The Durban climate talks are now over and were marked by a striking failure to act. At the same time that we are seeing irrefutable evidence of climate change and record weather around the globe, the global leaders have again failed to rise to the urgent need for action—instead kicking the can down the road once again by agreeing to agree in the future to develop a plan.
Many of us in the Triangle and the Asheville area had a chance a at the end of November to hear Bill McKibben speak. If you haven’t yet read EAARTH yet, it’s time. McKibben eloquently points out that we live on a new planet with a harsher and less predictable climate than the one most of us were born onto. The question now is not, “is the climate going to change?” (it already has changed), but “how much will the climate change?” Our task as people of faith is to acknowledge the truth of climate change and work in faithful community to minimize the long-term impact by finding a radically different way to live within God’s creation. A way of living that is leaner, lighter and more realistic than the growth and consumer-driven lifestyle that has dominated the global imagination and guided the habits of the developed nations for the last century (or two).
The Third Annual National Preach-In on Global Warming is a weekend of solidarity for all faith communities to go on record with the intention to address the greatest threat to human civilization ever known – the heating of the planet through relentless burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of the great forests and other natural reservoirs of carbon around the globe. Please register to participate Feb 10-12, 2012. You will receive resources and suggestions for sermons, worship and congregational activities – anything counts from an adult forum, to a children’s Sunday school class, to a sermon to a local food potluck. What we are trying to do is communicate to our elected officials that communities of faith understand the threat and opportunity of climate change. We cannot stop it, but we can prevent it from getting unmanageable. We can only do that if we work together, in community to discover alternatives to our current assumptions and choices.
North Carolina is rich in water, land, food production and sun and wind energy – we can be leaders designing our new future on Eaarth. Sign up and be counted. If you have questions or comments, visit the NC IPL website or Facebook page, or contact me directly at Kathy@ncipl.org. Join the movement, meet the challenge, help generate hope!
–Dr. Kathy Shea, Co-Director, North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light
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