Mahatma Gandhi
In recent days, we commemorated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who died 40 years ago this month. And some have also recalled that King was influenced by Gandhi, learning from Gandhi’s Satyagraha or “truth force” movement the nonviolent tactics that ultimately made the civil rights movement a success.
Philip Glass’s opera “Satyagraha,” which thematizes this, is being revived now at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Now is a good time to remember Gandhi and King, not just in celebration of what they achieved, but because we need them again today. We need them not only to inspire social change in the today’s world, but also to inspire a movement to save it from global warming.
Scientists tell us clearly that we must drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, just at the moment when fossil fuel demand is at record highs and accelerating. India and China’s economies and the world’s population are exploding to levels the planet has never borne before.
The need to reduce our impacts is actually a tremendous opportunity to build a green ec... Read more
