Kamran Jebreili AP
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber
Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate and UAE's Special Envoy for Climate Change, talks during the Climate Future Week at Museum of the Future in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. Climate Future Week at Museum of the Future offered a full-throated defense of his nation hosting the talks, dismissing those "just go on the attack without knowing anything, without knowing who we are." (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
A United Methodist Insight Column
United Methodists will be well represented at the United Nation's climate conference known as COP28 opens on Nov. 30 – but this year's event is drawing even more controversy than in the past.
For starters, COP28 is being held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The UAE is a major oil-producing nation and the meeting's chairman, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, is noted for brokering big oil deals.
New information broke Nov. 27 that UAE officials plan to use COP28 to make more big oil deals. Climate advocate Bill McKibben writes in his Nov. 28 Substack blog "The Crucial Years:"
We’re still a day or two away from the official start of COP 28 in Dubai, but in some ways it seems over before it began: revelations yesterday that the host nation had used its official position to leverage new oil and gas deals around the world were a timely reminder that there are entire nations that essentially operate as oil companies, with precisely the same attention to morality as Exxon or Shell.
The documents, obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting in the UK and first published by the BBC, showed talking points for meetings between officials like Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, the head of this COP and also of the UAE’s national oil company, and at least 28 countries prior to the start of the official talks.
Among the United Methodists at COP28 are John Hill, interim general secretary for the General Board of Church and Society and longtime climate advocate; the Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards, the inaugural Climate Fellow shared between Church and Society and Texas Impact, an interfaith advocacy organization; and the Rev. Emily Carroll, a Louisiana pastor who seeks to know more about the climate crisis affecting her community. Insight will be in touch with these and other faith-based representatives as COP28 continues.
One bright spot of COP28 is the first-time Faith Pavilion, a section of the COP28 meeting devoted to faith-based perspectives and solutions to the climate crisis. UN communicator Iyad Abumoghli writes:
"We are delighted to launch the Faith Pavilion Website where you will find some useful information, updates, and links you can follow to attend or know what’s happening. You can refer to the Programme for each day, download the Faith Pavilion Guidebook of sessions and Speakers, as well as learn about participating organizations. You can also refer to UNEP’s Faith For Earth special page for COP 28."
United Methodist climate activists will want to keep tabs on COP28 through the Faith Pavilion website.
Warmer winters since 1970
When your humble columnist moved to Texas in 1988, I found myself needing to buy "winter" clothes after a lifetime of living in sun-drenched Florida. After the spate of warmer-than-previously fall days, my spouse and I were discussing how it seemed that Texas winters are now more on a par with Florida winters, whereas Florida winters are now more like spring.
It turns out that our friends at Climate Central agree with us. Their "winter package" of climate date includes the following map, showing how U.S. winters have warmed by nearly 4 degrees since 1970.
Winter Warming
Climate Central Map
These alarming data bring with them concerns about people's health and the viability of both plants and animals that are used to cold winters as part of their life cycles. Some even need cold winters for their overall development. Says Climate Central:
- Meteorological winter starts December 1, and is the fastest-warming season for most of the U.S. — affecting snowfall, water supplies, winter sports, spring allergies, summer fruits, and more.
- Winters have warmed in 233 U.S. locations from 1970 to 2022 — by 3.8°F on average.
- Warm winter days now happen more often. About 84% of locations now have at least seven more winter days above normal than in 1970.
- In our warming world the coldest days aren’t as cold, and cold snaps are shrinking.
- Warming winters affect public health, water supplies, agriculture, and recreation.
How are warmer winters affecting your church and community?
Managing public lands
Maxine Joselow, who writes the Climate 202 column for the Washington Post, reported Nov. 28:
"For decades, the federal government has prioritized resource extraction — mining, grazing, and oil and gas development — on public lands across the American West.
"That has changed under President Biden, who has directed the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management to put more emphasis on conservation and clean-energy development. It represents a seismic shift for the 80-year-old agency that oversees about a tenth of the nation’s land mass, The Washington Post’s Tim Puko reports.
"Environmentalists have praised the bureau’s policies, saying they will safeguard public lands from the overlapping threats of climate change and development. But Republican state officials have slammed the proposals, saying they will devastate the drilling and mining industries."
Faith-based climate advocates might keep an eye on how the BLM fares with its news emphasized conservation policies.
Media Mentions as of Nov. 28, 2023
Joy in the Morning - Latino ministry finds a welcoming home at Fern Creek UMC – Kentucky Annual Conference
Hood Seminary announces Dr. Vincent Howell as director of the Doctor of Ministry program – Religion News Service
Faith and Values: The right thing to do can often be found at the intersection of alert and vigilant – The Spokesman-Review
He's got a Rice business degree; now he's focused on finding the best use for church buildings – Baptist News Global
United Methodist Church officials speak on Trinity closure - KCBY
Members of recently-closed Eugene church stage protest - YouTube
Congregants voice anger, frustration at closure of Trinity United Methodist Church in Eugene – KVAL
New leadership strengthens mission initiative - UM News
Tribute service held for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church – Chicago Tribune
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An award-winning religion journalist who has reported on The United Methodist Church at all levels for 35 years, Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011. "Crisis Watch" forms part of Insight's participation in Covering Climate Now, an international collaboration of some 500 news outlets around the world committed to enhance climate coverage. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please email Insight for permission.