This is a guest post by Ryan Hebert of the Madrone Project

These days, there’s a lot of scary stuff in the news. Temperatures around the globe are hitting higher and higher levels, and that hotter weather increases the likelihood of major weather disasters like the floods that devastated Pakistan last year. Meanwhile, the rising price of oil, as well as the risk of environmental disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, mean that it is more important than ever to move away from fossil fuels, and to meet our energy needs with cleaner, renewable sources like wind and solar.

But while all this is going on, a lot of time is still being spent in arguing about whether climate change is even really happening. Can we really begin to address all these problems together when some people still don’t believe that the problems are real?

Sure we can. That’s the message of author and sustainability expert Hunter Lovins. She argues that yes, there’s overwhelming proof that climate change is real, human-caused and potentially devastating – but on one level, it doesn’t even matter

Everything you’d want to do to address climate change would still be a good idea even if it weren’t happening. Using our environmental resources more efficiently and developing new greener technologies can help companies grow faster, reduce unemployment, and create cleaner, healthier communities.

Check out this talk Hunter gave at TEDxMileHigh in April. In it, she gives examples of companies who shifted to greener, more sustainable practices and found that the changes didn’t just help the environment – they helped the businesses save money too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhk1y4Qz-n0[/youtube]

In the video, Hunter also talks about the need she sees to rethink the way we do education around green topics. With all the environmental challenges that need attention, the traditional ways of spreading knowledge – teaching classes, writing books – just haven’t been getting the word out fast enough.

With that in mind, Hunter’s now working on developing a project to create a new kind of educational experience based on how people are learning today. She’ll work with others to put together digital “micro-classes” on lots of different topics related to environmental sustainability. Each micro-class will include video, graphics, online discussions and other resources, and will be available anywhere, anytime: teachers can use them as part of a class, or students can go through the material at home, at their own pace, over the internet.

It’s one simple way to get more people informed and engaged with environmental topics using easy online tools similar to the ones they’re already using to socialize, watch videos, and keep up with the latest thing. The people working on this call it “the Madrone Project”, named after a tree that grows along the west coast of the U.S. and Canada.

If we’re willing to challenge our own thinking and try new ways of doing things, then together we can build a future that is cleaner, greener, and more sustainable. There’s a lot we can all do, starting today, to help make that happen. Hunter quotes the late environmentalist David Brower, who said: “Aim high! Navigators have aimed at the stars for centuries. They haven’t hit one yet, but because they aimed high, they found their way.”