Hi. I am re-evaluating how I use this blog, and have decided to resume it in a variety of ways.
I stopped posting (in every way) about two years ago, largely because I did not have a focus in my life as to how to proceed. However, I have remained deeply concerned about the issues of climate change, especially the emotional issues that underlie how we have created this problem, a super-wicked problem that may well lead to our extinction as a species. We must undertake the arduous work of maturing as a species — I do not believe we have much choice in this (the option remains extinction).
That said, in the past month, I have started working with a marketing consultant who believes (as I do) that my work is an important contribution to this process of maturation. I am therefore now re-establishing my workshops on emotional issues (see my website www.aplacetwobe.ca for details), and I am submitting regular postings both on Facebook (Dave MacQuarrie and Blowing Out the Darkness) and on LinkedIn (Dave MacQuarrie) — often duplicate postings in multiple sites. You can also watch a short video of me on my website, under “Who is Dave.”
Because these postings are difficult to search, and because many people simply do not want the hassle represented by such as Facebook, I want a primary location where my posts can be accessed. I believe this blog, as an independent site, will serve this purpose.
This site will therefore contain a wide variety of content:
- my thoughts on the issues of climate change (please see my original home page).
- my struggles and explorations as to how to respond to these issues.
- my reactions to current issues — I read a lot, and when I encounter something that I believe important to the underlying issues, I will comment.
- my responses to questions on an emotional nature — my experience is that the average person is overwhelmed with issues; when people ask me for assistance, their questions are likely of interest to many.
In the next few weeks, I will be adding copies of the recent posts I have submitted to other sites, mainly for consistency of content.
Thanks. I hope you enjoy this blog, and take value from my comments.
This post is part of what I am calling the core posts for understanding what I am attempting by this blog. For other core posts, click here.
The Human Side of Global Warming 
I am just trying to get caught up, and I thank you for your invitation to take part in this blog. As you are well aware, while our thoughts on many subjects have differed over the last 50+ years that we have known one another and have been friends, we are both headed in the same direction. We want a world where our grandchildren and their grandchildren will be able to not only survive but have the ability to flourish. We both agree that if something (indeed, at this point something radical) is not done about climate change then the human race is bound to go extinct.
While I see the problem as mostly political, I cannot deny that the emotional factors preventing the necessary change are indeed valid. I tend to believe that the greed factor plays such a major role the our inability as a species to make the necessary changes to allow for us as a species to survive the climate changes that are surely coming. In my lifetime (I am 78 years old) I have seen the harbour in my home town change from having up to three feet of ice on it in winter to last winter when the harbour stayed ice free. A world heritage town not 10 km from where live has received official warning from the United Nations that if they do not make substantial changes in the town in the next few years much of the town will be under water with any tidal surge.
I do not know whether it is too late for my area or not.
Very few people here seem to be worried about it.
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Thanks, John. I quite agree that the problem is largely political on the surface, but given my premise that human beings are emotional at their core, I continue to believe that a deep emotional shift is necessary. Jamieson in Reason In A Dark Time: Why The Struggle Against Climate Change Failed – And What It Means For Our Future explores the political, ethical, and economic issues in detail, basically coming to the conclusion “a narrative may come along in future that will move people … in a way that will be effective” and “it is clear that we will have to live with climate change and find meaning and joy in a world that increasingly fails to resemble the one in which we came to consciousness. … Climate change will trouble us but there is no magic bullet solution.” Sad reflections, possibly true. As for your local town, I believe it will be underwater long before there is resolution.
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