There is a group of people who, in my understanding, either cannot or will not accept the fact that our earth is deteriorating, and that is the inner-city culture, or as one might call it, the hip-hop culture.  Their circumstances have taught them that in order to survive, one must acquire wealth and status at all costs, including legal and criminal.  They steal, they rape, they commit murder in order to take what others have.  We have seen them with their massive amounts of jewelery hanging off their neck, often in the form of diamond-encrusted dollar signs, with their diamond-encrusted braces, their obnoxiously large, obnoxiously customized, obnoxiously expensive vehicles, most often bought with their ill-gotten gains.  These all serve as barriers to communication of our message, and so long as people are afraid to approach them and teach them, then it will take nothing short of a catastrophic event for the message to sink in.

Many groups have been included, or at least mentioned, in the quest for restoration of our world.  I know of one that may prove to be the most resistant to change, and that is the inner-city "hip-hop" culture. 

As far as my experience with the culture and its music goes, their prime directive is to acquire wealth and status at all costs.  The symbolism is pervasive, as is the evidence of excess.  The massive jewelry, the massive customized vehicles and the massive arsenals of each neighborhood kingpin show a complete disregard for the outside world, because to them their neighborhood is all the world.  Nearly every rap song is a treatise on money, power, and neighborhood respect.  They live and die by their colors, by the law of the streets.  Global warming would be regarded with not much more than a "What you say?" and a derisive snort. 

There is absolutely no connection to nature and its message.  Why would they care?  How would it threaten their respect and their 'hood?  Hollywood has made numerous attempts at informing the popular culture with movies about ecological disaster and climate shift, but the gangbangers, the dope slingers, and the pimps could care less.  They are a tough nut to crack, but crack that nut we must, or we will not see the massive grassroots effort that must surely take place reach all corners of society.

One could begin with the music.  Inject responsibility into their lyrics and one may see the beginnings of a shift toward stewardship.  Another approach would be to send in awareness groups to educate in the schools and encourage participation at young ages.  Proverbs says "Train a child when he is young, and when he is a man he will not stray from it."  Some have grown up in the gangs, so to reach them would take a herculean effort at appealing to their culture. 

But no matter the approach, today the greatest challenge at the grassroots level is the inner-city culture.  One must encourage them to participate, or else see the same stagnation at all levels.

I read an article in the Houston Chronicle one day about a scientific research firm ,and its joint venture with an oil company to produce a synthetic gasoline. According to the article, this synthetic blend is non-petroleum-based, can be transported and stored in existing infrastructure, can be used in regular gas tanks, and burns cleanly.  The only problems left to solve are mass production and corporate greed.  I welcome your thoughts.