The surest path to safe streets and peaceful communities is not more police and prisons, but ecologically sounds economic development. And that same path can lift us to a new, green economy - one with the power to lift people out of poverty while respecting and repairing the environment.

To change our laws and culture, the green movement must attract and include the majority of all people, not just the majority of affluent people.

It's time to start bringing the congregations down to City Hall and to ask the mayors, the city councils and the school boards, "What's the plan? What's the local government going to do for us?"

Rather than continuing to base our economy on a finite supply of dead things, we can base it on sources that are practically infinite and eternal: the sun, the moon, and the Earth's inner fire.

We know that urban farms require less fuel for tractors and transport, but community gardens don't plant themselves.

To green our country, regular people will have to put on hard hats and work boots, roll up their sleeves - and get to work.

Higher energy costs are unavoidable in all future scenarios.