Growth: Rubik’s Cube of competing interests

Wrenching change is in our present and our future. Hefty population growth and extreme weather events threaten our preferred way of life.

We should choose how to change, not merely stumble into unpleasant consequences of past choices.

We have been productive citizens, but we have contributed plenty to emissions that dangerously warm our planet. We can drastically reduce that.

Along shorelines, our activities have degraded aquatic health. We can learn how to reverse that. Our homes have sprawled into spaces that once hosted thriving native biodiversity. We can alter our home-making habits.

Beyond that, we can redesign Washington’s 30-year-old Growth Management Act (GMA). The process involves a Rubik’s Cube of competing interests.

Realizing both social justice and general livability is required. An updated GMA will not free us from inconvenience or hits to the pocketbook.

Having a voice in how Pierce County meets looming change necessitates fact-finding, conversing with elected representatives and acting with empathy on the local level.

Leadership is being provided by the League of Women Voters, many non-governmental organizations and Futurewise’s Washington Can’t Wait campaign.

Inconvenient and tension-filled as change will be, let’s aspire to be part of equitable solutions.

This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 8:42 AM with the headline "Growth: Rubik’s Cube of competing interests."