Feeling the Heat

It’s tempting to think that normal summer is back after an absence of about 10 years, on and off. The farmers are getting a proper hay harvest this year. It’s been hot, really hot for several weeks now. The rains of last year are almost forgotten – but not quite. We can still see gully marks in the sloping fields near where we live. All this may beguile us into thinking that the scientists have got climate change wrong. But just as one swallow doesn’t make a summer, so a few weeks warm weather doesn’t mean that we won’t be seeing floods or other extreme weather conditions back with us in the near future.

I have just returned from a conference organised by Modern Church. It was chaired by Professor Margaret Barker who is especially known for her development of what is called Temple Theology. Temple theology is about the covenant which exists between God and his creation. The purpose of God’s covenant (and there is more than one) is to form a kind of system for safeguarding the interconnectivity of life in all its variegated forms. Covenant is also partnership. Human beings are responsible before God for the nurturing of all life. Covenant is a web, or 'system', which holds all life together as it proceeds from within the love of God. But because human beings are greedy, cruel and selfish, the web gets broken, chiefly when it presents an obstruction to their perceived need for power and control and for material things. Power and control allow them to acquire material things and the greater the accumulation of material things, or wealth, the greater the power. It is a truly vicious circle.

In breaking God’s covenant we have effected a one way system of non-exchange, a continual taking without giving back that is spiralling out of control and exhausting the planet. It is also exhausting a great many human beings whose lives are geared to, or enslaved by, the process of economic growth and consumption.

There is an urgent need for people of faith to engage positively with the challenges which face us in regard to the breaking of covenant, not only for our own sakes but for that of future generations. If this sounds vague, picture your own children, and grandchildren if you have any, inheriting the immediate effects of what we do or choose not to do in regard to global warming. If they or their descendents are alive at the end of this century, they will have had to get used to the fact that Surrey will be the most southern habitable place in Europe. Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet,’ (Harper Perennial, 2007) The only way to prevent this lies in bringing down our carbon emissions by 85% by the year 2050. This will in turn lower Co2 concentrations to 400ppm, which is below the maximum degree of warmth which can be tolerated if the planet is to survive as we know it. At the rate we are going, we shall have passed the 400ppm benchmark by 2015.

Despair is simply not an option, so what can Christians and other people of faith do about this? Here are some suggestions:  1. Our continual breaking of God’s covenant in regard to the environment makes what we are facing a spiritual problem, so we need to pray for the grace and wisdom needed to help people understand that we are both accountable to, and reliant on, a greater power, not the power of money or wealth acquired at the cost of human and environmental suffering, but the power of a compassionate creator. This compassionate creator, this loving God, desires to be in relationship with us. We call it prayer and prayer takes a number of forms. First, acknowledging and regretting before God what we have done to spoil his world, and the suffering we have brought on people and animals by doing so. Second, to be grateful for what we have and grateful for the present day, whatever is going on in our lives, or might have gone on in the past. Gratitude goes with wonder, the ability to be amazed by the smallest beautiful thing. We need to encourage stillness in others and in our own lives, perhaps beginning with 5 minutes a day and gradually increasing it. We cannot act effectively without first renewing our individual covenant with God through prayer that embodies both lament and wonder.

Then we must take effective action, whoever we are and wherever we happen to live. We might begin by writing to our MP and local council. Our duty is not only to pray for our government but to help them govern justly. So pressure has to be put on our politicians to incorporate immediate action on climate change into their manifestos and current agendas, as a matter of absolute urgency. Our vote for them will depend not only on their promising to do this, but on their revealing clear plans with definable objectives and time deadlines which will enable us to achieve the basic target of 85% reduction of C02 emissions by 2050. ‘They should do this in time for these plans to be vetted and rated by expert bodies, campaigning organisations etc. and, if possible, the Climate Change Committee before the next general election in May 2015’ (Michael Bailey, Modern Church Conference July, 2013)

Lest these remarks be dismissed as naïve, there are ways to set about taking practical action. ‘Pathways to 2050’ is a programme, available online, giving suggestions to organisations regarding the scheduling of targets and objectives geared to achieving the 2050 deadline. These stages can be easily monitored. Pressure can be brought to bear on every political party to achieve them and their progress monitored by potential voters.

Persuading parties to do this can be done by letter – write to your MP or the party you are thinking of voting for in 2015 and persuade them that your vote for them hangs on this issue. If enough people do this, the politicians will listen. Organise a silent witness, perhaps on an agreed day. 5 minutes of complete silence and shut down (apart from emergency services and related institutions) would speak more loudly than words. Combine the silence with visible prayer in whatever way is appropriate for your own faith.

Comments appreciated.