Earth Day means more than a one-day-a-year celebration. It’s about finding ways to sustain ourselves for the long haul. It means looking beyond the economics of creating jobs and supporting small businesses. It means pondering how to create truly local systems (can we grow enough wheat here to supply the region’s many bakers?). It entails questioning how and why we run our healthcare systems the way we do. It includes trying to bring everyone to the discussion, especially those on the fringes of our economic system — what does sustainability mean when it costs more to buy locally grown kale than it does to buy a fast-food-chain hamburger?
Biking to work helps reduce air pollution, but that’s not a viable option for many. But that hints at the bigger question: How do you get the sustainability initiatives of a few to multiply into the efforts of the many? Then we might get somewhere.
In this sustainability-focused issue, our writers and contributors touch the tips of a host of icebergs. If you’ve got a few notions about sustainability, share them with us. Fill out the sustainability checklist. Let us know what individuals, groups and organizations are working on the many aspects of the issue. Help point the way forward.
Coming into focus: Asheville’s worldview war
Challenging the paradigm: Environmental educators plant seeds of change
Shared creations: Building a sustainable future on Asheville’s margins
Missing link: The gaps in the sustainable economy
A healthy perspective: Dr. Jeff Heck on sustainability and health care
I think it’s best to focus on the number one cause of c02 emissions… Animal agriculture. Skip the cow burger and get a veggie burger, it helps a ton :)