It’s a comic book cliché. The superhero that hides his true identity (remember mild-mannered Clark Kent?), but is ever ready to right wrongs and help those at risk. Thankfully, most communities have always had their own quiet heroes working without fanfare to heal problems and seek justice. At Sustainable Tompkins we are witnessing the emergence of a new breed of hero – a type we are going to need many more of as the impacts of climate disruption escalate and economic disparities widen.
In recent months, we’ve had the honor of being approached by two anonymous donors who share both a deep concern about the growing threat of climate change, and compassion for those in our community struggling with high energy bills. Our first donor set up a Sustainable Newfield Fund and provided seed money to cover a series of grants from our Finger Lakes Climate Fund to residents of the Town of Newfield. We made our first award from this gift in October with a $3,457 grant to Second Wind to insulate six cottages they are building for homeless men. (Full story here.)
Carmen Guidi, founder of the Second Wind project, is assisted by Beth Thorp of Bethel Grove Bible Church – one of the congregations in the Community Faith Partners.
More recently, we received a generous gift of $10,000 from a second donor to offer grants from Finger Lakes Climate Fund to any qualifying applicant in Tompkins County. We are in the process of making the first of those grants. (Visit FLCF to learn more about how our local carbon offset program works.)
A very important part of this story is about Means and Values. Neither of our donors is a person of great wealth. Both of them had received recent windfalls of unexpected income. They could have spent the money on any number of indulgences or set it aside for their own rainy day. Instead, their values led them to quietly get to work on helping right the great wrong of climate disruption by assisting others without the financial means to invest in energy efficiency improvements.
It seems to us that this represents a necessary convergence of environmental justice and economic justice. We know that it is the global poor who are being hit hardest by climate disruption. (This month by the latest superstorm in the Philippines.) Thus our efforts to reduce fossil carbon emissions serve the cause of justice by ratcheting back a bit on the creation of more damage. We also have an economic system that is designed to cause poverty through the steady funneling of wealth to the top. Our donors have stepped up on the side of economic justice by making it possible for those with modest incomes to keep more of what’s theirs instead of giving it to the oil, coal, or gas industries.
Too many people in our society deny the reality of climate change and rationalize away the inequities of our form of capitalism. We’re grateful to those who have the courage to face the truth about what is happening and act on their values – our everyday climate heroes! Let’s join them and make a better reality.
