In a recent essay, Rebecca Solnit wrote about how we are all looking at climate change the wrong way, namely, in terms of what we must give up rather than what we will gain. She suggests that’s because we have a faulty understanding of abundance. As she writes, many of us think of our required responses on a personal level as living a life of austerity. But that’s really not the case.
Taking seriously what a monastic once told her: that renunciation can be great if you give up things that make you miserable. For instance, the soot and pollution, not to mention the stench from burning fossil fuels. WE think we can’t live without them but just think of how much money, if nothing else, we would save if we all had solar power.
Solar power doesn’t mean cutting down the trees that shade your yard; it means having huge solar farms that can provide the electricity we need. Training oil or coal workers in wind power doesn’t mean the end of a livelihood; it means longer and healthier lives for the workers. We only need to rethink what a new life could mean for everyone.
Prayer for the Day
Fearing scarcity and privation, we come to you, O God,
For relief from the uncertainty of our futures;
Concerned that our lives may be upended and diminished,
We struggle with realities we are afraid to face.
Relieve us, O Lord, from a misunderstanding of want,
And grant us wisdom to consider a new kind of abundance.
In the name of the One who came to give us life more abundantly,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We need a large-scale change in perspective. To reframe climate change as an opportunity — a chance to rethink who we are and what we desire.
- Rebecca Solnit, from her essay in The Washington Post
There’s so much pollution in the air right now that if it weren’t for our lungs, there’d be no place to put it all.
- Robert Orben, American writer (1927-2023)
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live.
Deuteronomy 30:19