LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The Cowichan Region Climate Gathering was successful because each member of the planning team brought their unique perspective from their organization and place. We worked at building relationships among ourselves,” stated Keith Lawrence, lead person from the Cowichan Valley Regional District and co-moderator of the Cowichan Region Climate Gathering in December 2024
Note to Reader:
Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on February 25, 2025 featured a remarkable cross-sector planning team that organized and delivered Cowichan Region Climate Gathering on December 9-10, 2024 on Vancouver Island. Keith Lawrence of the Cowichan Valley Regional District is the narrator for this story of a seminal moment in a 30-year journey for water reconciliation and climate action.
EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER
“My history of collaboration with Cowichan Valley local governments goes back several decades. This provides me with a firsthand context for judging the historical significance of what Keith Lawrence and team accomplished at the Cowichan Region Climate Gathering in December.” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.
“The fact that Michael Blackstock, Paul Chapman and I tag-teamed to deliver a breakout session also gives me a participant’ s perspective.”
“Our breakout session was about the Blue Ecology in the Cowichan initiative which is a partnership with the regional district. Building bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures is about a mind-set change. To quote Michael Blackstock, it costs zero dollars to change one’s attitude.”
The people of the Cowichan Region are again taking the future into their own hands
“The roots of the Climate Gathering are found in the “Our River, Our Future Symposium” which was a launch event for the Georgia Basin Initiative 30 years ago. The lead story in the premiere issue of the GBI newsletter in 1995 was the water situation in the Cowichan Valley.”
“The issues and concerns expressed then are still topical three decades later. Expressed another way, a reality is that change does not happen overnight, and it takes hard work and determination decade after decade to inspire change.”
“The Honourable Joan Sawicki, who was the Parliamentary Secretary for the Georgia Basin Initiative, foreshadowed the future when she wrote:
Network of networks is like an ecosystem and is “transcalculational”
“When I interviewed Keith Lawrence for the story behind the story, he introduced me to the word transcalculational. What does that mean and is your use an original application of the idea, I asked Keith.”
“I cannot take credit for the term. Just the application,” replied Keith Lawrence. The earliest reference to it that I can find in the literature is the chapter contributed by Richard C Strohman to a book published in 1993.”
Counterbalancing AI with an understanding of molecular and cell biology
“Once Keith explained what transcalculational meant, it struck me that there is an intuitive linkage to what Michael Blackstock advocates when he says Counterbalance Artificial Intelligence with Natural Intelligence!. So, we decided to draw attention to Keith’s inspired application of the concept and see whether and how readers respond,” Kim Stephens reported.
“Essentially transcalculational refers to systems that are so complex that they cannot be fully characterized by our existing understanding, tools and methods. What I find intriguing is that Strohman uses the term in relation to the connections between the physical dimensions of our human selves (genes and proteins) and the environmental signals we receive,” concluded Keith Lawrence.
To learn more:
To read the complete 3-part story, download a copy on Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Network of networks in Cowichan Region is like a forest ecosystem.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/02/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Story-of-Cowichan-Region-Climate-Gathering_2025.pdf