Today is the opening day of COP (Conference of Parties) 27, the annual UN conference on climate change. This year it is in Sharm El-Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Now, one would wonder why all this hullabaloo about this conference. First, it is in Egypt, a nation not known for tolerating political dissent. Then, one may ask why Coca-Cola, called the world’s worst plastic polluter is one of the main sponsors? Coke, BTW, has promised to have 25% reusable packaging by 2030. What takes so long?
In the light of all this, greenhouse gas emissions are projected to hit a new high while governments issue pious platitudes, and rather than a 45% decrease needed to keep our climate at least at this level, most countries will increase their emissions by 10.6%.
When I hear projections about sea level rise by 2050, I figure I’ll be long gone by them, but the next generation will have to live with what we are doing. Already many species are trying to move or swim to cooler temperatures but that won’t protect them at the rate we are going.
Prayer for the Day
As we finagle with our sense of time moving clocks backwards,
The morning light is earlier as we wake today, O God;
We wonder how that light comes to the rest of the world,
Where people live by nature’s clock of light and dark.
Grant that we may realize that our lives impact the future,
So we protect it for the children yet to be born,
In the name of the One who touched the earth lightly,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The world must step up and protect people and communities from the immediate and ever-growing risks of the climate emergency. We have no time to lose.
- Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General
The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing.
- Greta Thunberg, climate activist who pointed out Egypt’s lack of human rights
Are you seated at the table of the great? Do not be greedy at it,
And do not say, “How much good there is here!”
Do not reach out your hand for everything you see,
And do not crowd your neighbor at the dish.
Judge your neighbor’s feelings by your own, and in every matter be thoughtful.
- Sirach 31, 12, 14-15