This was an odd week on the North Shore, as we spent a lot of time writing about effects, but very little writing about cause. The pleasing site of June snowflakes dusting Grouse Mountain Tuesday was quickly eclipsed by pictures of muddy torrents streaming down West Vancouver streets.
But while basements bore the brunt of West Vancouver’s intense rainfall, approximately 60 Dawson Creek residents fled their homes after 100 millimetres of rain pelted the town.
As we go forward, we face twin dangers: the first is that the climate is changing, the second is that we aren’t.
American author John Steinbeck famously wrote about the transformative impact of Ford’s Model T, which left “the Anglo Saxon home so warped that it never quite recovered.”
For generations we have built and refined a car culture that touches nearly every aspect of our lives.
That culture is what we must now rise above.
We have to be willing to forego parking spots, to walk, and we may even have to watch some of our tax dollars sink into the morass of TransLink.
The recent burglary of a Syrian refugee family’s Blueridge home brought to mind the horrendous conditions that precipitated the family’s flight from their home country.
The 2011 uprising in Syria followed a five-year drought that included the worst three years in the history of the Fertile Crescent.
Our planet is small, our problem is huge and our time is short.
Luckily, we have both the cause to act and the power to affect change.
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