Can Anyone Save Us from Climate Change?
A Nobel prize winning UN panel published a report this week that states that we only have about ten years to take drastic measures to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. If we fail to meet that cap in global warming, we face catastrophic changes to the earth's ecosystem, which include the death of all coral reefs, rising of sea levels, increased droughts, famines, deaths from catastrophic storms and heat waves, and decreased animal habitats. There may be mass human migrations as some now populated land become uninhabitable. Wars may break out over rights to scarce water supplies. Crops that are now grown abundantly may cease to grow, causing widespread famines. Scientists may need to find new drought resistant crops for food sources. Even many of the insects that now populate our planet may cease to exist.
This sobering report makes me feel like Tea Leoni ' s character in "Deep Impact" as she stands with her father on the beach, awaiting the huge tidal wave that is surging toward them. It feels like disaster is coming, with no way to stop it. Our current administration is full of climate change deniers, and seems more focused on short term economic and political gains than long term survival of the species. Who can complain when the stock market is surging, unemployment is down, and the Supreme Court is over half full of conservatives? Which makes me all the more frightened that if anyone is going to take climate change seriously, it's not going to be our U.S. Government. Someone else will need to take the lead.
And if that doesn't happen, then what? One can only imagine what kind of problems our children and grandchildren will face. Anyone who has read Revelations in the Bible is familiar with the horrific imagery there of the last days of human kind. I know that Revelations is highly cryptic and symbolic and not necessarily meant to be taken literally, but there are striking similarities between the "last plagues" of God's wrath that is poured out on the unrepentant inhabitants of the earth and the affects of an earth superheated by climate change.
Revelations chapter 8 tells us of 1/3 of the trees and all the green grass being burned up. In verses 8 and 9, the sea is turned to blood and all the fish die. Could this be a result of red algae blooms similar to those witnessed in Florida this past summer, or increased acidity of the oceans which is already taking place?
In Revelations Chapter 16 God lets loose the full force of his fury in the form of seven vials of plagues released by his angels, in an attempt to get the remaining people on earth to repent and turn from their sins of greed and idolatry. Those plagues include painful sores (caused by overexposure to the sun?); again the sea, rivers and springs turning to blood; the sun is so hot it scorches men with fire; the Euphrates River dries up (from drought?); darkness, pain, and sores. Not to mention The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Death, Famine, War, and Conquest) mentioned in Chapter 6:1-8. These could all be results of increased tensions between nations over lack of food, water, and basic resources caused by the sudden drastic changes in the environment.
If these dire prophecies in the Bible have anything to do with the future fate of mankind, is there anything that anybody can do to reverse the trend and save us from such a fate? It doesn't seem like the current politicians even recognize the danger or have much political will to do anything about it. We as a society are so blinded by our own infighting. Could we ever put aside oùr differences and work together on a common goal, even one as critical as saving the planet for our children and grandchildren?
When Sodom and Gomorrah were threatened by God with destruction because of their sins, Abraham bargained with God to spare the 10 righteous people in Lot's family who lived there. And when Jonah was sent to warn the people of Nineveh of impending doom, God was convinced to change his mind when all the people there repented in sackcloth and ashes (to Jonah ' s dismay.) Do we have a chance to be spared if we repent of our sins of endlessly chasing after wealth and disregarding the world around us, including those with less of the world's resources? Perhaps if we turn our attention away from our ceaseless partisan bickering and focus instead on solving the climate crisis, even if it means using our wealth and power to do what's best for all the world's inhabitants, instead of just making ourselves great, God will show His mercy and spare us from a destruction that we will have brought upon ourselves by our own selfishness and greed.
This sobering report makes me feel like Tea Leoni ' s character in "Deep Impact" as she stands with her father on the beach, awaiting the huge tidal wave that is surging toward them. It feels like disaster is coming, with no way to stop it. Our current administration is full of climate change deniers, and seems more focused on short term economic and political gains than long term survival of the species. Who can complain when the stock market is surging, unemployment is down, and the Supreme Court is over half full of conservatives? Which makes me all the more frightened that if anyone is going to take climate change seriously, it's not going to be our U.S. Government. Someone else will need to take the lead.
And if that doesn't happen, then what? One can only imagine what kind of problems our children and grandchildren will face. Anyone who has read Revelations in the Bible is familiar with the horrific imagery there of the last days of human kind. I know that Revelations is highly cryptic and symbolic and not necessarily meant to be taken literally, but there are striking similarities between the "last plagues" of God's wrath that is poured out on the unrepentant inhabitants of the earth and the affects of an earth superheated by climate change.
Revelations chapter 8 tells us of 1/3 of the trees and all the green grass being burned up. In verses 8 and 9, the sea is turned to blood and all the fish die. Could this be a result of red algae blooms similar to those witnessed in Florida this past summer, or increased acidity of the oceans which is already taking place?
In Revelations Chapter 16 God lets loose the full force of his fury in the form of seven vials of plagues released by his angels, in an attempt to get the remaining people on earth to repent and turn from their sins of greed and idolatry. Those plagues include painful sores (caused by overexposure to the sun?); again the sea, rivers and springs turning to blood; the sun is so hot it scorches men with fire; the Euphrates River dries up (from drought?); darkness, pain, and sores. Not to mention The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Death, Famine, War, and Conquest) mentioned in Chapter 6:1-8. These could all be results of increased tensions between nations over lack of food, water, and basic resources caused by the sudden drastic changes in the environment.
If these dire prophecies in the Bible have anything to do with the future fate of mankind, is there anything that anybody can do to reverse the trend and save us from such a fate? It doesn't seem like the current politicians even recognize the danger or have much political will to do anything about it. We as a society are so blinded by our own infighting. Could we ever put aside oùr differences and work together on a common goal, even one as critical as saving the planet for our children and grandchildren?
When Sodom and Gomorrah were threatened by God with destruction because of their sins, Abraham bargained with God to spare the 10 righteous people in Lot's family who lived there. And when Jonah was sent to warn the people of Nineveh of impending doom, God was convinced to change his mind when all the people there repented in sackcloth and ashes (to Jonah ' s dismay.) Do we have a chance to be spared if we repent of our sins of endlessly chasing after wealth and disregarding the world around us, including those with less of the world's resources? Perhaps if we turn our attention away from our ceaseless partisan bickering and focus instead on solving the climate crisis, even if it means using our wealth and power to do what's best for all the world's inhabitants, instead of just making ourselves great, God will show His mercy and spare us from a destruction that we will have brought upon ourselves by our own selfishness and greed.
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