As a Canadian member of parliament (and for the first time considering apologies for my nationality due to my gov'ts shameful conduct) the youth delegations were a true highlight for me at this conference.

Rather than worrying about scoring vague diplomatic points the young participants were able to focus on the ethical obligations of this crisis. If we are confirmed that this is of global crisis proportions the assembled politicians are clearly unable to act as such. If such a meeting were held about an on-coming war or international terrorist threat the leadership would point to the outcome necessary and turn to their bureaucrats and order it done.

The more young people holding the leadership of the world to account the better.

Sir,

I was once in the Bobby Seal Riots in New Haven and saw it go from peaceful bliss to riot to near war in a mater of days and hours.  I too was 12 years old, with my dad and a doctor from Yale New Haven as our paramedic.  It was very impressionable.

Did it do any good?  I have to think about that, but the peaceful part was I thought very cool.  People were listening to rock in the Yale quads and talking about solutions and possibilities ... and OK, smoking a ton of reefer, new for a 12-year old to sense or smell in the air.  It was hard to tell if the reefer smoke or pepper gas was worse!

But I would preach peace, peaceful assembly, and peaceful demonstrations.  Even a 12-years old knows that when 6-foot fluorescent tubes started flying at the National Guard, that was not a good sign.  When Molotov cocktails started being hurled, dad said it was time to boogie.  Don't run he said, you'll only breathe more pepper gas.

But today I am as baffled and confused as you are my friends ... does the theatrics really work?  Until it is more than a few hippies in a quad listening to some really good music, I think not.  But if it's a Carl Sagan Moment with "millions of billions," maybe ... maybe a paradigm shift as Kuhn would say?  

Onward through the fog

Paradigm shift? Absolutely. Strange though it seems, even to me, I've begun to take heart a bit because (and this is the strange part) of what feels like an intense culmination of lots of "bad stuff" happening. From weather disasters to financial and credit crises, rising energy and food costs to impacts of climate change on the here-and-now (the connections now being made which were ignored just a year ago) - there's so much going on that screams we've overshot basically everything, and it's impossible to ignore. Things will have to change, on the ground, where we live, regardless of any progress or not in Bali. The more "ordinary" people are impacted, the more they understand that there is little they can do on their own to keep "normal life" going as they have come to know it, the more quickly we'll see the chnages necessary. I believe there will be a paradigm shift because of the massive amounts of energy in the system and the chaotic nature of it. The more aware of what's going on we are, the more we work with it (rather than being swept along), the sooner the shift occurs. So much for my two cents on this cold, snowy day in Maine - where the power still flows despite snow and sleet all day, but I imagine what it will be like some day when that is not the case and we have to figure something else out.