So here we are, more than six months after COP 26 heading into the November COP 27 in Egypt, and what have the wealthy countries of the world done? Not much. Practically nothing. Oh, Congress did include some climate items in the “Inflation Reduction Act” after licking boots of both Manchin and Sistema. But at the same time, it weakened safeguards for pipelines that carry fracked gas and oil.
So take your pick. You can go for fracking that leads to tainted water, dead animals, and cancer or you can worry that the only thing standing in Manhattan will be the Empire State Building after the Greenland ice sheet melts resulting in a 10 foot sea rise. W, of course, can always be like the ostrich with its head in the sand.
No wonder the kids – the younger generation –are so angry. They wonder: how is it possible that the old can control the future of the young. The frightening thing is that when we who are of the older generation were young felt much the same way. What didn’t we learn?
Prayer for the Day
You have measured the heights and depths in the hollow of your hand,
Creating all that we see and all that we cannot see;
We cry out to you in an unceasing voice that only you are holy.
And beg forgiveness for our disregard of of your earth.
Give us vision so we understand what it is we are doing
And restore us to health through your holy love,
So we may enable the kingdom which you have given us
Through the One who opens our eyes and hearts,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
For many people, the concept of a changing climate might seem distant and removed — a two-millimeter rise in sea levels a year or a subtle uptick in global temperatures may appear inconsequential. But human influence is affecting the dynamics of weather systems, the periodicity of the jet stream and the moisture-holding capacity of the atmosphere.
- Matthew Cappucci, meteorologist, in The Washington Post
That retreat [Thwaites, West Antarctica], when the grounding line moves all the way to the inner shelf around 10,000 years ago, that is nowhere near as rapid as what we are witnessing now.
- Rebecca Totten Minzoni, who became a geologist after flooding from Katrina
The Lord looks down from heaven, and sees all humankind,
From where God sits enthroned, God watches all the inhabitants of the earth –
God who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.
Psalm 33: 13-15