Excellent article, Nicole. You’re looking at a lot of personal, doable solutions at the micro level.
But you mention (correctly) the disconnect that so many people have between knowing and doing. And that’s because two fundamental understandings are missing from the discussion:
- Identity Reframe: we need to move beyond our current fragmented/fractious religious/political/cultural/nationalist identities, to a global one which recognizes that regardless of all our trivial differences, our current crises affect everyone equally, and all the old distinctions just get in the way. Like it or not, we’re all connected by our common humanity. We’ve outgrown the old boxes, and need a bigger, global one.
- Ecoliteracy: we need to become globally ecoliterate. That means that we all have to learn how ecosystems actually operate — that there are ways of being on a biological planet that work, and others that get you into trouble. And that ALL of our religious/social/economic/cultural systems have to adhere to that basic reality if they want to survive.
These two issues — global citizenship and ecoliteracy are basically mental reframes. They’re a matter of education. We have to make them part of our educational systems, just as we currently do with linguistic, mathematical, social, and increasingly, computer literacy.
These two reframes create the missing connection: “Yes, I’m a member of a planetary family. My actions affect everyone and everything, so they matter. And just as there are speed limits on the roads for my (our) safety, there are planetary frameworks and limits that I (and my family)have to adhere to, if we want to survive…
