Making a Difference

The little bottle of biodiesel on the right represents much more than just a fuel to power an engine. It represents an idea. A very big idea.

The big idea is that we do not need to keep burning fossil fuels in order to have a high standard of living in a modern society.

The idea says that we do not need to damage the climate with greenhouse gases, and we do not need to poison the air of our cities and towns with the exhaust emissions from fossil fuels.

These are powerful ideas and they are available to anyone who wishes to think them.

However, thinking powerful ideas doesn't make a difference. Acting on them does.

But how do we act? Here is an insight from Robèrt Karl-Henrik, founder of The Natural Step.

I don't believe that the solutions in society will come from the left or the right or the north or the south. They will come from islands within those organizations; islands of people with integrity who want to do something... This is what a network should do - identify the people who would like to do something good. And they are everywhere. This is how the change will appear - you won't notice the difference. It won't be anyone winning over anyone. It will just spread. One day you don't need any more signs saying "Don't spit on the floor," or "Don't put substances in the lake which can't be processed." It will be so natural. It will be something that the intelligent people do... It will just appear.

Robèrt Karl-Henrik, 1991. Excerpts from an interview by In Context, #28