
There is a growing opportunity as more and more local groups begin to form around climate change. In the Ventura bioregion we have seen the Ojai Green Coalition and VCCool generate a renewed interest in local activism. Even the kids are getting organized.
Aligning all this energy, and getting these latent activists up to speed is the first challenge. The next is finding ways to put EVERYONE to work on solving the looming crisis, which is actually the convergence of several crises all at once.
Thomas Freidman outlines a strategy in his bestseller, "Hot Flat and Crowded." He calls it "Code Green," or 'Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America'
Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things--unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green.
This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America.