Why We Can Still Build a Thriving Future – July 27, 2019

Oregon Book Award Finalist to Speak About How We Can Still Build a Thriving Planet

Author Mary DeMocker offers busy people “easy ways to help change our system – not just our light bulbs.”

In the fall of 2018, a U.N.-sponsored report shook the global community with a stark pronouncement: Humanity must slash carbon emissions 45% by 2030, or face irreversible climate tipping points. Many pundits declared humanity “doomed.” Others insist we have only ourselves to blame and exhort individuals to shrink their carbon footprints through biking, recycling, and renouncing meat.

But Mary DeMocker, the author of The Parents’ Guide to Climate Revolution: 100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Night’s Sleep (New World Library, 2018), hears in the report a powerful rallying cry.

“The bad news is that we only have eleven years to transform our global infrastructure,” DeMocker says. “But the good news is — we have those eleven years. That report says it is possible to turn things around. It won’t be easy or cheap, but it’s do-able – if we get going.”

But with climate deniers running the top levels of our government, can we make those sweeping changes in time? And what can ordinary people do to push things in the right direction?

DeMocker, the co-founder and former creative director of 350.org’s Eugene chapter, tops her list with a surprising suggestion: Relax.

“What’s called for now isn’t lifestyle eco-superheroism,” she insists, “because changes on the individual level, while important, won’t save us from catastrophe. In fact, it’s crucial not to get distracted from the only thing that can really make the difference now: bold policy changes to reel in carbon pollution and transition quickly to a clean energy system. That requires political change.”

DeMocker’s book lists hundreds of concrete actions even the busiest people can take, such as leaving your bank if it invests in oil or gas pipelines.  “It takes just a few minutes here and there to switch to your local credit union, which invests in communities, not in pollution,” she says.

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Date: Saturday, July 27, 2019
Time: 6:30 PM
Place: Yachats Commons, 4th Street & Hwy 101
Suggested donation: $5

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Other tips include funding local grassroots groups working for a clean energy future. “Grassroots groups are far more effective than national ‘Big Green’ groups at changing public policy,” DeMocker says, “because they’re run by volunteers passionate about local issues directly affecting them, such as the health of their water, soil, and air.”

What’s most important, though, is for people to gather. “Taking one action with a friend — painting one sign to support a clean-energy candidate, joining efforts to restore forests or wetlands, or attending one town hall to oppose the Jordan Cove pipeline or support a new wind farm can help us feel more empowered and connected.” Countless groups, she says, are already working for a livable future, and welcome donations or more helping hands.

“We don’t need to re-invent the wheel,” DeMocker says, “just push it along a little.”

DeMocker’s book, The Parents’ Guide to Climate Revolution, features a foreword by climate leader and author Bill McKibben, and has been recommended in The New York Times and by climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, former director of NASA’s Goddard Space Institute for Space Studies. It’s also a finalist for the 2019 Oregon Book Award.

After the talk there will be time for audience questions and book sales and signing. The book is available online from Powell’s,  Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. It will available as an Audiobook July 1st.