I had a scare last month. My husband and I returned home on our 31st anniversary date to a telephone message from my older sister – my father had been taken to the emergency room with symptoms of stroke. Of course I called immediately and spent the next 14 hours on the phone and internet sorting through what was wrong with him and whether or not I needed to join my sister at his bedside on an emergency basis. Of course there was no question – if I was needed I would go. I rushed around between phone calls getting the house ready for me to leave, packing a bag, and making the necessary preliminary arrangements with airlines and dog sitters. Luckily, after a dramatic and somewhat scary night in the hospital, the doctors discovered a simple infection, got my father on the right medication, and he improved dramatically.
My father’s 91st birthday was five days later. He was back home celebrating with my sister and his beloved companion. At 91, we know the next event could be devastating. Every opportunity to nurture and love my father, I embrace, despite the 3000 mile distance between us. When the next crisis comes, I will be equally prepared to drop everything and go to his side to offer whatever help or comfort I can. It’s just what I want to do.
I think most of us have had this same experience with a parent, a child, a sister or brother, a beloved spouse or friend. It doesn’t matter if it’s inconvenient, if we miss a critical meeting at work or a long-planned outing. When there is a health crisis, we drop everything and go.
As I was working through this event with my family, and in the relieved aftermath, I could not help but think of the current state of the Earth. The climate I was born into is no more. The Earth I live on is different now; it is struggling. Ecosystems are collapsing. The oceans are acidifying. Species are becoming extinct. Glaciers are melting. Wild fires are raging. Water and food insecurity are growing. Island nations are relocating. It is a health emergency on a planetary scale – for the Earth and for humans who depend upon the Earth.
Why, I ask, do we as a species not behave as we would as individuals if a loved one needed us? Why don’t we drop everything and rush to aid, nurture and love our Earth-home back to a stable place? Should we not willingly stop our “business as usual” to make the changes that would bring nurture, love and healing to our world? That is what we all want to do for our loved ones.
Today, one of our greatest prophets, James Hansen, and his group will publish a paper which clearly demonstrates that climate change is causing all the extremes we are hearing reported in the news. With this sentinel study, he removes all doubt and all excuses for us to turn a blind eye. The 3200+ heat records broken in June 2012 are a result of human- induced warming. Not only is our Earth-home gravely ill, but we have caused the illness. We need to drop everything and go.
As people of faith, we are called to love and service. It is easy when it’s a beloved individual. It is also easy when it is, as it is now, all of creation. We simply have to acknowledge the problem and its urgency and then get busy figuring out how we are going to respond creatively, lovingly, immediately and wholeheartedly. North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light is an organization devoted to facilitating just this kind of change. Join us in this most urgent and critical work.
— Dr. Kathy Shea, Co-Director, NCIPL
Dr Shea, I’m sorry for your family crisis and am in agreement that we should do everything we can to protect this beautiful world that God has given us. With respect to global warming, I have to disagree as I consider James Hanson a false prophet. In my opinion, he has stopped doing professional science and has moved into advocacy. In this paper, he is attempting to link extreme weather events with global warming.
A scientist with NOAA, Dr Hoerling stated “This isn’t a serious science paper,” “It’s mainly about perception, as indicated by the paper’s title. Perception is not a science.” . http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/science/earth/extreme-heat-is-covering-more-of-the-earth-a-study-says.html?_r=4&smid=tw-share
Anthony Watts points out the following problems with this paper.
Anthony comments on the NASA animation by Dr. James Hansen of surface temperature trends from 1955-1999:
“There are many issues with this presentation. It seems to be a big Cherry Picking exercise.
1. Note all of the missing southern hemisphere data. There are operating weather stations during his time, but they are excluded from the analysis. Why?
2. The period chosen, 1955-1999 (in the bell curve animation) leaves out the warmer 1930′s and the cooler 2000′s. Why?
3. The period from 2000-present has no statistically significant warming. Leaving that period out (of the bell curve animation) biases the presentation.
4. The period chosen exhibits significant postwar growth, urbanization is not considered.
5. As for severe weather, Hansen ignores the fact that neither tornadoes nor hurricanes have shown any increase recently. Only smaller tornadoes show an increase, due to reporting bias thanks to easily affordable and accessible technology. NOAA’s SPC reports that July 2012 seems to be at a record low for tornadoes.
6. My latest results in Watts et al 2012 suggest surface station data may be biased warmer over the last 30 years.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/06/nasas-james-hansens-big-cherry-pick/