By Stillman Brown
This week I will not be writing about politics. I’m exhausted, frazzled, burned out like a crust of hamburger bun allowed to slip between the grill’s steely teeth and onto the charcoal. I can’t even write a decent simile.
In the spirit of last Saturday’s day of action (which I missed), I’m thinking about green, sustainable things. A while back I wrote a monster post about my personal awakening to our species’ hostile relationship with the planet. I haven’t forgotten that epiphany. My interest has moved from the macro (living systems, policy) to the micro (what to eat?) and I’ve been reading Michael Pollan’s excellent book about food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. My sense of urgency hasn’t diminished; It’s grown. Epiphanies will do that.
My story is not new. I think it usually happens like this:
1. Get concerned about issue (in this case, the environment)
2. Read & watch informative materials
3. Get more concerned; add outrage.
4. Ask, what should I do about it?
5a. Do something, OR
5b. Get frustrated, go back to status quo
I’m in Stage 2, the ID Project is in Stage 5a (with excursions back to Stages 2, 3 & 4). Several of my friends are getting active, too, and I’m starting to see the products of their work.
My friend Ben Connors is a DC-based editor and photographer, and he’s put his film-making skills (and rugged good looks) to use in a new web series entitled Act Local, in which he “hacks” modern living to create a greener, more efficient way to live. In the first episode, he rigs his toilet bowl to save water:

The usefulness (and sanitary-ness) of a shelf top hand-washing bowl is questionable at best, but saving 1,200 gallons of water a year suddenly got a whole lot easier. And that is the key: find a manageable way to conserve. When I get riled up about the massive cultural and institutional barriers to a responsible national energy policy, it can feel like these big problems are mine to solve. I wring my hands and mumble “I need to quit what I’m doing and go to law school and become a lawyer for the EPA or the Sierra Club. ” Thinking too big causes me to freeze up. The value of Act Local is its smallness; I can modify my toilet bowl and start saving water in 10 minutes. It’s instant gratification at its most useful.