Does thinking about the environment make you depressed? I think it does for most of us. The news is overwhelmingly bad, and way too much for any one of us to deal with on our own. Plus we’re busy anyway, going to work, running our lives. We know the environment is important, but so is everything else we have to worry about. So, even though we feel awful when we think about the bigger picture, still we soldier on, working, parenting, driving around. What else can we do?

What we’re lacking is a sense of possibility. Our problems are impossibly huge, our lives are impossibly busy, and suddenly the future seems dark and inevitable.

But we must remember that it is not.

The Sunny Way is here to shine light through the chinks in that dark, foreboding future. The fact that we made the world the way it is means we can make it again as it ought to be: clean, fair, humane, abundant, fun, beautiful ... No law says that sustainability has to be ugly or boring. It’s up to us to make it as we want it to be.

So ... here’s what we are about:

• taking on new, greener habits and sharing our experiences (and asking you to do the same via our group challenges)
• reporting from the front lines of change
• exploring the relationship between our social and physical environments
• understanding and transforming the way we think about ourselves, each other, and our wee planet
• building community around possibility and responsibility

It’s true we’re in a pickle, and it’s overwhelming and terrifying in turns, but if we work towards a better future, who knows? We may actually have one! Certainly nothing good will come of giving up.

I’m not a dope. I know the problems are immense, and that there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to solve them. Lots of estimates say we have maybe 20 years until things fall apart. But if that’s the case, then I have 20 years to do everything in my power to sort it out out. I’m not going out like a punk, and neither should you.

So that’s what The Sunny Way is—a site for people who are sick of being depressed about the environment, not because our situation isn’t depressing, but because depression doesn’t get us anywhere. It is simply not sustainable.

We have a long road ahead of us, but our hope is that a bunch of us can walk it together, help each other out, and, with example and inspiration and good humor, encourage everyone else to do the same.

And when I say everyone, I really mean everyone—people who don’t believe in global warming, corporate officers, George W. Bush, the anti-Christ—everyone! We’re all in this mess together, and we don’t have time to squabble. Let’s get moving.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll start to get a feel for what we are up to. Some articles will be essays, some will be based on personal experience, and others will take the form of profiles. We’ll have a wide field of play, but the intent behind all of it is the same: to explore the terrain between where we are and where we want to be. As we get going, it will all become clear.

Then, in the coming months, we’ll be adding new features to The Sunny Way to help us along the path—tools to challenge us, track our progress, and build our community. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’ll continue to join us.