Last December, a camera crew from EcoHearth went to Wall Street in New York City and asked passersby, “Who is most responsible for the poor state of the environment: corporations, politicians or us as individuals?”
It’s a more interesting question than it might first appear.
There’s an obvious theme running through the responses, but what struck me was something the last gentleman said: “…we allow it.”
To accept that premise is to acknowledge a position of empowerment. One cannot allow something to happen without the power to stop it from happening. It’s the same power. And the only difference is how, or whether, we choose to exercise it.
In our daily lives, many of us try to consider the environmental impacts of our choices and actions. Yet from time to time, we can feel powerless. We see corporations acting irresponsibly and governments in paralysis, unable to act at all, and perhaps wonder whether our individual actions make any difference at all.
Acknowledging that “we allow it” changes the game entirely.
