Happy New Year and Happy New Decade! Yes,
I know that technically a new decade starts with 1 rather than 0, but still,
the 2020s began on January 1 so I am referring to this week as the beginning of
a new decade. This article is about what I am calling the challenge of the
decade that has just begun.
From
Global Warming to Climate Crisis
I
first mentioned global warming in “The World in 2100,” my 2/19/10 blog posting,
and the title of my 2/5/11 posting was “What About Global Warming?” Ten more
articles bear global warming as one of the labels.
In
these past ten years, I have often insisted that the words “global warming” are
preferable to “climate change.” The latter, of course, could refer to cooling
as well as to warming. But the current crisis is definitely linked to global
warming.
Since,
however, there could be global warming but no crisis, I have come to see
“climate crisis” as the best term to use as we face “the challenge of the
decade.”
 |
| Tom Toles in The Washington Post (1/2/20) |
Steps
in the Wrong Direction
In
the brief space of this blog article, I cannot possibly detail why the world
now is facing a climate crisis. There is a wealth of information about that,
and if you need to bone up on some of the issues involved, I recommend the
following.
“Understanding
The Science Of Climate Change” is a well-done (but now a bit dated since it
was made in 2015) video made in
consultation with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and world-leading climate scientists. You can watch that informative
video on YouTube by clicking here.
What I can do briefly is to indicate some of
the steps that are being taken in the wrong direction and others that are being
taken in the right direction.
DJT and his administration, unfortunately,
have been taking steps in the wrong direction. His formal initiative last
November to withdraw from the Paris Agreement was a major setback for dealing
with the current climate crisis.
Altogether, the Trump administration and the
Republican Congress have taken more than 130 actions since 2017 “to scale back
or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures” (see
here).
A November
5 article by Katrina vanden Heuvel in The Nation was
titled “Trump’s Greatest Dereliction of Duty—His Disgraceful Denial of Climate
Change.” I agree. DJT’s actions relative to the climate crisis are probably the
most egregious errors of his administration.
Steps
in the Right Direction
Thankfully,
there are some steps in the right direction. For example, just about a year ago
the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis was established and at
the end of March they are scheduled to publish a set of public policy recommendations
for congressional climate action.
More
broadly, on December 10, the World Council of Churches Interfaith Liaison
Committee presented the UN’s climate change summit (COP25 in Madrid) with a declaration of its
commitment to climate justice.
These
are just two of many examples that might be considered.
What
Does This Have To Do with the Eternal?
In
my December 31 blog article, I stated that in this new year I want to spend more time thinking about
eternal/spiritual matters rather than temporal/political concerns. In
reflecting on this, I have come to realize that care for the environment
is not just a temporal concern.
Since
I believe that the world is God’s creation and am trying to understand Richard
Rohr’s idea (in The Universal Christ) that God’s first
incarnation was at creation, not at the birth of Jesus, then caring for the
world is a spiritual task, not just a political one.
The climate crisis, at root, is a theological
issue, and I want to work to help solve the climate crisis not because I am a
LWLP (left-wing liberal progressive) in Star Parker’s words (in Necessary
Noise), but because of my faith in the Creator God.
.jpg)
The first comment this morning to post here comes from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for your observations and the link to the video.
"The climate crisis is becoming increasingly dire as shown by the horrendous fires in Australia and California. But forests have been burning elsewhere, even in Siberia. In addition, the polar ice caps are receding at an alarming rate. Despite the malevolent efforts by the Trump administration to promote fossil fuels, the U S and most other countries are moving away from fossil fuels. The problem is that we are not moving away fast enough. Although nuclear power has its own issues, it may be the best alternative in the short term to fossil fuels. We should also be taxing fossil fuels to reflect the true cost of using them."
Thanks, as always, for your thought-provoking comments, Eric.
DeleteI have long had mixed thoughts about nuclear power. I was an advocate of nuclear power in the 1980s and 1990s for the reasons you give. But my Japanese friends were not often in agreement because of their visceral opposition to nuclear weapons. And then after the tsunami at Fukushima in 2011, there was even stronger opposition to nuclear power by many of my Japanese friends and former students.
I go with the full mouthful of "anthropogenic global warming" as much as possible. The situation is so horrific that that may be part of the problem in doing something about it. We humans tend to go into shock and denial when the going gets too tough.
ReplyDeleteSo I am now going to something different, a brief book report on a book I have not quite finished. The new 2019 book is "Reforesting Faith: What Trees Teach Us About the Nature of God and His Love for Us" by Matthew Sleeth, MD. Actually, he is on his third career, and the medical may be the least related to the book. He started out as a carpenter, and as a carpenter he studied and respected wood. He later decided to see if he could work around his dyslexia, and managed to get through medical school. Then the former atheist got into religion (while still serving as a doctor). He is the executive director of Blessed Earth, the author of a previous book "Serve God, Save the Planet" and wrote the introduction to "The Green Bible."
Quite a bit of "Reforesting Faith" is a memoir. We read about the crises that lead him to Christianity, and the Bible reading that lead him into Christianity, through trees. When he found a church to join, he offered to plant some trees around the church, which caused one of the pastors to accuse him of being a tree-hugger. This did not stop him. In the end he wrote this book about all the trees, wood, vines and such that play key parts in the story from the Tree of Life in Genesis to the Tree of Life in Revelation. He examines the stories and commandments about trees. He finds them everywhere from Abraham's Oak of Mamre to Zacchaeus' sycamore. And, of course, there was that other carpenter, Jesus.
Sleeth sees planting trees as both an ecological and a theological imperative. I will not pick a book seller for you, but if you want to read more, here is a link to Sleeth's own website for the book:
http://matthewsleethmd.com/books/reforestingfaith/
Craig, thanks for introducing me (and other readers of this blog) to what seems to be an intriguing book. Fortunately, the local library system has a copy and it is currently in transit to the Liberty library. I am looking forward to reading some, and perhaps all, of it.
DeleteMy dear wife usually (proof)reads and suggests edits before I post my blog articles, but she is currently out of town and couldn't do that for this article. I am posting here comments she made after reading the article yesterday morning:
ReplyDelete"I thought you expressed the urgency very well. And I think the emphasis on the gov's responsibility is important. The small acts we do as individuals are good to express our concern, but it is the govt that must take action before anything substantial can be done."
Yesterday afternoon I received the following comments from local Thinking Friend Bob Leeper:
ReplyDelete"While we differ because I do not view the climate crisis through theological perspective,
we totally agree that we MUST muster all our resources to stop the madness of messing in our nest.
"Thanks for doing MORE than just praying for a solution. My very righteous grandfather Sharp believed there was a difference in the words Watch and Pray...versus Work and Pray. He believed in working to achieve whatever it was he was praying for. I sense that your message here is in that style...you are working to create the outcome you pray for!!
Late in the afternoon December 22, 1964, we were driving our family along the Columbia River Gorge when suddenly there were Crazy people driving toward us waving their arms out the car window; flashing their lights and doing everything short of crashing into our vehicle. Finally we got stopped within a mile of the just-destroyed John Day river bridge which had collapsed under the scouring pressure of flood water; not in the Columbia River, but in the John Day, which had exceptional snowmelt torrents.
"I believe the Climate Crisis must be given the sense-of-urgency of those drivers who were literally trying to SAVE OUR LIVES Christmas week 1964. We are encountering folks who do not give a second thought to wasteful use of water,paper, and other natural resources; it is our task to remind them with a sense of urgency that we are trying to literally preserve life-on-earth. That goes all the way to our oil and gas reserves and turning the corner to renewable energy. I am in that group that does not save energy and electricity unless reminded. We need reminders!"
And then I received the following comments from another local Thinking Friend, Charlie Broomfielf, who is a personal friend of mine as well as of Bob Leeper (whose comments were just posted above).
ReplyDelete"Indeed, the Climate Crisis should and must be a top priority of all mankind. However, as long as 'We the People' continue to keep our head buried in the sand and keep electing the buffoons such as most of the ones we have in elected office today, the steadily mounting Climate Crisis will not be abated.
"Of course, at the top of this list is that darling of the Religious Right, Donald J. Trump. And, someone needs to address the side issue: many of those supporters of which I speak, actually believe and have stated that we really don’t need to worry about the Climate Crisis because 'God will take care of it.'
"I was born around the same time that you were. I guess the main crisis that I am now realizing more and more (and have spent the best years of my life and fortune trying to do something about it) is the overall ignorance and laziness of man. In these circumstances, I guess the best thing that we can do is to pray: God Help Us All.
"My problem with this, of course, is that I strongly believe that God helps those who help themselves.
And, I also believe that Galileo offered great wisdom and instruction with his observation that: 'I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with, sense, reason and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use.'”
Charlie's name is Broomfield, and I apologize for my keyboarding error above.
DeleteThe Idol of Our Age by Daniel J Mahoney brings some thinking to the issue of climate change from a Catholic perspective. He challenges Pop Francis’ current rhetoric and political influence concerning the subject.
ReplyDeleteMahoney takes issue with his community of faith and brings to the forefront the complicated issue of the poor. He suggests that the current Pope has not considered the impact of political pressure to do something about climate change. Mahoney suggest that the Papal writings and language have forgotten the poor in the climate change discussion.
Mahoney suggest that climate change cannot be at he expense of the poor nor can the church adjust its concern for the poor to make climate change a priority.
I just concluded Mahoney’s work and am evaluating weather he is just denying the climate crisis, or does he have a voice to be considered. His fear is that the church may forget its biblical mandate of the Gospels to bring the “good news to the poor”.
Frank, thanks for introducing me and other readers of this blog to another book (in addition to the one introduced by Craig above). It seems to be dealing with an important issue--but, unfortunately, the local library system does not have any copies of it.
DeleteFrom the little I was able to learn about the book, I am skeptical of the author's criticism of Pope Francis. It seems to me that the Pope makes a proper emphasis on both the Creator and the Creation, and I don't agree that he has forgotten the poor in his emphasis on the dangers of the climate crisis.
I'm sorry that I don't have Mahoney's book to read, for it seems to be a book worthy of serious thought.
I failed to post earlier the following substantial comments received late Sunday afternoon from local Thinking Friend Vern Barnet:
ReplyDelete"Christians need to take responsibility for the heritage of 'dominion' over the earth, and accept the corrective from Primal faiths: 'Nature is to be respected, more than controlled; it is a process which includes us, not a product external to be used or disposed of. Our proper attitude toward nature is awe, not utility.' While I am grateful for 'original blessing' and Richard Rohr, it is important to see that the climate crises is interwoven with the two other great crises of personhood and society.
"Whatever your theological anchors, we agree human life as we know it is threatened to extinction unless we change our ways. Thank you for making this an 'eternal' topic.
Yesterday I received an email with comments from a Thinking Friend in New Mexico. Virginia concluded,
ReplyDelete"Science has suggested solutions and provided a time line for correction. Our nation under the leadership of DJT is making gigantic steps backward.
"I fear to the permanent damage for our children and grandchildren. God's commandment to humankind to cherish and nurture the earth is not being followed. Theology includes practicality, I believe."