Getting my Attention

This week, Rocky Mountain Institute staff were invited to join teams from a few other local organizations whose missions center around environmental issues, for a screening of the new film,  An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.  My boss had warned me “it’s not an uplifting film,” and he was right.  Still, an important one and I’m glad I saw it.

You may remember Al Gore’s first movie in 2006 on climate change, which I never saw .  Why didn’t I see it?  It was because of one of several reasons that, in my opinion, so many people don’t seem to care much about climate change or environmental issues in general:

1.     They don’t believe the science or feel like the media is just making a big deal over nothing.  (That one's getting harder to justify, IMO)

2.     They acknowledge that the science is valid and the threat probably real but

a.     They are too attached to their comfortable lifestyle

b.     They don’t feel like anything they might do would make a significant difference so why bother?

3.     They hear random bits of information but just really aren’t paying enough attention to fully understand.  (yep, this was me before joining    RMI a year ago - largely oblivious to a lot of  it)

My role on the RMI team is to develop systems to support the important work done by my exceptional colleagues working all around the world.  They are a diverse mix of world-class scientists, engineers and architects, as well as experts in political, social and financial issues. They inspire me every single day with their brilliant minds and deep passion.  As a nonprofit, RMI operates very lean – there’s certainly no one working here for the money – and our support comes primarily from people and organizations who believe in our mission to help create a cleaner, safer and more secure planet Earth.

The current political environment obviously doesn’t value environmental issues and this is a cycle we’ll just have to ride out.  Fortunately though, there are still many companies, cities/states/municipalities, and individuals in the US and the world whose priorities have not changed – here are some of them going public with that pledge  http://wearestillin.com/.  This is reason for hope for humanity.

But here’s my main takeaway on the larger picture, two days later -

Post movie conversation among my colleagues included talk about personal responsibility and personal opportunity for service, and it wasn’t just about climate change issues.  It was about the chance we all have every day to serve our communities and our brothers and sisters, to be kind and positive influences, particularly amidst the various factors generating turmoil these days.  Individuals matter, and together we can do a lot – globally and one-on-one.   In George HW Bush’s terminology, “A thousand points of light.”  In Mother Teresa’s words, “Small things with great love.”

Climate change doesn’t inspire you?  That’s ok.  Listen the voice from your unique soul and go out and make a small difference in the world, with whatever it is that does make you feel alive and happy.  Chances are, you can make someone else feel that way too - setting off that beautiful butterfly effect.

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