image by Roberto Garcia-S

The Sunny Way is committed to envisioning and creating a magnificent future for all of us. Right now, this also means facing things head-on, even if they are very scary. History has shown that humans always rise to the challenge of developing, when the old options are running out. And in order to do that, to forge a different path in culture and our own way of looking at life, seeing things how they really are is everything.

So this week we heard that carbon emissions are still on the rise. While scientists are ringing alarm bells even louder, people are beginning or continuing to take things into their own hands.

Al Gore, for one thinks it’s time: “We have reached a point of Civil Disobedience,” he said in a Panel Discussion at Clinton’s Global Initiative in New York. In particular, he encouraged young people to prevent the construction of coal plants that do not have the technology to capture and sequester carbon. 

Maybe Gore was inspired by the six Greenpeace activists who had painted English Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name on the chimney of a coal-fired power plant in Kingsnorth, GB. Amazingly, the group was given a not-guilty verdict. The jurors agreed with the defense’s argument that their actions constituted a so-called ‘lawful excuse’—damaging the plant (it took ₤35,000 to clean up the chimney) was seen as a justified measure to prevent even greater damage—climate change—and should thus be tolerated.

Arnold Schwarzenegger too has enough of the lack of meaningful US leadership in climate concerns. In November, right before new international climate talks are to begin in Poland, he is planning to hold a meeting of international leaders in L.A. with the goal of forging a more efficient alliance on the community and regional level.

Another example of taking things into our own hands: Friends have started a calling center in a shop front here in Lenox, MA, donated rent free for this purpose. We are helping the Obama campaign by making calls to identify Obama supporters in swing states. The response from the community is absolutely enthusiastic, especially when people hear that their job is not to convert a fervent John Mc Cain supporter in New Hampshire, but simply to locate those who favor Obama and make sure they vote. Anywhere between 8 and 25 people are on phones at any one time, and the excitement and willingness to participate blasts to shreds any cynicism or inertia that was still lurking in the back of my mind in relationship to politics.

And if you would like to get involved right at your desk, I want to make a pitch for Avaaz.org, an international movement working with similar tools as MoveOn.org does nationally. Whether it is about Zimbabwe, Georgia, Tibet or China, the Avaaz team keeps coming up with very creative ways to respond to things that just have to change. In just over 18 months, the Avaaz community has grown to almost 3.4 million people from every country of the world, an average growth of over 40,000 people per week! Working in 13 languages, Avaaz members have taken nearly 8 million actions, donated over 2.5 million Euro ($3.5 million), and told over 30 million friends about Avaaz campaigns. A wonderful new source of global community and democracy is being created, and they have started to win real victories to close the gap between the world we have and the world we want—on human rights, environmental protection, poverty, global justice and more.

So, in the spirit of The Sunny Way motto: Eyes clear, minds open and hands (very much) on!