There’s a guy in Philadelphia with a podcast and a website and a vision for a future that could enable humans to find a way to exist for a long time on planet earth. His name is Ray Katz. He has a podcast: 5 Minutes to Save the Earth, and he has created “We Are Saners.” (www.wearesaners.org).

“It’s been over thirty years since the scope of our climate crisis has been well understood. I thought that our authorities would do something. After all, they have children and families; they should want a world for them just as we do for our own children. But the authorities have done nothing. The allure of fossil fuels has blinded everyone in power. They are functionally insane. And so, we must be the sane ones. We must lead ourselves out of the crisis.”

After Ray responded to my recent post about the hubris of holding the 28^th UN Climate Conference in Dubai (Greenwashing), I wanted to learn more about “We are Saners.” He greeted me on zoom in a grey T-shirt with a big ‘S’ logo, inscribed: “Now is the time for all sane people to come to the aid of their planet.”

If echoes of Thomas Paine ring in your ear, you are correct. As Ray and I talked, echoes of other inspirations, other movements, infused our discussion, and shape his approach of turning what is today only a few hundred voices, into a mass movement that will reshape our world. First among his muses is Gandhi, then also Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr. “Non-violence is the only way for a majority without power to shift the power structure.” However, he also references Thomas Jefferson, the Occupy Movement, NASA’s moon mission, even the Manhattan Project.

What inspires Ray about Occupy was how it grew from minor stirrings to a major issue in such a short time. Its disappointment, of course, is that its insistence on having no organizational structure led to its inability to harness the energy it created into structural change.

His analogies to NASA and the Manhattan Project are reflected in We Are Saners’ simple, clear demand statement: We demand an immediate worldwide emergency program, led by climate scientists, to end fossil fuels, end climate abuse, and repair our planet. Regardless how one views men dropping atomic bombs or walking on the moon, one cannot dispute that when faced with impending disaster, giving scientists free range to address a specific problem has been both efficient and effective. What if we could harness that capability for something more peaceful than Hiroshima, and less narcissistic than winning a space race? What is we could harness it allow our planet to continue to sustain human life?

Ray Katz’ commitment to non-violence in addressing our climate crisis is fundamental. “Members of Extinction Rebellion are willing to be arrested for their actions. I don’t think most people are willing to go that far. Yet, I believe there are at least a billion people—that’s only 1 in 8 people on earth—who are sincerely committed to addressing the climate crisis, and realize their governments are doing nothing. They want to find a way to make their voices heard.”

Ray’s non-partisan, non-violent resolve is clear. “This is a not a problem of capitalism, or of democracy, of China or Russia or the USA alone. It is the result of embedded systems that favor fossil fuels above all else; and the powers-in-place who refuse to redress the situation, regardless what economic or political system.”

“We Are Saners” is a young organization: only six months old. Right now the focus is on building membership and finding ways for disparate climate wannabe activists to create a sense of community. Ray envisions a moment when the group will surge, as Occupy did. Perhaps in response to a horrific climate event, or an egregious anti-climate policy, or simply because the group swells to the point it cannot be ignored. Then, Ray envisions branches in simultaneous directions to change attitudes, change policies, change the way we live so that we can live in accord with the rest of our planet. “We are going to need ten times more ideas than we can execute. That’s how we’ll know which ones are most worth pursuing.”

As Ray offered his 10x example, I could not help wondering if that might also apply to organizations working to address our climate crisis. Perhaps we need ten times the necessary number of organizations, in order to cull the ones that don’t resonate.

What’s the chance that We Are Saners will be the organization to shepherd us past our current heartburn of miserable politicians bellying-up to the fossil fuel buffet? Slim I would guess. But I won’t count it out because Ray Katz is coalescing successful components of social change to address an urgent issue. That’s something I want to be a part of, and so I have become a ‘saner.’ The more of us who sign on, speak out, and act, the sooner we will be heard. The sooner the world will redirect itself: towards sanity.