Dear editor,

The observant among us will have noticed this past spring/summer the pronounced and accelerated dying off of many thousands of trees, mostly red cedar, on the east coast of Vancouver Island. This is but one of the many harbingers of the magnitude of the threat that global warming/climate change present to the future of life on this planet. Are we paying attention yet?

Humankind is now at a crossroad; one that demands a serious, immediate, and imperative paradigm shift. To obstinately and perilously continue to ignore this fact will condemn our children and grandchildren to an increasingly ugly, desperate, and inhospitable future on this planet. Are we so narcissistic and selfish as to be unable to consider the future wellbeing of our descendants? What will it take for us to finally wake up and comprehend the paramount importance and alarming urgent necessity of this societal values transformation?

We must urgently make the transformative shift away from a world where the wretched excess of the wealthy takes precedence over the basic needs of the many; away from an economic model based on mindless consumerism predicated on waste; away from a mentality that ignores the health and wellbeing of the planet, and by extension, the health and wellbeing of present and future generations.

Murray Chantler

Qualicum Beach