The shape of personal action: "I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle."

Mary Annaïse Heglar is a climate justice essayist and the director of publications at the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York.

I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle (Vox)

Stop obsessing over your environmental “sins.” Fight the oil and gas industry instead.

I’m at my friend’s birthday dinner when an all-too-familiar conversation unfolds. I introduce myself to the man to my left, tell him that I work in the environmental field, and his face freezes in terror. Our handshake goes limp.

“You’re gonna hate me …” he mutters sheepishly, his voice barely audible over the clanging silverware.

I knew what was coming. He regaled me with a laundry list of environmental mistakes from just that day: He’d ordered lunch and it came in plastic containers; he’d eaten meat and he was about to order it again; he’d even taken a cab to this very party.

I could hear the shame in his voice. I assured him that I didn’t hate him, but that I hated the industries that placed him — and all of us — in the same trick bag. Then his shoulders lifted from their slump and his eyes met mine. “Yeah, ’cause there’s really no point trying to save the planet anymore, right?”

Snip to the end.

Here’s my confession: I don’t care how green you are. I want you in the movement for climate justice.

I don’t care how long you’ve been engaged in the climate conversation, 10 years or 10 seconds. I don’t care how many statistics you can rattle off. I don’t need you to be all-solar-everything to be an environmentalist. I don’t need you to be vegan-er than thou, or me, for that matter. I don’t care if you are eating a burger right this minute.

I don’t even care if you work on an oil rig. In some parts of the country, those are the only jobs that pay enough for you to feed your family. And I don’t blame workers for that. I blame their employers. I blame the industry that is choking us all, and the government that is letting them do it.

All I need you to do is want a livable future. This is your planet, and no one can advocate for it like you can. No one can protect it like you can.

We have 11 years — not to start but to finish saving the planet.

I’m not here to absolve you. And I’m not here to abdicate you. I am here to fight with you.

"How do liberals halt the march of the right? Stand our ground and toughen up."

The author writes primarily from the British perspective, but the gist of it remains intact, and echoes Michael Moore's points about available tools and a willingness to act.

Opposed to what's coming down? Great, but you may find it necessary to stop whining and actually do something.

I've shortened the ten points to a bullet list. Be sure to click through and read the gritty details -- and please stop bitching about 2016. We need to be ready for 2017, campers.

How do liberals halt the march of the right? Stand our ground and toughen up, by Matthew d'Ancona (The Guardian)

To all you despondent liberals, Labour centrists, Tory modernisers, remainers, social justice warriors, social justice worriers, and everyone out there fretful about Brexit, depressed by Donald Trump, and scared of the alt-right, here is my festive message: get off the ground, you wusses. Put down your gingerbread lattes, and put up your dukes ...

 ... here are my 10 tips for liberals of all kinds hoping to stop the march of the right in 2017:

1. Defend your ground, aggressively
2. Colonise your opponents’ language
3. Lead, don’t follow
4. Heed grievances – but don’t appease
5. Stand up for immigration
6. Stand up for integration
7. Fight the next battle, not the last
8. Don’t make a fetish of “unity”
9. Challenge the public
10. Be patient

"Your country didn't go anywhere. It's right here where you left it."

Learn.

"Your country didn't go anywhere. It's right here where you left it. America is nothing more than a big ol' collection of people, and those people are more diverse and progressive than they have ever been. That train won't be stopped. Donald Trump's supporters are by and large an aging and shrinking demographic. We didn't see the backlash coming, but that's on us -- a look at our history would have taught us to expect it. In light of that, there are a few things to understand going forward."

Act.

Don't panic, by David Wong (Cracked)

Don't panic. Or rather, don't keep panicking for too long.

We tend to have a fairly left-leaning readership here at Cracked, just for demographic reasons (lots of college kids and such). So a lot of you reading this are outraged, sad, disgusted, terrified, and/or physically ill right now. Lots of you also use the stuff I write to feel better about the world, so let me give it my best shot.

First, understand that the opposite of panic is not blithe acceptance of the situation -- it's clear-minded, positive, day-to-day action. Panic makes you do stupid shit or, even worse, curl up into a ball and do nothing. Don't tell me you have reason to panic. You never have reason to panic. You have reason to act.

So yeah, be upset for as long as you want. Get drunk. Do whatever you have to do. After that, I want you to sober up, splash water on your face, and consider some facts ...

Finding solutions to a region's heroin epidemic.

At last week's League of Women Voters debate, incumbent at-large council representative Shirley Baird made an earnest effort to address Southern Indiana's drug problem, but I'm not sure her reference came out as intended. She framed it as a law enforcement issue, and of course that's true, but as most of us realize, it's far more than that.

As this community action plan from Ohio illustrates ...

The Heroin and Opioid Epidemic -- Our Community’s Action Plan

Summary

On Nov. 21, 2013, many of Northern Ohio’s leading institutions gathered for a daylong summit in an effort to find solutions to the region’s heroin epidemic. A Community Action Plan was formulated over the course of several planning meetings and finalized during the summit. The purpose of this document is to serve as a guiding master plan as we move forward as a community. The Action Plan is divided into four specific areas: Prevention and Education, Healthcare Policy, Law Enforcement and Treatment. Inevitably, there is some overlap among each of these areas.

A few disclaimers: this document is a working draft and not written in stone. Some of these items are immediately actionable while others will take more time, research and effort. Some of these items have unanimous support among the planners, others do not. Although certain action items cannot be implemented without new legislation, some of the partnering agencies are forbidden from taking a position on pending or potential legislation. The hope is that this Action Plan will serve as a road map and tie together our various efforts toward the same goals – preventing people from using heroin, helping treat those who have become addicted, choking off both the supply of and demand for heroin in Northern Ohio, and working collaboratively to make our region healthier, safer and stronger ...

Tuesday, February 24: "Citizens Participation Plan Public Information Meeting - FY2009 CDBG Program & One-Year Action Plan."

There is also a Word.doc that provides far greater detail: "CITY of NEW ALBANY: Community Development Block Grant Program ... FY2009 ONE-YEAR ACTION PLAN." I'm in possession of it and am happy to forward to anyone who wants to read it.