I became a vegetarian and realized that I wanted to play a significant role in solving the environmental crisis. This became the lens through which I viewed all of my studies. As I explored economics, I realized that it was by and large the embodiment of distinctly un-environmental thinking. The underlying theories all seemed skewed towards very anthropocentric notions of self-interest that did not take into account the wellbeing of the natural systems upon which all life depends. 
	Studying Political Science did not give me confidence that solutions would be coming from that quarter, given that the vast machinery of corporate-based special interest money that drives so much political action and/or inaction was too often focused on thwarting environmental regulation than encouraging it. I was convinced that the environmental crisis was at its root a spiritual crisis – the result of alienation from the oneness that permeates the universe. The alienation is a cleavage that results when we fail to recognize our connectedness within ourselves, to each other, nature, and the Creator.
	Upon graduating from Eastern University, I moved to Washington, DC and spent five years working for the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology, whose mission was to get the churches more involved in the environmental movement. It seemed to me that helping people play a positive role in the environmental movement from within a context of commitment to their religious faith could be a powerful venue for environmental advocacy. I saw this work as essentially educating church-going people to the religious importance of ecologically sensitive living. It was deeply satisfying, and yielded moderately positive results. Perhaps more importantly, it offered me the chance to learn much about sustainability through attending such important events as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summit, in Brazil in 1992, the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993, and the United Nations World Summit on Social Development, known as the Social Summit, in Copenhagen in 1995. The Earth Summit was an amazing event. We had a booth in the non-governmental organization exhibit area called the Global Forum, which gave me the opportunity to interact with religious and non-religious people from around the world who shared our concern about the ever-growing negative impact on the environment of human activities. Our motto was Caring for Creation, which had surprising appeal to both religious and non-religious communities. Even avowed atheists could easily see that helping religious communities play a positive role in the environmental movement could have a deep and broad impact on millions of people of faith. 
	We helped to organize two special events during the Earth Summit that felt very important. The first was a sunrise ceremony and prayer service at which the Dalai Lama, who attended the Earth Summit, agreed to make a short speech. This required me to deliver event information into the hands of the Dalai Lama himself. 