If you have read my blogs on the 85 Broads website, you have heard me say that we are living, as Charles Dickens would say, in The Best of Times and the Worst of Times. We are going through a tremendously, changing and powerful time in this nation’s history. In the decades to follow, we will have to look back and say – how did we come through as a nation or a community or individually? Did we do the right things? Did we think the right way? Did we sculpt the right public policies? Were we selfless to a certain extent always keeping the bigger picture in mind? Did we connect the dots? Did we make this a safer society and planet for future generations?

Unfortunately, it is against the backdrop of a tough downturn where no historic facts or past data can completely guide our current administration, our economists, our highly-paid bankers, our policy makers, and give them the confidence that they are indeed carving the best possible solutions. Only time will tell. The financial meltdown which began in fall 2007 and hit a crescendo in Sep 2008 is an unprecedented occurrence – where no complex quant model on Wall Street or rocket scientist predicted with a 100% probability the extent of mayhem that we were going to witness. Hopefully this has humbled us all and made our minds open.

Foreign Policy has finally come to the forefront of our daily American lives. As a nation, we are living in a flat world where globalization, outsourcing, terrorism, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea have become part of our daily language. Most of us living in this country today finally get the fact that intense ripple effects can be caused by either a negative or positive event in a place beyond our own borders within days, as evidenced by the recent swine flu scare. Epidemics, laws crafted by rogue governments/wars/famines/food shortages/oil and energy crisis can impact one continent to the next, across an ocean, touching us in America. Think of the fact that we paid $5 for a gallon of gas not too long ago. We have all had to sit up and think. And think smartly, efficiently and globally.

And THIS immediate impact and interconnectedness is particularly evident in the field of climate crisis that has engulfed our planet. This has been a topic of primary interest mostly to scientist and research fellows for decades with policy makers generally staying away (though it varies by the country). But it can’t be and is not anymore. Our future and our children’s future depends on how we navigate through this crisis and how we effectively create sharp public policies.

But as the Chinese have wisely said, with this crisis, has come an opportunity. The opportunity to change our way of living, thinking, building houses, growing crops, using energy, educating ourselves and our kids, redefining our diets, creating sensible laws – to work toward diminishing the catastrophic effects of climate crisis. We suddenly have to seriously de-emphasize borders and continents to the extent possible and work in creating effective, long-term solutions for our daily lives. We are becoming more and more conscious of the whole – i.e., the planet earth. We have to redefine our core competencies as green individuals.