This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog learns to embrace imperfection and our inner climate hypocrite with North Carolina-based environmental journalist Sami Grover. Sami’s brand new book, just out this week from New Society Publishers is We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now: How Embracing Our Limitations Can Unlock the Power of a Movement. In it, he talks candidly about climate change with practical pathways to making a difference. We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now is available from your favorite local bookseller or at https://newsociety.com/books/w/we-re-all-climate-hypocrites-now.
Sami Grover has written more than 2,000 articles covering everything from electric bike ownership to peeing on your compost pile. He has has worked on environmentally and socially conscious branding projects for clients including Burt’s Bees, Dogwood Alliance and Jada Pinkett Smith. While he has only been marginally successful in reducing his own environmental impact, he believes that in order to make a difference, each of us have to identify our greatest point of leverage and focus our efforts there.
The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning that global warming is dangerously close to being out of control should have people looking for ways to engage meaningfully with solutions to the climate crisis. Yet, it can be hard to live an ideal eco-lifestyle in a society that pushes the opposite. In his book, Sami reimagines what it means to be a “good environmentalist.” Moving past carbon footprints, the self-confessed eco-hypocrite takes a tongue-in-cheek approach, skewering those pointing fingers, celebrating those trying, and offering practical pathways to actually making a difference.
Sami Grover has spent most of his life trying to figure out how to live a greener lifestyle. We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now points out that while changing individual behavior matters, transforming the system matters more. Culture tells us that personal responsibility is central to tackling the climate emergency, yet the choices we make are often governed by the systems in which we live. Grover states that by understanding where our greatest leverage lies, we can prioritize our actions, maximize our impact, and join forces with the millions of other imperfect individuals who are ready to do their part and change the system.
Grover’s suggestions for anyone looking to make a difference is to take an honest look at where we have the greatest opportunity to create wider-scale change. Questions such as:
• What does your social network look like, and how can you have an influence over those you love?
• What issues, organizations, or activist groups are you drawn to, and how could you get more involved?
• What opportunities do you have at work, at school, or in your community?
• What power, privilege, or advantages do you enjoy that you could leverage in service of the movement?
• What strengths, skills, or knowledge do you bring to the climate fight?
• What do you love doing? What sustains and motivates you over the long term?
• And, crucially, what forces stand in your way, and what needs to happen for those forces to go away?
As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW!
Sustainability Now! airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at http://forwardradio.org
The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at http://appalatin.com
