I wrote a kinda tongue in cheek post for this BAD – because I do get frustrated with all the scientific data that’s thrown at us and all the demands for us to fix what others have done (yes, I know, it’s not just others, me too).

I find that I can usually persuade myself at least and others occasionally, by bringing it right home; how can you lose by cleaning up your own backyard? We may not have a definitive answer for what is really going to happen and why, or what we can do to prevent it, but we can easily recognize that it can’t hurt us to do a little garbage separation, re-use a few things, make some compost.

I must say though that some of my English friends passed on the shocking revelation that in the UK people’s efforts at recycling often end up dumped anyway in dumps or foreign countries – too much to handle for the recyclers? Say it ain’t so!

And I like the more lighthearted takes on Climate Change. Like this one from Dan Pink: http://www.danpink.com/archives/2009/10/how-do-you-motivate-healthy-green-behavior

To create real change we will each have to reach our own conclusions and ultimately make our own decisions. Having others’ opinions forced onto us won’t help, only create more friction.

Perhaps the most effective way to influence is to – as Gandhi said – ‘be the change’. Don’t just think about it or talk about it, as that won’t really help – just create more friction.

When we ARE the change, however, others are INSPIRED by our actions, our results, and who we are. We are inspired to make the change.

I really admire and respect empowering and inspiring Blog Action Day posts, and while I also respect the doom and gloom posts surely – for the very reasons outlined in Mark’s post above – they are not as effective as posts that uplift and inspire.

Another example of a positive Blog Action Day post I really enjoyed is at Socks for Happy People, where I was intrigued by their post: Climate Change Makes Us Smile!

It’s definitely worth a read if you want to look at climate change from a different perspective. Or maybe it’ll just annoy you, lol.

Tom

Maybe the reason the vast majority of people don’t take the kind of action you want is because they aren’t convinced there is the kind of earth-shattering problem you see.

That’s my entire point. There’s no ‘maybe’ about it.

@ Janice – Great post: Abstract doesn’t work.

@ John – I’m not *sure* of anything.

@ Meredith – Good luck with your creative persuasion!

You’re blog post is amazing! Five months ago I bought a commercial property/old school house in serious need of rehabilitation- and we were just approached by a non profit sports company who works with 100s of kids in the area; they want to rehab the gymnasium and a good part of the attached warehouse for their use!

The problem: The previous owner left an unbelievable amount of trash here (already removed 7, 20 yard dumpsters and haven’t tipped the iceberg!). I contacted the city to see if there was anything they could do to help us remove the garbage for free—but they pointed us to Allied Waste in St. Louis (who takes care of this town’s waste), a for profit company with no connection to the city, the building, the history, or the people. I’m meeting with a director in the company tomorrow- but was at a complete loss as to how I could even begin to convince him that helping us would be in his interest. Your post is a godsend! My brain is working overtime now…..

Meredith

And are you *sure* this post isn’t secretly motivated by a conviction on what we all OUGHT to be doing? That sucker is really hard to eradicate from individual consciousness. Activism is inherently suspect, as it turns out, no matter what the cause involved.