Recyclers and Peace Builders Unite

These are just a few of the great views we have from our new location for you to enjoy but how long will they last?.

It is perhaps worth considering that many in Northern Ireland have said that as we have had over thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland it it will take thirty years to heal the hurt.

Given recent reports concerning global warming and the threat to the environment when may see the melting of the polar icecaps in the next 80 years and all the destruction that will bring, can we afford a further thirty years of political division when "if one side is for it, we're agin it" and all the while we give scant thought to a threat once described as more dangerous that weapons of mass destruction.

Perhaps you should ask your local politicians when they come calling as it is that time again when they are out on the campaign trail asking for your vote, just what are they doing to save this planet for our children and grandchilden.

In John Paul Lederach's "The Moral Imagination, The Art and Soul of Building Peace", he recounts Elise Boulding's "two hundred year present" His example is of having conversations with his great-grandmother whose hand he held in the first decade of his life. She was born in the 1860's. He also talks about holding the hands of the newest members of his family, only months old who if they enjoy a full life may live to celebrate 2100. Many of us will have a similar experience so when you hold the hand of your young child or like me, grandchild, think of the damage our policies are doing to their world and if they will even have one in 80 years.

There is a moral imperative to resolve the constitutional, justice and reconciliation issues in Northern Ireland but we need to encourage and give the politicians the mandate to move faster or we may end up taking 30 years to reach agreement only to discover we have taken too long and have only 50 years of the life of our planet left. What good is acceptance of Northern Ireland as a part of the UK or an agreed United Ireland if the world is in an ice age due to the loss of the Gulf Stream and all areas are overcrowded due to with environmental refugees.

Don't forget that a chosen few will survive given G. W. Bush's approval of massive spending in the Space Programme to see what other planet they can populate while at the same time doing little to save this one.

So how green is you local MLA and what can you do to move both the important issues along?

Are you a recycler and a peace builder?