God's World Is Burning and It's Our Fault

Time to Step Up Advocacy for Public Action on Climate Crisis

July 18, 2022

5:34 PM

Ramses02 Getty Images/iStockphoto

Bristlecone pines dying

Large sections of bristlecone pine forests that have withstood challenges for 1,000 years now are dying because of the extreme Western drought made worse by the climate crisis. (iStock image)

Dear readers, if ever there were a time for United Methodists to claim fully our Christian calling as stewards of God's creation, that time is now in the face of summer heat waves that are killing hundreds of people in the Northern Hemisphere.

As the temperature in Dallas officially hit 109 degrees July 18 and commuter trains between Dallas and Fort Worth slowed because of the heat, I gathered these excerpts from current climate reporting to help congregations educate church leaders, members and the public to the urgency of pressing governments for climate crisis action now. Please use these facts and help us save God's creation – and ourselves – from the horrific consequences of the climate crisis.

From Covering Climate Today: A new global public opinion survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and Meta offers valuable insights ... "Although results vary by country, most people around the world understand that climate change is happening. They say that climate change is 'extremely' or 'very important' to them, and they are worried about it, especially about how it will affect young people and generations to come. They want governments to take action, and they believe that economies don’t have to suffer as a result. But with the exception of many European countries, the public is not hearing very much about climate change — and that includes from the news media....

"Rebecca Hersher for NPR reports: Scientists can now say how much worse climate change has made some extreme weather events, and do so faster and with more certainty. Heat waves have the clearest connection."

From the Washington Post: Scientists rush to save 1,000-year-old trees on the brink of death. Sarah Kaplan tells the tragic tale of how the climate crisis has killed off some of the most resilient trees on Earth: bristlecone pines (seee photo above). She writes:

"The trees had stood for more than 1,000 years. Their sturdy roots clung to the crumbling mountainside. Their gnarled limbs reached toward the desert sky. The rings of their trunks told the story of everything they’d witnessed — every attack they’d rebuffed, every crisis they’d endured. Weather patterns shifted; empires rose and fell; other species emerged, mated, migrated, died. But here, in one of the harshest environments on the planet, the bristlecone pines survived. It seemed they always would.

"Until the day in 2018 when Constance Millar ascended the trail to Telescope Peak — the highest point in Death Valley National Park — and discovered hundreds of dead and dying bristlecones extending as far as she could see.

" '... It’s like coming across a murder scene,” said Millar, an emerita research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service who has studied bristlecone pines for the better part of 40 years.

"In a study published this spring, she and fellow researchers showed that the West’s worst drought in at least 1,200 years had critically weakened the trees. ... After outlasting millennia of disruptions and disaster, human-caused climate change is proving too much for the ancient trees to bear. Rising temperatures have caused an explosion in the populations of insects that threaten the trees and undermined their capacity to defend themselves, scientists say.

"... And bristlecones are not the only victims. At this very moment, a fast-moving fire is scorching through the iconic giant sequoia grove in Yosemite National Park. Cedars are choking on saltwater as rising seas engulf shorelines on the East Coast. A rare oak species clings to life as the Texas desert grows hotter and drier."

"A new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that climate change has pushed almost a quarter of Earth’s best-protected forests to a 'critical threshold' for lost resilience — the point at which even a minor drought or heat wave could tip them into catastrophic decline."

From Axios PM Newsletter: Europe heat wave turns deadly as France and U.K. brace for hottest days on record

"More than 1,000 people have died in Spain and Portugal from the record heat wave moving through Europe.

"The true death toll likely won't be known for weeks or longer, due to the difficulty in counting deaths in a heat event, Axios' Ivana Saric reports.

"Life-threatening conditions also swept over Britain and France, which are experiencing all-time national temperature records.

"A preliminary peak temperature in France of 108.68°F was recorded in Biscarrosse, according to the French meteorological service.

"More than 31,000 people have fled wildfires in France.

"The big picture: This is a climate change-related public health emergency. Severe heat waves are of particular concern in Europe as they can often prove extremely deadly due to the lack of air conditioning, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes."

From The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The Bulletin this week will publish a special feature, ‘Silent killer’: A series on surviving the extremely hot future. Associate Editor Jessica McKenzie wrote July 18: "Earlier this month, at least 10 cities in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas broke high-temperature records, some by as much as six degrees Fahrenheit. Last week, Texas officials asked residents and businesses to conserve electricity during the hottest times of the day to help avoid overwhelming the grid, as temperatures climbed above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, reaching 113 degrees in Somerville, a small town about an hour’s drive northwest of Houston.

The first installment, Are cities ready for extreme heat? by John Morales begins:

"Heat is the silent killer. It doesn’t roar like the winds in a hurricane or tear roofs off homes like a tornado. But it is deadly, all the same. In the United States, heat kills more people than any other weather hazard. As global warming drives average temperatures higher, dangerously hot episodes can be expected to proliferate. It is extremely unlikely that temperatures could have reached their deadly-hot levels in India without manmade global warming—levels that researchers say were made 30 times more likely by the climate crisis."

From The Washington Post's The Climate 202 newsletter: Climate change is pushing hospitals to tipping point .

"When an unprecedented heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest last July, emergency rooms sought any way possible to lower the core body temperatures of patients coming in droves with heat-related ailments.

"Many emergency departments in the region began putting people in body bags filled with ice to help safely adjust their temperatures. But despite their lifesaving efforts, around 1,000 excess deaths occurred from the brutal heat.

"The scramble to save lives paints the challenging reality that many hospitals and medical workers are facing again this year as severe weather-related health emergencies escalate because of extreme climate events.

"... According to an analysis conducted by World Weather Attribution, that excessive heat wave was made at least 150 times more likely from human-induced climate change.

"... Renee Salas, a researcher at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University and contributor to the series, says that doctors have a moral obligation to speak out against fossil-fuel use and other planet-warming activities.

“'The burning of fossil fuels, the root cause of both air pollution and climate change, threaten medicine's core mission. They harm health and threaten health care delivery, making our jobs not only harder, but sometimes impossible.'”

Season of Creation 2022

The theme and logo for the ecumenical observance Season of Creation 2022.

UM Creation Justice Movement plans for Season of Creation

This summer's excessive heat gives new urgency to the annual ecumenical observance, Season of Creation. This year's theme is "Listen to the Voice of Creation." UM Creation Justice Movement reports: "The central image for the season is the burning bush where Moses listened to God's voice through this remarkable aspect of creation." Unfortunately the burning bush has a double meaning after this summer's heat waves.

The creation justice movement's email says: "As we prepare to lead our congregations in worship using this theme and central image, on July 27 at 4 p.m. Pacific, (5pm Mountain, 6 p.m. Central, and 7 p.m. Eastern) we have the opportunity to come together for a 90-minute conversation to share and plan in community.

The webinar facilitator will be Rev. Laura Baumgartner, who serves Haller Lake United Methodist Church in Seattle, WA. She also serves as chair of the board for Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light.

Register for the Zoom session HERE. After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Media Mentions as of July 18, 2022

Religious groups came together in Oregon to get gun control on the next ballot - NPR

Churches leave as United Methodists navigate schism regionally -– Tennessean.com

Free food and fuel, community members help to combat inflation costs - WXYZ

Arkansas Methodists weigh disaffiliation - El Dorado News-Times

Annual block party brings community together, supports those who need it - Yahoo News

Longview churches continue to connect through livestream | Local News – Longview News-Journal

Supreme Court cases of Maine school and Washington coach shrink church-state separation – The Washington Post

U.S. houses of worship increase security after shootings | AP News

Property dispute, LGBTQ issues center of 106 churches' lawsuit | Southwest Florida – Spot On Florida

Pastors plead for help after floods damage church, homes – The Call, Holston Conference

Metro church completes $13.1 million payment to separate from United Methodist Church – WSB-TV