on Earth towards all other life forms and future generations.

2. It saves resources, i.e. it saves us money.

For instance, if we make our homes and office buildings more energy efficient, we save money on utility bills.

If we walk, bike, use public transportation, buy a fuel-efficient car or otherwise drive less, we save money on car maintenance and gas.

If we eat more healthy whole foods and less junk, we get less sick and save money on health insurance and sick care.

If we use less electricity and help promote renewable energy sources, we save money on our electricity bills and will contribute to making polluting coal-fired power plants superfluous, which means cleaner air and less mercury in rivers and lakes, so we can eat the fish again.

If we buy from local businesses and farms, we keep more money and jobs in our community.

The possibilities are almost endless - let’s get going!