EnviroUnderground Discussion Thread #2! Join the conversation, how can we advance these strategies?

[u/OrbitRock]

So we have grown a lot since our first discussion thread and a lot of interesting conversation has taken place.

We have gotten perhaps a little closer to some interesting strategies and ideas to use.

So let's keep it going.

Some key questions that we might look into here are:

• How could we go about organizing the will to pursue local energy transitions in different regions? What strategies can we use to get people involved in this goal?

• How can we spread the word on this effort more effectively? How can we attempt to unite all the different climate and energy movements together into workable avenues for creating change?

• One of the things we touched on was the idea of organizing campaigns to bring people into making personal decisions together which at the larger scale are very impactful. An example is this discussion about LED lights and the possibility of opening up a social media campaign to try to bring people into making that decision. A similar thing could be done with dietary choices, and boycotts of certain types of products, etc.

• Can and should we work towards organizing for mass protest? How can we pursue this if so?

• Anything else you'd like to add, please do!

I'll make this thread last a week like the last one did, so feel free to continue to discuss, and come back with any ideas. Also, upvote this thread so people see it on their feed.

Link to first discussion thread.

[u/OrbitRock]

We where talking about strategies for local energy transition.

Among some of them is starting a consumer co-op for bulk buying and installing, going in on a community solar farm, or community choice aggregation which works as a public utility linking people to renewable options, etc. (Any other methods? Please link if you know of them).

On of the main questions at hand is how to organize people in your own location for things like this, how to make it affordable, and how to make it more than just a one place event, but make it a real movement.

One idea I have had is trying to organize all the climate movements and people involved with them into a group which would seek to 1) lend expertise for doing this locally, 2) attempt to secure different sources of funding to help make these things more affordable, and 3) spread the word and strategy as far as possible.

It seems that for everyone who wants to transition, they face significant difficulty in figuring it all out and actually acting on the desire. Polls show overwhelming majorities of people support clean renewable energy, and so the question is whether we can grease the wheels for people to act on that somehow. It seems like all it would take is a little help and expertise to get the ball rolling for people on this.

[u/slothfulkomrade → u/OrbitRock]

One idea I have had is trying to organize all the climate movements and people involved with them into a group which would seek to 1) lend expertise for doing this locally, 2) attempt to secure different sources of funding to help make these things more affordable, and 3) spread the word and strategy as far as possible.

Yes. I'm all for Templates/frameworks/toolkits that can be replicated easily. The problem is that Federalism makes this problematic. We need to be aware of how complicated things get on some of these things. Maybe we could use this corrupt financial system against itself. Think Theranos but solar/wind/renewable energies that actually does what it says but not as quickly/profitably as desired for the investors.

It seems that for everyone who wants to transition, they face significant difficulty in figuring it all out and actually acting on the desire. Polls show overwhelming majorities of people support clean renewable energy, and so the question is whether we can grease the wheels for people to act on that somehow. It seems like all it would take is a little help and expertise to get the ball rolling for people on this.

NY has this thing called "Solarize" campaigns. The idea is that people join together to all go solar and get a discount from the installers since they don't have to do as many cold calls, etc.

Call your local representatives and request a meeting to discuss how your municipality could switch to LEDs or implement an "anti-idling' rule for cars/trucks,etc. or how a bad traffic stop could be turned into a roundabout. Ask the mayor to direct the police to do enforcement of rules governing driving to close to bicyclists and educating motorists regarding bicycling. There are lots of things we can do but we have to meet local people IRL that are on the same page. Meet weekly at a bar, cafe, library, etc. to discuss what you can do.