In the wake of the most significant scientific report to date on the potentially dire consequences of global warming, a ray of hope has emerged. Ironically, it emanates from the convergence of forces that have often been at odds. One force, the world of science, has long been on the forefront of the issue of climate change. Another equally powerful force, religion, has often remained on the sidelines — until recently.
The Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC), a body of more than 2,000 of the world’s top scientists from more than 100 nations, stated in a Feb. 2 report that global warming is “unequivocal,” that it is rapidly changing the nature of our planet and its ecosystems, and that it is “very likely” being caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
In the course of the last decade, a significant movement within the faith community has been mobilizing around the call to care for God’s creation, the web of life that sustains us all. This calling is the essence of religious life, and people of faith are beginning to hear it, even as scientists sound the alarm that we may be nearing a climactic tipping point.

It has dawned on me more and more how crucial true information is for the modern world. Not only my first encounters with propaganda, as I did my (compulsory) national service on the Soviet border at the end of the Cold War, and having read George Orwell as well as one of my favourite authors, John le Carre, made me aware of how much power that lies in swaying the public by lies. There are anectotal evidence of witch-hunts in the middle ages, which could only happened because of lies, prejudice and superstition, and when I read about ‘The Great Leap’ from the Cultural Revolution in China, I wonder how on Earth such a thing could take place. Commonplace to all these stories is the lack of knowledge, critical voices, and true information. I have also seen documentaries about how the tobacco and sugar have influenced the public information about drawbacks associated with their products, but realise that someone is twisting the truth, but one cannot be sure who. Presumably the lobby groups of those industries… But the even more recent encounter with lies in the media scared me the most: when one nation invaded another on the basis of lies. Sure, the invaded country was headed by a brutal dictator, but that argument probably could not justify a war…? After Hans Blixt and the UN had spent years searchin for evidence of WMD in country, they had come up empty handed. The country was flooded with volunteer ‘human shields’ just at the run-up forthe invasion, and in this golden opportunity for spying the living daylight out of the country, still the secret services didn’t manage to produce convincing evidence. A prominent British weapons specialist was found dead after having stated on the BBC that the Iraq dossier was ’sexed up’ (WMD could be launched within 45 minutes). Iraq relented at one point and produced a massive report to the UN, that the invading countries snatched and didn’t let anybody else read. Then there were false evidences: alleged radioactive materials from Nigeria, satellite images shown in the UN, alleged links between Saddam & Al Quaida, etc. The bottom line was that a war was started from lies. That’s scary.

We all have to be really thrilled about the news today. Thanks to NRDC and the environmental groups who put pressure on the Federal government to list polar bears on the endangered species list. I wonder if the 12 month waiting period will cause irrevocable damage to their habit……., but in the mean time this is good news and gives inspiration to the rest of us struggling to save Creation.

As a side note, I am in Bozeman, Mt with unusually warm weather and little snow on the ground. It is amazing to take a week off from the office, but notice that I cannot escape the climate news, but, then, nor do I want to.

The wonder and mystery of Christmas is past us, but the love of god that resides in each of us will inspire and envelop us all year. It is this love that will, in the end, save us all.

Today I will be writing my sermon for tomorrow having spent most of the week thinking about it, but not writing due to the worst cold I’ve had in years and another priority assignment. The gospel lesson on Sunday is from Luke and in it John the Baptist tells his listeners that he is not the Messiah whom they are seeking. The people should be joyful because God is in their midst, but he is not God. The lesson for us is to model that behavior. Know who we are, accept who we are, recognize our own limitations and know that others have been before and others will come after. The humility in this carries a dual message. It asks us not to take advantage of the vulnerable or use any occupational privilege to exploit others. We might apply this to fossil fuel use and our greed, exploitation of the poor nations and people. As a wealthy country, the US could use this example set by John. As a nation we have the power and ability to help poor nations by cutting our own use of fossil fuel and setting an example by using more renewable energy. Some how the Christian values that our US government leaders profess to have don’t show up in the policies they make.

We keep getting these messages that the situation is worse than originally
thought. Now the arctic is melting so fast it won’t be there in 2040.  That
means no Artic ice when my grand children are adults.  Was this God’s intention?
I don’t think so.

Listen to these prayers…….
Give us the grace to do your will in all the we undertake.
Give us all a reverence for the Earth as your own creation, that we may use
its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory.

And lastly from our baptismal vows… do you renounce the evil powers of this
world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
The Candidate responds, “I renounce them”.

Hi, finally the week draws to an end and I begin to reflect on the recent activities and look ahead to the coming week. I am the executive director of The Regeneration Project which is (most descriptively) a ministry for the religious community to draw on for support and resources when seeking to find solutions to the problem- potentially catastrophic problem- of climate change. We have an affiliated network of religious leaders from many diverse faiths in 21 states in the US. “A religious response to global warming” operates under the banner of Interfaith Power and Light. Each state program operates autonomously, but in collarboation with the others. Our aim is to reduce the US overall dependency on fossil fuel for energy by example in our memeber congregations. We promote energy efficiency, conservation and use of renewable clean resources for electricity. We ask our member congregations of which there are roughly 2000 to preach about the moral responsibility of religious people to care for God Creation. This means all living things with particular focus on the poor and in addition those living things that cannot speak for themselves.

There are two interesting posts on the environment over at [Greater Democracy]. As one of the organizers of the Greater Democracy blog, I hope these are but the first of many exchanges on environmental issues from a wide range of perspectives.

The first is [Islam: Environmental Protection] by Professor Dr. Farooq Hassan, President Pakistan Ecology Council.

The second is [Islam, Aikido, and Environmental Sustainability] by M. D. McDonald.

I hope you will take the time to read both essays and comment on them, either here or over on Greater Democracy.