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I often get overwhelmed when a seemingly insurmountable problem looms over me. It’s not that I really think most problems are insurmountable, it’s just that I see them taking way longer to resolve than I want to work on them. Yes, I admit it—I am a product of our fast-food world.

But I would like to change that. I want to make a difference with my life instead of idly standing by and watching the world spin out of control. I may not be able to do much, but a lot of people doing a little can make a difference.

That’s what Thom Hartmann calls us to do in his book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late. He realizes the environmental problems in the world right now seem overwhelming; however, while his call for personal responsibility may not be heeded by all, if enough people choose to make a difference then a difference could be made.

Here are some of his thoughts on the topic:

“So where do we begin?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pointed out that when we do “good works,” we should do them without other people knowing that we did them. This is a difficult task: you have to continually keep an eye out for such opportunities.

Many people, looking at the enormity of all the problems facing the world, feel depressed, overwhelmed, and apathetic. They often give up.

But there is great spiritual and cultural power in performing small acts of mercy. They echo farther than most people realize, and begin a “morphic resonance” process of putting out into the air—in a way that becomes culturally contagious—the millions of small steps that must be taken worldwide to save our planet and our species.

On some level, we are all connected. When you save the life of another living being—even a worm or a weed—you are putting into the air the saving of lives. Small acts of mercy are among the most transformational spiritual activities a person can engage in, which is probably why Jesus and those teachers and prophets before him repeatedly put such emphasis on them.”