Ten Points of Inspiration

• At right: Yosemite, birthplace in 1964 of the national park movement

Here are the details:

OUR REASONING

The Ten Points of Inspiration initiative is meant to fill a need and make the most of an opportunity:

• The need is for true stories showing how individual people and small groups can make a difference. 
• The opportunity is engaging with the many visitors to what we call "Natural Neighbors": national parks and similar areas, and nearby museums, botanic gardens, zoos, aquariums, and science centers.

Here’s our reasoning:

• The world is full of people with moral courage, imagination, kindness, and generosity, people who act on their convictions.
• Unfortunately, we hear a lot more about cruelty, hate, and injustice, and our memories keep such negatives at least twice as long as positives.
• More than ever the world needs hope. Hope isn’t passive; it’s a human survival trait. Hope is thinking about the future, expecting that desired events will happen and acting in ways believed to make them more likely. The action part is essential.  
• Although hope is about the future, grounds for hope lie in the record and recollections of the past. 

OUR AUDIENCE

Our target audience is people who are visiting national parks and other protected areas, and those who are visiting what we call their "Natural Neighbors": nearby museums, botanic gardens, zoos, aquariums, science centers and similar institutions.

We encourage these visitors to do whatever they can to move the world, or at least their part of the world, toward greater justice and sustainability. We ask them to think of what they can do in their town, city, state, or country. In their profession. In their family and group of friends. In associations they belong to or could join. They may be able to give money or volunteer time, speak out at public meetings, or write letters to the editor. Some will be in positions to influence a major political or business decision. A few will be able to reach large numbers of people by writing books and articles or producing films and TV programs. All of them will be able to change a few personal habits or preferences.

In order to make this possible we ask the managers of museums and similar institutions, and their counterparts in nearby conservation areas, to cooperate in educating the public about the interrelated challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, including with observable local examples on the ground. 

THE PLACES

Stories about real places and what has happened in them are powerful  communication tools. Tangible symbols are needed even more these days in  a world of “cyber-existence” and “virtual reality.” 

We choose ten places in and around a national park or other protected or conserved area to serve as beacons to inspire people to take action for greater justice and sustainability. These places aren't necessarily connected directly to dealing with climate change and biodiversity loss; they're about the "how" of moving thoughts into action rather than the "what." 

These TEN POINTS OF INSPIRATION are meant to be representative, not the "best," although some are obvious choices. In many cases other sites could just as well have been chosen. They're an informal designation and have no official status. They're not an award, nor are there any signs or plaques. Although designation of these sites may encourage people to visit them, this is not their main purpose, and some of the places are remote or closed to the  public.

Although the choices are subjective, the TEN POINTS OF INSPIRATION fit into these broad criteria: They are strongly associated with people, events, and ideas that can serve as tangible symbols of the distinctive character of a region — and the kind of imagination, exploration, and moral courage needed to move toward greater justice and sustainability. They may be built objects, urban districts, rural areas, or features of a landscape. They may stand for acts of individuals, groups, communities, or governments. They should be places where things have happened, rather than statues or memorials, although the actual places may be marked or have become museums. They may be modest structures that make a key point: Those who make extraordinary contributions often come from humble  beginnings.

To see how this works go to the page describing the pilot project centered on the National Parks of California's Mojave Desert. 

We look for positive stories but our point of view isn’t optimism but hope. What’s the difference? Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better; hope is the belief that, together, we can make the world better. The opposite of hope is hopelessness. [See Hope]

• At right: Where Gustav Mahler wrote his massive Eighth Symphony as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit

THE PEOPLE WHOSE STORIES WE TELL

Many different kinds of individuals and small groups find their way into our stories, but they all share one thing: they went beyond thinking about things and took action. In the pilot project on California's Mojave Desert, for example, we include scientists, actors, volunteers from conservation groups, a photographer, an innkeeper, a Nobel Prize-winning author, ranchers, and several philanthropists.   

THE VALUES THEY HOLD

We use this list: 

• Defending human rights and liberties
• Promoting fairness and harmony among people
• Valuing and conserving nature
• Believing in the value of exploration, including scientific inquiry, invention, astronomy, and voyages in space   
• Taking into account the mind, including reason, emotion, imagination, creativity, higher consciousness, and spirituality — because the challenges facing humanity today, as well as our greatest achievements, are products of the ways we think
• Realizing that everything and everyone is interconnected

HOW THEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Looking again at our pilot project on California's Mojave Desert, we find  diverse ways of making a difference: searching for rare species in remote places, persistent lobbying, writing books and articles, producing a film, composing music, sitting down with Indigenous people to learn about their culture and plight, bankrolling museums from inherited wealth, showing kindness and generosity to total strangers — and, above all, persevering and refusing to be discouraged by setbacks.