Photo cc: macca.

Do you feel the Earth is getting trashed faster than we seem to be able to save it? Do you sometimes share in the despair that our dependance on Big Oil & SUV's — with their attendant wars, food to ethanol follies, and other tar sands insanities — will bring down civilization faster than the ice caps and Greenland are melting?

Petroleum, mining and other corporate interests are in a head-on collision against local, land-based cultures, in a conflict so deep the whole world is its battlefield. Solutions based on morality, human values, respect for nature, and sheer common sense appear more inaccessible now than ever.

It's a battle of two worlds, simply said. A global clash: Earth and living creatures on one side, Cash on the other.

Well, here's how leverage works:

1. Find a place to stand (the support base, also called the fulcrum, or pivot);

2. Find a lever (a long enough stick);

3. Locate the pressure point (where you stick the lever);

4. Work like hell from your end of the stick;

5. Move the world (...thanks Archimedes!)

Because it funds and underwrites all large-scale projects, when you want to save some corner of the planet, you may find yourself in need of moving the world of Finance. That's when knowing about the following four leverage points could come in handy.

In many circomstances, talking about human rights and citizen participation would harm policy makers and local governments, as individuals and /or institutions.