Hello all, just wanted to introduce myself and my work. My website is http://www.chrisjordan.com; perhaps you have seen my photographs of huge piles of garbage, cell phones, crushed cars, and so on? My new series, called “Running The Numbers,” has appeared a lot in the media lately.
What I am particularly interested in right now is why I am such a hypocrite. In other words, with everything I know about the condition of our world, why am I still consuming at pretty much the same rate as before? Why aren’t my personal consumer behaviors more in line with my beliefs? And in the bigger picture, why are most of us the same way like that? We all seem to be trying to convince everyone ELSE to go green and be more environmentally conscious, while giving ourselves a free pass to do stuff like fly around on jets to attend conferences, drink imported wine and so on.
One defense of mine is to try to convince myself that merely being educated about the green movement is enough; but what matters is what we DO, not what our intentions are. And I, for one, am not doing enough. Why is that, and why is it so hard to change? It is an uncomfortable inquiry, but that’s where I am at at the moment.
Looking forward to meeting in person.
~chris jordan
Story Field Conference Creations 
I think one big reason is because we conceive of it mostly as something where we have to give up some things we like to stop doing things. To the degree this is the case, we as story-makers can help with this by finding and/or creating and putting out there a sense of what people are moving toward when they make green changes in their lives.
I make many food choices out of ecological concerns – but what are the health benefits? And what is life like on a small organic farm (vs. factory farming)? While i do still fly around to things, i also am putting more focus on knitting together my local community. There’s some beautiful stuff that happens when the people who are part of my life are also part of each other’s lives – synchronicities and serendipities that support all of us to grow more, to be happier. Many people (myself included) who start acting toward creating a simpler life in time find a draw to it (rather than a push away from the clutter and complexity). When our lives our simpler, the things that matter are easier to sense into – they stick out more. Drawing out these realities and presenting them to people in forms they can really get would probably be of major support both to people who are making big changes in their lives, and those who haven’t yet.