With governments running everything on Earth so well, it seems silly to suggest we focus on our own humble homes as a way to implement climate change. After all, climate is the result of global scale activities not the acts of mere individuals and families, right? I bet you’ve thought to yourself many times “What difference could I make to reverse climate change by myself?”
Perhaps you are right. What difference could your household possibly make? Let’s wait to be told what to do by our government. I don’t know about you, but I love being told what to do by government agencies. I figure they have studied the issues, debated the topics in the committee chambers and legislative halls and come up with a well balanced and well thought out set of rules that merge nicely with my existing way of life. The folks elected to office are the best and brightest America has to offer and they are looking out for our interests. They are in office to serve humanity and not for some personal or power hungry agenda. I’m sure you feel the same way.
That said, where are the rules that we should be seeing that reverse climate change? Hmm, what are those rules anyway? There are plenty of pundits and organizations making recommendations. The big kahuna of climate organizations is, of course, UNFCCC1. The people who brought you the “Paris Agreement” and publish a “Summary for Policy Makers”. Much like acid rain, their recommendations trickle down to the myriad of other organizations all over the world. For instance, one of these, US Climate Action Network, with the intensely positive acronym USCAN2, has one hundred ninety member organizations. They maintain an impressive list. Just scrolling through it is as inspiring as it is exhausting.
I scanned for names that shouted “legal thought leader!” I came up with “The Center for International Environmental Law”3. These guys have got to be it. And they are… in their application of legal resources to the environmental agenda at an international scale but they don’t recommend the laws. Many other organizations take a crack at the issues in their own way. Right next to “National Wildlife Federation”4 is “Moms and Others for Clean Air”5. While my head was spinning I found there are 15,000 organizations chipping or hammering away. Exhausting…
Forget about the rules. With all these organizations, why are we not making better progress? The Earth is still warming up, isn’t it? Well, according to climate.gov6 it is. So what is the answer? Perhaps we still don’t have enough organizations. Maybe we need 30,000 or 40,000 or something. Better laws than the ones we have? Probably.
Continuing my search for legal recommendations, for some reason, I thought I would read through the mission statements of each and every one of them to cull from this the critical few that are the thought leaders. I felt that if I did this it would be of some kind of service to you, the reader. I got about six organizations in and ran out of steam. I’m sorry, but mission statements can sound a lot alike. For example:
“_____ is building a future that’s just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis.”
“_____ is an international network building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice.”
“We imagine a healthy, prosperous world in which societies are forever committed to caring for and valuing nature, for the long-term benefit of people and all life on Earth.”
Well, you get the idea. All of this sounds great, and when I say great, I mean really great. Can we give one of these organizations the keys to the world government mini-van and let them drive policy into the sunset please? If only it were so easy.
Obviously, there are a lot of us nature lovers out there. Caring so much for something so large and difficult to achieve is taxing. The benefits from the actions of today’s Eco-citizens may not be evident for fifty years. For the vast majority of us, none of our actions individually will ever be identifiable. Our contributions are completely anonymous and our reward or consequences of our actions will probably occur after we pass away. Keep in mind, we live in a culture that values receiving our Amazon product order ever faster and cheaper, on all days of the week and soon, all hours of the day and night. Let’s face it, taking environmental action just is not a good fit to our popular consumer culture.
Perhaps we all know this in our heart of hearts and that is why we look to a benevolent government program to make us do the good things we know we should do. I know this seems crazy but I think it’s the way it is.
Now, philosophically, if a person is made to do something good, I suspect that doesn’t make them actually good. Wouldn’t it be better for all of us to do the right things because we are self directed. “Well of course, but how do I do that?” you ask. It’s very simple, do all you can under your own control, for the environment. Start at home.
This is where DivvyBack.com comes in. You don’t have the discipline to purchase all the right stuff you consume at home. Face it. I’ve seen you pick up that low cost package of Scott bathroom tissue and put it into your shopping cart. Bad reader. Bad!
DivvyBack helps you contribute on two fronts: you purchase Earth friendly products to use at home while some of that money you paid is contributed to organizations that help change the world also. If your home is Earth friendly then you’ve done all that anyone can ask while the thousands of organizations continue their work with your help. Now come on, put that Scott bathroom tissue back on the shelf.
If there is an organization you do not see on our list please contact us and we’ll do what we can to add them or you can ask them to contact us.
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In the effort to make this seem like a more substantial article and in the hopes of escalating our SEO ranking in Google, I’ve included references.
1 UNFCCC, https://unfccc.int/resource/climateaction2020/
2 USCAN, https://www.usclimatenetwork.org/
3 The Center for International Environmental Law, https://www.ciel.org
4 National Wildlife Federation, https://www.nwf.org/
5 Moms and Others for Clean Air, https://www.mothersandothersforcleanair.org/
6 climate.gov
7 https://350.org/about/
8 https://www.actionaidusa.org/about/
9 https://www.divvyback.com