Colin Beavan's Blog, page 3

NYers: Really cool event at my NYC Zen Center on Friday. Please come!

Here is a note I just sent out to friends and since you are my friend, too:

Hi Folks--

Sorry for group email. I'm just writing to a group of friends who have, at one time or another, expressed interest in my Zen school.

This Friday, April 15, we have a very unusual event happening. Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Bobby Rhodes), who is the guiding teacher of the entire Kwan Um School of Zen, will be visiting and giving a dharma talk along side our resident NYC Zen Master Wu Kwang (Richard Shrobe).

Bobby has a charismatic every day feel and Richard is very deeply steeped in Buddhist history and tradition (he has authored several compelling books on Zen). The combination of the two of them will be amazing (their bios are below the sign off).

[UPDATE: It turns out that ZM Soeng Hyang has been detained by the untimely death of a dharma brother and so won't be there. But the inimitable ZM Wu Kwang will be. So come just the same!]

I certainly will be there and I hope you can come too. The talk starts at 7:45 PM on Friday and is at 400 E 14th St, Apt 2D/E (just east of 1st Ave). Don't be confused: the building offers no outward appearance that there is a Zen center inside, but there is!

Hope to see you there!

All the best,

Colin

 

Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Barbara Rhodes) is the School Zen Master and Guiding Dharma Teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen. She received dharma transmission from Zen Master Seung Sahn on October 10, 1992. She was one of Zen Master Seung Sahn's first American students and studied with him since 1972. She was given inka in 1977. A registered nurse since 1969, she works for Hospice Care of Rhode Island. She helped found Providence Zen Center, and lived there for seventeen years, serving in a number of administrative capacities. Zen Master Soeng Hyang has a daughter and lives with her partner, Mary, in Massachusetts.

Zen Master Wu Kwang, (Richard Shrobe) is guiding teacher of the Chogye International Zen Center of New York and lives in New York with his family. Before he began practicing Zen he studied intensively with Swami Satchidananda, living with his wife and children for four years at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York. He has a Master's degree in Social Work and did six years of postgraduate study in Gestalt, including training with Laura Perls. He has been director of a drug program, and has served as an instructor in psychiatry and Gestalt therapy. He started practicing with Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1975 and was given inka in 1984. He received dharma transmission on August 1, 1993. A former professional musician, his undergraduate training was in music theory, and he also studied with jazz pianist, Barry Harris. Currently he has a private practice in psychotherapy specializing in the Gestalt approach. He has written three books: Open Mouth Already a Mistake, Don't Know Mind: The Spirit of Korean Zen, and Elegant Failure: A Guide to Zen Koans, all available from from Amazon.com.

Want to help spread the eco-word? Work for the No Impact Project!

Hi Folks--

Just a little news about the No Impact Project, the non-profit effort I started to help people to become engaged citizens through both lifestyle change and community and national political involvement (from both sides of the aisle).

1. We are looking for a program associate. The job description is below and on Idealist. Please follow directions below to apply.

2. We are also always looking for interns and volunteers. The type of work we have includes elements of what is in the job description below. People who help out are often able to get credits from their college or a good resume boost. If you're interested, please send your resume to lindsay@noimpactproject.org.

Program Associate at the No Impact Project

The No Impact Project is looking for a New York City based, talented and motivated college graduate with two to five years work experience in event production, fund raising and/or non-profit management. This is a 20 to 30 hour a week position that could ultimately become full time. You will work closely with and report to Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) to raise funds, execute program logistics, and help to build interest in all of our programs including No Impact Weeks, our Eco Leadership retreats and more.

The No Impact Project was founded in 2009 by Colin Beavan (No Impact Man), following the success of his blog, book, and Sundance-selected film, which chronicle his experiment in living a zero-waste lifestyle in New York City. We have reached millions of people with our programs, including the No Impact Week, an engaging and fun weeklong carbon cleanse that gives participants the opportunity to experience a low impact living experiment of their own.

Program Associate Duties and Responsibilities

This is an excellent position for someone with great organizational, administrative, communication and writing skills who likes the idea of working independently and having a lot of responsibility early in their career.

The No Impact Project takes a fun, love-filled, and slightly unconventional approach to its work and its mission. We partner regularly with much larger environmental organizations so you would have frequent interaction with other parts of the non-profit world.

Because we are small, we have the flexibility to try new things as long as they fulfill our mission and are fulfilling to all involved. We are not a bricks and mortar organization. We work from our homes, cafes and other pleasant meeting places and stay in regular contact by phone, Skype and regular meetings.

Our mission is to combine various forms of media and entertainment with educational programs in order to engage regular citizens in the quest for a way of life that is both better for people and better for the planet. Our methodology is to move people along a path from passive concern, to personal/lifestyle change to community and political engagement (from both sides of the aisle).

Areas of responsibility will include:
● Program-related research, development, and execution
● Communications and marketing
● Event planning
● Grant proposal research and writing
● Social media and technology project development
● Administrative duties

Qualifications:
● College graduate
● Resident of New York City or surrounding area
● Excellent writing and communications skills
● Strong interpersonal skills
● Previous experience in event planning or program management
● Highly organized and detail oriented
● Interest in environmental and sustainability issues
● Ability to work independently and take initiative
● Confident, good sense of humor, creative thinker (all requirements!)

As most of our work is done via telephone and internet, the position is mostly virtual. It will begin as a part time consultant, with the potential to become full time staff. We are looking to start the Program Associate immediately. Applications are due by April 18th, 2011.

The biggest barrier to climate change progress?

Hi folks, I wanted to share an email I got from my friend Bill McKibben, leader of 350.org.

In it, he explains how the Chamber of Commerce is injecting huge amounts of cash into American politics and blocking action on climate. He says that the Chamber claims to represent all of American business. So he has started a petition of businesses who don't support the Chamber's position to show that what the Chamber says about representing American business is not true. If you own a business, why not join in?

But go ahead and read the letter for yourself:

Dear Friends,

People have been asking me: of all the potential targets on the planet, why is 350.org taking on the US Chamber of Commerce? 

Simply put, the US Chamber is one of the biggest barriers to climate progress in the entire world.

In the last year for which statistics are available, the US Chamber spent five times as much money lobbying as the next highest spender -- Exxon Mobil. They spent more money on political campaigning than the Republican and Democratic national committees. And they used all that corporate cash to make sure that the planet kept warming, opposing almost every measure that might have made even a small difference. Not to worry, they told the EPA: when the earth warmed, humans could "adapt their physiologies."

That's why we're taking them on. And if you think that they're too powerful to hurt, you're both right and wrong. We can't take away their money -- the Supreme Court has seen to that with the Citizens United decision -- but we can neutralize their other major source of power, the claim that they "represent American business." They don't: most American businesses aren't like the handful of giant corporations that provide most of the Chamber's funds. We should be clear: the US Chamber isn't a government agency, it's a privately controlled front group for big corporations.

We've got amazing momentum for the campaign already: from Arroyo Veterinary Hospital to Zero Gravity Marketing, over 1,000 businesses have already said they don't need the Chamber claiming to represent them on energy and climate. But the Chamber claims it has 300,000 members. So we have 299,000 to go to catch up. We can do it -- you could easily sign up ten businesses yourself in the next week.

If just 500 people commit to getting 10 businesses on board this week, we'll blow past the 5,000 business mark in the next few days. Click here to join in.

When you're shopping, going to the gym, renewing your insurance, or getting your hair cut: ask to speak to the owner. Go over the simple talking points we've written up, and get them to sign the pledge -- and if you're handy with the camera on your phone, get them to make a short video. (The best ones show the boss at work as she talks -- the barber with scissors in hand, for example). Hell, you probably have ten friends who run small businesses of their own.

I know that this doesn't sound dramatic. Compared to the remarkable bravery folks are showing in Egypt and Libya (or the leadership closer to home of our friends Tim DeChristopher and Wendell Berry) this is easy -- you just need guts enough to talk to the guy behind the counter.

There will be more chances for dramatic action as the year goes on—here's our latest thinking on the growing opportunities for civil disobedience, for example.  But you don't need to go to jail to make a difference -- sometimes small actions truly do add up.

If you're sick of the power of big money in our lives, then now's the moment to do your part.

Again, all you need to know to sign up businesses is right here. It's really easy and it's also really important.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben for 350.org

P.S. How do we know we're getting nearer to the real centers of power? Because they're fighting back. Read the story of 350.org, the Red Sox, and how Glenn Beck accused me of being a communist right here.

Advice from an Accidental Activist

The following article was originally published in Yes! Magazine at this location. Other articles I've published in Yes! include: "Ten Ways to Change Your Life," "Fight Climate Change: Live the Good Life," and "Christmas with No Presents."

So many of us have good ideas for helping the world. But we tuck our ideas away. I did. I'd tell myself that if the idea were any good someone else would have already done it. That I'm not capable of making a difference. I'd sit on my ideas, get on with my "life," and then feel angry at the world because the problems I cared about didn't get solved.

I had that fear of going first.

Then I took my first hapless step into what I call accidental activism. In 2006, I started a project where I lived as environmentally as possible for a year—with my little family, on the ninth floor of an apartment building in the middle of New York City—to attract attention to the world's environmental, economic, and quality of life crises.

I had no experience as an activist. Yet suddenly my project caught fire.

My book and film, both titled No Impact Man, ended up being translated into 20-plus languages. Some philanthropists appeared and offered me funding to hire consultants to get NoImpactProject.org off the ground. About 20,000 people have now participated in our educational immersion program, No Impact Week.

And how have I felt through all this?

Like a deer in the headlights.

How am I supposed to stand up to all this? Surely people can see how selfish and shortsighted I am? That I'm sometimes mean to my family? People like me aren't supposed to do things like this. We're supposed to wait for people who have their acts together, and follow them.

But if we wait for those people, we're done for.

There are a lot of people who know way more about activism and citizen engagement than me. I'm pretty ordinary. Frankly, I don't even always want to be of service. But I've now learned a lot about how to be an ordinary person, filled with self-doubt, who still takes the risk of trying to do something about the world. Maybe you're like me. And maybe the things that have helped me will help you, too.

Be Stupid Enough to Take The First Step

My first step was just to begin living with the lowest possible environmental impact. A few people said I was "too stupid to know that one person can't make a difference." Think on this story (with apologies for high schmaltz quotient):

Two frogs—one very smart and one very stupid—are caught in a bowl of cream. The sides are too steep to climb and they have no foothold to jump. The stupid one begins to swim as hard and fast as he can. The smart one looks over and says to himself, "He's too stupid to know that all that effort will make no difference."

Having weighed the hopelessness of the situation, the smart one decides that the most intelligent thing is to give up. So—Blub!—he drowns. The stupid one keeps trying. Just when his legs are about to give out the cream starts to get thicker. His struggling has churned the cream to butter. He's surprised to find himself on solid ground. He jumps out. By stupidly pursuing the first step (swimming), the second step (jumping out) appeared, as if by magic.

The question is not whether you can make a difference. The question is, do you want to be the person who tries? Do you want to be like the smart frog, who relies on the brain that tells him there is no solution, or the stupid frog, whose heart tells him to try anyway?

Maybe you care about food deserts and kids not having access to good food, or maybe it's incarceration of local youth, or maybe, like me, you worry about inaction on climate change. Whatever it is, pick up your placard or call your senator or gather your friends. Don't worry about the second step. Just be too stupid to know the first step won't work.

Use Your Personal Story to Inspire a Movement

Part of the reason one person can make a difference is that one person's efforts soon inspire other people's efforts. So inspire other people to get involved by sharing your personal story. Not just the story, say, of the hungry children in the Global South who you are trying to help, but your own story.

In No Impact Man, I share stories of how I tried to keep my food fresh without a refrigerator, how I had to eat mostly cabbage in the winter, and how I washed my laundry by hand. People didn't suddenly realize that they, too, should hand-wash their clothes. Instead, they learned, not that they should make a difference—which statistics and figures tell us—but that they can make a difference—which personal stories have the power to tell.

It is through the personal that people connect with the political.

No matter what your cause, look for the powerful, personal story about how you got involved and how being involved has improved your life in some way. I've heard it said we shouldn't have to tell these stories—that people should automatically care. The thing is, once they know, people do care. The problem is that they are often overwhelmed by it. So the job is not to shove information at them that makes them feel guilty for not doing something. The job is to give them a story that shows them how to do something.

Get Off the Internet and Into Real Life

Back in the '60s, a string of civil rights sit-ins began when four students from a black college in North Carolina sat down at a whites-only Woolworth lunch counter. In the end, about 70,000 students participated in sit-ins that spread across the state. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in a recent New Yorker article, the action didn't start with lots of Twitter followers. It started with lots of flesh-and-blood (as opposed to Facebook) friends.

The strong social bonds and long-standing mutual trust gave those first four students the bravery to stand up for themselves. Gladwell says that the strong ties of real friendship and community—not the weak ties of the virtual world—are necessary to make us feel supported enough to take meaningful risks for our values.

I ran a blog at NoImpactMan.com and many thousands of people came there to discuss their views on and methods of environmental living. It was a good thing. In the absence of real-life communities of shared environmental values, the blog provided a lot of people with some measure of community support. But the stronger, more action-oriented communities are formed in my work when people come together for our No Impact Weeks.

One of the most accomplished friendship-based communities I am familiar with, 350.org, the grassroots climate organization, began with a group of students who lived together at college and then in the Bay Area. They have grown their little house party into an international organization of hundreds of thousands of climate activists. They use the Web to aggregate the actions of thousands of friendship-based groups. But the point is the actions taken by small communities of friends or neighbors—not the information sharing.

So use the Internet, of course. But use it to get people to do things in real life. What if the many hours spent leaving angry comments on the Huffington Post were instead spent gathering once a week in a coffee shop. Sooner or later, real action—as opposed to real, um, clicks—might occur. Get people to come together. They need each other.

Trust Your Vision

So you have your idea, you've taken your first step, you've gathered like-minded people, and now you have a little bit of energy and success. Great news! This is when the critics and second-guessers arrive. That's a reason for not getting started in the first place, right? Nobody bothers to second-guess you when you're just fantasizing about your great idea.
I suddenly found myself invited to go on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer. As they say: WTF? I was horrified. I'm sure I had an overinflated sense of my own importance, but I was worried I could send people in the wrong direction.

I had no real endorsement other than—again—my own trust in my intentions. I had to go on national television trusting in myself and my vision.

Absolutely the hardest thing of all was this: I had to accept that I might be wrong and do it anyway.

Sadly, lots of arguments break out in activist communities about best methods. People tear each other apart as though the scenario is either/or when really it's and/also. We need many shoulders against many doors. What I've learned as I've come to meet so many amazing engaged citizens is that it takes many different strategies and many different styles to make the changes we're hoping for.

So trust your vision. You may find that the biggest sacrifice you can make for the world is to face the possibility of being publicly wrong. And to move forward anyway.

Take Care of Yourself

Once you get involved in this kind of work, the pressures mount—many of them from within rather than without. We need to take care of both the insides and the outsides. I started by saying you just need to take the first step, but this step is just as important. If you can't sustain yourself, you can't sustain your work.

No Impact Man, in many ways, began as an extension of my meditation practice. A lot of the confidence I needed came from inklings of understanding of the Truth—whatever the hell that is. And of Service. But while I was making time for TV appearances and press interviews and rallies and favors and guest appearances on blogs I lost time for my meditation.

Then anxiety arrived. And depression. I was running on fumes. I was draining the battery without charging it. The good news is that I am back to my regular practice. I feel better. Of course, I'm not saying you should necessarily meditate, just that you need to find what suits you to take care of your insides.

About the outsides: A couple of years ago, after so many TV interviews and radio interviews and international press appearances (and, by the way, repeatedly having to face accusers who said I was trying to get rich from the world's problems), I looked at my bank balance and saw I had about $200 left—about $3,000 less than my monthly nut. I'd been working all my waking hours on what I believed in and couldn't take care of myself.Luckily for me, I didn't have to change much (like, I began to ask to get paid when someone asked me to make a speech) but I did have to face my guilt and confront my monkish self-image. There is a meme in our culture: You can be a monk or a merchant. Monks do good and merchants make money. If you make any money—if you find a way to take care of your outsides—you can't be an ascetic monk, and you're not really doing good.

Imagine, though, if we create a new meme. What if we show each other how wonderfully well we're managing as a result of taking our ideas for social change and running with them? What if we bragged about outperforming the bankers every so often?

But even if we don't get the chance to do that, we should at least make good homes out of our lives. Without loving ourselves, the love for others will wither. By taking the burden of the world on our shoulders, we leave no room for the strength of others. In other words, have fun!

After all, the world isn't worth saving if there isn't time for joking around.

Besides, we might as well enjoy ourselves when you realize how much work there is to get done. With two wars in progress, melting ice caps, and an economic system teetering on the brink of collapse, there just isn't time to wait for some guru or leader to give us permission to act on our good ideas.

Who's going to fix things if it isn't us? I can't help thinking that the time has come for us to take back our culture. It's time for every citizen with a good idea to get to work, to trust yourself, to start. Sooner or later you have to accept the fact that you need no other authority than your good intentions and your loving heart.

Please support my OpEd in the Daily News and bring more bike lanes to NYC!

Please share this note widely with all your friends and ask them to go to this is an article by me in the Daily News (http://nydn.us/dOW8rH) and leave their comments. Better yet, if you are a New Yorker, please write a letter to the News editor (directions below).

Bike lanes, as you know, make people healthier, neighborhoods nicer and the planet happier. More bike lanes in NYC--since it sets trends--will mean more bike lanes around the world.

One simple way to help support bikes lanes in NYC is to leave comments of support on the Daily News page where the article is. So please do so.

To do one better, write a letter to the Daily News editor (see directions below), especially if you're from NYC, saying that you agree with my article and that you wholeheartedly support Sadik-Khan and Bloomberg's bike lane program.

Even if your letter is not printed, you will help convince the Daily News editorial board to get behind the bike lane program. This is a case where writing a letter really can make a difference.

If you leave a comment or write a letter (or better yet, do both) please leave a comment here to let us all know. Perhaps, if you can, leave the link to your comment so we can all give you props!

Directions for writing letter to Daily News editor:

Email voicers@edit.nydailynews.com. Please include your full name, address and phone number. (This information will be used for verification purposes only). The Daily News reserves the right to edit letters.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/services/contact_us/index.html#ixzz1DrMF2XbQ

Wanna work for the No Impact Project?

The No Impact Project is looking for a talented and motivated part-time Program Manager to work in close partnership with the Program Director to ensure the successful execution of a multi-pronged programming and fundraising agenda. This Program Manager will be vital in helping us build capacity in our organization and continue to develop and manage our programs.

The No Impact Project was founded in 2009 by Colin Beavan (No Impact Man), following the success of his blog, book, and Sundance-selected film, which chronicle his experiment living a zero-waste lifestyle in New York City. Our goal is to empower citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in civic engagement. We have reached millions of people with our programs, including the No Impact Week, an engaging and fun weeklong carbon cleanse that gives participants the opportunity to experience a low impact living experiment of their own.

Areas of responsibility will include:

● Program-related research, development, and execution

● Communications and marketing

● Event planning

● Grant proposal research and writing

● Social media and technology project development

● Administrative duties

Qualifications:

● College graduate

● Resident of New York City or surrounding area

● Excellent writing and communications skills

● Strong interpersonal skills

● Previous experience in event planning or program management

● Highly organized and detail oriented

● Interest in environmental and sustainability issues

● Ability to work independently and take initiative

● Confident, good sense of humor, creative thinker (all requirements!)

As most of our work is done via telephone and internet, the position is mostly virtual. It will begin as a part time consultant, with the potential to become full time staff. We are looking to start the Program Manager immediately, for a four month period with potential for renewal.

Please email your cover letter, resume/CV, and a 3-5 page writing sample to Lindsay Buchanan at Lindsay@noimpactproject.org. Applications are due February 8th.

What I have to remember

Yesterday, President Obama, speaking in Tucson, Arizona in the wake of the recent shootings, said:

"At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do, it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."

I have to be careful when I hear words like these. Because when I hear them, I might automatically nod my head and think, "Yes, the people who disagree with me should be more civil." But this isn't about other people.

It's about me, the only person I can do anything about. I can help end partisanship by making sure that I talk in a way that that heals.

If I want to help the world, what I have to remember is that this is about my conduct. It's about me.

Join the many experimenting with a better way of life at Yes! Magazine

Sign up today for No Impact Week, kicking off January 2nd with YES!

When we at the No Impact Project first launched our immersion program in extreme environmental living—No Impact Week—I didn't dream that more than 15,000 people would participate in only a year and a half. After all, we' re not talking about 15,000 people taking a couple of hours out of their day to attend a political rally or protest environmental issues. We are talking about 15,000 people who have taken an entire week out of their lives to experiment with socially and environmentally responsible lifestyles.

That's a lot of people taking on a big commitment. It's a lot of people with big hearts, who care about how we live and are questing for a better life. It's humbling how many individuals around the world truly want to take responsibility for our planet' s problems and find a better way to live—a way based on human values rather than economic ones.

No Impact Week participants join Transition Towns, eco-villages, local business and food initiatives, and countless others in a growing movement toward happier, healthier lives.

These are people who understand that all of us are in the throes of a huge crisis, and also that this crisis provides a wonderful opportunity—a wake up call—to ask what actually makes a good life. Proponents of this movement perceive that the truly good life and the life that preserves the habitat we depend upon for our health, happiness and security are one and the same.

We are not short on major problems. We have war, climate change, political divisiveness, and over-stressed ecological systems, and we teeter dangerously close to economic collapse. Americans (and even some Europeans) suffer from depression and anxiety disorders in epidemic proportions. And that's just in the developed economies. In the Global South, one billion people don't even have access to clean drinking water. What's more, it is clear that the way of life behind many of these symptoms is not making us as happy as we might be. If it's not making us happy, then what are we trashing the planet for?

There has to be a better way, and millions of us know it.

That's one reason why No Impact Week has attracted so many participants. It is an opportunity for people to retreat from consumerism and ask themselves what their lives are really about. It's a chance for each of us to strip away the bling from our lives and look for the true substance. What is actually important to us? What is most precious about being human? And how much do we really attend to that?

These used to be philosophical questions. But with dwindling planetary resources, they have become practical: As these resources become less abundant and more expensive, we must be sure that we are using them in ways that are in line with a purposeful way of life.

No Impact Week gives people a chance to confront these questions and share honest answers—which is why I am so happy that readers of YES! Magazine are taking up the challenge to join in. The week will be frustrating at times and joyful at others, but the point is to learn—to learn what kind of lives we really want for ourselves and our communities, to what extent the economic system permits these best lives, and how we can step up with kindness and love to do what is needed.

For some of us, this is an overwhelming task. We wonder if anything we do can make a difference at all. But ultimately, this stumbling block misses the point: The real question is whether we can live our own lives embracing the values we hold most dear. History proves the immense power of social change when individuals choose to live according to their values, participating in what they believe in and turning away from what they don't.

In the words of Ghandi, whose vision of the transformative power of non-violence is very much present in our own hopes for a healthy, holistic, and happy society:

"The world of tomorrow will be, must be, a society based on non-violence. It may seem a distant goal, an unpractical utopia. But it is not in the least unobtainable, since it can be worked from here and now. An individual can adopt the way of life of the future—the non-violent way—without having to wait for others to do so. And if an individual can do it, cannot whole groups of individuals? Whole nations? Men often hesitate to make a beginning because they feel that the objective cannot be achieved in its entirety. This attitude of mind is precisely our greatest obstacle to progress—an obstacle that each man, if he only will it, can clear away."

I look forward to the time when all of us have the courage and the faith to "will it."

With love,
Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man

Sign up today for No Impact Week, kicking off January 2nd with YES!

Thoughts on communicating on climate--my remarks at climate negotiations communication conference

In 2006, I became increasingly concerned both about climate change and the military action taken by the United States to secure its access to oil supplies in the Middle East.

As a journalist and author, I wanted to find a way to make the case for a lower reliance on fossil fuels and other natural resources to the American and European publics.  

However, I did not believe a typical political discourse would not do the trick. There had been many of such books already written that attempted such a discourse.

Instead, I wanted to find a way to engage Americans who were not typically interested in politics. For this reason, I wanted to draw people in through the power of story instead of polemic. 

The story I chose was one about my family--family is something people care about in the United States. Indeed, "family values" are often discussed by conservative Americans, many of whom oppose action on climate change. 

As the story goes, for one year, we lived, in the middle of New York City, causing as little environmental impact as possible.  This meant, not making any trash, not using any fossil fuel transportation, buying local food, not purchasing anything new. Etc etc.

This experiment in environmental lifestyle was discussed in my blog, my book, and a documentary movie, all by the title No Impact Man. My hope was that the story of, if you like, That Crazy Family in New York City would attract attention to our climate crisis.

It was successful beyond my wildest dreams. In 2007, the New York Times wrote a front page story on the No Impact Man project. It has been covered in major newspapers and television channels across the world. There have been over 3 million unique visitors to the blog. The book has been translated into some 15 languages and has sold more than 50,000 copies in the United States alone. 

The movie has been released in theaters in the United States and other countries around the world. In addition, there have been over 1,000 community screenings around the world to groups ranging in size from 20 to 500 people. I have been invited to discuss No Impact Man with college audiences totalling some 15,000 in number over the last three months.

Also, some 15,000 world citizens have participated in a program run by my non-profit, the No Impact Project. In this, participants try themselves to live with as low a carbon footprint as possible for a whole week. This is not 15,000 people turning out for a two hour protest. It is 15,000 people devote themselves to significant hardship for an entire week. 

I like to think that this shows that, when they understand the connection of climate to their own lives, people are willing to dedicate substantial effort. This is very heartening.  

But I have a caution. A Google search for the phrase No Impact Man yields some 470,000 unique results. Meanwhile, a Google search for the phrase Cop 16 yields 500,000 unique results. In other words, about the same.  

Of course, I don't cite these figures to suggest that No Impact Man compares in importance to Cop 16.  I say this to show that something as important as Cop 16, which I believe is part of a process of literally saving our species, does not get discussed by the public just because it is important. In fact, it's importance gets dwarfed by "better stories."

Just because you and I consider something vastly important doesn't mean everyone else will. Especially if they don't really understand it.

So how do we create "better stories"?

One method, I believe, is to find ways of creating real, human narratives that connect the life of the average global citizen to the complex and seemingly abstract problem of climate change.

In other words, can we find a way to talk about climate that isn't about climate? Instead, can we talk climate in a way that is about people?

It is my thinking that the reason why my small project has received so much attention is because, through discussing lifestyle, people are able to understand the connection between their own lives and climate. Suddenly, they understand why it is relevant to them.

On the subject of engaging citizens in this discussion about climate change, I'd like to offer some conclusions I've drawn through my experience as No Impact Man. I don't mean to imply that this is the way everyone should approach communicating on climate.

Instead, it is a list of guidelines I have developed for myself as travel around and talk and write about climate to, I like to think, some success:

1. How to communicate about climate change is not a case of either/or but of and/also. Selling solutions to climates change is not like selling laundry soap. You can't figure out one message for the center of the bell curve. The message must be segmented. We have to communicate with the tails of the bell curve. Don't assume that everyone else will care for the same reasons you do.

2. No matter which community you are talking to, find a way to connect to their health, happiness and security. Mom's in DC may well want the coal-fired power plant removed, but not because of climate change. Instead, they want to get rid of it because it gives their children asthma.

3. Break away from dry scientific stories and find sympathetic human stories that connect to people's daily lives. In the United States, this is particularly important because Americans are ambivalent about politics. Our culture is one that concentrates more on individuals.

4. Don't speak about the planet. Speak about the habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security. The planet is something else. The habitat is the air we breathe and the food we eat. When speaking about species extinction, point out that if the habitat cannot support other species, that is a sign that it may soon not be able to support us, either.

5. For crying out loud, joke around. If we can't laugh, is the planet even worth saving?

6. Break away from morality and guilt. Most people are moral, even if they don't care about what we care about. Instead, figure out what your audience is concerned about and find a way to make climate change solutions appeal to their concerns.

7. Forget trying to frighten people. Frightening people about things they feel they can do nothing about just forces them to ignore you.

8. Avoid dissociating conservatives by cloying too closely to progressive language. We cannot "win" on climate change. A progressive government will soon lose to a conservative one. The culture must be transformed so that strengthening the habitat is a people concern, not just a progressive one.

9. Build coalitions around the solutions rather than the problems. There may be disagreement on climate change, but there is very little disagreement that reducing reliance on dwindling and unstable fossil fuel sources would be good. To many people, renewable energy is just plain "cool." Use the Star Trek factor in your favor.

10. Talk about aspirations and ambitions rather than limitations. Climate may be a crisis but its solution provides many opportunities. Wouldn't it be better not to have to live in a traffic jam of automobiles and instead have a healthy, enjoyable, and safe transportation system?

11. Listen and engage. Don't lecture. Don't talk down. People want to be engaged and have the opportunity to discuss. They don't want to be trained or talked at. Find ways for people to take ownership of the issue by letting them be part of the solution.

12. At least in the developed economies, don't talk about how a sustainable society would be just economically efficient but also talk about how it could bring a more meaningful life, one based more on community and social connection rather than consumption.

13. Tell people how to help. Don't agitate people about something that they can't act upon. That only turns them off. In the United States during World War II, scrap drives to help the war effort were hugely important to morale because people felt involved.

Help me figure out what message on climate I should I deliver to world governments

When I started the whole No Impact Man thing, it was because I firmly believed that our environmental and quality of life crises couldn't not be solved in the halls of government alone. The people needed to be engaged. Their--our--commitment is required.

Yet government, and to a certain extent, environmental NGOs concentrate on diplomacy and regulations, forgetting that none of it will get anywhere without popular support (article I wrote for Yes Mag on this subject here). Especially when you consider the many millions of fossil fuel industry dollars aimed at killing any action.

Anyway.

Tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, I am speaking to a group of government, NGO and other representatives at a side-conference to the United Nations' international climate negotiations (COP-16) in Cancun. The conference, organized by the Mexican Government, is on the subject of communicating to the public about climate change. It is called the Climate Change Communication Forum (and if you're here in Cancun, please come).

What I wondered, since those of you who read this blog think about these things so much, is what do you think governments and NGOs should be doing to effectively communicate to the public and engage them in solutions to climate change? How do we make this everyone's issue, wherever they are on the political spectrum?

Help me decide what to say when I talk. What do they all need to hear? Please leave your comments below?