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Thermometer
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A United Methodist Insight Column
Hot enough for you? Most of the United States is sweltering under a heat wave that most meteorologists say is being made worse by global ... let's call it "scorching" because we're 'way past "warming" now.
As a result of extreme weather effects, I'm dedicating this issue of Crisis Watch to some of the latest climate news. As always, these notes are intended to inform faith-based climate activists of news and views that can support efforts to care better for God's creation. Keep in mind that there's lots more behind these short items, so please follow links to get the full stories.
From NPR: "A great majority of Americans have been affected by extreme weather in recent years, and many suffer long-term financial problems as a result, according to a new nationwide survey conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"More than three-quarters of adults in the United States say they have experienced extreme weather in the last five years, including hurricanes, wildfires, floods and heat waves, the survey found. And most people who suffer major weather damage or financial problems do not receive money from the federal government.
"People who experience extreme weather are also more likely to consider climate change a crisis or major problem, according to the survey, titled "The Impact of Extreme Weather on Views About Climate Policy in the United States."
"The results underscore how ubiquitous and dangerous climate change is for Americans, as the hottest part of the year gets underway, and people across the country gird themselves for another year of severe hurricanes, floods, fires, and heat waves.
"... The survey also found widespread support for state efforts that would protect people from extreme weather, such as making electrical grids more resilient to storms and heat waves and upgrading infrastructure to prevent floods."
From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "Projections of sea level rise have put a countdown on several coastal cities. But a new study shows that the combination of coastal subsidence and sea level rise acts like a welcome mat for water. Using satellite data, the researchers measured subsidence rates in 99 coastal cities around the world. They found that most are sinking faster than sea levels are rising. In many cities, such as Manila in the Philippines, Tampa in Florida, and Alexandria in Egypt, this means coastal flooding will become an issue much sooner than predicted by models of sea level rise alone.
"... There is hope, though. Around 60 years ago, parts of California were sinking fast, but that subsidence was largely curtailed through changes in groundwater management. And even Jakarta’s subsidence has been cut significantly in the past 20 years, from 280 millimeters per year to 35, though it’s still not enough to save the city.
1.5 Degrees
1.5 Degrees Celsius is the border – after that, there's no going back. Unfortunately, we are at 1 Degree Celsius right now. This demonstration was put on by Fridays For Future, Sept. 20, 2019, in Bonn, Germany. (Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash)
From Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson: "Because of human activity, there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in the past four million years. We have increased the concentration of that heat-trapping gas by a full 50 percent since the Industrial Revolution. And last year’s carbon emissions of 36.3 billion tons set a new record.
"There’s your status report on the battle against climate change: By any scientific measurement, we’re losing.
"Yet we have to find a way to snatch an acceptable victory from the closing jaws of defeat, because the consequences of runaway climate change are no longer theoretical. Yellowstone National Park is closed, following unprecedented torrential rainfall that washed out roads and perhaps permanently altered the landscape. Western states are suffering through a mega-drought that has made the nation’s biggest reservoirs look like drained bathtubs; water rationing is inevitable. Around the world, deadly summer heat waves have arrived early, in the spring. Sea-evel rise is evident in video clips of beachside homes crumbling into the surf.
“... 'We should have started taking action decades ago. That’s the best time,'” James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate experts and the former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told me last week. 'The second-best time is now.'”
"Hansen is among a group of scientists who are trying a novel approach to force our government to act more boldly. On Thursday, they filed an official petition with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to require the EPA to regulate carbon under existing legislation, the Toxic Substances Control Act.
"By law, the EPA has 90 days to respond with a determination as to whether carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases pose 'an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment' under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which was signed into law in 1976 and updated in 2016.
"Deciding that carbon dioxide is a toxic substance as defined by law would only be a first step. The EPA would have to formulate and implement rules that could, for example, impose a fee on carbon emissions — and also require companies to remove carbon from the atmosphere they have already expelled."
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Bears Ears Monument
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From the Washington Post's "Climate 202" newsletter: "The Biden administration has reached an agreement to give five Native American tribes more say over the day-to-day management of a national monument in Utah, marking a new chapter in the federal government’s often-fraught relationship with tribes, your Climate 202 host Maxine Joselow scooped yesterday.
"The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service signed the cooperative agreement on Saturday with five tribes that have inhabited the region surrounding Bears Ears National Monument for centuries: the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni.
"The cooperative agreement, which is legally binding, instructs the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to 'meaningfully engage with' tribes when developing a land management plan for Bears Ears."
UN group weighs in on biodiversity
Preserving the variety of animal and plant life on Earth is key to its survival. We can get a sampling of faith-based support for biodiversity from the United Nations-related Faiths for Earth initiative. Here's the intro from its website:
"Stewarding all living things as gifts from god/divine, or deeming rights of other creatures as equal to those of humanity, or even revering some species as sacred, all religions and beliefs discourse to live in harmony with nature. These beliefs, together with practices, denote increasing concerns for the protection of biodiversity and engagement in specific actions to preserve it."
Praying for change
I hope that like me you've been receiving Discipleship Ministries daily email "Praying for Change: Daily Prayers for Anti-Racism" curated by the Rev. Derek Weber. The prayer for June 21 particularly touched me, as it remarked about a great portion of the crises we face today. Let us read and ponder these words.
Gracious God:
We come before You as a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquities.
We repent, O God, for the 500-year oppression of people of color.
We repent of the smug self-satisfaction with our material prosperity—prosperity rooted in exploitation.
We repent of our church, steeped in the cultural values of consumerism, comfort, and White supremacy.
We repent of tithing mint and dill and cumin while neglecting justice and mercy and faith.
We have, indeed, strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel.
We repent of our deliberate ignorance about race and racism, the practiced innocence and convenient naiveté that protect us from acknowledging the truth.
We repent of the myths we tell; the lies we defend; the unearned, undeserved privileges we like to call blessings.
We repent of the institutions we have built, the systems and structures, the policies and practices that created and perpetuate White supremacy.
We repent of blaming the oppressed for their oppression, masking our hate with pity and contempt.
We repent of our self-serving complacency, our pretense that time equals progress, our insistence that we are one of the good guys.
Father, forgive us, for we know exactly what we do.Lord, hear our prayer . . .
– "Prayer of Repentance for White Supremacy," Hope College, Holland MI.
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Media Mentions as of June 21, 2022
Georgia's Methodists face growing divide over tradition, LGBT inclusion - Online Athens
Dissension among United Methodists around world disappoints local pastor | News Hastings Tribune
Harbor Beach Methodist Church starts community garden – Huron Daily Tribune
Dozens of Greater Lafayette community members address gun violence - Journal & Courier
'People need help': River Valley food bank sends relief to Greenwood flooding victims –
Southwest Times Record
Christian Reformed Church Codifies Homosexual Sex As Sin At Synod '22 - Julie Roys
Understanding LGBTQ rights as part of United Methodist debate amid schism – tennessean.com
Great Falls residents discuss church's homeless camp - KRTV
Christian Reformed Church Brings LGBT Stance Into Faith Statement | News & Reporting – Christianity Today
Are U.S. churches setting the tone for reparations? How a movement is growing –northjersey.com
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please email for permission.