Who?
My name is Duncan Smeed and I am a retired University Lecturer and resident of Dunbar (1963 – 1973; 1992 – present).
When?
I have been involved in SD since its early days as a result of the mutual support between the Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace (FoJMB) and SD. I became a formal member of SD in the mid-2010s and was appointed as a Trustee/Director at SD’s AGM in September 2021.
Why?
During pre-Trustee involvement in SD I was an ordinary member that contributed time and energy on activities that supported the common goals of SD and FoJMB. In particular, the efforts both charities have put into highlighting and mitigating the challenges of climate change and our aspirations for restoring and enhancing the local environment. The personal catalysts for these goals have included my Trustee involvement in the Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace back in 1994 – when it was founded as Dunbar’s John Muir Association – and the John Muir Birthplace Charitable Trust that was established in 1998 and which successfully procured and developed John Muir’s Birthplace which opened in 2003.
What?
The goals for what I would like to achieve as a Trustee of SD have been heavily influenced by my involvement in the content and production of the John Muir, Earth-Plant, Universe exhibition that was created as a collaborative effort between SD and FoJMB. This exhibition focused on John Muir’s legacy and his role as an environmental activist and successful campaigner and his relevance for our situation today in addressing the climate crisis. However, some of the content of the exhibition was influenced by the COVID-19 crisis that coincided with its launch. There are certain parallels between what are both global existential crises. Perhaps the pandemic may help us to understand the ties that bind us on a global scale, the fragility of our economic systems and how vulnerable they leave so many people and the inadequacy of our response to the even greater threat of climate crisis? Even though climate change presents a slower, more long-term health threat, an equally dramatic and much more sustained shift in ways of life and economic, political and social structures will be needed to prevent irreversible damage.