Should to Shall

pal·in·drome (păl‘ĭn-drōm‘) n.

1. A word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. For example: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
2. A segment of double-stranded DNA in which the nucleotide sequence of one strand reads in reverse order to that of the complementary strand.

The dictionary definition aligning  language with DNA makes for a convenient metaphor. Words are after all much like the building blocks of our whole whatchamacallit matrix.

In the video below, the words make the opposite of a palindrome. Instead of reading the same  both forwards and backwards, the message is the exact opposite when read in reverse, reclaiming the pessimistic view that there’s just no hope in our generation. It’s likely to warm the cockles of your heart.

The video has been youtube’s version of an Avatar blockbuster. It was made for a competition with AARP – American Association of Retired Persons – that strange “NGO”/insurance provider for people over 50. Even stranger, it was inspired by this political advertisement from Argentina.

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The Fire this Time: Copenhagen and the War for the Future

This is some very very good writing taken from this website called WorldChanging.com. Go there and read it.

“That which is unsustainable cannot go on. Unsustainable things that are propped up too long snap and collapse suddenly. Our way of life is unsustainable. The sooner we transform our economy into one that can generate sustainable prosperity, the better off we’ll be, and with every passing day, the risks of catastrophe grow larger and more certain. We need change now.

These shouldn’t be radical statements; they’re all demonstrably true. Yet they cleave right down the middle of what is fast becoming the largest generation gap in at least 40 years, a growing split between people under 30 and people over 60.

When confronted with generational conflict, we naturally tend to see the elders as seasoned and realistic, and the youth as passionate and ethical, and to seek a middle ground of tempered realism. Middle ground is going to become increasingly hard to find in this debate, though. That’s because realism now means very different, incompatible things to the two generations.

And this is what most older observers seem to refuse to understand: The world looks dramatically different if the year 2050 is one you’re likely to be alive to see. To younger people, Copenhagen isn’t some do-gooder meeting; it’s the first major battle in a war for the future. Their future. I’m in my middle years, in between the two groups, yet even I can see that this war is about to get a lot more heated—far more heated than anything we’ve seen in half a century. To younger people, this isn’t just policy, it’s personal.

To be young and aware today is to see your elders burning our civilization down around our ears. To hear scientists tell us we’re in the final countdown, with the risk of runaway climate change (along with the ecosystem collapses and horrific human suffering it will bring) mounting with every day we run business as usual. To hear nearly a chorus of credible voices—from doctors and scientists to retired generals and former bankers— warning that to lose this fight is to lose everything that makes our world livable and gives the future hope.

You wouldn’t think a war could start over such simple ideas.

To be young and aware is to see old people—from the U.S. Senate to Wall Street, from newspaper editorial desks to corporate boardrooms—stalling action on every front, spouting platitudes about “balance,” committing themselves wholeheartedly to actions to be undertaken long after they’ve retired and died. To be told that the world’s scientists are participating in a giant hoax; to be chided for not understanding how the real world works; to be warned that doing the right thing will bankrupt us; to be told that not wanting to melt the ice caps and circle the equator in deserts makes you too radical to take seriously.

To be young and aware is to know you’re being lied to; to know that a bright green future is possible; to know that we can reimagine the world, rebuild our cities, redesign our lives, retool our factories, distribute innovation and creativity and all live in a world that is not only better than the alternative, but much better than the world we have now.

To be young and aware is to suspect that, in the end, the debate about climate action isn’t about substance, but about rich old men trying to squeeze every last dollar, euro, and yen from their investments in outdated industries. It is to agree with the environmentalist Paul Hawken that we have an economy that steals the future, sells it in the present, and calls it GDP. It is to begin to see your elders as cannibals with golf clubs.”

…continue here for more,

but what are your thoughts?

Reproduction of the Copenhagen Editorial

Well, Copenhagen has begun.  What has been called the most important meeting in human history has started, it will be analysed and discussed to death in the media so I won’t go into anything here apart from reproducing the extraordinary Copenhagen Editorial that has just been published in 56 papers in 45 countries around the world.  It is clear and well written document about the present need for urgency.  Here it is:

Fourteen days to seal history’s judgment on this generation

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

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Climate Change Camp NZ

The world waits with collective breath held to see if the upcoming Copenhagen conference can produce anything more than hot air.   To coincide with this epic global event is the first NZ version of the climate change camps that have been run in England for some years.  The British version of the climate camps describes itself

“The Climate Camp is a place for anyone who wants to take action on climate change; for anyone who’s fed up with empty government rhetoric and corporate spin; for anyone who’s worried that the small steps they’re taking aren’t enough to match the scale of the problem; and for anyone who’s worried about our future and wants to do something about it.“

I’ve been wondering in the past few years why humanity was so will to make significant sacrifices in the 20th Century for causes such as gender equality, ending apartheid, anti-nuclear campaigns, gay rights to name a few, yet when we face what is arguably the most significant and likely threat to our survival on the planet as it is today we are timid, unsure and uncommitted.   As the younger generation we have some cause to be angry with the powers that have been ignoring  climate science for 3o or years,  but if we don’t take action now to alter our cause then we are equally responsible for the damaging centuries to come.   We can complain about the short-sightness of politicians all we want, we can be dismayed at the mis direction of economists, and we can be angry with the baby boomers for blowing the greatest generation of wealth we may ever know, but if we don’t take take responsibility to act when the time is called for then we are merely a silent part of the problem.

So when grass roots events like the NZ Climate Camp come along it is a great chance to educate ourselves and direct our actions positively.  Have a look at the nice website, and contact them if you have anything to offer.

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa

Its hotting up!

With the critical Copenhagen meeting coming up soon the debate about global warming and the appropriate response is finally reaching the intensity it deserves.  In New Z, the current Minister for the Environment is leading the government to a very mild commitment of 15% and appallingly this is been sold to the population based on incorrrect and misleading data.  This tactic shows either a remarkable willingness to deceive the public, or a embarrasing lack of understanding of what is probably the most important issue of our lifetimes.A fantastic analysis by Keith Ng of Public Address of this can be found at:  Public Address

Over at the Guardian, George Manbiot has taken aim at one of the commonly cited complaints from Climate Change deniers that they are being censored. “One of the allegations made repeatedly by climate change deniers is that they are being censored. There’s just one problem with this claim: they have yet to produce a single valid example. On the other hand, there are hundreds of examples of direct attempts to censor climate scientists.”

Read the Guardian Article here.

I’m still dismayed by the popular response to the dangers coming our way.  We were more than willing to fight for Civil rights, Womens liberations, end to wars, and even saving the whales…

Why now when the biggest danger we have known is staring us in the face we are unable to muster a good strong response? Is it because there is no easy enemy apart from ourselves?

Stark Reminder

We should mostly be aware of the importance of the time we exist in, and how the next few years ahead of us are critical in dealing with  the various economic and environmental threats we face.  It is however important to remind ourselves of the nature of these threats.  This is a very well elaborated talk from Jeremy Rifkin.  Don’t let his slightly annoying delivery get in the way of the importance of what his is discussing. Quite inspirational.

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