Is this the beginning...?

As I write this, my first blog entry, and the first of many dealing with community resilience, global warming, the changing face of disasters, etc. I can't help to think of (one of) Winston Churchill's famous quotes:

...this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

                     - November 10, 1942

This is my hope when it comes to global warming ("climate change") and how we as a people, a society, an administration are dealing with it.  Each piece of the above quote is apt in this context.

The end? Some doomsayers will have you believe that the effects of global warming will indeed spell "the end".  I don't.  Nor do I believe it is the beginning of the end.  I don't think humanity will let it get that far.  Therefore, it is not the beginning of the end.

However, after 30 or 40 years of science, observations, propaganda and politics, I hope it is the end of the beginning.  The end of talk.  The end of argument.  The end of inaction.  All of this (I hope) was the beginning.

This blog is being written to help us move to the next step: action.  Action in terms of planning, prevention, mitigation and adaptation.  PROactive words. As an emergency manager, a member of society, a father... I believe we must all now work toward solutions, provide answers, take action.

Waiting for it (reaction) will no longer suffice if we truly do not want this to be "the end".  What I believe is also obvious, is that solutions will only come through a collective, multidisciplinary, respectful effort.  The complexities, responsibilities and interdependencies are too great and varied to rest with one individual, one group, one industry.

These (and others) are the concepts I will be addressing in my blogs to come...