From:
Kennedy GRAHAM
Date:
May 21 21:51 UTC
Short link
Further to my Introduction, I thought I'd get things rolling by identifying an
issue that is dear to my heart.
That is, the close connection between the global issues of our time and our
local issues (and thus, our individual lives). 'Think globally, act locally'
has become something of a cliche by now, but it remains fundamentally
necessary.
Global events impact us as Cantabrians, pure & simple. Peak oil = petrol at
about $2 litre. Global warming = Fox Glacier melt and icebergs floating up the
coast out-of-place (I know someone who took a scenic flight to 'see the pretty
iceberg'...). Global population pressures & unsustainable farming and
distribution systems = rice, wheat, & milk prices skyrocketing. Our politics
is actually less about how many more cents one political party can outbid the
other on tax-cuts to get into govt and more about how NZ can intelligently and
compassionately plug into a sustainable global economy. Not your average
political sell, but an imperative for a political-civic dialogue now.
I wrote a book on this back in 1999 ('The Planetary Interest -- A New Concept
for the Global Age').
And in two recent public meetings in Ilam, I distributed backgrounders on the
subject of global-national-local connections on (1) Climate Change and (2)
Sustainability. They're on my blog.
Hope to hear from you.
Ken Graham