When I arrived at the Sept 20, 2019 Global Climate Strike, my first sight of the crowd lifted my spirits in a way I hadn’t expected. All the images of the planet, most on handmade signs, made me realize that a planetary consciousness is emerging now on a greater scale, especially among the younger generations, an awareness of our oneness with planet Earth and with all the peoples who live here.
I was heartened by the sight of so many schoolchildren, including those who had initiated the event at Philadelphia’s City Hall.
I was pleased to see young people recruiting others into their movement to heal the planet and slow climate change.
It was sobering to listen to 16-year old Sabirah Mahmud, a local high school student who helped organize the event. Her family comes from Bangladesh, a low-lying country experiencing catastrophic flooding due to the rise in sea levels. From the stage in front of City Hall, she told about family members who have died because of toxic pollution. I was glad to see people listening, and learning about what’s happening in a distant place. Although some areas are harder hit right now, climate change is a global event. Because the changes disproportionately affect the poor, addressing climate change is an issue of justice. Conflicts will escalate as resources like arable land and clean water become more limited; addressing climate change is essential to peace on the planet.
I’ve known about global warming for decades. Many years ago I watched a documentary with other members of my Quaker meeting which explained that climate change would be slow until the oceans and forests were saturated and could no longer absorb more greenhouse gasses.
At that point, there would be a rapid rise in these gasses in the atmosphere. Temperatures, which had been rising very slowly, would suddenly rise more rapidly. Then the polar caps would melt. After the glaciers completely dissolve, the rise in temperatures will accelerate even faster.
I have long known that unless we stopped pouring greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the destabilization of the climate would reach a tipping point when catastrophic events would happen. Nonetheless, it all seemed distant. Modest commitments like the Paris Climate Agreement seemed hopeful. Mostly, however, I was lulled by the pervasive denial in our culture. As a society we rarely talk about climate change. The steps we‘ve taken to curb our emissions have been important, but minor in terms of what is really needed to address the problem. It’s not only those who benefit financially from continuing to pour carbon and methane into the air who are denying what the scientists have been predicting. Whether or not we believe the scientists, almost all of us have been denying what’s happening in a functional way, in terms of how we are living our lives and the causes to which we contribute our time, attention, and resources.
The news that’s been coming out in the past several years has been really shocking.
Record-breaking temperatures all over the globe, year after year for the past decade. Massive forest fires, more furious hurricanes, catastrophic floods, rising oceans. Now scientists are telling us that things are worse than they had predicted. They hadn’t accounted for everything that would happen, such as how much carbon would be released into the air as the arctic permafrost begins to melt. The raging forest fires are accelerating deforestation faster than expected, releasing enormous amounts of carbon that had been safely sequestered in the trees.
The existential anguish of the young people is warranted.
Their future will be dominated by increasingly catastrophic changes, not only in rising temperatures and extreme weather, but in the collapse of food supplies and the economy. The numbers of refugees will continue to rise, not only globally but also within our country, as flooding increases in coastal cities.
But in order to do so, our denial must end.
We must address the problem not only at the level of our own consumption and emissions; we must also expose and fight the corporations and businesses that want to keep making money off the destruction of the planet. Economic forces have co-opted our democracy, and addressing climate change requires addressing political corruption.
Humanity must recognize our true place in the natural world and learn again from the Earth how to live here in a sustainable way.
We also need to reconnect with our spiritual nature, with the Light of God that shines within each of us and which can guide us toward a hopeful future, if we pay attention. Our energy, our intelligence, our resources, our actions, and our prayers must focus on what is needed for us to come back into harmony and to sustain life on Earth. Just as the scientists have not foreseen all the ways that climate change would accelerate, they are also ignorant of some of the ways that we can rise to the challenge, with divine guidance.
I pray that our society, and societies all over the planet, will heed the plea of the children who came out for the Global Climate Strike. I pray that collectively we choose life.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. … This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. —Deuteronomy 30:15, 19-20 (NIV)
Choose Life: Impressions from the Global Climate Strike: If you participated in the global climate strike or paid attention to news reports about it, what did you learn from it? What are your hopes and prayers? What are your intentions related to addressing the causes of climate change?
© 2019 Marcelle Martin
A Guide to Faithfulness Groups and Our Life is Love: the Quaker Spiritual Journey, both by Marcelle Martin, are available from Inner Light Books in hardback, paperback, and ebook. Both books are designed to help individuals and groups explore their spiritual experiences and actively engage in God’s work of making this world a better place for all. To order multiple books for a study group, postage free, contact us.
Participating in a faithfulness groups is a powerful practice that enables members to support each other in hearing how God is calling and guiding them, and in being faithful. Attend a free webinar on Thursday evening, October 24 on Faithfulness Groups: An Introduction. 8-9 pm Eastern time. Sponsored by Releasing Ministry Alliance.
More Resources to connect with divine guidance:
Find a Quaker Meeting near you: Quaker Finder
Organizations Involved in Helping to Protect the Earth:
Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) is a grassroots, nonviolent action group including Quakers and others working together for a just and sustainable economy. Read one member’s award-winning memoir about how becoming active with EQAT gave her life new purpose, meaning, and energy: Renewable by Eileen Flanagan.
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) is a network of North American Friends (Quakers) and other like-minded people who are taking spirit-led action to address the ecological and social crises of the world.
Sunrise Movement Sunrise is a movement of young people dedicated to stopping climate change and creating millions of good jobs in the process. They want to elect leaders that will stand up to special interests and make the health and well-being of people and the planet a priority.
350.org 350 is an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
Sierra Club The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world.