I definitely believe in clean elections, but I think that as consumers, we can cast a vote with every dollar we spend.
Ben Jelen, a musician and friend of the earth, talks about sending companies a message about how they treat the environment with your money. If you feel strongly about an issue, whether it be gay marriage, health insurance reform or eco-consciousness, cast your vote via your purchases.
Find out what companies support the same issues as you and start to support them. If we all united together on these fronts, we would start sending an extremely strong message to companies about their practices, either forcing them to change their ways or deal with the consequences.
In this video, wonderingmind42 describes logical deductions one can make when thinking about the global climate crisis—but in a way you necessarily wouldn’t think of—and in a way that makes it very hard to argue.
His argument is that the question of whether the global climate crisis actually exists is mute, either way the odds that we actually should be proactive about making a change, and the consequences of not acting, far out weigh the option that there is no global climate crisis and we should not act.
And to go in for the win, if he added a few values, such as protecting our future generations, sustainability and stewardship, no one in America could argue with his points.
In this TED talk, Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Global, describes the business logic of sustainability. The data he presents would sway any CEO or business owner to get on board for sustainability in the business sector. Since realizing the err of their ways and making the right changes, Interface Global has saved 70,000 tons of used carpet from landfills, created innovative systems used to recycle carpet, lowered costs by 400 million dollars, recreated their products so they are the best they’ve ever been, aided in having employees that are rallied around the products as well as the cause, became a leader in the marketplace and increased sales by 160 percent.
You see, while individual members of the business community may completely agree with being more (or totally) sustainable, as a whole, most businesses are concerned with cost and profits. Instead of letting them know how much good they will be doing for the earth and generations to come, it’s a lot easier, as Ray Anderson demonstrates, to sway them with numbers. Specifically, lower costs and higher profits.
As a side note, Interface Global is halfway to their goal of having a carbon footprint of ZERO, which they hope to have completed by 2020. Also be sure to check out one of their side projects, Mission Zero, a community where people can meet like-minded individuals and share innovative ideas and valuable resources, all with the mission of reducing our environmental impact.
Too many progressives and politicians are still using old-school divide-and-conquer tactics. They're slinging mud, scheming and using fear tactics. It's no surprise that these strategies play a large hand in the fact that people are so frustrated and disheartened with politics. The sad thing is that these tactics go against every ideal that leads to progress: inclusion, reason, justice and hope.
Unfortunately, old habits die hard, but that's where I come in. As a reformed "stomp my feet in my office and alienate those with opposing views" type of politician, I understand that change isn't always easy and that, like building successful coalitions, it can take blood, sweat and tears. My book, Unite and Conquer, demonstrates how through small changes in our attitudes and behaviors, we can build broad-based coalitions that advance the progressive movement rather than make us feel good about the purity of our ideals.
