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Obama says it’s time to hit the brake on global warming

09 Aug 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Humans need signs, the psalmist suggests this Sunday, inviting us to see for ourselves the goodness of the Lord. In response to those who ask for signs that global warming is happening, President Obama argued this week that the evidence is overwhelming, and that time is running out. Monday he unveiled his signature plan for dramatically reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants over the coming decade, and then immediately fired a salvo at his congressional and energy industry critics who have vowed to fight the new rules. Homily hint: The president’s message is captured well in one line of his address, to the effect that ours may be the first generation to feel the effects of global warming and the last to be able to do something about it. Let’s act together to save our global home from overheating. President Obama has joined Pope Francis in urging us on. What more do we need? For more on the president’s climate change plan, see: Obama: This May Be ‘The Last Generation’ That Can Stop Climate Change

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Time to turn down the heat

25 Oct 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s gospel, blind Bartimaeus was “rebuked” by many who told him “to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more.” Early activists against global warning were often treated in similar fashion, but as the evidence has mounted, many past skeptics have been converted. With 2015 on track to be the hottest year ever recorded, by a long shot, the need to address climate change takes on extra urgency. Homily hint: If we fail to act now on global warming, we may suffer the fate of the proverbial frog in a pot of cold water that is brought to a slow boil. It is said that because the warming is gradual the frog does not realize the danger until it is too late. Good stewardship of God’s creation calls us to turn down the heat while we still have time to do so. For more on 2015’s record heat, see: After record-shattering September, 2015 in commanding lead for Earth’s hottest year on record

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Time for some real climate change

01 Nov 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees,” instructs the reading from the Book of Revelations this Sunday. Catholic leaders concerned with the damage being done to the environment by global warming made a rare appeal to the world’s politicians this week, urging them to take strong action at the highly anticipated U.N. climate change summit later this year. Nine cardinals, patriarchs, and bishops representing the Catholic Church across five continents signed a document at the Vatican with a 10-point policy proposal calling for a "fair, legally binding, and truly transformational climate agreement.” The U.N. conference on climate change meets in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, and the Catholic leaders would like to see it take action on all 10 items. Homily hint: Following Pope Francis’ lead, Catholic leaders worldwide are speaking out on climate change. When you consider that the Book of Genesis begins with a description of the creation of the heavens and the earth, it should come as no surprise that religious leaders see care of the earth as a religious issue and moral imperative. If God “saw that it was good,” let’s make sure it stays that way. For more on the Catholic statement on climate change, see: Catholic Leaders Unveil 10-Point Climate Action List Ahead of U.N. Summit; Study finds climate change is costing billions in hurricane damage alone

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A stark global warming warning

15 Nov 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s readings, both the prophet Daniel and Jesus speak of a time of tribulation to come. “It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress,” the first reading warns. If two new reports on climate change are accurate, that time is upon us if global warming is not controlled very soon. Rising sea levels from unchecked carbon emissions could drive more than 100 million people into extreme poverty and submerge the homes of over half a billion, the reports say. The United Nation's 21st annual global conference on climate change will be held in Le Bourget, France from November 30 to December 11 and is seen by many as the last best chance for world leaders to get serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid such scenarios. Homily hint: We hear a lot of words about global warming these days, and it is tempting to tune them out after a while. But words alone won’t cut greenhouse gas emissions or keep global warming at bay. Serious action is needed, now. Join your voice to the millions worldwide calling on leaders to sign on to a serious agreement in Le Bourget. For more on new climate reports, see: Climate change could create 100 million poor, over half a billion homeless; Airpocalypse now: China pollution reaching record levels

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Climactic moment on climate change

06 Dec 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The first reading encourages all of Jerusalem to “see your children gathered from the east and the west” for a great event, as God is about to “show the world your splendor.” Leaders from all ends of the earth have gathered in Paris for a two-week climate summit that, it is hoped, will forge a binding agreement that protects the splendor of the world from the ravages of global warming. President Obama sought to rally support for a comprehensive agreement, declaring that “no nation large or small, wealthy or poor, is immune” to the damage caused by global warming. He urged the leaders to take action even if the benefits were not evident for generations. Homily hint: Future generations will look back on this moment in time and, if they are doing so while struggling to survive a planet heated to the breaking point, will ask why we did not act while there was time to do so. The time is upon us now, let our world respond as God instructed, by being good and faithful stewards of creation. For more on the climate summit, see: Obama urges world action on climate change: No nation 'immune' to global warming

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Supreme Court cool to Obama global warming initiative

14 Feb 2016 - Preaching the News for Sunday

When trouble strikes, the psalmist turns to the Lord, we hear in this Sunday’s psalm refrain: “Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble. But where will President Obama turn for aid for his troubled climate control initiative? The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a potentially devastating blow to Obama’s climate-rescue plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants. Few observers expected the court to act so quickly, and aggressively, to block the new Environmental Protection Agency rules. The move may have the added effect of throwing a wrench into global climate change efforts that turn in large part on American leadership. Homily hint: Regardless of what happens in Washington, D.C. or any other center of power, our own personal decisions on lifestyle, recycling, and responsible consumerism will make or break the future health of our terrestrial home. Do your part as a good steward. Source: Supreme Disarray for the Global Climate Agenda

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Earthshaking ecological awareness

24 Apr 2016 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The readings this Fifth Sunday of Easter include an evocative hymn to a new creation, where the witness, John, sees “a new heaven and a new earth . . . the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven” and hears a “voice from the throne saying ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.’ ” Earth Day is celebrated each April 22 so that we can be mindful that God’s dwelling place among us is entrusted to our care. And a growing movement for sustainable cities is renewing the hope that indeed a “new Jerusalem” is possible. Today, 54 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66 percent by 2050. These large communities provide both challenges and opportunities for environmentally conscious developers working toward the goals of sustainable cities. Ideally, a sustainable city creates an enduring way of life across the four areas of ecology, economics, politics, and culture. A sustainable city should be able to feed itself with a sustainable reliance on the surrounding countryside and to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The key, say eco-developers, is to create the smallest possible ecological footprint; produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible; efficiently use land; and to compost used materials by recycling it or converting waste-to-energy. In this way the city's overall contribution to climate change will be minimal. Modern cities often seem actively to work against nature, pushing it down and suppressing it rather than working alongside it. Yet a growing number of progressive architects, designers, engineers, scientists, and urban planners are looking to the Earth’s systems for inspiration. Biomimicry is based on the idea that animals, plants, and the Earth’s natural processes are the ultimate engineering feats. Imitating nature makes for good architecture and urban planning. The first event for Earth Day was held in the United States in 1970 following a devastating oil spill off of Santa Barbara, California, and is credited for launching the modern environmental movement. Nearly 50 years later, Earth Day is coordinated globally by the non-profit Earth Day Network, which describes the day as the "largest secular holiday in the world.” Millions of people participate in thousands of events celebrated around the world. Lessons drawn from the readings What is secular for some is sacred for those who see all of creation as God’s dwelling place among us. When Jesus gives his followers the commandment to “love one another” he is inviting us to respect the living space we share with each other, to be good stewards of the space we will hand over to those who follow us. Love is demonstrated by respect, so let’s learn to respect the delicate balance that keeps our climate sustainable for life as we know it. Final thought in light of the news Global sea levels rose faster in the 20th century than at any time in the previous 2,700 years, research shows. Without a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, levels are on course to rise one to four feet by the end of this century. There is a new kind of migrant on the move these days—climate migrants, those forced to abandon their ancestral homes, which have become unlivable because of global warming. Let’s join the global movement toward sustainable living today so that millions do not have to flee rising seas and join a forced migration in search of a new place to call home.

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Quote of the week

1 May 2016 - Preaching the News for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

"The real war against climate change is being fought on our plates, multiple times a day with every food choice we make. One of the biggest challenges facing our planet, and our species is that we are knowingly eating ourselves into extinction, and doing very little about it." —Nil Zacharias, co-founder and editor-in-chief of One Green Planet Eating more vegetables is good for the environment

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Humanitarian Summit calls us to a higher standard

29 May 2016 - Preaching the News for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), Cycle C

Appropriate to this Sunday’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the gospel relates how Jesus fed the hungry multitude, turning scarcity into plentitude in the process. Worldwide, the hungry multitude grow daily, with some 125 million people urgently needing humanitarian assistance. In response, representatives of 175 countries, including 57 heads of states or governments, attended the first World Humanitarian Summit this week in Istanbul, Turkey. Outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the summit in an attempt to restructure the way the world responds to humanitarian crises. The agenda before summit members: how to deal with a surge in global crises that have been exacerbated by war, climate change, and natural disasters. With so many in need, aid groups increasingly under-resourced, and international law under growing threat, Ban Ki-moon wants the international community to agree to new global humanitarian standards. Yet the absence of many of the most powerful heads of governments, including the leaders of the U.N. Security Council's permanent members, disappointed aid officials. And not all aid groups were convinced the summit was worth attending. Médecins Sans Frontières withdrew before the summit, claiming that it had become a fig-leaf of good intentions that allows systematic violations to continue to be ignored. The summit reinforced the urgent need for people affected by conflict and disasters to receive better help, but the first meeting of its kind may not trigger the changes necessary to fix their plight, aid officials and experts say. Vital to any long-term success is a ramping up of efforts by world leaders to end the wars that are causing record numbers of people to be uprooted, they said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the only G7 leader present. As the two-day conference ended on Tuesday, Ban Ki-moon appealed to the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council—Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States—to act. "The absence of these leaders from this meeting does not provide an excuse for inaction," Ban Ki-moon said. "They have a unique responsibility to pursue peace and stability, and to support the most vulnerable." Pledges made at the summit include an education fund aimed at raising $3.8 billion for emergency schooling and a "grand bargain" between major donors and agencies to administer aid more efficiently. The summit also launched an international partnership to help vulnerable countries prepare better for natural disasters. "These will kick-start transformative change from the top down and the ground up. We must now take it forward together," Ban Ki-moon said. While critics of the summit argued that its lack of a binding agreement made it toothless, defenders of the gathering said that was never its purpose. Lessons drawn from the readings In the gospel, the apostles want Jesus to send the people away to fend for themselves: “As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, ‘Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions.’” When he tells them to feed the people themselves, they protest that resources are limited. But Jesus sees plenty where they see scarcity. He offers an alternative vision in which, if we pool our resources, they are multiplied and abundant. The gospel truth is that resources are bountiful if we learn how to share. There is more than enough for everyone. Final thought in light of the news This first-ever humanitarian summit was an important step. But it was only a first step. The summit website encourages us to act individually and to call on our leaders to step up their humanitarian efforts. With so many millions affected by war, natural disaster, and global warming, we need to become global citizens and commit to actions to reduce human suffering. All should have a place at the table at the feast of redemption.

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Poor outcome for global warming

24 Jul 2016 - Preaching the News for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus asks, “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?” We might repurpose the question to ask, “What kind of planet will we hand to our children? A clean planet with a stable climate, fresh air, and clean water, or an overheated globe filled with toxic gases and undrinkable water?” The scientific data suggests we are dangerously close to leaving the latter legacy, and that the poor will suffer the brunt of the damage. One of the latest findings of climate change researchers is the ironic truth that the wealthy countries that have contributed the most to climate change tend to be most immune to its effects. The new research has implications for the question of who bears responsibility for addressing the climate crisis as we move through the hottest year on record. Research published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports shows that more than half of the highest-emitting countries rank among the least vulnerable to climate change and nearly two-thirds of the countries with low or moderate emissions are acutely vulnerable to the effects. Researchers classified more than 10 percent of countries as “free riders,” ranking in the top fifth in terms of emissions and the bottom 20 percent in terms of vulnerability. These countries include the United States, much of Europe, and Australia. On the opposite end, six countries were classified as “forced riders” with relatively low emissions and high vulnerability. Some island countries with low emissions, like Kiribati, could be wiped off the face of the Earth thanks to rising sea levels. The new study provides a new way for policymakers to quantify inequality when it comes to tackling climate change. Countries around the world have agreed on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” since the early days of climate negotiations in the 1990s. That principle calls on wealthy emitters like the United States to do more to address global warming than poorer countries who emitted less historically. The issue of differentiated responsibilities played a key role at climate negotiations in December that resulted in the Paris Agreement. Developing countries, many of which are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels, drought, and a whole slew of other climate-related issues, demanded developed nations help pay for them to adapt to climate change. The U.S. and other countries committed billions to that effort with that concern in mind. "People who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change," a recent report from the UN's climate panel concluded. One impact is through the reduction in crop yields, which leads to higher prices. "The story is that crop yields have detectably changed. As time goes on the poor countries that are in the warmer and drier parts of the planet will feel the crop yield decreases early," said Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. "When you get above two degrees and into the three- and four-degree range, adaptation becomes less effective and even some of the wealthy countries that have advanced agriculture start suffering." "People who were already disadvantaged, more of them are going to be suffering from malnutrition," he added. In a further cruel twist, the report said climate change would also make it harder for developing countries to climb out of poverty and would create "poverty pockets" in rich and poor countries. And to make matters worse, as India, the world’s second-most populous country, reels from an intense drought, the World Bank released a new report finding that perhaps the most severe impact of a changing climate could be the effect on water supplies. The most startling finding? The report suggests that by 2050, an inadequate supply of water could knock down economic growth in some parts of the world a figure as high as 6 percent of GDP, “sending them into sustained negative growth.” Regions facing this risk—which can at least partly be averted by better water management, the document notes—include not only much of Africa but also India, China, and the Middle East. “When we look at any of the major impacts of climate change, they one way or another come through water,” said Richard Damania, a lead economist at the bank and the lead author of the report. “So it will be no exaggeration to claim that climate change is really in fact about hydrological change.” In the U.S., African Methodist Episcopal Church members have joined the call of other religious leaders for action on climate change, citing its disproportionate effect on the health of black people. “We can move away from the dirty fuels that make us sick and shift toward safe, clean energy like wind and solar that help make every breath our neighbors and families take a healthy one,” reads a resolution passed last week at the end of the church’s quadrennial General Conference in Philadelphia. The resolution, echoing Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, pointed to research that shows climate change has a negative impact on African Americans: 39 percent of Americans living near coal plants are people of color, and black children are four times as likely as their white counterparts to die from asthma. “We believe it is our duty to commit to taking action and promoting solutions that will help make our families and communities healthier and stronger,” said Bishop John F. White, president of the AME Church’s Council of Bishops. Lessons drawn from the readings Jesus suggests in the gospel that when bonds of friendship are not enough to gain needed assistance, persistence in asking for help can win the day. Poorer countries have consistently called on richer countries to take financial responsibility for their contributions to global warming and compensate poorer countries suffering the impact. As citizens of one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and one of the greatest polluters, we are all implicated in the problem and called to be part of the solution. Final thought in light of the news The African Methodist Episcopal Church resolution calls for leaders and members of their denomination to advocate for support of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement for reduction of carbon emissions and encourages congregations to have more energy-efficient buildings. Our own churches should take this calling to be our own as well.

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