The Vast Majority Supports Environmentalism, Sustainability

When Annie Leonard (“The Story of Stuff”) spoke last night, she made it clear that, with all the bad news in the world in terms of resource depletion, toxicity, population growth, injustice, etc., there is some fabulous news: the vast majority of people both understand these issues and want to do something about them. 85% of Americans think corporations have too much control over our lives. 85%! — that’s six out of every seven. Three-quarters (74%) think we need more environmental controls.

Annie thinks this is huge, and it’s hard to disagree. She asked the audience, “Do you know how many people agreed with Dr. Martin Luther King’s position when he made his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech? 30%. Do you know how many people sided with the Abolitionists? They were laughed at. Here we have a huge majority of support.”

But support and involvement are two different things. That’s why Annie’s new project is “The Story of Change,” pointing out exactly how and why people should be actively involved, in ways that go beyond their personal choices to bring bags to the shopping market, buy organics, reduce their consumption of goods and energy, recycle wherever possible, etc.