What's with This Autumn Heat?

Crisis Watch Sept. 25, 2023

by

A United Methodist Insight Column

One good thing from the grueling week of covering the church trial of Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño in Glenview, Ill. (in addition her acquittal) was the pleasant weather in Chicagoland. Temps were 20 degrees cooler than all summer in Texas, and the difference was refreshing. Associate Editor John Astle and I actually ate our lunchtime Chicago hot dogs al fresco after the verdict.

However, as soon as we crossed the state line from Arkansas into Texas Sept. 24, it was as if Mother Nature had flipped a switch. The cooler, rainy weather we'd enjoyed driving across The Natural State changed almost instantly to the hot, humid atmosphere we'd endured all summer. Now it's officially autumn but we're still wearing our summer clothes in North Texas.

The climate crisis threat from Summer 2023 is making inroads in superpower politics, according to Climate 202, one of The Washington Post's newsletters. Writer Timothy Puko noted on Sept. 25:

"Leaders of some of the world’s top climate institutions are ratcheting up pressure on the United States and China to forge an agreement on confronting global warming, fearing that the strained relations of these two superpowers could derail progress at international negotiations in Dubai.

"With just two months left before the annual U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP28, leaders from the United Nations, the International Energy Agency and the climate summit itself are pushing for the two superpowers to strike a deal. They see U.S.-China collaboration as key to jump-starting the international community’s lagging effort to limit rising world temperatures, which scientists say are contributing to more deadly fires, floods and storms.

"Last week’s U.N. General Assembly meetings brought hundreds of climate diplomats to the United States, many of them fretting that widespread geopolitical friction and a lack of progress on financing are imperiling COP28. Scheduled for December in Dubai, this year’s summit aims to complete the global 'stocktake,' a formal assessment of the world’s progress toward the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement and whether stronger measures are needed to meet those targets."

Our favorite creation care advocate, Bill McKibben, writes about the next big fossil fuel fight (say that 10 times fast) in his latest "The Crucial Years" blog:

"To put it simply, with the invention of fracking, America—and Canada, and Australia—ended up with huge supplies of fossil gas. It’s not really needed—we could, more cheaply and much more cleanly, power the world with sun, wind, and batteries. But if that happened, the people who own these reserves would have to forego the hundreds of billions of dollars they could get for selling that gas. That is unacceptable to them; they would far rather break the planet.

"So they’re in an all-out sprint to get it to market as fast as they can, mostly by exporting it around the world. In the U.S., there are already seven giant LNG export terminals, and there are plans for at least twenty more, mostly along the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana and Texas, which are close by the giant gas fields of the Permian Basin.

"If this buildout continues, and if you counted the emissions from this gas against America’s totals, it would mean that American greenhouse gas emissions would not have budged since 2005. Under the arcane rules of global carbon accounting, exported hydrocarbons don’t count against our total—they’re the problem of the country that eventually burns them (in this case mostly in Asia). But the atmosphere doesn’t care; once burned, the carbon quickly disperses around the globe, heating the entire planet."

Between these two reports, it's a grimmer outlook than we'd like. United Methodists, especially United Women in Faith and United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, had been vigorous in their activism with local, state and federal governments on curbing emissions and switching from fossil fuels to sustainable, cleaner energy. Yet even the perennially hopeful McKibben, who just reported on the situation for The New Yorker magazine, acknowledges the danger:

"For today, let me just say: I come away from this reporting convinced that if the LNG build-out continues—here and in Canada and Australia—its sheer size will overwhelm our efforts to rein in global warming. But I’m also convinced it’s the last big gasp of this industry, and that if we can somehow stop it, then the switch to clean and renewable energy will come far more rapidly around the world. A lot is on the line."

No kidding. Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) posted this disturbing note in its Sept. 25 newsletter:

"Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction Is Underway and 'Rapidly Accelerating,' Study Warns

"In a new study, researchers warn that Earth's sixth mass extinction is rapidly accelerating, Ivana Saric at Axios reports. According to the study, animal species are going extinct at rates 35 times faster than the historical norm over the past million years. Furthermore, the study found that habitat destruction, illegal trade, and climate disruption will likely continue to drive extinction rate acceleration in the coming decades. By losing entire branches of genera, 'we're losing the capability of the planet to maintain life in general, and to maintain human life in particular,' Gerardo Ceballos, the study's lead author, stated."

PRRI will hold a webinar "The Faith Factor in Climate Change" at 9 a.m. Oct. 4 on its new survey of "how religion impacts American attitudes on climate and environmental policy." Register here.

So, what's with this autumn heat? It's the climate crisis, friends, and it isn't going away as seasons change.

Transform your eco-anxiety and other encouragements

After all this bad news, here are some things to help us all cope.

Faith in Place, the Midwestern creation advocacy group, will sponsor a session during its Oct. 8-10 Green Team Summit with "Brown Girl Green" Kristy Drutman, author of Transforming Eco-Anxiety: The Role of Spiritual and Self-Care Practices in Navigating Climate Trauma. Faith in Place's announcement describes Kristy Drutman as "a Jewish-Filipina environmental media creator and founder of Brown Girl Green, a media platform exploring the intersections between media, diversity, and environmentalism. She is also the founder of the Green Jobs Board, an online platform bridging the equity and inclusion gap within the green economy. Check out Kristy's Green Jobs Board here."

Meanwhile, the World Association of Christian Communication is working to assure that people of faith understand the language and meanings of climate advocates. Recently the WACC published a report by WACC Program Manager Sarah Macharia on the Africa Climate Summit 2023 on September 4–6 in Nairobi. Macharia notes the crucial role that faith communities' communicators can play in educating believers about the facts of the climate crisis. The WACC is a worldwide non-governmental organization committed to securing rights to communication as much as rights to food, shelter, security and medical care. Dr. Glory Dharmaraj, a key educator and communicator UWF's predecessor United Methodist Women, is past president of WACC's North America region, so there's clear linkage with United Methodist efforts. Reach Macharia's report.

Another of our favorite Christian climate advocates, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, writes that she was encouraged by the participants at the recent Climate Week in New York City. She writes in her newsletter:

"Who's stepping up to address the climate crisis? After spending the last week at #ClimateWeekNYC, it’s clear the answer is – nearly everyone. Journalist Cara Buckley describes Climate Week as “a showcase of human innovation, the countless ways people in many industries are working to slow and potentially reverse the enormous harms humans have done to the planet” – and I agree!

Hear more from Dr. Hayhoe: "You can listen to my conversation with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, facilitated by Juliet Eilperin from the Washington Post, on recent weather extremes and how we can fuel action; explore ideas on how to accelerate the global energy transition with Columbia University’s Jason Bordoff, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, and Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen; and join Dan Costa from Worth Magazine and I as we discuss how to get everyone involved in tackling the climate crisis."

Dr. Hayhoe also praises President Biden's announcement of a Climate Corps "to employ 20,000 young people to plant trees, build solar panels and wind turbines, help restore wetlands, and implement sustainable agricultural solutions. And that’s not all. The state of California already had a state Climate Corps, and this week the governors of Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah announced they’d be launching their own programs too."

So it's not all doom on the climate front – but we mustn't give up on our efforts, even when it seems that big coporations are still hell-bent on burning up the planet.

Media Mentions as of Sept. 25, 2023

How LGBTQ Methodists in Kansas are navigating the church's divide | KCUR

Reflections from the pulpit: Long's Chapel pastor discusses disaffiliation journey | News – The Mountainee

White Hall's Christ United Methodist Church to celebrate 200 years - Jacksonville Journal-Courier

New Hope United Methodist Church formed by merger of Winfield and West Chicago churches – Daily Herald

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.