Localization, Rooftop Gardens and Cross Walks 

"About five hundred years in the future, the polar ice caps have melted due to unexplained events, though human action is hinted... The Earth's surface is almost entirely water. The surviving humans have forgotten the past and believe in a modified creation myth in which God created the world as a ball covered with water, but that there is also dry land somewhere out there." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterworld

One day in the near future you awake to find that the TV doesn't work. And the refrig is warm to the touch. No power. Your iPOD is an iDUD. Your neighbors in all of their bedtime glory are complaining down by the street corner, wondering if there is enough gas in the car to bitch it to City Hall. How long will your cell phone go without recharging? Didn't you catch 20-20 last week? The oil is gone.

Go to your roofs, people!

Vision a wind mill gyrating and a garden filled with green on your roof. Some solar panels? Yup. It's not too late depending on whom you listen to, to take the power back from the power profiteers. Localize we say! Localize? This is the mantra of a San Francisco Bay Area group called Bay Localize:

"We are working to build a cooperative, inclusive movement toward regional self-reliance. To help prepare our region for the coming end of cheap oil — and the progressive decline in long-distance imports that will follow — we are developing flexible tools and models that area groups and municipal governments can implement in their own locales to bring the production of food, energy, and essential goods and services closer to home." http://www.baylocalize.org/about

Corrupt and compromised bankers, stock marketeers and mortgage scammers waive their invisible hand to support individual profit taking over the community good.But is Green the new socialism? Is localization the end of capitalism? Kinda. Maybe. Who cares? Let's just call it sustainability.

Can we learn from the past?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to give reliefto the poor,reform of the financial system, and recovery of the economy during the Great Depression. Fast forward: Is the Bush administration proposing a New Deal? Or a raw deal for the average U.S. citizen? Go talk with your neighbors!

And from the Moon Speech by John F. Kennedy (1962):

"Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."

Localism is a Big Idea Coming Home to Roost

Sacrifice is the norm - volunteering is a way of life (not a quick hit of self-fulfillment).

Wean off of your father's materialism – experiences replace the junk in our garages and closets.

You can live an enlightened life in a localized economy – and you save money and the planet doing it.

Think of the moon or the stars or your zero sum mutual funds but think locally now, like the crosswalk down across the street, cluttered with your phoneless neighbors. Think of world without absolute protection in that little life and death space. Then magnify.

William Paul is a proactive business development partner and innovator for his clients and community – integrating full life cycle impact analysis, green values and sustainable outcomes through Green/sustainable services and civic participation. Find out more about William at Sustainable Business Strategies

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