How much can one person do?

'She would not accept it as a law of nature that the individual is always defeated.' (George Orwell in 1984)

Is this true? Will the power of mass inertia always overcome the individual pushing for change?

'Relinquish the delusion of your individual importance but rejoice that once our inputs sum to a certain threshold our society will change.' (Andrew Wilson on Care2 June 09)

So, like water trickling slowly through sand, each grain absorbs the liquid and then passes it on to the next and so on ...... My task is to absorb the ideas and behaviours which will preserve our life on earth, and pass those on to any grain of sand I come into contact with.

Success so far? I have made a number of changes, and daily set new challenges for myself to kick off old habits and adopt new 'green' ways of living. Such as cycle to work, no plastic bags, recycle food, eat only organic meat.... so far, so good. As for influencing others, hard to say but it would appear that most people move quickly away at the slightest feeling of dampness. So what is the force that pushes the water through the sand, that pushes the ideas through reluctant minds? Is money the only force strong enough to bring about effective change? When it literally costs us the earth will we finally start protecting it?

I joined Care2 which is a great campaigning site for all sorts of issues. I've signed some petitions, saved some whales, seals and dogs..... well maybe but you never really know. Then I started to accumulate some 'friends'. GREAT thought I, some like minded people to share ideas with. Your friends then send you e-mails. Sometimes those cutsie e-cards which are a bit too slushy for me, but mostly they send you petitions to sign. They chose 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 causes that they wish to follow and send the petition link onto all their friends. Then as one of their friends I open the links and read the info, sign the petition and send it on to all of my friends, and so the chain of compassion links around the world.

First one friend, then two, then four or five 'friends' all doing the same thing. Soon my inbox was loaded daily with petitions, many of which made heartbreaking reading. Each one I opened hit me with another example of man's uncaring, cruel nature and I felt absolutely helpless in this daily torrent of despair. I would sign some but I had no friends to pass them onto as none of my 'real world' friends are interested in these issues. So the chain broke with me and that made me feel sad too. I just couldn't cope with it all and had to end the friendships and stop the e-mails. I was drowning not absorbing. I must be careful not to drown others.