Peter Walks for Democracy

Let me start by saying this: hypocrisy is a killer. If we don’t keep our promises to ourselves, we can’t keep promises to the Creation. Where climate action is concerned, we need to do right, do it well, and do it consistently. If we are consistent as individuals and work well together, we can effect change from the local to the state level, from the family to the business to the Chamber, from one community to tens of thousands of communities. We can change the world.

Some of the most effective and ruthless attacks on climate champions have focused on individual and organizational behavior. Who can forget how climate change deniers and the merchants of doubt went after Al Gore for his property or the use of jets. It doesn’t matter that climate champions live in the same fossil-fueled world deniers and doubters do and that there is no recipe for perfection. But their standards are not the guide for our behavior. Ours are. 

The 44 Laws of Peace provides us with important lessons that climate champions and local governments can take to be the change we need to see in the world. 

• Law #9: Don’t be an “all talk.” Before making a promise, make sure it’s something you’re willing to keep. 
• Law #29: Keep promises to yourself. Make sure that your promises are worth keeping. 
• Law #30: Don’t lie. Present the truth and reality to the best of your ability and speak it as directly as you can.
• Law #36: Be comfortable being uncomfortable. Character is made by moving through discomfort.
• Law #39: The true person is revealed in difficult times. See difficulty as a test and use principles as your guide.
• Law #41: Be consistent. The person who practices the guitar a little each day will be better than the one who every so often practices for an hour.

What’s this mean for climate action?

We have to live our values as individuals and families and express them together in society. I know for myself, this means walking to work regularly, drive a used electric car, and buy solar and wind through my electricity provider. I see other local leaders doing similarly. Our mayor and his family ride their bicycles to work and school while they also lead local bike rides. I see municipal and school district families at the farmer’s markets, purchasing organic and local produce and products. Those with the means are solarizing their homes. Others work with young people to educate them about the our lives on this precious planet. They are also volunteering their time and donating to conservancies and organizations that support nature-based solutions. None of us are perfect. But we strive for progress in our personal journeys. 

In elected and appointed office, we have to work together for a common good. Speaking for myself, that has meant deeply learning about what works and why. I’ve studied Kingdon’s policy windows and policy entrepreneurship, Fischer’s guidance on expertise in public life, Orr’s ecological literacy, Wendell Berry’s “solving for pattern,” Agyeman’s “just sustainabilities” and Illich’s “conviviality,” and Rockström’s “Planetary Boundaries” and Steffen’s “Great Acceleration.”  Of course, it has also meant understanding state enabling legislation, procedures and structures of local, county, regional, and state government. At the project level it means understanding building systems, traffic studies, or the aspects of land development plans or capital improvement plans. Others are about relationships and the complex business of being a human being with all these thoughts, desires, emotions, and beliefs, some of which are at odds with my fellows. Nevertheless, an effective mindful ecological citizen has to decide to work as well as they can with others in order to move the needle. When we do that together, we change local government and culture.

We can set up community forums where we overcome the belief that people don’t want to talk about climate change (something called “pluralistic ignorance”). Knowing we don’t have all the answers (actually no one does), we can form and listen to technical advisory groups and expert groups for climate planning. Hearing those experts telling us that storms are intensifying, we can write and enforce climate-adaptive stormwater ordinances. If, as a group, we say “Let’s walk the walk,” we will design and build climate smart facilities or aggregate power among governments to purchase solar power. To build community and make the world we can collaborate among government in collaboration with NGO’s, large landowners, famers, and our residents to create regenerative landscape design solutions. To invite participation across the private sector, cities can set up competitions or energy districts that drive ambition.

These actions matter. A 2015 article in Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, shows that those actions create a leadership and innovation identity for a municipality. That identity is seen by peers, residents, and businesses as an appropriate response to protecting citizens and facing risks. For the private sector, local government adoption of climate-smart technology derisks it. These successes beget successes, providing proof of concept that creates ambition in state, federal, and international climate efforts. But it starts with each of us.