Typhoon Vamco (Ulysses)
Typhoon Vamco, also known as Typhoon Ulysses, covers the Philippines Nov. 11. Extreme weather events are related to the global climate crisis. (NASA Photo)
A United Methodist Insight Column
Winter is a-coming in, and while the effects of a La Niña weather pattern promise to make this winter warmer than usual for most of the United States, we still will face the prospect of heating homes with fossil fuels. Even with the economy stricken by the global coronavirus pandemic, now is the time to take another look at the kind of energy we employ to heat our homes, businesses and places of worship.
A recent article in Commonweal magazine put the situation succinctly: “The scientific consensus on what must be done to avoid a climate catastrophe is nearly unanimous: a swift, planetary shift to renewable energy sources.”
United Methodist boards and agencies have been quietly influencing the shift to renewable energy sources for several years. Wespath, the United Methodist agency that handles pension and health benefits for most clergy and some church workers, has divested from coal companies but continues to encourage the fossil fuel industry to shift to renewal energy.
According to an April article in S&P Global Market Intelligence: “Wespath Benefits and Investments … continues trying the engagement route with the industry, despite receiving ‘considerable pressure from a certain portion of the church’ to divest from all fossil fuels, Chief Investment Officer Dave Zellner said.
“Nicholas Abel, Wespath's manager of sustainable investment services, said that while engagements with some companies ‘have been challenging at times,’ the pension fund continues to believe that the oil and gas supermajors have a key role to play in helping the world transition to a low-carbon economy.
Those who worry about the effect that leaving fossil fuels could have on an uncertain economy may appreciate Wespath’s approach. Again, from S&P Market Intelligence: “Wespath only considers divestment if a company is no longer viable and engagement is no longer moving the needle. For example, Wespath divested from coal companies because holding those shares was not in the financial interests of its members, Zellner said.”
Still, the UMC and the rest of the world are aware that it’s time to get away from burning dead dinosaurs. Lincoln Steffy writes in a Texas Monthly article, ExxonMobil’s Failure to Go Green Could Worsen Its Financial Future: “The energy industry is evolving, and large fossil fuel producers like Exxon must transform or get left behind. While its major rivals such as BP and Shell have invested in renewables, like wind and solar, or shifted to producing more natural gas, which emits less carbon, Exxon has insisted on staying the course even as investors and consumers increasingly turn away from dependence on oil.
“The entire oil industry has been taking it on the chin since the coronavirus forced millions of Americans to work from home and put millions more out of work, resulting in a lot less commuting. At the same time, there’s too much oil available in the world, which is why prices have tumbled to around $40 a barrel after starting the year at more than $60 (and making a brief but stunning dip into negative territory in April).”
The Climate Beat newsletter, a publication of Covering Climate Now, reported Nov. 11: “To avoid an apocalyptic future—one shaped by intensifying heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and storms—humanity must slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, scientists with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared in a landmark 2018 report. That remains an immensely difficult challenge, requiring shifts in economic behavior at a scale and speed the scientists called ‘unprecedented’ in human history.”
Unlike Wespath’s engagement strategy, Covering Climate Now advocates that “business and financial interests the world over must shift investment and loans away from the climate de-stabilizing status quo and towards clean energy, regenerative agriculture, and other foundations of a post-carbon economy. And all this and more must be accomplished even as the diminished-yet-still-formidable wealth and power of the fossil-fuel industry continues obstructing progress.” (Full disclosure: United Methodist Insight is among some 400 news outlets worldwide collaborating with Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation that is “committed to bringing more and better coverage to the defining story of our time.”)
So here are today’s questions about the climate crisis: Where are your investments placed? Where are your church’s investments placed? Is there any way you, as a steward of God’s creation, can influence the movement away from using high-carbon fuels that are poisoning our environment and leading to mass extinction?
On the COVID-19 front
Each day when members of St. Stephen United Methodist Church gather online for morning prayer, one of us invariably lifts up a petition for care of those fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Our prayers regularly include all those infected with the deadly disease COVID-19, and all the heroic health care workers who are tending to patients despite the emotional burden of substandard working conditions and constant deaths.
After reading through my Nov. 13 email, I can add Indiana and Rio Texas conferences to the list of United Methodist leaders urging clergy and congregations to continue wearing masks, keeping physical distance and limiting in-person gatherings. I also came across this summary by Catherine Lynne Troisi, Associate Professor of Management, Policy, and Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, in an article on The Conversation:
“A change in administration in January will bring a new pandemic strategy for the United States.
“ … The United States is currently experiencing a major increase in COVID-19 cases, with over 1 million new cases logged in just the first 10 days of November. Over 240,000 people with COVID-19 have died in the U.S. to date. The Trump administration’s tactics of pretending this upsurge is not happening, dismissing the benefits of mask-wearing and physical distancing and blaming increases in case counts on increased testing are not viable methods to control the pandemic.”
Heartbreaking as it is to be physically distanced from all those we love, we must endure the separation for the sake of slowing and stopping the deadly virus. Please forego holiday travel this season and celebrate with your loved ones via online platforms. It won’t be long before a new presidential coronavirus team of qualified experts is in place to take life-saving action against COVID-19. As Galatians 6:9 says, in due season we will reap the harvest – in this case a harvest of health – if we don’t grow weary in “doing no harm” through prevention.
Media Mentions as of Nov. 13, 2020
Why Trump's electoral crisis is really a moral crisis – Religion News Service
This is a massive failure of character among Republicans — with evangelicals out in front _ Washington Post*
Amid cries for church unity post-election, some Christians say 'Not so fast' – Religion News Service
'You can't just jump to hope': Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on healing after the election – Religion News Service
Progressive Methodist congregations in Athens 'in limbo' after delayed denomination split – Red and Black
At dinner parties and game nights, casual American life is fueling the coronavirus surge – Washington Post**
A fall coronavirus disaster is already here. We can’t wait until Inauguration Day to act. – Washington Post**
As coronavirus soars, hospitals hope to avoid an agonizing choice: Who gets care and who goes home – Washington Post**
‘Catastrophic’ lack of hospital beds in Upper Midwest as coronavirus cases surge – Washington Post**
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**The Washington Post is making its coronavirus coverage free as a public service.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. "Crisis Watch" is Insight's ongoing effort to report on the triple crises currently facing The United Methodist Church and the world: the climate emergency, the coronavirus pandemic, and racism.