How Do Cooler Heads Prevail? – CleanTechnica

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I am old enough to remember a day when talking politics with people who didn’t agree with you did not mean the end of a friendship quite as often as it does now. I have a lot of theories on how things got this way, but as someone who works on an issue like climate change that everyone (in my opinion) should care about, I see these burned bridges as a huge part of the problem. Not every person who voted for a climate denialist is themselves against solving climate change, not by a HUGE stretch. But if we put a chasm between us, we lose them as allies, and even if they don’t vote the way we’d hope, they might just express support for some parts of the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) that positively affects their community while also helping solve climate change. And we need those people — now more than ever.

But it’s toxic AF to talk about anything these days, right? Maybe. Maybe not. Here’s the thing. I see sustainability as a solution for many of society’s ills — not just climate, but economic s**t, tyranny, and the erosion of community, as well.

Here’s the part of sustainability that, IMO, we should turn our attention to: local self-reliance.

Local self-reliance means that a community can create its own power, grow much of its own food, and manufacture some goods that the community uses. In a global economy, this is a challenge, of course, but these seeds were planted a long time ago — farmers markets, community solar, microgrids … they’re all part of the solution.

Once a community doesn’t depend on a faraway source of … everything … it is not so susceptible to those who pit them against an “other.” When things don’t go our way, part of us longs for someone or something to blame. This basic fact of human psychology explains a lot of why the world is in the place it’s in now. So the goal is to reduce this dependence, and therefore the susceptibility of a community.

Don’t we need a ton of offshore wind, pumped hydro storage solutions, and production tax credits for a variety of good things that are out of the control of many of us? Yes. Yes, we do, but we ALSO need local self-reliance, and that by itself will help reduce the tempers, tamp down the tensions in our communities, etc. And building those bridges will benefit us in untold ways that we might not be able to see just yet. And that is something you can do, not only to make things better but to help keep you and yours sane as well.

Here are some ways to focus your attention locally to build your community’s self-reliance now:

1. Start, join, or volunteer for a community garden.
2. Find a local organization that does community service, and join it. Learn from them, and slowly but surely bring concepts of local self-reliance to it. One friend joined the junior chamber of commerce and, after a year, became an officer, and then got it written into the organization’s bylaws that they consider the UN Sustainable Development Goals in their decisions. As a result, their events now feature locally grown food, zero-waste principles, and contributions to causes in food waste reduction. Simple, but effective, and also has spread the concept to dozens of other community activists.
3. If you have money, join an angel investor network focused on local businesses.
4. Author Michael Shuman also makes the case for putting your money into a locally owned bank or credit union here.
5. If you have a yard you can garden and are likely to keep it going, do it. Grow something — anything. The power of backyard produce is hard to fathom, and getting friends over for a volunteer day where people can take home a bag of produce and share a meal is huge.

I’ll add a sixth, which is to support educational groups that help people tame tensions and find sustainable solutions. That includes us, here at CleanTechnica, and we’d love to get $5 a month in contributions from readers to help us continue to spread the good in the world. Our mission is to catalyze the cleantech revolution, and our mission is more crucial now than it has ever been, without a shred of exaggeration.

Consider chipping in — Zach, I, and the rest of the team are gonna need a whole lotta coffee to keep up the great reporting over the next few years. We appreciate you. <3