Editor's Note
My mother-in-law, an octogenarian in southern Ontario, phoned last weekend. An opening conversation about the weather, greater numbers of ticks and blossoms that don’t last as long as they once did transformed into a conversation about climate change. Carol was born in 1930, and she has seen unimaginable change within her lifetime, from depression years to prosperity. What concerns her most today is the change that is upon us, the change in our climate—a global phenomenon with acute local impacts. I asked, in her opinion, what needs to be at the heart in responding to this change? The answer, she told me, lies in engaging average Canadians. “We marched for the environment,” she said. “We marched for women. We marched for human rights.” These battles are now converging under the climate change umbrella. Often narrowly framed as an “environmental” issue, climate change has also become a socio-political and cultural context that defines our future adaptation options.
