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Good morning. An auto-antonym is a single word, with two contradictory meanings. For example, ‘to sanction’ means ‘to approve’ but also ‘to penalise’. ‘To cleave’ can either mean ‘to split’ or ‘to attach closely’. ‘To bolt’ means both ‘to break away’ and also ‘to fasten’. And the word ‘wicked’, which has always meant ‘evil’, now also means ‘great!’ In today’s polarised climate of alternative facts and competing truths, we have become used to the idea that the same reality, dressed up in different ways, can mean totally different things to different people. It makes our world increasingly difficult to navigate and we now need to be far more discerning judges of what we encounter. There are unquestionable facts about the state of our planet to which people react in completely different ways. The global temperature increase, ocean acidification, more extreme weather events, rising sea levels and shrinking ice sheets are all undeniable realities. But, often there is a great difference between what we’re looking at and what we see. There is an auto-antonym which is particularly relevant to the Jewish world right now. The Hebrew word ‘nora’ is used to describe Yom Kippur – our holiest day, which begins this evening. ‘Nora’ can mean either ‘awful’ or ‘awesome’. Indeed, Yom Kippur is potentially a terrifying prospect – we believe that on this day we are judged for our conduct over the past year and our fate for the coming year is sealed. However, for us the day is a festival. We choose to view this 25 hour fast as an opportunity for introspection and personal development, hoping to make ourselves worthy of a favourable judgement. There are some who react to Climate Change with scorn, ignoring and even questioning the science, while others have responded with ‘rebellion’ and ‘civil-disobedience’, blocking roads and bridges in major cities across the world. I believe that, not since the flood in the days of Noah, have we faced a series of challenges shared by every human being on the planet. These challenges have the potential to unite us as never before. However, sadly, we are hampered by our inability to respond to them together. The lesson of Yom Kippur is that we should favour, not public fury but personal responsibility. Of course Governments must play their role and effective multilateral solutions are imperative, but every single individual must make difficult changes and lead by example. Whether our reaction to climate change is awful or awesome is in our hands. It is time for us to see these undeniable challenges as they are and not as we are.