2Sustain

There’s an old torch song called “What a Difference a Day Makes” by Dinah Washington. It has been stuck in my head lately, particularly as I read stories coming out of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change which kicked off this week in Bali. I think the reason I can’t shake the tune because everywhere I look I’m reminded of the huge difference between the environmental movement as I remember it from the late 80s/early 90s and the movement today. So I suppose it’s more like “What a Difference Two Decades Makes” – but who’s counting?

I started working in the conservation movement as a college student in Boulder, CO in 1989. My first efforts to personally save the planet involved canvassing door-to-door affluent Cherry Creek suburbs of Denver, CO. We were on a mission…a mission to save a beautiful old-growth forest from the ravages of the evil King Sooper. Sounds “JR R Tolkien-esque” no? Well, in this case King Sooper was a supermarket chain rather than a dark ages marauder, but this King Sooper was up to no good all the same. They had plans to clear-cut one of Colorado’s last remaining old growth forests and turn the trees into millions of paper shopping bags.

Our job was to stop them, one household at a time. We’d drive down from Boulder to Denver brimming with the sort of enthusiasm and idealism only available to the world’s 19 year olds. We were doing it! We were making a difference! We were changing the world! We’d knock on that first door confidently, each rap of our knuckles ringing out the sound of positive change. Then the door would open and (in the movie version of my life) we’d hear the sound of a needle violently scratching off a record.

Despite the noble mission at hand, despite the ravages of evil King Sooper and despite the fact the people do, in fact, love trees and forests; they did not really care enough to talk to a college kid standing on their stoop during the dinner hour. They had little desire to discuss the finer points of alternative paper products, carbon sequestration and owl species degradation with me as I stood in their doorway in the cold with my Andean knit cap and mittens. And this was the national attitude as well. Sure, environmentalism was important, but it was not urgent. But oh what a difference two decades makes!

Credit Al Gore, credit the world’s scientists, credit Katrina…I don’t care who gets the credit. What I care about is the fact that the issues are front and center — they are urgent. And despite the fact that the USA is currently the only industrialized nation in the world to have dug in our heels on mandatory caps on GHG emissions, the world more broadly has finally decided to stand there with us on the stoop, listen to the story, sign the petition, make a big donation, and get involved.

Look no further than our friends down under. Australia was the Bush administration’s one staunch ally in resisting mandatory emissions caps, the one other country that would not ratify the Kyoto protocol. After a decade of opposition the newly elected administration of Kevin Rudd has reversed his nation’s position and ratified Kyoto. This is a big deal and further signals that the world is listening and acting – and not slamming the door on the canvasser. What a difference two decades makes!

Now let’s watch what happens in Bali and then Copenhagen — adding our voices to the cause — and work to ensure the momentum grows.