I absolutely do believe that WE, The People, have the capability to accomplish this task!
What I wish we had was an organized, united, vision as was offered by Roosevelt. At that time all Americans heard the same message from the same leader, not through 20 different media platforms or a hundred different news stations, but one source… the radio. Families sat around and “watched” the radio TOGETHER‼️ So, EVERYbody together got the same message to organize. There is so much noise on technology today, not all from reliable sources, that it’s muddying and confounding the message. A good beginning will be if EVERYbody VOTES💙 and we are able to actually have a United Congress with the power of a united VOICE to affect change for the good of the people, for the good of the world‼️ We must VOTE💙 and Hope🙏🏻
Wonderful! When we talk of the geniuses that have already mapped out an immediate path to put clean wind and solar to work at less cost and more reliability and efficiency than fossil fuels and nuclear - I would like to point you all to the work of Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford - twitter @mzjacobson - see article https://beyondclimatepromises.ca/what-if-the-wind-doesnt-blow/ and Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute. This presentation of his is worth watching - showing how efficient design retrofitting alone can drastically lower our energy needs. He retrofitted the Empire State Bldg. and saved 45% of energy costs which quickly paid for the price of the retrofitting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zjzMXBc7xE. Add to this sustainable and regenerative agriculture kissthegroundmovie.com and reduction of wastes and plastic (not to be missed film - The Story of Plastic) https://www.storyofstuff.org/sop-v72dpb1vzfx9iki2/ and we are really embracing solutions that are ready to be implemented now - with as Marianne said - a WWII-style/moon mission resolve. What I've mentioned are to examples of some of the geniuses ready to launch us into the beautiful/sustainable future Marianne alluded to. And the amazing news is that there are thousands, perhaps millions of more geniuses all over the world with solutions, as well. It just takes our care, awareness, resolve and perhaps the one thing that seems to be most lacking - cooperation. I wrote this line in a screenplay inspired by my greatest teachers, "The world can change in an instant of choosing cooperation."
Thank you Marianne for your wonderful article. With regard to all the comments, all I can say is thank God for "A Course In Miracles." "I could see peace instead of this," ACIM W.34😊
“Americans realized what had to be done and came together to do it.”
At the moment, few Americans allow themselves to imagine the full horror that we are set up for politically (nuclear war with Russia), and in terms of climate change and other environmental damage. Therefore they do not have the motivation to change that Roosevelt was able to call upon.
Turning this around, our job, for those of us who care about the future, is to communicate with people we know and our larger networks about the reality of our existential emergency, and the systemic drivers that make things worse… with a view to developing enormous public will for transformational change
To be frank, brilliant people like yourself don’t help very much. You, like Richard Heinberg, David Korten, and the personal growth organizations such as the Shift Network and MindValley position yourself as 'fonts of knowledge'. You preach – or teach – to your students. But you make no attempt to inspire your students to be leaders/communicators in their own right.
Yet this, I suggest, is what’s needed now: a mass movement of citizen-educators equipped with effective tools for communicating about complex issues and how to orient ourselves to avoid the worst of coming disasters.
Every now and again I pop up here in the comments section suggest that we would do well to talk, Marianne. I reiterate the suggestion. I have innovative ideas that come from a different paradigm of social change inspired by Moshe Feldenkrais, Matt Taylor’s DesignShops, Internal Family Systems Therapy, EFT, and more.
There is nothing more persistent and inevitable than a Vision held in the Heart, without regard to current reality.
There is no difficulty in Miracles.
It is your Father’s Good Pleasure to Give you the Kingdom. Ask and you shall receive.
In that light I hold the Vision of a Forested World ruled not by carbon but by Photosynthesis, the currency is Faith
And the Law is simply Love.
‘Not quite “current reality” however… ‘as I repeatedly re-choose, refine and hold on to this Vision and live my life as if it is inevitably so; I observe even the tiniest turns in that direction. So…
Marianne, your wrote a good assessment regarding the climate crisis. I worked with a subcommittee of the City of Red Wing's Sustainability Commission last autumn to declare a climate emergency in Red Wing, Minn.--the resolution passed by the City Council in January, 2022. This community is progressive but still has a long way to go too.
Probably the most impressive, prophetic leader I have encountered on a global scale to help us become thrivable again is Paul Gilding. He wrote the following book that inspired my work as a sustainability commissioner: "The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World." He wrote the book in 2011 and all he relates is prescient--he too wrote about the need for collective engagement to end the crisis and comparing it to what happened in the U.S. during WWII. (Gilding is an Australian and former head of Greenpeace International and works with Cambridge University's Programme for Sustainability Leadership.)
So what you said about needing the will of the people remains the conundrum since global leadership is lacking for many reasons, and we are not hearing one coherent voice but confusion from those still bent on power and greed from within industries that are raping our Earth. Our only hope, so it seems, is working locally while encouraging ethical nonprofits and enterprises (solar, wind turbines, innovation to restore biodiversity, etc.) to move forward--trying to overcome all obstacles. I do think the recent Federal legislation passed is helpful but remains doubtful for the true progress required to save all sentient beings from going over the cliff: Global coherence is needed and lacking to save the day.
I’ve been following you, Marianne for years. Thank you for your inspiration. I would like to add to your recent email on fuel that America needs to start learning how to save electricity (turn off the lights behind), stop the insane usage of plastic (even the American movies portray people drinking from plastic cups; wine or champagne in a limousine or theater!!!!!) and start carrying about the quality of food on the mass level, FDR style.
I Don’t want to be negative but I just don’t get it why the richest country in the world has the poorest and the most unconscious eating habits.
We are on the threshold of potential nuclear extinction. At this moment in time, war is a much bigger threat to humanity than fossil fuels. The military is also the biggest polluter.
How about nuclear, Marianne? The one 0 emissions solution? Why aren't you even mentioning that?
I cannot believe you are this ignorant. Humanity cannot move to "green energy" at the rate you suggest without mass starvation and death. You must know this!
Please read progressives...and be honest if you see yourselves following this guit ridden and anti human path. Its not too late to do research and think critically
I absolutely do believe that WE, The People, have the capability to accomplish this task!
What I wish we had was an organized, united, vision as was offered by Roosevelt. At that time all Americans heard the same message from the same leader, not through 20 different media platforms or a hundred different news stations, but one source… the radio. Families sat around and “watched” the radio TOGETHER‼️ So, EVERYbody together got the same message to organize. There is so much noise on technology today, not all from reliable sources, that it’s muddying and confounding the message. A good beginning will be if EVERYbody VOTES💙 and we are able to actually have a United Congress with the power of a united VOICE to affect change for the good of the people, for the good of the world‼️ We must VOTE💙 and Hope🙏🏻
Wonderful! When we talk of the geniuses that have already mapped out an immediate path to put clean wind and solar to work at less cost and more reliability and efficiency than fossil fuels and nuclear - I would like to point you all to the work of Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford - twitter @mzjacobson - see article https://beyondclimatepromises.ca/what-if-the-wind-doesnt-blow/ and Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute. This presentation of his is worth watching - showing how efficient design retrofitting alone can drastically lower our energy needs. He retrofitted the Empire State Bldg. and saved 45% of energy costs which quickly paid for the price of the retrofitting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zjzMXBc7xE. Add to this sustainable and regenerative agriculture kissthegroundmovie.com and reduction of wastes and plastic (not to be missed film - The Story of Plastic) https://www.storyofstuff.org/sop-v72dpb1vzfx9iki2/ and we are really embracing solutions that are ready to be implemented now - with as Marianne said - a WWII-style/moon mission resolve. What I've mentioned are to examples of some of the geniuses ready to launch us into the beautiful/sustainable future Marianne alluded to. And the amazing news is that there are thousands, perhaps millions of more geniuses all over the world with solutions, as well. It just takes our care, awareness, resolve and perhaps the one thing that seems to be most lacking - cooperation. I wrote this line in a screenplay inspired by my greatest teachers, "The world can change in an instant of choosing cooperation."
GREAT WRITING ... There is a Force and a Power in your pen that hasn't been there before ... Keepi it up ... and ... we just might turn things around!
Thank you Marianne for your wonderful article. With regard to all the comments, all I can say is thank God for "A Course In Miracles." "I could see peace instead of this," ACIM W.34😊
“Americans realized what had to be done and came together to do it.”
At the moment, few Americans allow themselves to imagine the full horror that we are set up for politically (nuclear war with Russia), and in terms of climate change and other environmental damage. Therefore they do not have the motivation to change that Roosevelt was able to call upon.
Turning this around, our job, for those of us who care about the future, is to communicate with people we know and our larger networks about the reality of our existential emergency, and the systemic drivers that make things worse… with a view to developing enormous public will for transformational change
To be frank, brilliant people like yourself don’t help very much. You, like Richard Heinberg, David Korten, and the personal growth organizations such as the Shift Network and MindValley position yourself as 'fonts of knowledge'. You preach – or teach – to your students. But you make no attempt to inspire your students to be leaders/communicators in their own right.
Yet this, I suggest, is what’s needed now: a mass movement of citizen-educators equipped with effective tools for communicating about complex issues and how to orient ourselves to avoid the worst of coming disasters.
Every now and again I pop up here in the comments section suggest that we would do well to talk, Marianne. I reiterate the suggestion. I have innovative ideas that come from a different paradigm of social change inspired by Moshe Feldenkrais, Matt Taylor’s DesignShops, Internal Family Systems Therapy, EFT, and more.
Again, let’s talk!
Andrew Gaines
Inspiring Transition
andrew.gaines@InspiringTransition.net
www.InspiringTransition.net
Greta Thunberg will have reason to hope when she sees that mainstream society is committed to turning things around.
There is nothing more persistent and inevitable than a Vision held in the Heart, without regard to current reality.
There is no difficulty in Miracles.
It is your Father’s Good Pleasure to Give you the Kingdom. Ask and you shall receive.
In that light I hold the Vision of a Forested World ruled not by carbon but by Photosynthesis, the currency is Faith
And the Law is simply Love.
‘Not quite “current reality” however… ‘as I repeatedly re-choose, refine and hold on to this Vision and live my life as if it is inevitably so; I observe even the tiniest turns in that direction. So…
‘See ya there!
Marianne, your wrote a good assessment regarding the climate crisis. I worked with a subcommittee of the City of Red Wing's Sustainability Commission last autumn to declare a climate emergency in Red Wing, Minn.--the resolution passed by the City Council in January, 2022. This community is progressive but still has a long way to go too.
Probably the most impressive, prophetic leader I have encountered on a global scale to help us become thrivable again is Paul Gilding. He wrote the following book that inspired my work as a sustainability commissioner: "The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World." He wrote the book in 2011 and all he relates is prescient--he too wrote about the need for collective engagement to end the crisis and comparing it to what happened in the U.S. during WWII. (Gilding is an Australian and former head of Greenpeace International and works with Cambridge University's Programme for Sustainability Leadership.)
So what you said about needing the will of the people remains the conundrum since global leadership is lacking for many reasons, and we are not hearing one coherent voice but confusion from those still bent on power and greed from within industries that are raping our Earth. Our only hope, so it seems, is working locally while encouraging ethical nonprofits and enterprises (solar, wind turbines, innovation to restore biodiversity, etc.) to move forward--trying to overcome all obstacles. I do think the recent Federal legislation passed is helpful but remains doubtful for the true progress required to save all sentient beings from going over the cliff: Global coherence is needed and lacking to save the day.
I’ve been following you, Marianne for years. Thank you for your inspiration. I would like to add to your recent email on fuel that America needs to start learning how to save electricity (turn off the lights behind), stop the insane usage of plastic (even the American movies portray people drinking from plastic cups; wine or champagne in a limousine or theater!!!!!) and start carrying about the quality of food on the mass level, FDR style.
I Don’t want to be negative but I just don’t get it why the richest country in the world has the poorest and the most unconscious eating habits.
A good point. Like Europe we need to concentrate on green energy.
We are on the threshold of potential nuclear extinction. At this moment in time, war is a much bigger threat to humanity than fossil fuels. The military is also the biggest polluter.
How about nuclear, Marianne? The one 0 emissions solution? Why aren't you even mentioning that?
I cannot believe you are this ignorant. Humanity cannot move to "green energy" at the rate you suggest without mass starvation and death. You must know this!
https://mobile.twitter.com/DoombergT/status/1573605357812850688
England was at war from 1939 to 1945. The Americans didn't win the war they brought it to a close.
yes to life! marianne 2024!!!!
Excellent article, Marianne, thank you!
Absolutely Mrs Williamson and thank you for sharing this Great article & God Bless you Always 👌❤️🙏💯
Please read progressives...and be honest if you see yourselves following this guit ridden and anti human path. Its not too late to do research and think critically
https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/anti-energy-nihilism-behind-economic