After spending a few minutes listing the various communities you belong to, try to evaluate how interested members of each of these communities might be in making personal changes or commitments to address the problems of climate change.
Thinking about these matters should help us address the questions we want to discuss in class tonight; namely, where should we, as a group, focus our energy if we want to effect the most social change? Where can we have the most impact?
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Some of the communities/groups I belong to in Juneau are: educators, outdoor enthusiasts, bicycle commuters, hikers, skiers, kayakers, self-employed people, consultants, grant-writers, members of the Discovery Southeast board, members of the planning committee for BOW, symphony and arts supporters, knitters, runners....... Some of these are not really "communities" but are demographic groups- i.e. I don't ever actually "commune" with other bicycle commuters. There is a lot of overlap between all of these groups and most of the people that I spend time with belong to many of them. Many of the members of my "communities" are professional people, well-educated and financially comfortable, and thinking about retirement. They do not talk about global warming very much. Most are aware of environmental issues and would describe themselves as "greenies" but also have long-established habits and values and are, in particular, very attached to driving cars. They are ready to be comfortable and to enjoy life. People in these groups have assets to bring to the table: they have experience, often with government agencies and policy issues, are articulate, and often have time to focus on action.
"Educators" are one of my groups that does not always overlap with the above. Educators reach a big audience of young people, and are important in terms of long-term, future change. Educators are a diverse group in terms of age, culture, and values; they are well-educated but some shy away from science. Some of the obstacles to engaging educators are their need to be politically "nonpartisan", their overwhelming existing time commitments, and their pressures to be "accountable".
CHRIS GRINDER's Communities:
The communities that I am apart of range from blue and white collar classes. Their professions range from cleaning, maintenance, fishing, clerical, and administrative. Within these classes there are various communities that I identify with, such as working class, outdoor enthusiasts, artists (painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, ect), and political activists. Almost all of these communities overlap in some way or another, which makes it fairly easy to communicate with them because they have similar concerns and interests. For instance, an artist can also have a day job, enjoy outdoor activities, and still have time to advocate for the underdog. These communities are also all well educated, freethinkers that more often than not think strictly of themselves when making decisions.
With these communities in mind, the main way to appeal to them (as well as many other unmentioned communities) to help lessen their footprint on the world mainly stems from financial motivations. Everyone can appreciate a little more spending money in their pocket. This is the main reason that I think Juneau was able to pull together overnight to cut the city’s energy costs by 30%, because there was a financial motivator in place.
So, I don't belong to any real groups or communities like a ski team or the like but I am an avid snowboarder and consider that to be a good demographic that I belong to. I belong to groups or communities like: snowboarders(both all mountain and trick riders), out door enthusiasts/ hikers, pool players, Juneau resident, UAS student, JDHS stdent, childcare providers, bibiophiles(book lovers), study groups, movie goers, and I'm sure one or two others.
A big commonality between these groups are that the people or demographic are usually financially stable inividuals. When you bring together some of these people like steady movie goers and avid readers or snowboarders/skiers and hikeres you get people who can relate and relaate passsionatly on a subject, like the outdoors or the quality of a movie's or books's merit. These groups are also, for the most part, well educated and open minded individuals. Another thing all these groups have are things that they have a great deal of liking for. These are things they love to do. They would all be open to the ideas and risks of global warming and I think they would be open to possible solutions. None of them but the outdoorsy ones could be called activists or grenies but they are mostly people who care about the world around them. I would say that the biggest group that does not over lap or truly have as much interest or caring for the enviorment would be the high school or JDHS.
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