Tools for Activism at Home and on the Job

Getting from where we are today to a 80-90% reduction in CO2 emissions (from 2005 levels) by 2050 will be the greatest challenge ever to humanity. There have only been a few other such challenges to humanity, really, and we've not shown great success in meeting them. Ending war, ending hunger and poverty, controlling population, and sustainable development - not all ringing successes, though arguably progress has been made in fits and bursts - notably the Montreal Protocol on Clorinated Flourocarbons (the ozone holes are slowly closing).

One thing that we've learned is that progress is made by giving tools to folks who care and who can make a difference. Another thing many of us still need to learn is that any effort, however small, contibutes to that goal; and so no effort is too small or unimportant. Climate change is "Global Warming" - everyone is affected. As disempowering to the sole individual as that may seem at first, it can be turned around such that we understand that we all must be part of the solution... we're all in it together - and our actions are additive!

That does set climate change apart from the earlier grand challenges to humanity, where some of us have had the fortune to look at poverty, war and hunger from a comfortable distance. With global warming we're all in the pot along with the winged ones, creepers, swimmers and all creation. We will all be working together for the same goals - sort of exciting when you think about it that way.

The solution is unfolding on many levels. In the Obama acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President, he spoke of how government can do some things to "power" the transition from fossil fuels to alternatives - but that each individual and household also had to take responsibility to change their personal behaviors. I'd like to share one approach with you that has been embraced in the Washington DC area - the Cool Capital Challenge.

Cool Capital is a non-profit group of leading Washington-area businesses, institutions, government agencies, congregations, and community and environmental organizations, united to bring about an immediate and dramatic reduction in regional greenhouse gas emissions to lead the US in reversing global warming. The approach for putting tools into folk's hands is quite simple. A website allows participants to join in and inventory their own contribution to CO2 emissions, and then to select from a menu of options various strategies for reducing their emissions. The website does all the calculations and then provides you with a list of actions you've agreed to take and the CO2 savings that will result. Your pledge is then recorded as a part of the Region's goal for reducing 1 billion pounds of CO2 in a year.

The challenge has now reached 101% of the billion pound goal. This achievement is one third of the total that DC alone must reduce in order to meet the Kyoto Protocol target that Mayors Williams and Fenty, joining with over 400 mayors nationwide have committed to attain by 2012. This reduction will serve as both a springboard for more lasting solutions and business practices (and as an inspiring model for the rest of the country). Cool Capital demonstrates the immense practical, financial, marketing, and environmental benefits of investing in stronger energy efficiency measures.

Cool Capital empowers people with specific, positive, and money-saving steps that each of us can take right away to improve our own lives while setting a decisive example for the rest of the planet. Structured like a capital campaign with contributions of carbon savings instead of cash, Cool Capital will boost the power of each household, school, congregation, business, and agency to magnify our impact through coordinated action and outreach to others. Check it out: http://www.coolcapitalchallenge.org/