Justice Matters: Climate Change and Lent

This week there was another important step in helping us all to respond to climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up in 1988.  It undertook a series of “assessment reports” in which the latest science related to climate change was gathered and summarised.  Successive reports were increasingly clear that human activity is changing the climate, especially by burning fossil fuels. The latest assessment report, the sixth, has just been completed in three parts, published in turn in the Autumn, in February and last week.  

See

My ludicrously short synopsis of 1000s of pages of rigorous research by 100s of scientists is as follows:

1.  What do we know?   The changes to climate are happening globally and regionally, to an increasing extent. The changes are caused by human activity and are dangerously disruptive with, for example, more intense storms, droughts, heat waves, unpredictable seasons, and impacts on ecosystems, water supplies and food production.

2.  What are the consequences?  Already, around the world, the most affected people are the poorest and least responsible for the changes, and are the least able to adapt to them.  Large numbers of people are forced by climate change to leave their homes as refugees.

3. What can we do about it? A lot, and the sooner we act the better. It is very, very urgent and critical that we reduce emissions especially but not only from burning oil, coal and gas.

None of this synopsis is new, really – but the deeper understanding and detail of the report eliminates doubt and strengthens the basis for urgent actions.  

Reflect

As we entered Lent, we heard, “Now, NOW… come back to me with all your heart.” (Joel 2:12) That call also applies to the climate emergency. We need to act now. 

We come to Easter knowing that Christ is being crucified today, including under the rubble of Ukraine, and in those impoverished and made refugees by the climate emergency.

The renewed life of Spring is a time to reconnect with grace and giftedness. Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ says that to respond to our times we first have to see ourselves and the Earth as gifted and graced, and cherish the Earth. 

Can we be grounded in that, and in the love of each other, and so have a foundation for together facing the challenges of our times as we listen to the cries of the Earth and the poor?

Can we act with hope because Christ is risen?

Act

You might like to watch this webinar, hosted by the World Council of Churches. It developed the above themes, in a look back with the eyes of faith on how we treated the Earth in the last 50 years. (Scroll past the 12 mins introduction.)

We can join one of the many organisations that campaign or that work for local change like Transition South Edinburgh.  

We can also write to our MPs and MSPs and via them ministers. Grassroots pressure has been insufficient to  make our elected politicians react appropriately. Even now we have no coherent energy strategy with inadequate insulation of homes and no plan for the move away from fossil fuels.