The Christian Science Monitor just published a great article on a grassroots approach to climate change called Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds. It’s an illustrated workbook that guides individuals and small groups through a 22-step program to reduce their CO2 footprint. The author, David Gershon, spent a couple of decades researching how to get people to change their behavior concerning the environment—and the conclusion he reached is: if you work with a small peer support group, you are much more likely to actually do something different. (as in, Weight Watchers/AA meets Global Warming). He created a program call “Eco Team” which got a lot of praise for its effectiveness at shifting consumption behavior. Then he created the Low Carbon Diet based on the Eco Team program to specifically tackle climate change. Apparently, they’re getting great results. You can read the Monitor article at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1228/p14s01-sten.html

The book also has a good website with a lot of supporting material for community organizing around climate change. www.empowermentinstitute.net/lcd.