Well, at least 400,000 people came to New York City on September 21, 2014 for the largest climate change march in history.
One marvels at the sound of people gathering together to make choices. What has shifted the field of consciousness as we approach the Climate Change conference in Paris in 2015.
- Is it Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, published in 1962?
- Is it climate prophets like Bill McKibben and Dr. James Hansen along with a cast of thousands who have staked their lives on awakening us to our planetary citizenship and our collective power?
- Is it the poets and the poet in each of us that senses a full-present intimacy with everything that is?
- Is it the 6 p.m. news capturing images of the devastation of typhoons, hurricanes and forest fires?
- Is it the persistent voice of the Idle No More movements calling us to pay attention to the pollution of our water courses?
- Is it the mother, father or teacher creating school gardens and building compost piles?
- Is it researchers raising their voices about the life of the planet?
- Is it the wonder that sometimes catches our breath when we see the full moon rising and we sense something akin to communion?
Quite simply, it is everything.
Choices large and small are creating new fields of consciousness. We seem to know in our bones what Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, stated. “There is no plan B to reverse climate change because there is no Planet B.
As the climate marchers said in New York, “We said it would take everyone…and everyone came.”
Margo Ritchie CSJ