The momentum has been building for several years. As big governments fail to address the growing urgency of our environmental problems, individuals and local communities have been rising to the challenge.
This is not exactly new. Small groups of eager citizens have been active for decades – advocating for endangered ecologies, encouraging recycling, and rehabilitating damaged salmon streams. Their work has been commendable and exemplary. Not only have they been vigilant in supervising polluting industries, diligent in activating negligent bureaucrats and tireless in motivating lackadaisical governments, but they have become models for effective action.
As the sense of urgency about our environmental problems rises, more and more people are taking the initiative to address what national governments have failed to do. In the United States, for example, an indifferent and even obstructive Bush Administration has become an anachronism because of the efforts of hundreds of towns and cities that have pledged to meet or surpass the greenhouse gas targets of the Kyoto Protocol. California is leveraging all North America toward higher fuel efficiencies and more stringent emission regulations for automobiles. In Canada, a little community in Quebec, Hudson, banned the cosmetic use of insecticides, other towns across the country joined the cause and now the provinces of Quebec and Ontario have followed – pressure is building for other provinces to join the ban. British Columbia has been the first to implement a carbon tax.
Surveys confirm the obvious. A recently published Harris/Decima poll of 10,000 Canadians revealed that most think their own consumer habits and wasteful activities are implicated in the environmental problems we face – 74% thought we are not yet doing enough to tackle these problems, 82% said that they and industry are equally responsible, and 76% were of the opinion that the environment "will be a dominant issue for years to come" (Globe & Mail, April 24/09). With 89% of respondents recycling, 76% switching to compact fluorescent bulbs and 78% turning down their thermostats, their level of awareness is rising dramatically.
And this awareness is expressing itself in innumerable ways around the planet. The Chinese farm tilapia because the herbivorous fish is so efficient to grow – in contrast, an average of 23.5 litres of diesel are required to get one farmed salmon to a consumer (Bottomfeeder: A Seafood Lover's Journey to the End of the Food Chain by Taras Grescoe). In Austria, the little town of Gussing "has reduced its [greenhouse gas] emissions by 93% since 1995" (Econews, April 2008). In Sweden, the town of Vaxjo "is already getting 90% of its heat from carbon-free sources" (Ibid.) and the "Kalmar Region...has committed to be zero-carbon by 2030" (Ibid.). Ashton Hayes, a village of 900 in England, is racing Kalmar toward carbon neutrality (Ibid.). The rest of England is mandating all new buildings to be carbon neutral by 2016. Germany is following a similar course. San Francisco is aiming at 100% recycling of its wastes by 2020 – a notable difference from Naples where 200,000 tonnes of garbage has accumulated in the streets because the Italian city's landfill sites are full.
In BC, downtown Victoria's Dockside Green is a $600m development for 2,500 residents that will be an international model for smart design and efficiency. It will be heated with a high-temperature, biomass, smoke-free furnace. The project will also be re-processing its own waste water for re-use in toilets and roof-top gardens. The intelligent positioning of windows, glazes and awnings together with better insulation will avoid the cost of air conditioning. The added construction cost of between 1% to 1.5% will be easily offset by reduced operating costs.
Even corporations are discovering the merits of efficiency. DuPont, a massive manufacturer of chemicals, has reduced its emissions by 72% since 1990. And Catalyst has reached a 71% cut. (The cutting of employees is another subject.) Interface, a giant American carpet company, "is aiming at 100% reduction of its entire environmental footprint by 2020." (Ibid.). Such changes have brought the dual benefits of a cleaner environment and increased profits.
Hopeful change is occurring almost everywhere. A movement is afoot among consumers to stop drinking bottled water – it costs 1,000 time more than tap water and is rarely safer. Pressure is building for travellers to fly more responsibly. Buy new electronics and the old items they are replacing can be returned to many stores for safe recycling. Urban farming is burgeoning in cities as people discover they can grow hundreds of dollars worth of fresh and tasty vegetables in a small city lot – Somerton Tank Farm in Philadelphia "is earning $52,000 a year from properties totalling only half an acre" (Ibid.).
Some national governments, inspired by the realization that our economies are the wholly owned subsidiaries of nature, are taking commendable steps to lessen our impact on the ecologies that sustain us. Others, such as the United States and Canada, are dithering, procrastinating and otherwise neglecting the leadership that citizens are awaiting. So people and communities are doing for themselves what their governments are failing to do.
This bottom-up approach is working. It is less efficient than national initiatives, but it is effective. Big governments are being shamed into action. And in the process, local communities earn a pride of accomplishment and feel a flush of empowerment. "The power of one is all we have," notes Alexandra Morton, "and we all have it." To harvest this liberating experience, individual people are speeding forward with their own environmental agendas. Local communities are doing the same because action now feels so much better than waiting.