ABSTRACT
Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It
loses the future.
Kathleen Norris,
poet and essayist
It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000),
fifteenth prime minister of Canada
Whether one has traveled across the great plains of North America,
the grassy steppes of Asia, the African savanna, or the rolling hills
of Europe, or heard accounts from those who have, the picture is
deceptively simple to paint but often hard to fully experience. The
sense of openness and vastness is inspiring, regardless of the traveler
or the listener. The austere beauty of flat fields and verdant rolling
hillsides seems endless in all directions. No coastline is visible, horizon
to horizon, and the land is often watered by irrigation, making threats
such as sea-level rise and drought seem distant and unconnected.
