I realize that Americans aren’t known for sacrificing , unless of course, that sacrifice is made towards future rewards, which really, makes it an investment rather than a sacrifice. For example, Americans are good at sacrificing the lives and mental health of poor people who join the military for a job and a sense of purpose to “preserve democracy”, especially in countries that have a lot of natural resources. But sacrificing their own comforts and addictions to help the planet? Not so much.
To be fair, I do realize that Americans are bombarded with consumerist and war propaganda every waking minute of every day. They have been trained to believe that they are more deserving of safety and comfort than the rest of the world. They’ve also been trained not to think of the costs to the planet for indulging themselves, although the costs to their own physical and mental health are skyrocketing.
So here are ten things all Americans can do to improve the quality of life on the planet, and you can do all of them without even having to share one single penny.
1. Whenever you meet someone, always offer them your condolences. If they look puzzled, simply say “We’ve all experienced loss in some form or other”. With so many people losing so much so fast, we need to be prepared with compassion at all times.
2. Don’t drink soda. This will help ensure that soft drink companies don’t eventually use up all the fresh water needed for watering our crops and for humans to drink without getting cancer and diabetes.
3. First, ask yourself what Jesus would do. Then, look up what Jesus actually did. Finally, summon all the rage and fury against injustice inside you and go unleash it on some moneychangers. Moneychangers can often be found at payday loan establishments.
4. If you have something that you haven’t used or worn in a year, give it to someone who can use it or wear it.
5. Whenever possible, walk or ride a bike instead of drive. Now, I’ll make up some statistics to support my thesis statement. For every twenty miles that twenty people don’t drive, five people in oil rich countries aren’t murdered. For every ten thousand miles that ten thousand people don’t drive, one oppressive government in an oil rich country is not installed. Plus you get exercise.
6. Use the internet to make friends with people in other countries so when governments try to start wars by demonizing them, you’re realize that they’re full of it and not fall for it.
7. Sing and dance. That always make people feel better, and there is very rarely a really good soundtrack accompanying a murder.
8. Learn to tell jokes.
9. Buy seeds to grow your own vegetables before Monsanto makes sure that the only seeds left in the world are seeds that don’t produce more seeds so you have to buy everything from them.
10. Flout some copyrights, like plant and information copyrights, to create popular visible support for the concept that some things belong to humanity and can’t be copyrighted and owned by individuals.
I’m working on arranging a cheerleading squad for all participants. 
The Big Picture 