We used Former Vice-President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, as an example of personal resolve and action to improve people's lives in the face of important challenges. Because it's not always easy, it may take resourcefulness and perseverance to continue the journey. And, big issues are always complex with many views. Among the views opposing adopting the 1997 Kyoto Protocols, an international treaty to reduce the world's greenhouse gas emissions, are those of the Conservative Think Tank, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

The 25 January 2007 issue of The Economist focuses on America and climate change. It's leading article is a provocative challenge to the Bush Administration's governance, but the title of the issue is "The Greening of America."

It appears that concern about the environment is taking root in Minnesota politics, as reported on Tuesday 30 January 2007.

This course on United States Government has informed us with the knowledge and processes that are the tools citizens can use in a participatory democracy to effect change for the better.

The question now is whether we can apply this declarative and procedural knowledge ourselves. Once we articulate an issue important to us, we need to think at what level (neighborhood, community, state, or federal) the problem can be solved. [Using the Kyoto Protocol Ratification debate as an example, consider what measures might be taken at the local level, regardless whether the United States has the resolve to ratify the treaty or not.]

Over the weekend: (1) articulate an issue you care about, (2) decide on which level the problem needs to be addressed, (3) list five options available to you in a participatory democracy appropriate to resolving your issue. Of course, it might not be as "easy as that," larger issues usually have a history to them; they may seem intractable; and they may be very complex. Nevertheless, history is replete with empirical examples where one committed individual has lead an effort that results in major change.

You may even choose a non-governmental approach. Let's take the approach the Nets Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has used. Finding that the traditional approach to fighting the enormous problem of malaria in Africa was frought with setbacks (i.e., to spend enormous amounts of money find a medical solution and then work through governments to set up education and distribution programs to effect change), the Gates Foundation looked for a low-tech solution. The solution they found was simple, cheap, and effective--they gave every household enough mosquito nets for each person sleeping there. Charitable foundations and private business foundations can work alone or in tandem with the public sector to be powerful engines of change.

Let's have our eyes open on this--it's ultruism with government support because, individual contributors and businesses, alike, may get tax breaks and a favorable image as a result.