Hope is like the sun, which as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burdens behind us.
                                                                                                                     -- Samuel Smiles

Last week I was hiking through Presqui’lle Provincial Park getting hit with one blissful moment after the other, after the other. The magic that did it was orange and black and it fluttered.

Monarchs! Flitting, dancing, soaring. Even landing on begging fingers.

And that discovery made my own heart soar, while showing me just how much I had been grieving their decline.

There was a Facebook posting on the Park’s website showing a bush with a blanket of orange butterflies and the comment that “last week a couple of thousand monarchs were spotted.”  These fairy creatures were preparing for their flight south, following the compass of their hearts to the fir forests of Mexico.

I spotted a few more cycling the Caledon Trailway yesterday (I was cycling; they were flying) and again I felt my heart jump. I have no official data that after last March’s storms, monarchs are recovering, but hope does spring eternal. A year ago I saw almost none, so I am encouraged to believe that they aren’t down yet and we can still fix the problem.

And that’s Hope, as Emily Dickenson writes, “the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”

It’s a thing that has been in short supply lately. Folks are giving up all over the place under the pressure of politics, the wrath of nature, the threat of nuclear warfare, and that overall looming disaster, ‘climate change’.

Yup! We need a little hope. Bring on the ‘thing with feathers’.

What if you knew that there was a plan, a scientifically laid out, comprehensive, economically viable solution to reverse global warming? In fact, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to accomplish this. Would that stir up a little hope? Would it even excite you enough to learn more about it?

It’s true.

But wait a minute . . . we cannot merely focus on reducing carbon emissions to net zero; we must also sequester carbon – and fast. And this plan that I speak of is titled DRAWDOWN, because that is exactly what it does. It draws down the carbon, using dynamic, innovative solutions.

By pulling together an international coalition of scientists, researchers, and professionals, author/activist/entrepreneur Paul Hawken and the Project Drawdown team have given us a map offering bold but realistic solutions – exactly100 techniques, listed in order of importance from clean energy to educating girls in developing countries. From refrigerant management and plant-rich diet to land use and biomass.

Solutions do exist and even now, are being skillfully played out across the globe. The Drawdown team points out that, ‘if deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, the techniques represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline.’

And here’s the zinger – Caledon is being offered a pilot project to initiate, should we so choose. If you knew the planet was spinning into self-destruct would you choose to lend a hand, if the solution were offered?

On Monday, October 2 in the gym at James Bolton School on Bolton’s north hill, this exciting project will be presented. Arrive at 6:45 pm for a 7 pm presentation, 225 Kingsview Drive. Those interested in finding out more will be invited to four follow-up sessions.

And now, for something completely hopeful,  here is Paul Hawken:

In conducting our research we found a plan, a blueprint that already exists in the world in the form of humanity’s collective wisdom, made manifest in applied, hands-on practices and technologies that are commonly available, economically viable and scientifically valid. Individual farmers, communities, cities, companies and governments have shown that they care about this planet, its people and its places. Engaged citizens the world over are doing something extraordinary.

If we change the preposition, and consider that global warming is happening for us (not to us) – an atmospheric transformation that inspires us to change and reimagine everything we make and do – we begin to live in a different world. We take 100 percent responsibility and stop blaming others. We see global warming, not as an inevitability, but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is a human agenda.