With the heat we are experiencing it doesn’t feel like we are beginning to move towards autumn, but the shorter days should be a sign. The heat we feel, however, is nothing compared to the heat of the Southwest where with the megadrought trees are dying off.
Excessive heat creates what is called a vapor pressure deficit (VPD), wherein trees have vapor sucked from them by the atmosphere. VPD also slows photosynthesis resulting in carbon starvation, making them more prone to insect attacks.
With each degree in temperature rise, caused by reliance on fossil fuels, VPD increases even more, endangering even more trees that absorb carbon. But the politicians who ignore science and get their contributions from oil don’t care. It’s our children who will pay the price for their greed.
Prayer for the Day
Almost dreading the sunrise, we sit in air-conditioned darkness,
But so much of the world simply swelters in the heat;
Every once in a while, O God, we remember past summers,
And our memory tells us they were not this way.
More than rousing us, push us, O Lord, into action,
Taking on the powers and principalities destroying your earth.
In the name of the One who showed us how to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
There is uniformity across this large global database. It shows temperature has played a really important part in tree mortality.
William Hammond, plant ecophysiologist, University of Florida
In 2024, renewable energy has still not supplanted fossil fuels. Consumption of greener sources of energy has grown since 2020, but more fossil fuels are burned for electricity with each passing year.
Joe Purtell, environmental journalist
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark against your foes,
To silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars that you have made, what are we that you mindful of us,
Human beings that you care for us.
Psalm 8: 1-4