As we rise to a chilly November morning, we wonder how many homes heat by cleaner forms of energy while the COP30 conference in Brazil produced a win for the fossil fuel industry by not making a call to reduce our reliance on them. The very countries that will suffer most from a warming planet are the ones that objected to language calling for fossil fuel reductions.
Courtiers like Nigeria, Azerbaijan, and Colombia, which rely on fossil fuel for income, will suffer with increasing heat and drought. Add to that Saudi Arabia and other oil rich nations, and in spite of a push, no language for reducing reliance on fossil fuels was included, only some lip service to helping countries facing the brunt of climate change.
We were not at Belem, but were in Switzerland to oppose a deal on plastic production, made from fossil fuels. And then, of course, there’s the U.S. muscle against the cargo ship greenhouse gas emissions. Our future and the world’s future is being bought and sold but the people who are concerned are not those in power.
Prayer for the Day
Architect of grace, may we come together in community,
Even as there are those who would tear us apart;
Framer of our existence, may we continue to seek justice,
Never forgetting we are stewards of your creation.
Sustain us in our struggle for peace and justice,
So that we are your instruments rather than of the world.
In the name of the One who is our sustenance,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We would have liked to have more. Climate change needs more battling, more action. We’re living through complicated geopolitical times. So there is value in itself, intrinsic value, no matter how difficult, to seek to come together.
E.U. Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra
Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last stream poisoned, will the white man realize he cannot eat money.
Unattributed Native American saying
Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it because it is in their power.
They covet fields and seize them; house, and take them away;
They oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance.
Micah 2: 1-2