The Power of Community Action

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/fashion/14CircaNow.html?ref=environment

While sifting through the NY Times Environmental section, I came across a rather uplifting article called: "Local Efforts to Help the Earth". This article relays just how important small, community action really is in changing the environmental scene in this country. There are a variety of avenues to take towards political and environmental change, and one of the big ones is mobilizing the community and small-scale action.
The article opens with an example of a 82 year old woman working in Concord, MA to ban the selling of water bottles in her city/county. This is followed by several examples in several cities of people (and groups of people) working towards bettering their local communities by embracing change and making concerted efforts to change the patterns of waste. One of the more inspiring examples came from Greensburg, Kan. "After a tornado destroyed 95 percent of the town[, they were] determined to reinvent [themselves] as a model for eco-living." It goes on to explain that originally, the perception in Greensburg of being "green" was that of "tree-huggers and crazies," as they put it. But after the tornado, the people really started to think differently about the idea, and now all of their electricity is being generated from local wind farms. 
This article gave me some hope amidst all the downer environmental news because it gave concrete examples that people around the country really do care about change, and that the message is reaching farther than the liberal coasts of America.