A continuing debate erupts within the environmental movement about the relative merits of individual versus collective action. Back in 2007, on the subject of individual action, The New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote,

You can change lights. You can change cars. But if you don't change leaders, your actions are nothing more than an expression of, as Dick Cheney would say, "personal virtue."

I heard criticisms like Friedman's constantly throughout a one-year project in environmental living that I took on under the moniker No Impact Man. What difference can one person make? Having had a lot of critics who forced me to look at the issue, I've come to some conclusions.

Firstly, there is one circumstance under which one person absolutely cannot make a difference: if that one person doesn't try. And if we don't try, who among us knows whether we have foregone the chance to influence the people around us? Which one of us knows for sure that, by applying our talents and efforts to what we believe in, whether we might become a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Bobby Kennedy or an Al Gore or a Betty Friedan or a Nelson Mandela?

Not that these great names are necessarily the most important aspects of movements. They are only symbols of the thousands and millions of people upon whose shoulders they stood. They are simply the straws we say broke the camel's back. But those straws did not do the trick. It is the thousands and thousands of straws that come before that weakened the proverbial camel's back enough to be broken. The one person or action that breaks the back is often the one that history recognizes. But the domino that begins the domino effect requires all of us to be in line in order for the chain reaction to take place.

Of course, Friedman is correct to suggest we need collective action on climate change. We need gigantic investment in green infrastructure. We need regulation to curb industry excesses. We need an entire new economic mindset. These things cannot be done by individuals. Those of us who are concerned about our environmental crisis must get involved in the political arena and find ways to keep pressure on our politicians in this regard.

But to suggest that collective and individual actions are mutually exclusive, or even different, is wrongheaded and dangerous. It ignores the way cultures change, the responsibilities of citizens, and our potential as agents of change. Collective action is nothing more than the aggregation of individual actions. And individual action does not preclude involvement in collective action. In fact, it absolutely demands it. The two work together.

Think about this: How much more convincing is an advocate for urban bike lanes who rides his bike every day? Who is more convincing, an advocate for climate change mitigation who takes the subway or one who drives alone in an SUV? Living our values across all areas of our individual lives -- from the private to the public -- demonstrates an integrity and conviction that can help persuade the skeptics.

This climate problem is so big that we need a change in the culture. We need to look at the way we live. We need to find a good life that does not depend so much on energy and material throughput. And Government is not in the business of telling us how to live. Government is in the business of facilitating the way of life the people have chosen. Therefore, if we want to ensure that the planet maintains its ability to support us, we have to choose differently. This is a battle not just for votes, but for hearts and for minds. Hearts and minds are changed by individuals, not by governments.

We know we have to change the system, but we must also remember that the system is only a collection of individuals. What the system does is just the aggregation of all of our individual actions: as citizens, as shareholders, as CEOs, as product designers, as customers, as friends, as family members and as voters. We have to stop waiting for the system to change, and remember that every decision we make in our homes and in our workplace amounts to "the system."

We need to pick up a new model of "engaged citizenship," in which we realize that the way we live affects everyone around us. We need to develop new ways to take up and assert our responsibility. We need to take "participatory democracy" to a new level, where we don't just vote for the leaders who will bring us the culture we want, but where we take responsibility for making the culture ourselves.

What we'll get in return is the feeling of a life fully lived, one in which we are not victims of the system but leaders of it. Where we choose instead of inherit. Where we stride purposefully instead of sleepwalk. Where we are true masters of our destiny.

Colin Beavan writes and administers NoImpactMan.com, a meeting point for discussion of environmental issues, lifestyle redesign, political engagement and citizen responses to our planetary emergency from a "deep green" perspective. Beavan's experiment in lifestyle redesign is the subject of his book (scheduled for publication in September 2009 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and a documentary by independent filmmakers Laura Gabbert and Eden Wurmfeld.

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The Power of Sustainable Thinking: The 5 D Changes of Change

Image Credits:
"Critical Mass, Wacker Drive." Credit flickr/Payton Chung
"Students Protesting for Freedom of Speech" A. Andres