The daily flood of bad news about severe weather, wildfire, environmental degradation and climate change can be simply overwhelming.
Some people engage, some worry, and some deny — we are all affected. I attempt to understand partly as a plant biology teacher and a research scientist, relying upon quantitative evidence.
And evidence there is — plants are responding! My students study papers full of charts and graphs. We learn to read tree rings and document the changes in flowering times. Yet more difficult questions hang in the air — what to do? At what cost? And, how to help others understand?
Argument from data and graphs just does not seem to be persuasive enough. I am also a singer and know firsthand the motivating power of music. Here in our own Pioneer Valley, we have a marvelous chance to hear an emotionally powerful call to understanding and action, a premier of a new musical composition.
By turns disturbing, lyrical, challenging, affirming, upsetting and uplifting Geoffrey Hudson’s “A Passion for the Planet” asks all of us, in words from poet Theo Dorgan, “What have you done with what was given you? What have you done with the blue, beautiful world?”
And, from David Orr, answers “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.” And continues, from Reinhold Niebuhr, “Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone. Therefore we must be saved, saved by love … we shall be saved by hope.”
The Illuminati Arts Ensemble, led by Dr. Tony Thornton, and invited singers, forms the chorus. I have been thrilled by the musicianship of the combined voices and by the intelligence, power and subtlety of Hudson’s composition — rehearsals have been extraordinary.
The entire piece came together on June 15, including two brilliant soloists (baritone Dashon Burton and soprano Alisa Pearson), a children’s choir and a chamber orchestra.
We do need science to help us comprehend our situation, but hope, faith and yes, love, are crucial to sustain and nourish us.
Lawrence J. Winship
Amherst