step it up, take 2

Today I discovered that Bill McKibben, the national organizer of Step It Up, is at it again and calling for another movement of local actions on November 3. I do feel a bit out of the loop for not having discovered this until now, especially since I was on the organizing team for the Step It Up Atlanta event last April. But no matter. Late is better than never.

I have no idea yet what the November Atlanta event will be (although Flexcar seems to be organizing one already), but I do know that I'll be a part of it. Here's why.

Even before I first heard about the Step It Up event last April, I was concerned that global warming is perhaps the most pressing crisis of our time. It still puzzles me to the point of amazement when leaders and spokesman insist that the jury is still out, the research is uncertain, and even if the planet is warming up, we don't know the reason why. The fact is that we do know the reason why--it's because of human activity--but even if we didn't, the doubt ought to be enough to motivate change. If you think your actions might be responsible for the destruction of something entrusted to you (i.e., the planet) and the ruin of thousands of other people's way of life, well, you don't sit around debating whys and wherefores. Especially if the culpable actions are unnecessary and adaptable. We don't have to keep driving everywhere; we don't have to use coal for the majority of our power generation; we don't have to produce all our food in monoculture farms. We do it because we've gotten used to it, and it's the path of least resistance, and a lot of people are making money off of doing it that way. But we have the technology and the ability to change many of these things--not tomorrow, but right now. What we don't have is the will to change them.

Which brings me to my second point, and the reason why I'm already even more excited about this Step It Up event than I was about the last one. The November 3 Step It Up event will be held on that date because it's one year before the next elections, and McKibben is urging organizers to stage events at symbolic locations, locations named after the leaders of our history. The thinking behind this is the need to highlight the men and women who led this country in the past, the men and women who inspired great changes and great willpower in history. Because that, more than anything else, is what is missing today: we need leaders. We need people who will stand up and show us that there's another way to live, and then lead others into it.

It's all too easy for us to fall into the traps of individualism. We see it in churches when people are so concerned about their personal lifestyle--or worse yet, their neighbor's--that they are blind to the terrible sins of their community that are invisible to them because everybody's doing them--sins like racism and materialism and selfishness. We see it in organizations when they become so focused on their own mission and purpose that they lose sight of the people they are supposedly trying to help. And we see it in environmentalists when we focus so much on our own choices to change lightbulbs, ride bikes, and plant gardens that we simply ignore the fact that all our neighbors and friends are blissfully driving SUVs to the gym. It's good, laudable, and necessary to make changes in your own lifestyle. But it's simply not enough. We all need to make changes. And so it's essential that those of us who can see the changes that need to be made not only make them for ourselves, but urge others to make them as well. And that is what Step It Up is all about.