Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Fortunately, the death toll from the fires burning in the West is not as high as the terrible toll from Paradise last year––so far. Confronted by Henry Crowfoot of California to “listen to science,” Trump replied, “I don’t think science knows” the planet is warming and then tried to mollify him with a weather report: “It’s getting cooler, just watch.”
But it’s not getting cooler in the Antarctic where scientists note several ice sheets are cracking and we’re not talking about a small area but an ice sheet the size of Delaware. When we hear a number like 3/5 of an inch in sea level rise, we think that doesn’t sound like much, but that seemingly small rise actually counts for a lot.
And not only is the Florida panhandle getting hit again with a hurricane but there are more storms forming out in the Atlantic. We along the Eastern seaboard have been fortunate to date but it’s only mid-September. We ignore what we are doing to Mother Earth at our peril.
Prayer for the Day
We come to you, O God, acknowledging you as Creator,
And we see the glory of your creation even in a grain of sand.
Even the wolf and the bear, the lynx and the cougar call to you
And the tortoise and the butterfly look to you in silence.
Come, O God, and remind us that we are not the owners
Of your earth and your creation, but caretakers.
In the name of him who walked among grass and lilies,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
What use is a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?
Henry David Thoreau, American writer (1817–1862)
My world, my earth is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and fought and gobbled until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first.
Ursula Le Guin, from her novel The Dispossessed (1929–2018)
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
Psalm 104:24–26