The Coming Decade's Work

Bill McKibben has changed the narrative from the incredible events of the past week that have been termed surreal – and only now have to be recognized as all too real.

The good news that a black man from the American south finally can be elected to the Senate was swamped by a riot and what to do about it as well as increasing hospitalizations and deaths from the pandemic.  At the same time we forget that we are now we have passed the half way mark for dealing with the climate crisis.

 The following were milestones:

• Prior to 1990 scientists and oil companies study the effects of climate change

• 1988: James Hansen testifies to US congress

• 1990: Climate change is recognized as a problem by the public1992: The Rio Earth Summit initiates attempts to deal with it as an international problem

• 2050 becomes the target year for carbon neutrality

 McKibben goes on to say that the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century were basically a waste of time in addressing the issue. Oil companies and politicians united to make nothing happen and the Copenhagan conference in 2009 failed, as did the US Cap and Trade legislation in 2010.

 But after that evidence was hard to ignore. We could not ignore rising temperatures, fires and floods.  Solar energy and wind power developed and became cheaper. Activism started from the ground up and politicians now had another force than oil companies.  The Paris Conference in 2015 had new commitment internationally.  The US president didn’t help but momentum was there.

 It has to continue. Scientists tell us that to keep on track we have to cut emissions by half by 2030.  Moving the goal posts simply won’t do. That means several changes

• An end to new fossil fuel infrastructure – which McKibben says may include the closing down of Alberta’s tar sands

• Retrofitting of buildings to make them more energy efficient

• Changes in transportation – including how we move ourselves

• Stopping of Deforestation

• Less use of carbon in food production Elimination of tax support of fossil fuel industries

These things have to happen now – and everywhere. There are some positive changes, including the diminished size and strength of many oil producing companies, the growth of electric cars, and positive responses from governments, especially the incoming Biden team. It’s the next 500 weeks that have to make the difference.

 There is encouraging news.  United by dealing the pandemic, cities of the world are uniting to work together as well as pressuring other levels of government to act.  You can find out more about the organization here and watch the brief video below.

Epiphany

 Some quotations:

 Save me, Oh Lord – for the waters have risen above my neck ( Psalm 69.1)

 From Wikipedia: An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphanea, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of a sudden and striking realization. . . Epiphanies are relatively rare occurrences and generally follow a process of significant thought about a problem. Often they are triggered by a new and key piece of information, but importantly, a depth of prior knowledge is required to allow the leap of understanding.

 And also this: 

Western churches generally celebrate the Visit of the Magi as the revelation of the Incarnation of the infant Christ, and commemorate the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6.

 Some news stories were hard to find on television on Wednesday.  US Congress was no longer dominated by a single party.  Covid 19  hospitalizaed cases and deaths reached the highest numbers ever. There was nothing about Epiphany as a celebration of the visit of the Wise Men until a message announcing a link to a live streamed service at my parish church came via email. I left CNN to attend it online.  With the strains of Gregorian Chant, sung by single alternating voices complying with the rules of public health and an engaging homily, and the noting of the passing of two friends – one far too early from cancer and the other probably only from advanced age - it was a moment of Kairos in a world of Chaos.

 *I lived for three years in Manhattan in the early 60s. My eldest son came into the world as an American by birth.  It is a country I have admired and loved ever since my first visit as a young child. I have been totally mystified by its support of a president who seemed to have no qualifications for office and gained notoriety as a reality TV celebrity who in real life cheated on wives, businesses, banks and taxes. As someone who had inherited milions he was an unlikely saviour of people who felt left out and disadvantaged, but were eager to become his disciples.  But like everyone else I fell captive to news in print and social media that was all Trump all the Time.  His ability to capture out our attention Trumped all.

 I’m not complicit in marching, vandalizing or believing conspiracy theories. But if there is a personal epiphany, it is in realizing how much attention I gave to this person.  I read of a refusal of a sitting president to concede his loss in an election and his many attempts to contest it in the courts with baseless or non-existent claims. I thought that press accounts of correction were enough.  I thought that resignations of colleagues was enough.  I thought that invitations to protest by a sitting president to overthrow the government were disgraceful, but that law enforcement and curfews were enough.  I thought that even though some politicians wanted to engage in spurious theatre without risking the outcome - and a chairman adhering to the constitution was enough.  I was wrong.

 While those who were making those claims, thugs were invading and desecrating the Capitol, urged on to violence by the defeated president, his family members and their cohort. It appears to have been a wake-up call for some members of congress to have a similar epiphany – a sudden realization of what they have supported and how close they came to death – perhaps their own – but certainly that of democracy. 

What happens to a man or woman who runs for office with a view to making the world a better place and then loses any sense of what it true - just to stay in power?  What young person is going to undertake a position of office to risk being spit upon, called unspeakable names or even murdered?  How do you deal with someone using a Bible as a prop after tear gassing peaceful protesters - and then goes on to love thugs and domestic terrorists?

 I’m not suggesting that hanging out at an online church service is the answer.  Religions of all kinds have much to answer for. But however we find it, the sense of  decency and sacredness of places and institutions has to be part of  reality however one can find it.

 And I’m not about to join those condemning the leader of the senate and the vice president and others for finally doing the right thing as too little too late.  Sometimes epiphanies take a lifetime – including my own.  What makes the difference is a distinction between habits – some chosen, but more often learned and assumed unconsciously – and practice, which involves choices.  I along with others have choices to make – in terms of time and energy and focus and determine what I value.  It’s a new day.  

A New Year - and a New Decade

The United Nations has declared 2021 as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration - preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems world wide. It will officially launch on World Environment Day, June 5, 2021.

The symbol reminds us of the importance of water, vegetation and soil and the necessity of their restoration if we are to survive as a species. It can help reduce poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction. You can learn more here and become a part of it.

The timing is concurrent with the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development goals as the last change to prevent the devastating results of climate change. With a both-and strategy, it encourages us to make small changes in our own lives and at the same time advocate for changes in policies of governments and corporations, without which large impacts cannot be controlled.

I have always found the latter challenging because of my lack of knowledge. While the calendar part of this site has fallen into disuse during the pandemic, I am returning to list events curated from various sources that cross my desk. There is no shortage of quality information available without charge and the only requirement is to discipline myself to make time for learning. You can find the calendar with regular updates here.

Positives among the negatives

 It’s good to see the end of a year that brought suffering, death and destruction to order, work and the democratic process. In the midst of these it is also good to see some things that had a positive effect on the environment and a chance to change the way we think and live in Canada. We have a new start today.

 A model for climate change

 When we realize the threat we are under, we are not afraid to take action. Unlike our neighbours to the south, we took responsibility for others generally by following the leadership of public health and adjusting quickly.  We could do this in nearly all cases by understanding that this was a collaborative effort that in no way infringed upon our rights. What if we could apply the same energy and commitment to climate change?

 People rediscovered the value of personal action.

 Early in March I was asked if I still had my sewing machine.  I couldn’t remember how long since I owned one and it seemed like two decades.  But two people I know made masks for family and friends and donated them to others.  It relieved the initial shortages that needed to go to front line workers. It also created a world of interesting design and pattern. What if we rediscovered our respect for craftmanship and rewarded it appropriately?

 Governments gave away money

 We didn’t hear about welfare bums and single moms misusing public funds. More of us were among the needy – restaurant owners and staff, musicians, actors and others whose lives were often precarious. We didn’t realize how much we valued their services until they were gone from our lives.  The whole idea of a guaranteed income gained weight. What if we could implement it, drawing on our recent experience?

 Trees are planted in a new way

 We have known that destroying trees is madness.  In a country that already has many covering its footprint, we still try to plant more.  College students have gone into remote areas for years to do so during the summer but it is hard work with limited productivity.  But a company is now producing drones that can plant seedlings at speeds surpassing any human effort. Technological development often harms the environment  What if it could focus more fully on improving it?

We have rediscovered the inner city

 Some of our streets have bike lanes now better protected from adjacent traffic lanes and more bike kiosks have appeared.  I’m lucky enough to live in the fifteen minute walk to everything – grocery markets, drugstores, bookstore, bank, restaurants for dining outdoors or takeout, medical centres and services for eye glasses and hearing aids.  Roadway lanes in good weather have been narrowed to allow for pavement seating and while traffic has to continue, there is less of it.  I’ve filled the gas tank of my car exactly three times last year.  What if we saved these features to benefit the environment?

 Working from home has some advantages

 The dogs are very happy about it – the cats, perhaps less so.  While parents have been challenged to work from home and cope with children who compete for attention and have work challenges of their own, neither work nor schooling has faded entirely. What if we reflected on the strengths and limitations of both workplaces and built some of the advantages into future life?

 Inequities have been laid bare

 Warehousing the most vulnerable, underpaying those who care for them, crowded housing and neighborhoods = all these increase vulnerability.  We know they exist but we have been able to ignore them. For those who are more fortunate – what if we resolve to take on one aspect of inequity to act upon in 2021 even in the smallest of ways?

Gratitude

Last year on the day after Christmas, family members and I boarded a plane in Toronto. Five and a half hours later we were enjoying a late lunch at a lovely Chinese restaurant in Richmond, British Columbia. We texted relatives that we would catch the six o’clock ferry to join them on Bowen Island and anticipated the celebration of marriage of a family member and her new husband the next day.

This year some of the same family members picked me up to transport me to the one permitted household - with presents for exchange,, a floral arrangement sent from the BC relatives, home-made cookies from an exchange among Toronto friends, and my dinner contribution of an English trifle.  We settled in for a leisurely lunch, while my son did the cooking and viewed an interchange on his laptop in the kitchen and the rest of us visited with extended family members on another one in the dinning room – one from a recently purchased schoolhouse getaway in Eastern Ontario, one from a dacha outside Moscow, another from an apartment in Winnipeg, Manitoba at minus forty degrees – where Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperatures actually meet – colder than the home of one of the residents from Finland – and another stuck in Ottawa where the meeting of the Canadian Senate kept him from flying home in time. 

 On Christmas Eve we had gathered on Zoom for an even larger gathering where another family member read “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”.  Three generations of one family had lived there, either teaching at or attending one of the United World Colleges. Members were now spread out in different countries but still seeing one another on the screen.  Another presented a radio presentation, where he acted as Trinculo in Shakespeares’ The Tempest - reprising a performance that his grandfather had done decades earlier. Another accompanied himself on a guitar while singing a Psalm in both Hebrew and English. His sister played and sang a carol. His aunt played a clarinet to show us what she could do after working with one for only six months. I read my Covid parody.

And all this is seen as possible – and normal during a pandemic. And we would never have thought to connect with so many at once - until we couldn’t do so in person.

 How different it is from the pandemic of 1918. My father was 18 years old that year and my mother was 15.  I never thought to ask them what that pandemic was like for them. This morning’s paper details some similarities with the present one.  The number of patients strained the hospital and the number of deaths - 50,000 in Canada – 50 million around the world – meant the large number could not be interred quickly enough.  Businesses were shut down.  Prime Ministers caught the flu.  The Stanley Cup was postponed.  But there were differences too.  Children and young adults were the most threatened. There was little government help – either national or provincial – and local governments had to work on their own.

 Let’s hope that some of the patterns don’t recur.  There were swings between opening up and needing to shut down again.  There was initial avoidance of the severity of the pandemic. There was resistance to closings.  Public health officials were both congratulated and denigrated.  Health workers were infected and shortages were severe.  Quack cures prevailed.  Indigenous communities were hit hardest. The disease faded away in most countries but Canada continued to have sporadic outbreaks until 2020.

 The key difference is the development of vaccines. Some were developed in 1918 at Queen’s University and by Connaught Laboratories at the University of Toronto.  What scientists did not know then was that the disease was produced by a virus.  Their vaccines did reduce the severity but vaccine development with both new understanding and speed of production were decades away.  We are so fortunate to live in the new century where over time we will overcome the effects of the current one.

 The amazing opportunities afforded by technology where we can see each other from a distance and be safely together in new ways is so taken for granted that we forget the creators of so many inventions.  I searched for a timeline and found one here

 And I was fascinated by those with impact on my own life:

My Mediaeval Manuscript

The handwritten page from a psalter hanging above my electronic piano had some precursors. Anod of course they were followed by the printing press to allow books to spread through the known universe, open up learning and change the world

My great grandfather hated the telephone

When the family in Parry Sound installed on the first in the town, he hated the idea of people intruding on his privacy. Now I text my grandchildren.

This doesn’t even show how I do it now

A Google Nest responding to my oral request to play some Christmas Carols on Combo - with a number of the best ones sounding in three different rooms on three small units.

My TV watching at home started in 1950

Now I ask my TV to head toward Prime or YouTube on the big screen with hundreds of choices in spectacular colour - or switch back to one of the many cable stations - not exactly like the small screen of the past.

Communication machines

In university, the weekly newsletter in my college was printed on a ditto machine - and I still have a purple version. Then came the fax machine in the 80e where in 1985 one board member had one - and 1986 where only one member didn’t - and no parctically no one does. I’d still like it better if my all in one printer would print in colour even though only the demo does.

From turning on a desktop in 1984

To meeting the family on Zoom in 2020. It’s been an amazing journey through it all.

As I write, I am restricted to my apartment but my life is both safe and rich.  It is so easy to forget how fortunate I am compared to most of the world during a pandemic.  Mu family came up with an innovative way to enjoy company on my balcony in cold weather – electric fleece throws. The view from there of the canopy of trees is beautiful even missing their former leaves and the lake and sky still dominate the extensive built environment.

An obituary of  famous nature writer Barry Lopez reminds me to put all this technology in perspective.  We, like the wolves he spent time with and wrote about so lovingly, are also creatures of the planet.

 The New York Times quotes the British writer Robert Macfarlane as he  put it this way in The Guardian in 2005 writing about the author. “Throughout his writings, Lopez returns to the idea that natural landscapes are capable of bestowing a grace upon those who pass through them. Certain landscape forms, in his vision, possess a spiritual correspondence. The stern curve of a mountain slope, a nest of wet stones on a beach, the bent trunk of a windblown tree: These abstract shapes can call out in us a goodness we might not have known we possessed.”

 The technological and the natural are part of our lives in the Anthropocene and both bring us grace..  Many of our journeys this season involved a much smaller carbon footprint, though they depended on electricity and that is a small benefit to the planet.  The human connections in my small world were made well – while all around us there are evidence of such connections and care that are made badly. So much will depend on our choices and sense of a sacred that we must receive with grace as we move ahead.