Vermont has been known for going its own way, for following a tradition which includes notions such as

-small is good,

-local is good,

-community based solutions

Small, local community solutions when spread town by town can become regional and eventually statewide solutions.  Thrift, recycling, reuse, CSAs, farmers’ markets are easily embraced in Vermont because that’s how we do things here.  “Doing without” is a guiding principle for many of us today.  

Yet in a few short years,

-big

-international  

-corporate solutions

seem to be replacing our Vermont tradition of scale and self-reliance.   Instead of leading the fight against climate change by example of what we do best – small, local, community – we appear ready to throw in our lot with big, global and top-down, just like those ‘less enlightened’ states we like to criticize.  Seemingly ‘easy fixes’ such as industrial wind farms have replaced what our Vermont ancestors would have chosen if facing this issue today – smaller, community-generated and distributed energy solutions and reductions that would encourage buy-in from most if not all Vermonters.  

If we want to lead the fight against climate change, I propose we do it by following our traditional scale and behaviors – with diverse, ingenuitive solutions that not only bring us together but provide a REAL EXAMPLE for others to follow.  Solutions where each of us is asked to be part of the answer rather than sacrifice some of us to an “easy” solution.  We’ve done that many times… why not do it now?  

GO SMALL, VERMONT.