Quotes provided by Director of Education Connie O'Connor. An excerpt of this article is also featured in the October 14, 2026 e-newsletter, Now in Nature.
Cincinnati Nature Center is committed to addressing environmental challenges by helping our community move beyond growing polarization, individualism, and pessimism. To protect the natural world, we must better connect with one another. We call this philosophy Conservation Civics, and it involves adopting an ethic of local influence and engagement within our communities. On Thursday, November 12, 2026, we are partnering with Michael Brownstein and Alex Madva, authors of Somebody Should Do Something to discuss how!
Description:
Description provided by The MIT Press.
Changing the world is difficult. One reason is that the most important problems, like climate change, racism, and poverty, are structural. They emerge from our collective practices: laws, economies, history, culture, norms, and built environments. The dilemma is that there is no way to make structural change without individual people making different—more structure-facing—decisions. In Somebody Should Do Something, Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly show us how we can connect our personal choices to structural change and why individual choices matter, though not in the way people usually think.
"When I first read Somebody Should Do Something, I knew Cincinnati Nature Center had to bring the authors here to share their work!" says Director of Applied Learning, Connie O'Connor. "Through the lens of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, these scholars explain why people often feel powerless in the face of environmental problems and how that mindset can be transformed into effective collective action."
"I’ve often been asked just how much impact people have when they commit to reusable bags and sustainable purchases. The authors posit that personal choices can become powerful catalysts for systemic impact, if and when they springboard us into working with others. The book emphasizes that social change is not only about heroic leaders or massive protests; it also emerges from small, repeated actions by many people."
Connie explains, "Somebody Should Do Something reframes social change not as a burden but as a shared project—one that becomes possible when individuals seek to understand systems, recognize their power and act together. Here at the Nature Center, we call this “Conservation Civics”. Hyperscale data centers and other local issues are bringing people together as they recognize their common desire for clean water and air, transparent government, and opportunities to influence local government. For this reason, I expect a big crowd as these authors explain how personal influence can create better communities."
