What can one person do?
cognitive tradition. We now suffer from a form of “ecological grief.” Scientists are on the front lines of loss, and organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists offer new “tool kits” and personal strategies for action. wide and encourage investment in climate-sustainable industries like solar to foster new jobs? What if Americans (at 325 million strong) commit to planting CO2thirsty trees for everyone in their family or donating $10 to the Sierra Club or other nature-savvy groups?
To climate change deniers, I say: “Who cares about the debate?” Why take a chance on a polluted planet for your children and grandchildren? As the UN report noted, greenhouse gases are naturally produced yet have spiked amid forest loss and the Industrial Age, recorded data shows. Today’s most abundant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, “is the product of burning fossil fuels.” One way or another, humans are involved. Whether we feel powerless by grief or distrust, we can “break the paralysis,” as UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres recently urged nations to help prevent “runaway climate change.”
We are threatening our Earth, simply put. So why aren’t more conservative Christians leading this charge? From a biblical standpoint, humans are the planet’s stewards. Consider the book of Job: “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.”
I have to wonder if the grief-stricken Orca mother who carried her calf for a record17 days of mourning wasn’t trying to tell us something before time runs out for her species — and for ours.
It’s tough to get our heads around an environmental Armageddon. Then we watch yet another hurricane wash away entire towns.