Tom Ellis
May 22, 2022

Me too. Start a discussion of the global climate crisis at the typical cocktail hour, professional conference, or whatever and you will quickly find yourself abandoned or shunned. I have found, however, a potential solution: when engaging neighbors out in their yards, I’ll bring up—not the Crisis itself, but rather my own idea of a (local) solution: organizing neighborhood garden guilds where people meet periodically to exchange home-grown produce and share ideas about gardening. My slogan for this initiative is likewise upbeat and inviting: Grow Gardens; Grow Community; and Grow Awareness. And this way—without mentioning the bad news (that our industrial civilization is doomed and so, in all likelihood, are we all)—I get people involved in a local project that will make them more resilient and reduce their dependence on collapsing global infrastructures—and relearn how to rely on one another!

Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

Responses (3)