Go Local. But Really, Go Local
Current climate discussion kinda focuses on shifting the polluting part of the chain to places we don’t see.
Before, we had black smoke over our cities and we have gradually moved factories away, made better engines, subsidized clean energy and invested on EVs and electric powered transit.
Now, coltan and cadmium are killing villages in Africa, which we don’t see, but that seems to be fine. We do help them, though, by sending cash to NGOs via Venmo, while sipping Dom at the current gala.
What we don’t see, doesn’t give us anxiety.
If we truly want to help the environment, we have to build a local army to help. For any of this to ever change, it will be because local mentality shifts and many, many changed and improved localities steer society as a whole in a different direction.
Approaching one big solution from the Top Down may end up being as successful as the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, the War on Terror and the Vietnam War.
Local action, however, can be honest, transparent, direct, and responds to actual existential threats. If only because the actors are neighbors and see each other at church, at the store, at the ice cream parlor and strolling down Main Street. Thus, it’s not as hypocritical as world leaders telling us not to eat meat over filet mignon at the Quirinale.
Local action may not solve the bigger problems but it will contribute to break them into little problems that are more easily tackled, and it’s a very good way to start.
We’ve seen too many charities and foundations that claim to help the poor and disadvantaged but wouldn’t be caught dead organizing their fundraising events within the communities, hiring their members as caterers or decorators and inviting them to sip champagne with the donors.
This is where we start. Many years ago I was part of the TEDx community in my hometown. We went to all their events and became friends with the organizers and speakers.
One thing they did very well was bringing in the locals into the organization. Usually held in grand theaters that the city had spent millions rehabilitating and then left to their own devices, the venues were located in disadvantaged areas with struggling economies.
Soon, the buildings rotted and leaked and no one wanted to use them anymore. The infinite cycle of repairs and neglect, multiplied by a huge real estate portfolio ate away the city’s finances and had virtually zero impact on the wellbeing and prosperity of the neighbors.
The TEDx organizers fought to bring those buildings back as community hubs and prop up the neighborhoods in the process. They hired neighborhood seamstresses to saw the tote bags, cooks to do the catering, printers and artists to create the booklets and other materials, DJs to supply sound and music for after parties, and a long et cetera.
Liabilities, hidden costs, insurance and other burdens would make such a strategy seem like a dream (or a nightmare) for today’s event standards in America. Or not. Hopefully not.
The real hit of the evening was the coaching that they offered each of the providers, to set up their small businesses, their social media accounts, branding and marketing.
These businesses were very precarious but were exposed to the chance of growing and learning. The educational component, in my opinion, is where the key to local action that moves mountains lies.
I truly believe such an approach would be a tremendously successful way of creating local wealth, shortening the supply chains and knowing for sure what problems should be tackled first, because the locals would be accessible to answer the questions that we are usually too detached to be able to ask.
But it would also be a tremendously helpful context where to share knowledge with folks about specific issues such as the use of plastics, the value of local food and others, that could make an impact, were there a critical mass.
So here’s a proposal, that I hope at least some of you take in good faith. Help a local event do just that. Go local. Talk to the locals. Speak local. Teach what you know and share what you’ve learned. Make a difference in your square foot. And then come back and tell me how it went. I have a feeling we will both be happy to have that chat.