Five Reasons why we all Owe Laurie David $10 and 25 Minutes this Holiday Season

"Do your 10 percent 100 percent and God will do the other 90 percent."

Laurie David - leading global warming activist and wife of Seinfeld Creator Larry David- credits Arianna Huffington with passing along the 10% quote above. She now uses it as an affirmation when the scale of stopping runaway global warming overwhelms her.

For your 10 percent, I urge you to pick up The Solution Is You!:An Activist's Guide, and give Laurie David a half hour of your time. If she moves you, like she has moved me over the past year, make the book a Chanukah gift, stocking-stuffer, or New Year's present to anyone and everyone you want to inspire.

Walking the Talk

Hollywood residents have always been a favorite target as uninformed, privileged folks who preach without practicing. This point was reinforced last year as I found myself at a Border's flipping through 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Hollywood folks locked in numbers 81-85, with Laurie holding the 82 spot. Laurie was pegged for not walking her environmental talk because she flies often, lives in a big house, and is an unapologetic consumer.

According to Larry David, there is some basis for this behavior. In the Foreword to her book, he describes his wife as having undergone a rapid transition over the past several years, beginning as a "girl" who "read People magazine, watched hours of mindless television, and shopped like there was no tomorrow," before evolving, to his horror, into an environmentalist.

The Solution Is You! An Activist's Guide, describes Laurie's intellectual and activist evolution over the past decade, her hopes and fears, her successes and failures, her achievements and mistakes, and her advice for others.

In addition to the wonderful window into Laurie's life the book provides - from a car dealership in small town Ohio to an open letter to Bill Ford, Jr. - the book provides a case study of how someone can use their unique talents as efficiently as possible to change others and the world. While the book is about Laurie's work on global warming, the themes and lessons apply much more broadly.

If you've got a minute, check out what I have dubbed as the "Five Laurie Principles" below as five reasons to buy the book and support her work. If not, just go buy the book, and give something back to a woman who has helped move mountains over the past year and is just getting warmed up.

LAURIE'S PRINCIPLES

While volumes have been written on Laurie this past year, The Solution Is You is finally Laurie's chance to condense her message into her own words and she does it in less than 50 short pages. I found five repeating themes that impressed me the most.

Principle 1: "Reach out to people who don't agree with you. Talk to that relative you always fight with at Thanksgiving dinner."

In her book, Laurie notes that she realized early on if "global warming became associated with just one political party, we would never get to where we needed to go." This is, ironically, reminiscent of one of Michael Crichton conclusions at the end of State of Fear, a book that does it's best to criticize the current environmental movement and predictions of catastrophic global warming, "Nothing is more inherently political than our shared physical environment, and nothing is more ill served by allegiance to a single political party...Sooner or later the, the opposing faction will take power, and previous policies will be reversed."

Both of these comments point to a fundamental flaw in modern environmentalism, one that can only be tackled by setting aside old differences and coming together. To help rectify this, Laurie has spent the year practicing what she preaches. Her Virtual March has recruited conservatives, athletes, and other non-traditional environmentalists to her cause. The coup de grace for her was watching Fox News run a one hour special on global warming, partly motivated by her work.

Principle 2: "Another life lesson: use what you've got."

Laurie is the first to admit that she uses the proverbial 'wife of' when needed. Through her connections at HBO, her husband's name, and her social network, Laurie has spent the past year pulling every string she can - producing, lobbying, and organizing.

Stopping global warming will mean starting a modern industrial revolution which will mean a shift in virtually every US industry and in just about every individual's lifestyle in the US . While this seems daunting in many ways, it is actually quite liberating in many others. It means that anyone can be part of the solution.

Laurie has proven this too, using all of her roles - including as spouse, parent, and friend - to create change.

Principle 3: "If I have learned anything from my activism, it is this: we are all guilty and will have to be part of the solution."

Laurie notes that, "There is plenty to criticize in my lifestyle - believe me, I don't need help from others, I am my own worst critic - but I try to do the best I can." Laurie's not perfect. Neither are you or I. But that isn't an excuse not to act, in fact it's a reason to always act.

Principle 4: Give back more than you take.

This is perhaps where I have been most amazed at Laurie's energy and capacity to give. The first time I met Laurie was in a hotel in Santa Monica . I came unprepared - having given away my last card the day before. Laurie gave me a few mintes of her time, a Stop Global Warming bracelet, and some scolding for not having a business card.

The last time I saw Laurie was at a dinner and reception for Nobel Laureate Wangari Matthai, founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Not only did Laurie help find us a host for the party - Gay Brown, founder of Greenopia - and help fill out the guest list - but she actually showed up to dinner with her staff, giving out "Stop Global Warming" bracelets to get folks signed up for the Virtual March to Stop Global Warming, and a passionate introduction for Mrs. Matthai.

Since then Laurie has helped me out with intro e-mails, a spotlight on a blog I wrote through the virtual march, and a platform to publicize my group's work. I note these things not as a disclaimer for this blog and not to pat myself on the back, but to point out Laurie's capacity to give.

My group is environmental, but we are not traditionally environmental. My group is student-based but we are not millions strong. In a world where Laurie can and does talk to Presidents, Kings, and Movie Stars, she has somehow found time to support a young, ambitious entrepreneur and group getting off the ground. Through her Virtual March she has shone the spotlight on more than 100 groups and efforts.

Principle 5: Finding your passion and devoting your life to it is a gift.

Finally, and most importantly to me, Laurie really enjoys the work that she does, remains positive and optimistic about the future, and truly believes we can lick this problem. This is where she is needed the most.

If the majority of today's scientists are right, global warming is one of the most frightening problems humanity has ever faced. In order to combat it, we have to honestly believe that today's 300 million Americans (who will grow to more than 400,000 by 2050) and today's 6.5 billion global residents (who will swell to more than 9.5 billion by 2050) can reduce their emissions by 70-90% in the next fifty years while potentially doubling or tripling global energy use. Laughable. Impossible. Believing we can solve this takes an enormous leap of faith.

But once we take that leap, the sky is the limit. A recent Reebok campaign declared that "Impossible is Nothing" and sports teach this lesson again and again. The US hockey team in 1980 had to believe that a bunch of college kids could beat one of the greatest Dynasty's in hockey history and it happened.

Laurie David is one of the few people out there who makes us all believe we can tackle this problem. She has reached thousands of people using humor, fashion, logic, passion, and every resource available to her. Her new book focuses a solid 14 pages out of 50 on a positive, exciting, diverse array of solutions. And by believing - and getting others to believe - she has made the fight to stop global warming cool and brought it into the public consciousness.

How did she do it? Go pick up Laurie's book today and find out. And stay tuned for what's in store for 2008!