Interesting Times...

I just caught some of the news of torrential rain and flooding in the North-East​... and while weather is a very British obsession, I remember similar news occurring only a few weeks ago.  Yet I made this image in Newcastle last week during my 7-day photo inquiry. It was a beautiful day and there was something then that I couldn't quite put my finger on - the incongruity that the image represents, I guess?

​I'm not a climate doom-sayer (yet...) and, of course, I'm not sure if it is, in fact, global climate change that means we can grow now palm trees along the Tyne. But I'm increasingly feeling that the way we think about these issues is not helpful. 

The challenge, it seems, is to think together and act collectively over the long term if we are to reduce emissions and affect the mechanisms that could induce a more predictable climate. Yet this sits incongruously alongside our individualist culture, with it's demand for immediate results.  

William Isaacs claims that 'dialogue is a state we are always falling out of...' And so, is it a lack of constructive dialogue that is leading us to encounter the Chinese curse, 'May you live in interesting times...'? ​