Where to now for Beneath the Wisteria?

by Robert McLean

Where to now for Beneath the Wisteria?

The group was formed with no definitive goal or aim, other than to raise awareness and give people a chance to discuss the matter.

Ten months in and although those who regularly attend are much better informed about the realities facing humanity, we are still without understandable intent.

Comfort comes from the view that Beneath the Wisteria is not an activist group rather, somewhere those unsettled by our changing climate can go to have their commitment and hope refurbished.

Refreshed and renewed they can return to their respective parts of our community to again discuss a tragedy that is unfolding like a slow motion train wreck.

In fact it is the “slow motion train wreck” that is the prime difficulty.

The arrival of climate change is, in geological terms happening breathtakingly quickly, but in human-life terms, at a snail’s pace and so it demands athletic thinking to see, and understand, that what is happening now, will end, this century if unattended to, the near ideal conditions that have allowed humanity to flourish.

It is easy to focus on the burgeoning calamity we face, but it is damnably difficult to concentrate for long on the workable and useful responses to climate change before again falling again into the “woe is me” rut.

Uncertainty stalks my thinking.

Beneath the Wisteria has been wonderfully successful in many ways, among them the fact that it has drawn together a group, who by their willingness to “stand” in a public place and declare their position on what is the most arresting and significant challenge ever faced by humanity, is something worthy of celebration.

Several Beneath the Wisteria supporters are working tirelessly to combat climate change in various and commendable ways and maybe that is the group’s true purpose; to simply be there to provide moral and, if needed, physical support.

Considering our purpose, it is worth noting that time is not really on our side as the world’s climate is deteriorating at a rate well in excess of what just a year ago had been predicted by many of the world’s leading climatologists.

The “business as usual” boosters and the powerful fossil fuel lobbyists can focus only immediate profits and so immediately they see any weakness, or what they perceive as a weakness, in the indisputable evidence of global warming, they pounce.

Time is not on our side and although Beneath the Wisteria supporters are, in the broad scheme of things, of little consequence, it rests with us to unashamedly tell the truth about the implications of the changes we face because of global warming.

When we gather next Beneath the Wisteria (Saturday, October 27, 11:30am), let’s talk about where we go from here.

Please make an effort to join us – several have commented about the difficulty they experience in hearing the conversation and have argued that we move indoors, somewhere.

I understand their concerns, I too have trouble at times hearing the conversation, but this being a public issue it needs to be addressed publicly and so rather than be cloistered away in some obscure meeting room, we need to be “out there” with the public.

Although I believe it is going to require serious and bold State intervention to arrive at any workable solution, there undoubtedly needs to be a huge groundswell from the people.