Call to declare a climate emergency

Call to declare a climate emergency

I am writing on the topic of climate disruption and our response as community. Our local leaders have been asked to declare a climate emergency and I wish to add my voice to those who support this call.

There are folk who doubt that humans are causing the disruptions around us, or that we can mitigate them in any way. In their eyes we are in the grip of forces beyond our control. Reminding me of the stories told about the Titanic, some feel we may as well keep dancing, while others have already sunk the ship with no hope for survivors.

I would like to offer another perspective. Although the environmental and economic harm we do is undeniable, (dumping garbage in air, sea and land, presiding over the largest extinction since the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, watching refuge-seeking humans cry out for the lives of their children at the gates of our cities), we are beckoned to a different course. One filled with promise and possibility.

We can put ourselves on a path of consideration, care and thoughtful, out-poured blessing. We can treat the planet and our relations with love, generosity, kindness and respect. We can discover ourselves to be worthy, gentle, wise and giving people, putting warmth and blessing at the core of all we do.

All of our relations depend upon us. Our children, who understand the science and see the consequences of our actions hanging over their future as doom impending, call upon us. We must, at very least, stop choking the living world with garbage. We must consider the consequences of our actions and act to change them. We must come together locally to change the course we are upon, globally.

While many of our national, provincial and economic leaders seem to think continuing the path that’s gotten us here is the only course to follow, we can take a different tack. We can choose to support our local leaders in developing responsive and responsible alternatives. We can take steps, develop strategies and let all of our relations know we realize we are in community with them. What we do will make a difference here and in the wide world.

Let us act as we are able and trust that whatever we might do will be enough. At very least let our epitaph be that we saw what was coming and met it head on, determined to do whatever we could, for as long as ever we could. In the name of all we love and hold as holy, let us do that.

Keith Simmonds

Duncan