To the Editor

“Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” – Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Physicist & Nobel Laureate

Even the darkest cloud may have a silver lining if only we take the time to look beyond the surface. The climate crisis presents us with a major local and global case in point. We are required to let go of a wish to return to a past when weather was generally much less disruptive and destructive and recognize that maintaining the status quo with minor adjustments is not a viable option.

Facing this crisis honestly openly and without fear will permit us the golden opportunity to work cooperatively towards a more equitable caring sustainable and peaceful existence. Continued individualism coupled with predatory capitalism must be recognized as a recipe for disaster and a roadblock to any timely civilized response to global warming and climate change.

“Whatever the problem community is the answer.”  That is the motto of the Berkana Institute centred in Natick Massachusetts. The key principles endorsed by the Institute have been kindly summarized by author Gregg Braden in his book The Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time of Extremes (2014) :

“Every community is filled with leaders.

We don’t have to wait for anyone. We have many resources with which to make things better now.

We need a clear sense of direction and we need to know the elegant minimum next step.

We proceed one step at a time making the path by walking it.

Local work evolves to create transformative social change when connected to similar work around the world.”

So what are we waiting for? Are we ready to share our thoughts on climate with each other through one or more community or town hall types of meetings? How about starting to get together in January?

John Gibb

Minden