Let's look at recycling. Certainly in terms of awareness, it is a national success story. Our children hound us, and we, fairly faithfully, respond. But while we recycle more under all circumstances, we recycle far more when we are supported in that decision by local government, when it provides us with color coded bins, charges us more for our garbage if we don't sort, and picks our bins up frequently at the curb. If we are to find common ground with Taslima Begun our institutions must help us by prompting us to make mindful choices, rather than obscuring them.
Individuals are far ahead of institutions.
I don't think this is just because institutions are always slower and more cumbersome. I also think that our very model of an institution is genetically incapable of behaving sustainably. The great virtue of the single-minded institution, which dominates the emerging global economy, is that it ignores all but a fraction of the consequences of its actions. It can, therefore, move fast, decisively, and creatively. The stereotype of the irresponsible corporation recklessly endangering the environment in the pursuit of profit hardly needs further development here.