I sat down to the evening news. That’s not always
the best thing to do if you want to unwind for the day, which was my intent.
I had been to a conference sponsored by the Sustainable Religious Lands Committee of
the Festival of Faiths. In partnership with the
Center for Interfaith Relations and Bellarmine University’s Campus Ministry, I
had heard speakers address issues intended to raise our awareness of the
alarmingly high environmental and human risks resulting from the much-acclaimed
national “Energy Independence” boom. Speakers underscored how a new generation
of fossil fuel extraction infrastructures threatens the health of our planet. This
holds particular relevance for me, a resident of central Kentucky, because the proposed
Bluegrass Pipeline carrying dangerous fracking material that, if spilled, could
harm people and the land, is scheduled to be operational in our region by
December, 2015.
Although the
conference had been most helpful and hopeful, I was a bit overwhelmed.
And so I slouched
down to the evening news, which I caught in progress, just in time to listen to
Anne Thompson’s report, “Unbearable Neighbors.”
Cute title, I
thought. I’ll relax.
She reported how for
many years tourists have gathered in the small northern Canadian town of
Churchill to watch the gathering of polar bears. The bears and the people
coexist from late June when the ice disappears around Hudson Bay to late November
when it reforms. But the ice is reconstituting about a month later these days, causing
the bears to endure the land that much longer without their main food source:
ring seal, which thrive in the sea ice.
“Greenhouse gases threaten the existence of the polar
bears,” said Dr. Steven Amstrup, chief scientist for Polar Bear International.
I jumped up and proclaimed to my wife that I had heard about
this at the conference.
‘“The Unbearable Neighbors?”’ she asked.
“No, the sea ice,” I exclaimed.
One of the conference speakers, Samuel Avery, had spoken of
what scientists call “positive feedback loops,” associated with the earth’s
climate. A positive feedback loop is
basically an effect that makes itself worse, and ice melt is one of those
positive feedback loops. Sea ice helps keep the earth cool because its shiny surface
reflects 80 percent of the incoming solar energy back into the atmosphere. But
as ice melts, the water’s darker surface reflects only 5 percent of the sunlight,
absorbing the other 95 percent, which in turn heats our planet even more,
causing more ice to melt, which leads to more absorption.
Once it gets started, it’s hard to stop. So here is the
conundrum: How can we as addicted as we are to fossil fuels reverse a trend that
mightily marches toward wrecking our climate?
If you refuse to stick your head in the sand, pretending
global warming doesn't exist and poses no real threat to life as we know it,
you too feel at least a little frustrated about untangling the mess we humans
have made on our little planet we call Earth.
Speakers at the conference didn't only describe the problem, they
offered solutions as well. But there is no silver bullet, no quick, easy fix to
what we've created on this, the Lord’s creation. As I was reminded by the evening news,
environmental issues related to greenhouse gases are interrelated. They affect
seals and polar bears and weather patterns and drinking water.
Finding answers will require a paradigm shift---a different
way of thinking. Viewing the environment as a trust God has given us to care
for and develop and not as a mere commodity to be exploited for our personal
gain and profit is a start in changing our direction.
Perhaps recognizing that God not only owns “the cattle on a
thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10), but the land beneath their feet as well will
remind us that we are after all only renters, stewards of this earth; God is
the owner.
And harming one part of his property---yes, even a small
piece of land beneath what appears to be a harmless pipeline--- affects the
whole.
You can’t escape that fact.
Not even by watching the evening news.
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