Protip #5: How to create win-win situations and gain popular support

Pan Wenshi was recently featured by the International Herald Tribune for his success working with locals in a small Chinese village to protect the white-headed langur. But it wasn’t until Pan lent a hand to help locals that he began to realize success. After Pan helped a villager to get clean drinking water, the villager freed a langur from a trap and brought the animal to Pan, who learned from the experience. Now, Pan advocates for new schools and health clinics in the area where the langurs live. In return, he gets local support. “When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back,” says Pan. “Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs the locals stop them from coming in.”

Pan’s success grew when he won an environmental award that allowed him to install biogas collectors. The villagers could now cook without the toil of chopping firewood and the langurs benefited by slowed deforestation. Serving the needs of others has allowed the langur population in Pan’s nature reserve to expand from 96 to over 500. “This [serving the human community] is the most important thing we can do,” says Pan. “If the villagers can’t feed themselves, the langurs don’t stand a chance.”

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So, we live a green life, eat a natural and mostly organic diet, and share this information in non-threatening ways.

For instance, when a group of Moms was talking about laundry, I shared using apple cider vinegar in the wash instead of bleach when a Mom mentioned that she felt bleach was necessary to get rid of the musty smell. A couple weeks later, when I saw that Mom again, she told me she had made the switch and it was working great.

We recycle everything and usually have at least twice as much recycling out as our neighbors. When they ask “why”, and “how”, I get to share some recycling tips and help educate our neighbors on what is recyclable.

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“Now should be environmental vegetarianism’s big moment. Global warming is the single biggest threat to the health of the planet, and meat consumption plays a bigger role in greenhouse gas emissions than even many environmentalists realize.” - Ben Adler

This quote above is from an article by Ben Adler in American Prospect, titled “Are Cows Worse Than Cars?”. It really stands out as a reminder of the clearly divided environmental movement. By and large, the movement towards environmental sustainability has just plain ignored the impact that dietary choices have on global warming. Curious, isn’t it?

On the one hand, we can support cleaner energy, buy more efficient cars, and reduce our consumption of products derived from petroleum, and yet with our other hand, eat a burger that has a carbon footprint bigger than most SUVs.

“I think it’s amazing that even the greenest of green liberal environment activists, the vast majority of them tend to consume meat at the same rate as people who think global warming is a hoax. Meat consumption seems to be the last thing that progressive people address in their lifestyle. If I had a nickel for every global warming conference that had roast beef on the menu, I’d be rich.” - Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network

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But being green has definitely gone mainstream, and from celebs like Julia Louis-Dreyfus with her lavish, multi-million dollar solar-powered home, to Pierce Brosnan, aptly named the ‘Best Dressed Environmentalist’ by the Sustainable Style Foundation, the stereotype of the gritty, unkempt nature wanderer that once dominated the category no longer applies.

Recently, MSN posted a list of the ‘Top 14 Green Celebrities,’ which contained some long-time environmental advocates and a few surprising new additions, all echoing a commitment to championing this important cause through various initiatives like Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary film about global warming, the 11th Hour, featuring interviews with green leaders and a companion website where everyone can sign up to take action in their local communities, and George Clooney’s Oil Change, a campaign aimed at ending America’s independence on oil.  

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Keeping the earth clean and healthy is not Right vs. Left, it is right vs. wrong!

We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat food that comes from the earth’s soil. It is my observation that my Republican brother-in-law needs the same clean water and air as I in order to live. It is also an observation of mine that the health effects of toxic air and water will equally effect the children of my bro-in-law as much as it will my own. Therefore, it is up to the majority of us whether right or left, liberal or conservative to join together as one group of people that inhabit one planet and address the degradation of our environment.

For the Environment, we are not red or blue, Republican or Democrat–we are the Purple (Blue+Red) Demoblicans (Democrat+Republican)!

Purple Demoblicans unite!

Power tho the Purple!

Purple is the new green!

Demoblicans are the new environmentalists!

The below average catch phrases are endless…

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(Kittens make everything cuter.)

Stephen Harper, Conservative Party leader and newly re-elected Prime Minister of Canada, isn’t many people’s ideal of an environmental hero. He once famously called the Kyoto accord “job-killing, economy-destroying,” and a “socialist scheme.” Understandably, many Canadians look disapprovingly on his environmental record.

However, for a society to achieve sustainability it must have the support conservative leaders as well as liberal leaders, especially when a conservative leader like Harper begins to take interest in the environment. Over the last several years, the Harper government has been making efforts to turn over a new, greener leaf. Despite his continued foot-dragging on Kyoto emissions targets, Harper has been at the head of some important achievements.

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From greening your electronics to green gaming and havens for the budding naturalist, there are plenty of online to offline bridges to walk if you put on the right hiking shoes.

I love kid-lit and fabulous tree tales like A Forest of Stories and The Giving Tree is still my favorite book of all time…but paper free, online media like Dizzywood’s virtual world of collaborative play prove eco-literacy can transpire on a screen too…In Web 2.0 live-chat, 3-D immersive, fun!

Last week at the massive Virtual Worlds Expo in L.A., Dizzywood’s virtual critters and cuties turned some heads learning that kids’ reforestation efforts online enabled 15,000 REAL trees to be planted off line, thanks to their eco-partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation! Created for preteens 8-12 and Privo  Safety Seal tested with accolades out the wazoo, Dizzywood is thankfully, NOT an anomaly…Check out these OTHER eco-positive picks that prove green media is not an oxymoron!

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Our goal this week was to help , bring you eye to eye with people of many nationalities to explore what environmental issues motivate each of us to care and inspire us to take action.

In case you missed it or are coming back for more, here’s our week in review:

Sam Aola Ooko offered a Kenyan perspective from the streets of Nairobi.

Pem Charnley reflected on the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the UK and its implications for the world and environment.

Mark Seall went to the Swiss Alps, wondering why the idea of personal responsibility for the environment is lacking, then to the streets of Switzerland for a taste of some real attitude.

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Consider the Governator’s latest round of bill signings and vetoes: the green guv OKd bans on trans-fats in public schools, lead-based ammunition in areas frequented by the California condor, and phthalates (plastic softeners that can also act as endocrine disruptors) in toys and other products designed for children ages 3 and under. But the not-so-green Arnold vetoed legislation that would have required chain restaurants to post nutritional information on menus and boards, labels for food products made from cloned livestock, sustainable building standards for state buildings, and point-of-purchase information on where electronics buyers could properly dispose of their purchases later.

So what is Schwarzenegger? Is he a mostly environmental guy who, because he’s pragmatic, sometimes makes decisions greens don’t like? Or is he mostly a politician cut from the same cloth as so many others, who occasionally does the right thing environmentally because the public — especially in California — demands it?

Also on GO:

Opinion: California Governor Nixes Industrial Hemp While North Dakota Moves On

Western US, Cananda Announce Global Warming Goal

The Governator Guest Stars on Green Edition of MTV’s Pimp My Ride