Manage the Unavoidable and Avoid the Unmanageable

NCIPL is all about helping faith communities find positive responses to climate change. It’s a big mission dealing with an extremely complex and rapidly changing problem. Science tells us that the climate has already changed and is extremely unlikely to change back to the stable conditions I was born into in the middle of the 20^th Century. Our task is now to “Manage the Unavoidable” and “Avoid the Unmanageable”. In other words, there is  inevitable climate change programmed into the system driven by greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, that have already been emitted into the atmosphere. This change we are measuring right now, and it will continue to be expressed over the coming decades as the slow equilibration of the atmosphere and oceans plays out – even if we could stop all emissions today. That is the “Manage the Unavoidable” part of our task. We must adapt to a new, less predictable and more extreme climate.

The other part of our task is to continue to work hard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce deforestation, and make a rapid transition to carbon neutral, clean and renewable energy. We still have the opportunity to change the ultimate severity of climate change by acting in a creative and faithful way to love our earth home and live within our ecological means. That is the “Avoid the Unmanageable” part of our task. But, in order to do that, we must all be informed.

In a world overwhelmed with information, technology and media, it is very difficult to find the best way to filter and capture the best information. For climate change, I have been very impressed with a service launched in 2007 called The Daily Climate. To me, this provides a daily survey of climate-related news including science, solutions and politics, which is balanced and broad.  You can subscribe for free to a daily e-mail, or simply log-on from time to time and browse. If we are to succeed in our mission, we need all the good information we can get. By combining the reality of science with the power of hope and the action of faith, we can individually and collectively redesign our world to be a place of equity and love that will sustain future generations and honor the Creator. I invite you on this journey – the great work of our generation. NCIPL has programs that can help faith communities get started. Contact us at info@ncipl.org today.

–Kathy Shea, Co-Director, NCIPL