Pugwash 60th Anniversary Retreat On Climate Change – 2017
The 2017 Retreat represented the inaugural retreat of this series, and marked the 60th anniversary of the original Pugwash Conference on World and Scientific Affairs. In 1957, 20 nuclear physicists gathering in at the Thinkers Lodge from around the world to discuss ways to stem nuclear proliferation. That effort continues today in the Pugwash Movement. In partnership with the Thinkers Lodge, the Centre for Local Prosperity, continues this ‘Pugwash Mission’ with regular retreats on the climate crisis, which is the second existential threat to humankind. The Thinkers Lodge continues to provide a potent venue for deep and brave conversations about threats to our civilization and indeed to the very existence of our species and the health of the earth for all species.
“We know there are no more chances. It is not going away, and today is the time to get it right in dealing with the climate crisis. Our world will live with it for the rest of our history, just as we have lived with the 20th century legacy of nuclear war. Our shared duty now, as one people, is to protect and repair our Earth, even as we prepare ourselves for its future unknowns.“
Pugwash 2017
Retreat Outcomes
Armed with this conviction, 60 years post the inaugural Pugwash Thinkers Retreat on nuclear disarmament, 24 global and regional thinkers, representing all aspects of community life, gathered for two and a half days of intense, intentional and focused conversation on Global Warming, the greatest threat facing humankind. Believing local action the best path, the retreat’s mission was to move conversation to ‘doing’ by generating a roadmap to develop community-based action plans, with drawdown potential, that will enable us to face and manage life in a very different world. The diversity of participants — scientists, economists, municipal councillors, planners, artists, community activists, First Nations and Eastern wisdom representatives, Project Drawdown Director and others—powered a cross pollination of thoughts and ideas, fostering charged and difficult conversations. Without shying away from the hard reality of a changed and changing world, the group identified and articulated Global Warming’s cascading impacts on small, rural and coastal communities.
