Well, what is going on in Monterey County?
Whatever it is, it’s BIG.
It’s Bigger than BIG, it’s the paradigm shift we’ve been waiting for….
It’s the move to a more sustainable (viable into the future) mind-set and it has infiltrated this entire Monterey Bay region.

Let’s go down the list of leaders, shall we?
We’ve got Sustainable Monterey County, promoting energy-independent communities.
We’ve got Sustainable Pacific Grove, and newly elected Mayor Dan Cort, who recently signed the Urban Environmental Accords and the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, leading the way as a demonstration city for sustainability.
We’ve got Big Sur Power Down, with a Biodiesel co-op, and regular workshops on re-ruralization.
We’ve got sustainability meetings in Carmel Valley, discussing issues such as Power of Community.
There’s KRXA 540 AM’s weekly show, “Tomorrow Matters”, addressing global climate disruptions and Peak Oil, and there’s Access TV’s “Inklings” program airing local environmental lectures and demonstrations.
We’ve got MIIS, and CSUMB environmental committees, with many teachers and students embracing new green building and sustainable living programs.
MIIS hosts Earth day in April and CSUMB has an alternative building project in Salinas, next to Dorothy’s kitchen with organic gardening and straw bale structures, and they have an amazing Farm to School Program through the Watershed Institute.
We’ve got Laura Strohm and the Sustainability Academy bringing green consciousness to businesses and teaching about the “triple” bottom line: Profit, People and Planet.
We’ve got LandWatch, League of Women Voters: Natural Resources Committee, AMBAG, U.S. Green Builders, Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network, Sustainable Base Reuse Institute, The Monterey Bay Aquarium, Sea Studios, The Sierra Club, Save Our Waterfront, HOPE, ALBA, Liquid Books, The Last Chance Mercantile, Jane Parker, Leon Panetta, John Laird, and Sam Farr, all working to make this region more livable tomorrow than it is today. We’ve got teachers like Connie St. Amour at Santa Catalina teaching middle school kids how to be Global Warriors, and Roland Saher at Anzar High School in San Juan Bautista teaching climate change policy.
And we’ve got students like Arwyn Sherman, head of the Environmental Committee at York, creating on-campus workshops on Environmental and Corporate Accountability.
We’ve got Laughing Onion and other Community Supported Agriculture farms, we’ve got Farmers Markets, we’ve got wind credits at Whole Foods, we’ve got restaurants like Passion Fish and Montrio supporting sustainable fishing practices and fast food chains like Chipotle in Del Monte Shopping Center which do not use Styrofoam containers and reject factory farming.
We’ve got authors such as Pierre Chomat, “Oil Addiction and the World in Peril,” speaking locally on the global energy crisis,… and if we include every single person who has changed a light bulb to compact fluorescent, ridden a bike to work, or has reduced their consumptive ways by 3% each year to match the global predicted oil decline rate … then we can add tens of thousands of efforts and actions to the list of what’s going on in the Monterey County.
This is the true look of the new millennium. This is us doing what needs to be done to leave a rich legacy for future generations; this is us becoming stewards of the Earth. This is what’s really going on in Monterey County! There’s no gap to be filled, only wagons to jump on. So jump, my friends, ‘cause this is where it’s at!

Sincerely,

Deborah Lindsay