We are welcoming the year 2010 with a fiery issue—just in time for Valentine’s Day. Our burning desire for love and acceptance is largely what drives us to do the things we do (and us humans do some pretty strange things). However, this issue is not about love, chocolates or frivolous cardboard cutout hearts—and the title on this cover page has nothing to do with sex.

Fire carries with it strong (often polar) emotional connotations. We humans have a delicate affinity for the element that can bring warmth and comfort to our homes just as easily as is can destroy them.

There are many parallels to this delicate symbiosis in our daily lives. We are burning up the earth little by little (and more than a few cultures along the way) in order to keep the furnace of capitalism nice and toasty for us. Over time, billions of cups of coffee have been savored at the expense of vast rainforests and inadequately compensated human toil. The Canadian tar-sands projects are keeping homes warm this winter at the expense of our treasured boreal forest, not to mention the toxic “cleansing” of the area by poisoning drinking water used by local natives.

Assuming that we all call the earth our home, it’s not at all a stretch to say that we’ve set fire to a spare bedroom in order to keep the house comfortably warm. And although it seems that many terrible things are out of our control, it’s important to realise that we are all stoking the fire in some way.

Despite the raging fire in the next room, I am extremely excited for our new decade. To me, 2010 marks the beginning of a massive shift in thinking and general awareness. Most importantly, I think we will see a rise in self-empowerment as the average citizen comes to realise the power each of us holds as a force for positive change. This decade will see an uprising of people who can no longer ignore the thick smoke pervading the cracks around a door closed to reality. We are going to see a shift away from systems driven only by profit as people begin to vote ethically with their dollars, en masse. We are going to see a shift towards open-source architecture where everyone can play a part in shaping the new systems of our world—not just those with power and financial influence.

Here in Powell River, ordinary people have already started initiatives to bring positive change to our community and the world around it. The Pebble in the Pond Society, Transition Town Powell River movement, Malaspina Land Conservancy Society, the Powell River Seed-Saving Project, the Food Security Project, S.A.L.S.A (Society for the Achievement of Local Sustainable Agriculture) the Good Food Box program, the Community Gardens of the Community Resource Centre and the Seventh Day Adventist, Everybody Eats! community supported agriculture, Community-publishing initiative of CMG Printing and The Pack Press , the Community Heritage Press project, and, of course, Immanence itself and the Powell River Sustainability Stakeholders program, are just a few such  initiatives.

It’s truly inspiring to see so many groups already springing into action. Why not check out the activities of some of the aforementioned groups and see if there is some way you and your family can contribute? Perhaps there is another area of interest to you that is not currently getting attention. The starting gun has already gone off—what are you waiting for?

To state the obvious, we do, indeed, live in exciting times—a brand new era in human history, where people stand up fiercely to take action lest they become fuel for the fire at their doorstep. I encourage every one of you to become a part of the solution—even if it means only planting a tree, initiating or expanding a garden, or turning off the TV and starting discussions with family and friends. We are, in fact, much more intelligent than we are told, and less like sheep than we realise.

We sincerely hope you enjoy(ed) our Winter 2010 issue. Assuming VANOC hasn’t sued us for some sort of copyright infringement, our next issue will be out just after the Spring Equinox.