A commentary by a former ­pension fund investment ­manager who lives in Victoria.

David Suzuki recently said it is too late to limit global warming to 1.5 C, and unlikely we will reverse large-scale environmental changes.

It’s too late, he said, to expect politicians, governments and institutions will take the right steps to solve the climate crisis, and we should focus on ­community action.

Suzuki asks people to imagine a healthy and resilient community and work to make that a reality.

But instead of triggering a sense of hopelessness and ­perpetuating cycles of climate anxiety, apathy and grief, his focus on community action and imagination left me feeling strangely validated.

This advice disconnects me from ambitious net-zero ­strategies backed by flimsy ­policies and mitigation of carbon tonnes that are hard to ­visualize, towards my own tangible ­community with the people and places that I care about.

It weakens the power of negative political narratives surrounding climate, grounding me in a place of empowerment.

Suzuki suggested community action could include a simple block party to reduce isolation and loneliness. But as rewarding as it has been to start my own block party, it left me yearning for more.

I started looking........

© Times Colonist