OK to Talk About Climate Change

Peter's Journal April 8, 2008

So many of our words are wasted chit chat.  Catching up with old friends requires a bit of past timing, but I think we idle away too many hours with inane conversations about dribble.  John Seeley was a master of preserving his energy by not frittering away the precious time allotted to us with nonsense conversations about nothing.  Granted John and I would “catch up’, especially if either of us had just returned from a trip, but then we would get back to talking about things like peace, justice, war, sermons, nature, religion and global warming.

Climate change is on the front page now.  It used to be when the environment was discussed it was relegated to pages hidden from plain sight; in essence one had to consciously be pro-active to find stories about our fragile island home.  Now – every magazine is sounding the alarm and the chorus of concern widens daily.  We are not talking about a localized issue of a trout stream losing its luster because the trout are contaminated with bacteria, usually from animal waste,  and only trout fishermen and those who love to eat trout are affected, but an issue that will affect every living breathing entity on the planet.  The humblest of plants and the grandest beast of Africa need the same air we 6.8 billion people breath on a daily basis.  Our stable climate has kept our planet in equilibrium for eons of time, and yet today, no one can predict the eventual outcome of climate change. Warmer in some places and cooler in others, freezing temperatures and category 5-6 hurricanes, and drought and monsoons will all find new places on the earth to made people take notice.

I was talking with a Native American priest of the Lakota nation who knows the power of nature to heal, transform, and challenge the human family and he asked ‘what are we to do.’  He hears mother earth groaning and the four legged calling out and the issue overwhelms and freezes him.  His sacred home is threatened and his response is to create an organic soup kitchen to feed his people.  Yet, he holds his little finger up and says it is such a small thing to do.

We are called to do the small things for they form a stronger and stronger web and when the web is formed we become strong and can shift systems.  The time to do this is now and no one, yes no one among us is exempt from shifting personal behavior to become a part of a new web growing stronger every day.  Every action has its place and belongs when it is on behalf of the whole. Thank you.