Solutions to global problems start close to home

By Jan Spencer

Published: February 26, 2008 12:00AM

Stories about climate change, energy costs and a shaky economy are in the news more than ever. New climate studies find that the situation is far more serious than previously thought.

More countries are passing their peak of oil production. We see more clearly the emerging tip of the nation’s iceberg of economic make-believe. Effective responses to these challenges can be found close to home.

Media explanations of these trends offer little guidance about what to do. Meanwhile, most remedies put forward by local, state or national governments and their business associates either add a coat of “greenwash” to the problems or are overly timid. Money-making interests control the media and public discussion; the issues are framed overwhelmingly in terms of what is good for profits (often heavily subsidized), not in terms of what is healthy for people and the planet.

There is a great, mostly unrecognized potential to address — and, with luck, mitigate — these historic challenges. They are the best assets we have: households, local social organizations and neighborhoods. There is enormous opportunity to make sensible choices and changes in how we live. It will take leadership and initiative from pulpits, organization boards, steering committees and individuals.

A place to begin is downsizing our material needs through old-fashioned voluntary simplicity. This is a point of entry for addressing the issues of resources, climate change and economics. Having fewer and simpler needs brings taking care of them more within reach. Needing less time to earn money means having more time for family, community and uplift.

Living modestly reduces our environmental and political footprints and frees up time to learn skills and to create a way of life that is consistent with our higher aspirations.

Faith communities, with purposeful cohesion in place, are strong choices to be among the vanguard of ecological culture change. All the great faiths teach compassion, modesty and peace. These ideals are betrayed by material affluence, but fit perfectly with creating a peaceful and healthy world.

Churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship often have expansive lawns or parking lots — just right for creating neighborhood gardens! Many have large kitchens, just right for food preservation work parties. Many have open spaces for community events. Classrooms could be used for learning about ecological living. Widely distributed all over town, places of worship would make perfect hosts for community centers, serving many important needs in the surrounding neighborhood.

Already in Eugene, a network of faith communities supports local organic farmers. This timely model can be upsized and adapted for many other services, such as community-based health care, mutual assistance networks, neighborhood property redevelopment and more. One church is the site of a three-acre community garden — an impressive example of church-community collaboration.

Neighborhood organizations and other civic groups are the natural allies of faith communities. If all of these groups worked together for positive civic goals that honestly took on the challenges of climate change, peak oil and deepening political and economic disarray, our odds of bringing about a healthy and peaceful way of life, while at the same time bringing out the best in human potential, would be much improved.

Neighborhood organizations could create inventories of locally available skills and assets for reworking the way we live, such as master gardeners, contractors, meeting facilitators, public health workers, permaculturalists and many others. Inventories also would identify useful opportunities and models for ecological and cultural change in the neighborhood, such as innovative property redesign, co-ops, green businesses and services, resource conservation and more.

Neighborhood coordinators could help match people in need with people who can help. Many of these arrangements could employ barter as a system of exchange — neighborhood economics without money. Partnerships could be created between neighborhood and rural areas for food production and many kinds of goods and services.

Solid reasons for ecological culture change are with us now. Many people have begun making dramatic changes in their lives already, and there is a warm welcome waiting for newcomers.

The scientific consensus is that human activity — how we shelter, feed and transport ourselves — is creating a planet that will be less friendly for human habitation. We are looking at a degraded future in which nearly everything will be far more expensive, including food, shelter, energy, transportation, health care and other basic needs. Millions of familiar jobs will go away. International tensions are certain to escalate.

At the same time, many positive opportunities will present themselves for living peaceful and uplifting lives within our ecological and financial means. We will discover that many of our human needs can be taken care of closer to home in creative ways that we may wish we had tried earlier.

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