Eye on Environment

Dawn over our yard, where the wheelbarrow and kiwi vines take a well-deserved rest.

Here on the west coast of British Columbia, we’re ending the year under a thick blanket of snow and unseasonably cold temperatures. But with climate change bringing the world so many wild weather systems these days, who can really say what is “seasonable” any more?

The past year has introduced us (if rather brutally) to phrases like “heat dome” and “atmospheric river”. It has tested our individual and collective resilience – physical and emotional – with extreme temperatures, destructive wildfires, massive floods, and one wretched Covid wave after another. It’s brought tragedy to far too many people and families, here in BC and around the world. So I doubt many people will be sorry to see 2021 pass.

Fortunately though, some of these cold winter mornings have been dawning with the kind of light that brings excitement to photographers and a smile to pretty much everyone else who looks at the eastern sky.

It seems that moments of joy are possible – despite the noisy background of climate catastrophe, pandemic despair and a world gone weirdly awry in all kinds of ways. So here’s wishing all of you a happy new year. May you have the time to look, and may you find, a great many moments that bring you hope, joy and comfort in 2022.