Red, White, Blue and Green: Sustain the Nation

 Dear President Obama and United States Congress,

             We would like to commend your efforts in making the United States more environmentally friendly. We would like to thank you for attending Copenhagen and showing the world that there is hope for the greening of our nation. But you need more help to get our nation to be a green nation. The responsibility can't just rest on the shoulders of a few people in the EPA. The responsibility lies on the shoulders of every citizen of America. The United States of America has 5 percent of the world's population, yet our country consumes 25 percent of the world's resources. If everyone in the world consumed as much as the average American, we would need nine planets to sustain the global human population. But there is only one planet. While overpaid politicians probably are some of the culprits of overconsumption, the rest of the citizens of this nation are at fault as well. While attending global conferences and signing bills mandating that cars use gas more efficiently etc. is definitely important, it is even more important to educate Americans about simple things we can do. If the only actions taken at national levels include signing such bills, it appears to the public that the government will take care of everything and the people need do nothing. This is far from true. We need direction from our national leaders. We need national pride to make a difference. May we suggest a secretary, perhaps even a Department of SustainABILITY? Cities, college campuses, elementary schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations have sustainABILITY coordinators; we need organized national collaboration to get where we need to be. Much of the development plans in the United States are not addressing sustainability because the infrastructure still uses centralized archaic models that don't allow individuals to implement sustainable practices. If new neighborhoods could give its citizens a way to compost food waste, collect own rain water, generate local renewable electricity with solar panels on rooftops, and support local food production through community gardens and Community Supported Agriculture, we wouldn't have to waste so much money in importing unsustainable support for our lifestyles. The technology, the tools, permaculture, its all here already; the question is when will we shift our concerns from worrying about homeland security because of the way Americans consume beyond the earth's capacity and think about homeland ecological resilience through sustainability.

   A Department of SustainABILITY can provide resources for Americans on greening our lifestyles. People need to see a big change in the government so that we may make big changes in our lives. SustainABILITY shouldn't cost more money; it should save us money. And it can create more jobs. How can it be possible to save money and fund more jobs? In a time of economic depression, this seems impossible. People desperately searching for ways to save money can attend workshops on sustainABLE living and learn that sustainABILITY also saves money. The resources they save can save tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on building bigger power plants, cutting down forests, or providing scarce water. We could not ask for a better timing of an economic depression. Honestly, we are overjoyed that such a downturn in the economy occurred. We can use it as a lesson to understand that the world cannot continue to be run as it currently is. Let's make the colors of the country red, white, blue, and green. Sustain the nation. Sustain the world.

SustainABILITY! We have the ABILITY to save the planet! Let's use it!

 If you have time and want to read more of our thoughts, read on.

          Stop. Pause. Think. Read. Listen to your brain read these words. Then act on them. Now start. Before you delete this letter from your inbox, please open your mind, open your heart and please finish reading this letter. We understand you are busy and we promise you it will not be a waste of your time. Let us be the first to admit, yes, we are trying to brainwash you. We are trying to clean your brain. Scrub out all those dirty old habits, taught to you by an upside-down world. We want to replace those thoughts with what is clean. Thoughts of clean, renewABLE energy. Thoughts of clean streets, parks and schools, free of litter. Thoughts of clean, fresh, clear blue skies. Thoughts of clean, pure, refreshing water. Thoughts of clean, pesticide-free, preservative-free, healthy food. Close your eyes for a minute. Take a deep breath. Don't you feel better already? We want to make these more than just thoughts; we want to make these thoughts reality.

This letter is a collaborative effort by a number of people across the country. We all contributed ideas, words, phrases, experiences, suggestions, and solutions to create something bigger than any one person could create alone. We are writing this letter in hopes that its readers will be inspired, invigorated, and instilled with a passion for the planet. We are writing in hopes that every person will follow their inspiration and take action to make the world a more sustainABLE one.

SustainABILITY is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations (either human, other animal, plant, microorganism, fungi, or other yet-to-be-discovered Kindoms of life) to meet their own needs. Does that sound scary? Does that sound hard? Many people think of environmentalists as people who say that all people should die, or we should all go live in the forest. We don't have to give up our way of life. We don't have to die to save the planet. Rather, let's live and let live. Let us be stewards of the land. We don't have to sacrifice the comforts of our society for the purpose of sustainABILITY. We just have to modify the way we obtain our comforts, and this means restructuring our society.

We're not Socialists. We're not Communists. We're not Republicans. We're not Democrats. We're not Conservatives. We're not Libertarians. We are social. We are a community.  We are a democracy. We conserve. We support liberty. We are human. SustainABILITY doesn't have to be hard. We just have to be creative about it. It can be as convenient as paying your bills online, saving paper stamps, envelopes, checks and fuel to get to the post office. It can be as simple as planning your errands so you don't have to make multiple trips to the store and add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. It can be as cheap as investing in reusABLE bags and water bottles (and using them). It can be as easy as reusing paper or buying double-sided printers instead of single-sided printers (and using the double-sided feature, of course). It can be as painless as making the margins on your essay as small as possible. It can be as quick as turning off the lights when you leave a room. It can be as enlightening as using natural daylight. It can be as healthy as cutting meat out of your diet one day a week. It can be as energizing as riding your bike, something many Americans could use... It can be as enjoyABLE as gardening in a community garden. It can be as satisfying as watching a tree you have planted and cared for grow. It can be as fun as throwing a frat party and recycling beer cans or using compostABLE cups as opposed to the plastic red cups. Buying a keg is even better because, hey, it reduces the packaging. Just make sure you don't overconsume!

President Obama, United States Congress, may we suggest a comprehensive program for sustainABLE education and sustainABLE action for the United States of America. What is that you say? We have bigger things to worry about? What could possibly be bigger than the planet? The only entity bigger than the planet is the universe. But we have no control over what happens to the universe. We can only control what we do here on planet Earth. Sure, green movements are "sprouting" all over the country and the world, but by the time they become widespread enough to really save our planet, it may be too late. You said it yourself in your Presidential campaign, "We need change." We see promise. Unlike your predecessors, you did not refuse to go to Copenhagen. We thank you for that. We'll thank you again when we see promises fulfilled.

If you are truly honest as we all would like to believe (because we always believe the best of people), you will bring us the change you promised. Earn your Nobel Peace Prize. Make the world remember your presidency. Let future generations see your presidency as the presidency of change. Change for the better. Let the people living today feel honored that we live in an era of global change. Your predecessors refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol because they claimed global warming doesn't exist. They just used that as an excuse to avoid confronting the truth. Even if global warming turns out to be a fluke, there are still reasons to stop polluting our atmosphere with alleged greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide doesn't just end up in the air; it also ends up in the oceans, and the resulting acidification of the ocean is linked to the death of coral reefs. Coral reefs are a marine equivalent to the tropical rainforests: diverse in life, beautiful, full of resources, fragile. Coal-fired power plants also emit sulfate into the air, which causes acid rain, which kills entire forests. Pollution from cars contributes to unsightly N2O formation which leads to ozone formation in the troposphere. Ozone in the lower atmosphere irritates eyes and damages lung cells. It also reduces crop production efficiency. So even if you think global warming is a hoax, there are still countless reasons to combat it. Plus, what if it turns out to be true? Then what will we do?

We need to show the world that we are willing to work with others. The rest of the people in this world hate us and want to kill us as demonstrated in recent terrorist attacks because we overconsume the world's resources. The only chance we have for easing international tension is to stop overconsumption. We need to stop enslaving others to produce all of our possessions without giving them anything in return except pollution and destruction. The forms of slavery that exist today are no different than those that existed on our soils 150 years ago. The boreal forests of North America and Asia are being logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute to produce paper towels, Domino's coupons, Verizon Cell phone ads posted on doors, and other junk mail that no one even reads. The Boreal forests are responsible for a large percentage of carbon sequestration. They have twice as much carbon as the tropical rainforests. They are crucial to removing greenhouse gasses from our atmosphere, yet they are being logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute, 24 hours a day. On a global scale, 90 acres of forest disappear each minute. Imagine Central Park, New York, or Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, disappearing in 2 minutes. How fast would you work to stop deforestation in your city? What will happen when the trees are all gone? At lease there will be no more annoying junk mail.

The United States has 5% of the world's population, yet we consume 25% of the world's resources. We are stealing. Let's change that. Let's give back to the world. Let's give the gift of green. Let's give the gift of green by not taking more than our fair share. Green doesn't come just in the form of solar panels, Honda Prius cars, or CFL lightbulbs. It comes from the heart. It is a true commitment to the planet and all of her sons and daughters, all your brothers and sisters. It's the best gift anyone can give because it is the gift of ensuring a future for everyone. Time is running short. But it's not too late. Taking responsIBILITY by adopting sustainABILITY would be the greatest, greenest act of compassion anyone can do for any living organism.

Sure, carbon trading can help us get to a greener globe if used honestly (that means people not increasing energy consumption to increase their carbon cap), but carbon caps put sustainABILITY in third world countries where we Americans can't see it, and we are the ones who need to see it the most. Actually, there is no such thing as the third world. There is only one world, and we are all on it together. So let's stop outsourcing sustainABILITY. Let's make sustainABILITY a priority right here, everywhere, right now. Let's stop trying to display our power in other countries with our military presence. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." Not only are we waging war against each other, but we are waging war against our mother - Mother Earth. Mother always knows best. She is trying to tell us what is good for us, and we are rebellious teenagers. We think we know better. We think we are invincible. We thing we can survive anything. We are all brothers and sisters, we all share the same mother, we all inhabit the same planet. Let's grow up and start treating our mother right. Let's lead by example. Let's be LEEDers (Leaders in Environmental Engineering and Design). Let's stop being stubborn adolescents and stop waging war for the sake of putting up a fight. Let's stop fighting. For the sake of the earth. For the sake of our future. We love ME (Mother Earth)! Do you?

The wars of the past were fought over land, religion, over petty disagreements. All the wars we study in history class were nations fighting against nations, humans fighting against humans. The war of the present, human versus Earth, has been continuing for centuries, and it has not been studied. Not until recently. We didn't realize that we were fighting a war.  Not until we sent a man to the moon. Our astronauts were on another celestial body. Rather than look at the new environment in which they found themselves, they could only gaze back at the planet Earth. The astronauts noticed that the earth was blanketed by an extremely thin layer of atmosphere, protecting life as we know it from being vacuumed into the nothingness of outer space. It was then that we comprehended the fragility of our planet.  Along the lines of Neil Armstrong's words, "Let's take one small step for each human, and as a human race, we'll take one giant leap for humankind." If we don't stop fighting wars, we don't deserve to be known as humankind. We are "humanmean." We are inhumane. No one has to lose for the war to end. Let's just stop fighting because we will never win. We are already losing. Let's call it a truce. Let's join forces with our Mother Earth and make her our friend. Then we will all win because we will all be on the same side.  If we don't stop fighting, wars will never end. If we don't stop fighting, the wars of the future will not be fought over land, religion or money, but over water. Water will become more precious than gold. Water is the most important resource on which life depends. Human bodies are composed of 70% water, and plants are composed of 90% water. Water is the "universal solvent" because it dissolves countless chemicals. Water has the most unique properties of any chemical on the planet, due to its hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonds are relatively weak chemical bonds formed between the oxygen atom of one water molecule and the hydrogen atom of another water molecule. When they stick together, they can move against the force of gravity. When they arrange themselves into neat, orderly patterns, they form ice. Water is unique in that its solid state is less dense than its liquid state; thus, solid water floats in liquid water. Let's all be water molecules. Let's stick together. Let's fight the force which is trying to hold us down. Let's be universal solvents and let's solve the problems of the universe. Let's join together. Let's organize. Let's be solid. Let's be firm. It's the only thing that will keep us afloat as the ocean rises. The organized will rise above the scattered. The unorganized are already losing their footing. We can try to swim on our own, and we will drown, or we can join together and we can walk on water. After all, ice is nothing more than frozen water. If we stick together to sustainABILITY, we can ensure that ice can stay on this planet as glaciers and polar ice caps and we can ensure that we can continue to walk on water. If we fall apart, our solidity will be gone. The ice will be gone. We will no longer be ABLE to walk on water. But you don't need to be Jesus to save the planet. Just be you.

So, what should we do as a nation to achieve sustainABILITY? We need a comprehensive program that focuses on sustainABLE education and implementation of sustainABLE practices. This is going to require leadership. The ideas are simple, really. We just need the commitment from the White House to make sustainABILITY accessible to all Americans. We are lagging behind in sustainABILITY and we need a lot of brilliant minds working hard to catch up.  Achieve sustainABILITY and the rest of the people in this world will stop hating us. So what do we need? Perhaps a Secretary of SustainABILITY? Better yet, may we suggest an entire department focused on sustainABILITY!  Sure, we have the Environmental Protection Agency, but sustainABILITY is so much more than protecting the environment. SustainABILITY is about social equality, financial sustainABILITY (more commonly known as profit), and environmental sustainABILITY. So sustainABILITY is the solution to more than just problems in the environment; it will solve problems in the economy and social injustice. SustainABILITY will make your wishes come true, too. If Americans adopt a sustainABLE mindset and stop overconsuming, our economy will stabilize. If we don't, our economy will fail. Do we really care more about our economy than our lives? Jobs can be created in sustainABLE education throughout the nation to show Americans how easy it is to conserve. Conserving the environment conserves money, as well, so saving the funds will come from the money that is currently being wasted on energy waste, water waste, food waste, paper waste, resource waste.

A secretary of sustainABILITY would need to work with all other secretaries and departments: Secretary of Agriculture to make sustainABLE agriculture more accessible, Department of Energy for renewABLE energy and energy conservation education, Department of the Interior so we can preserve our natural and diverse resources, Department of Transportation to make alternative transportation and public transit more accessible to Americans. Let's make alternative transportation not the alternative. Let's make it the better form of transporation. After all, who wants to spend 3 hours in the car to travel 50 miles? Secretary Tom Vilsack encouraged all USDA employees, all 103,000, to seek out community gardens in local communities and contribute knowledge and advice to help them "grow." The Soil Salinity Lab became involved in UC Riverside's community garden, located only a quarter mile from the lab. The opportunity was literally right there; it could not have been any easier. The research scientists at the Soil Salinity lab may not have been so enthusiastic about helping the community garden if Secretary Vilsack had not made such a brilliant suggestion for USDA employees to share their talents in their communities. Many Americans need that push from our leaders to get involved in our communities, and a Secretary of SustainABILITY would be ABLE to provide that push. While the movement growing from the bottom up in our communities is definitely beneficial, it is important to have a vision as a nation, so we can grow out. Indeed, if we don't grow from the bottom up and take charge in our local communities, it doesn't matter how many people we have working in the Department of SustainABILITY. The Department of SustainABILITY could simply provide resources and facilitate sustainABILITY in communities.

You may say, "But if I hire another secretary and create another department, that will mean more money being spent. That means increased taxes, which will mean unhappy Americans." We say, "It would be the best investment you can ever make, financially, in your country, but most importantly, it is an investment in the future." SustainABILITY costs a little bit of money, time, effort and thought in the implementation process, but it pays off immediately and sustains itself in the long run. It's not just about finding solutions to the problems our current consumption creates, but to finding ways of eliminating these problems in the first place. So instead of just wasting money and capital on building solar energy plants only to see people simply increase their energy consumption, why not empower people to live more practically? Individuals: Turn off the lights. Unplug unused electronics. Try hanging laundry. Businesses: Install more efficient machinery. Reduce lighting. Use natural lighting. Educate employees about energy conservation in the workplace. More efficient methods of energy production are absolutely necessary to create a more sustainABLE future. At this point that cannot be avoided. But there are easy ways to make the costs of such new ventures smaller by eliminating other forms of waste, such as unnecessary energy consumption. Education about energy conservation can save more money than installing solar panels. Using compost diverts waste from the landfills and eliminates the need for artificial fertilizer production. Recycling can save money on landfills and resource extraction. If restaurants and businesses use compostABLE products, less energy-demanding materials and fewer packaging in products, we can save resources and avoid the destruction of more forests for land for landfills, not to mention the pollution that is generated through its irresponsible distribution and placement in vulnerABLE ecosystems. Recycling in itself is an economic advantage for the country because resources can be re-used and re-circulated through the industrial production cycle and need not be thrown away so quickly. Using sustainABILITY in a business model, the inputs businesses use to make products and services do not need to be labeled as unfortunate costs. Resource waste is the expense. Even better then recycling, however, would be to decrease the consumption of products. Why not make high-quality products that do not require replacements so frequently, such as using a metal water bottle and eliminating plastic bottles? Why not make computers and cars that work after their warranty expires? Why not repairing an old bike rather than buying a new one? Why not abandon pre-packaged snacks and stop abandoning the trash, and instead reusing a small container to store fruits, chips, cookies, etc.? Composting is another sustainABLE practice that can both reduce waste and save money. BiodegradABLE food waste, grass clippings, and other natural materials can be used to create fertile soil that can then be used to grow the same food that went into the composting. Is this not an efficient way to preserve resources?

We have to get away from the linear system of production we find ourselves in today's industrial society. We cannot run a linear system on a finite planet. We use resources, human labor and our time to create a chain of products that end up as waste in landfills. There is no re-investment of resources. There is no harmony between us and the earth. We exploit the world's resources and then trash the world with our trash. SustainABILITY would make this system a circular, closed loop cycle in which the resources we use are re-integrated into the system of production. This system is more efficient, more harmonious, more productive. Most importantly, it does not waste resources.

Our nation is run by corporations, and this is a major reason why our nation is still unsustainABLE. But we have let businesses take over and convince us that we need stuff. Useless clutter. Extra gadgets. That is the most successful "brainwashing" in the history of the planet. All in the name of money. Businesses seem to always be one of the major opponents of environmental preservation and policies that wish to limit greenhouse gas emissions, restrict water use, conserve energy and implement greener processes. They base their positions on the costs associated with the implementation of these policies, and fail to understand that there is no more cost-effective policy then that of conservation, preservation, and sustainABILITY in the long run. Our planet's resources are not unlimited. They will begin to run out in the future, and then those businesses that did not set up a system of sustainABLE processes will be forced to pay the price of scarce resources. Additionally, in the long run sustainABLE processes save companies money through the recycling of resources and savings in energy. It is these companies who are preparing themselves for the future that will do better off and survive when things such as water, electricity, land and natural resources are no longer easily acquired. There really is no other way for businesses today to become competitive than to go green and save green. 

To learn more, watch this short but very informative movie:

 http://storyofstuff.com/

 Not only will sustainABILITY save money; it will also save lives. Reducing air pollution will reduce exposure to carcinogens or allergens. This means fewer visits to the hospital, fewer deaths, and, for those who cannot see humanity past the forest of green (money), fewer hospital visits means less tax dollars spent. So everyone wins.

  Thomas Jefferson was brilliant when he replaced John Locke's philosophy of the inalienABLE rights of life, liberty and property with the American inalienABLE rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Property does not equate with happiness. The American happiness peaked in the 1950s. That is right before we started to become a consumer nation. What happened to pride in resourcefulness and thriftiness? If everyone on this planet consumed as much as the typical American, we would need nine planets to supply all the resources for our overly lavish lifestyle. And studies show our overconsumption doesn't even make us happy. We have to work to afford all the products we buy and we don't have time to enjoy them, or enjoy the things that really matter. Let's not spread the wealth of materials or money, but let's spread the wealth of something more valuABLE: friendships, health, happiness. You know what, forget about money. Americans care about money only because our country is based on economy. The current economic meltdown is the best thing that could have ever happened to our country. We want this economy to recover, but we don't want it to heal back to the way it was, because clearly, it will just become injured again, and it would be even worse. The truth is we cannot sustain our current economy based on the principles and ideas of the past. The economic strategies of the past may have worked then when the world was facing different conditions but they are no longer applicABLE. We are living in the same world but in a different era, one with an increasing population, less resources, more consumers and more waste. Financial sustainABILITY (more commonly known as profits) is a sustainABLE business enterprise that can keep up with the changing demands and conditions of the planet and can manage its costs efficiently. SustainABILITY should be on every business' agenda; there can indeed be harmony between industry and the environment. There must be. There is no other way. SustainABILITY is not something that can be tacked on when the economy is running well; it must be integrated into all aspects of everyone's lives at all times. We want the old economy to give birth to a new one, one based not on money, but on people, not on possessions, but on what is real. We are shutting our eyes, trying to block out the truth. The alarm is ringing, but we keep hitting the snooze button. The alarm is ringing ever louder. It's time to stop hitting the snooze button and use the energy that we have from laying in bed for all those years. It's time to jump out of bed, refreshed, ready to tackle dilemmas with a new outlook. The alarm is ringing. We're already late for work. Let's get to it!

 WAKE UP! GET OUT OF BED! GO OUT AND CHANGE THE WORLD! START BY CHANGING YOUR COMMUNITY!

 What do we want to see in our communities? What do we need to see in our communities? SustainABLE education incorporated into all curricula in all preschools, kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, community colleges, technical colleges, and universities across the nation. We need to see schools do more than teach sustainABILITY, we need to see schools practice sustainABILITY. We need to see kids teaching parents about sustainABILITY. We need to see parents teaching kids about sustainABILITY. We need consumption reduction. We need efficient packaging. We need local produce consumed locally. We want to see creativity and ingenuity in the form of wise reusing. Zero waste. 100% paper recycling. 100% plastic recycling. 100% metal recycling. 100% glass recycling. 100% recycling of everything! 100% compost. We need solar panels, rainwater harvest, or green roofs on every rooftop. We need insulation installed in older buildings. We need recycling bins in every apartment complex, every house, every business, every restaurant, every office, every factory, every laboratory, we need to ensure that everything that can be recycled is not thrown into a landfill. We need to move away from products that have no other option than to be put in the landfill. We need to give incentives to companies to think past production, past consumption, and all the way to post-consumer disposal. Producers need to be held accountABLE for their products and how it affects the environment. Producers need to start producing goods that last longer. They have the capABILITY, but they don't use it because they want green (in the form of money) and they care nothing about being green. We need a more accessible public transportation system. We need green transportation systems that are run on renewABLE energy. We all need to think in systems. We need organic community gardens on every school campus, even if there is only room for 2 meters by 2 meters. When you see an empty lot, instead of imagining what building will be constructed in the future, think "that would be a great spot for a community garden today." And make it happen. Talk to landowners or the city to get property rights. Community gardens serve as fun, interactive learning centers where people can see sustainABILITY in action, rather than try to grasp such an abstract, intangible concept. Community gardens create just that, community, and food. We need YOUR commitment. We need the commitment of EVERYONE on this planet. We need to put our differences aside and come together and unite under the banner of sustainABILITY. Each and every human shares 99.9% of the same DNA sequences with every other human on this planet. But people are blinded by the .1% difference, we fail to see the similarities, we fail to connect because we refuse to forget. We should embrace our differences as diversity, embrace our similarities as unity, and embrace each other as brothers and sisters.  After all, we are all brothers and sisters, we all share the same mother, Mother Earth. We are all human, and if the wealthy elite think that factory or liquid natural gas or coal-fired power plant doesn't belong in their neighborhood, it doesn't belong anywhere. "We have a dream that one day we will all see each other, the rich and poor, the black and the white, the red, the brown and the yellow as equal. If you say 'NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard', also say, 'NIABY - Not In Anyone's Back Yard. Nowhere." If you don't want that landfill near you, no one else is going to want it either. It's time to care about more than just yourself. Because if everyone only cares about themselves, no one cares about anyone else. Lets stop fighting over cultures, over religions, over politics, and let's all join in one culture, the culture of sustainABILITY. Once we all share a common goal, one wonderful vision, we can work to achieve that vision. We can make it more than a dream, we can make it a reality. But it requires teamwork.

Unrealistic vision, you protest? Overzealous revolutionaries? Think we are dreaming? The people who are dreaming are those who think that the planet can continue to be run on a linear production system. We aren't revolutionaries. The only revolution we want is the revolution of bicycle wheels and the continued revolution of the planet about its axis. We aren't revolutionaries. We are solutionaries. We aren't dreaming. We are wide awake and we are creating this image not in our subconscious while lying in bed with our eyes closed, but we are creating this vision on paper, through paintings, photographs, newspaper articles, in soils, in organic farms, in solar panels, in green roofs, in biking, in alternative transportation, in relationships we build. In relationships that last. In relationships that sustain our lives. It's tangible. It's attainABLE. It's already a reality. But this necessary reality is a minority. The reality will become a majority. It is just a question of when. Now, you can join this movement early on at its birth and help determine its future, or you can cling to your 7 bedroom mansion, filled with your BMW, your Mercedes-Benz, your wardrobe full of extravagant clothes, your 52" plasma television, your surround-sound speaker system, your five iPods, all your possessions, and your old way of life, sinking, drowning underwater, as the ocean levels rise along with the global temperatures, along with the greenhouse gas concentrations.

We lead the world in pollution, consumption, waste production, environmental deterioration. It's time we make a change, for the better. Let's be leaders in environmental quality, resourcefulness, waste reduction... for the future. Let the United States of America be a country of liberty and justice for all [humans, other animals, plants, microorganisms, fungi, and any other yet-to-be-discovered types of organisms that inhabit the soils and waters of our nation]. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are inalienABLE rights given to every citizen of the United States of America; as inhabitants of this continent long before the Europeans, it is time we extend citizenship to animals that don't speak our language (because we don't try to speak theirs), plants we can't smell (because we don't take the time smell the flowers), fungi we don't notice (because we don't pay attention), microorganisms we can't see (because we don't look closely enough) and any other types of yet-to-be-discovered organisms we don't know about (because we are human and contrary to popular belief we just don't know everything). It's hard to know what you've lost when you never knew about it in the first place.

Maybe if we ignore the environment it will go away. Ecuador has given nature the right to life under law. They now have a new reason to be called Ecuador; not only are they located at the equator, but they value all life equally. The people of Ecuador understand that the well-being of all living organisms is inextricably intertwined with the well-being of every other organism on this planet. Ecuador is taking the lead in sustainABILITY. Let's join them. No species deserves to go extinct at the hands of humans. The only species we hope to go extinct are Homo trashus (litterbugs), Homo super-ego, Homo solanum couchus (couch potato), Homo wastus (careless resource waster), Homo consumerius voraciousus (overconsumer). The scientific name for humans, Homo sapiens, means "wise human." We are definitely not using our wisdom. Let's stop being stupid and start being sustainABLE. We hope to see these Homo stupidus species replaced by Homo sapiens. Let's not make sustainABILITY a competition, let's make it collaboration. We need to work as a team to save the planet and reverse the destruction that we humans have created. We can't erase the past, but we can learn from it. If we choose not to, we will commit ourselves to our own slow, painful death, and we will take down the rest of the world with us. It is understandable that the people of the past destroyed the environment; they didn't know what they were doing at the time. We know. We have no excuse. We need to think about the future.

An anthropologist once said that Homo sapiens (humans) are the first species to have the ABILITY to think about the future and how our current actions will impact the future. Have we devolved? Have we lost this precious capABILITY? Or are we just choosing not to use it? We need to change our outlook on life, on the planet, and how our actions today will create chaos for tomorrow. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why we call it the present. We don't hate the generations of the past, we can't be mad at our forefathers for polluting our soils, water and living organisms with chemicals such as DDT. We can't be upset about the dependency on foreign oils or coal that upon which our economy is based. We can't be angry. They just didn't know. Being mad doesn't get us anywhere. We just have to accept the past and find a solution. That's the way adults think. Let's put aside our pride and our greed and make global solutions happen. Because if we don't, future generations will hate us. Because we do know what we are doing is wrong and we aren't doing a thing about it. That is a crime. That is a sin. That is murder. If we do nothing to curb explosive population growth and unsustainable resource extraction, people will die of starvation, of disease, for lack of clean drinking water. They will kill each other for simple resources that we waste, that we have stolen from them. But it's not just a tragedy of the future; it's already here. Social unrest is occurring throughout Africa due to food shortages and drought. People are starving on the other side of the planet while we lazy Americans sit on our couches, wondering how we should lose weight. Rather than play Farmville on Facebook, get out into the community garden and grow some real plants, dig your hands into real earth, and most importantly, see real faces! So let's bring justice to the planet today. It's not just us on this planet, but if we continue to think that way, and forget about the rest of the planet or the future, it will be just us because we'll all be dead. So let's stop living for today and let's start living for forever, for everyone. It's up to just us to bring justice to this world. And it's especially important for Americans. After all, don't we stand for liberty and justice for all, not just us?  Let's work to make that change today like there is no tomorrow. Because if we don't, there will be no tomorrow. Not for us, at least. The rocks of the planet might still be here, but there will be no more inhabitants. But let's not work towards a greener future because we are afraid of what will happen if we don't, but rather, let's work towards a greener future so we can enjoy what will happen when we do. We will have no one to blame if the world is destroyed because we will be destroyed along with it, but we will have everyone to thank if we save the planet. The first step on a new road is always the hardest, but once the first step is taken, the momentum builds. It grows. It blossoms. It fruits. It multiplies. It spreads. Just like a garden. Some of us have taken the first step already. We are on the road to sustainABILITY. We are building momentum. There is no stopping us. The question is: when will you join us? We all live on the same planet, and we need to treat each other as such. We need to be friendly neighbors in a global neighborhood, not enemies digging trenches. For there's only one world, after all. And it's a small world, after all.

  SustainABLY yours,

 Fellow concerned citizens of United States of America, planet Earth

Supporting SustainABLE Organizations:

 (organization names will appear here)

Supporting SustainABLE Citizens of Planet Earth:

 (individual names will appear here)

SustainABILITY! We have the ABILITY to save the planet! Let's use it!