The Blue Marble in Crisis

The world around us is a place of beauty, bounty, and blessing. It’s also a dynamic ecosystem that has changed over 4.5 billion years. Now the changes are accelerating, putting our civilization and other species at risk. Our wonderful planet, spinning like a blue marble in space, is in crisis. Can we follow God’s calling to act as stewards of Earth? Let’s explore this critically important topic with perspectives from faith and science that will help our mutual well-being.

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Transcript

I remember vividly visiting my Dad’s new office in 1976. He had started a new company in the insulation supply and construction field in Joplin, Missouri. The building was a pleasant change from the huge, 60-year-old, tin-sided warehouse of his previous location. On the wall behind his desk was a large picture of Earth called, “The Blue Marble.” You’ve seen this photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft speeding toward a landing on the Moon. The Earth glows blue and white, suspended in the blackness of space like a shining globe of life in the universe. The photo became the image of a global environmental movement that has revolutionized our understanding and action about our unique and fragile planet. Now 45 years later, the Blue Marble is in crisis.

I’m Larry Payne, your host on Tracks for the Journey, a podcast dedicated to your well-being. I’ll use my experience as a pastor, chaplain, and counselor to explore some vital issues. The insights of progressive Christian spirituality, psychology, and history are the helps we need in our modern world. 

“The Blue Marble in Crisis” is the path we must explore in this episode. We love all the beautiful places on this Blue Marble, don’t we? My extended family lives in a variety of places. I’m located on the high plains of West Texas, semi-arid and flat. The family sees different views outside their windows, like the teeming urban cities of my daughters, the towering coastal redwoods of my older son, the rolling hills of the Ozarks for a nephew, the desert of Arizona for a niece, or the great mountains of northern British Columbia for my brother’s children. So much variety and beauty grabs the imagination in each of these locations! But if we’ll look closely, there is a crisis. The earth’s atmosphere is changing more rapidly than it has in 4 billion years. The danger is real.

Is there really a crisis? Some have denied the reality of climate change. Do you remember the scorn that Vice President Al Gore faced in 2006 when he released the movie, An Inconvenient Truth? He was labeled a “tree hugger” The Trump administration has promoted many leaders who reject any science about human-caused change. He led the US to be the only nation out of 196 signees to leave the Paris Agreement forging international cooperation in changing the dangerous trends. In the past four years more than 100 environmental regulations or policies which promoted conservation have been reversed and canceled. 

But the truth of crisis cannot be ignored. The facts are more alarming now. The most important measure is called the global average temperature. Scientists compare the current readings with a baseline from the years 1850-1900. Since then, the global average temperature has risen about 2.5’ F. Most serious is the rapid acceleration of this increase. Nine of the warmest years on record have occurred in the past 10 years. Researchers now believe the process of warming is feeding on itself, meaning this surge in warmth will bring an even greater surge. Is this a natural process? No. It is caused by human activity that releases carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. This conclusion is actually one of the most widely held facts in all of science, supported by thousands of research efforts in every field. As Americans, we are the worst polluters on the planet. The US has 63 of the world’s top 100 polluting cities. And it’s not just the cities emitting carbon dioxide from cars and factories. Farming contributes too, with an even more potent gas, called nitrous oxide. This gas is 300% worse than carbon dioxide and will linger for 100 years in the atmosphere. It is released when fertilizers are applied to increase the yield of crops. This application has increased dramatically in the past few years.

This terrible year of 2020 has brought this into sharp focus. Ask the battered communities of the Gulf Coast, who have seen more hurricanes this year than any in history. Ask the fire-ravage communities of the American West, who have lost millions of acres and thousands of homes to the worst fires in history. Ask the drought-stricken farmers of the Midwest with the highest temperatures and lowest rainfalls in decades. In the US, seven of the past 10 years have witnessed more than 10 billion dollar disasters, which is nearly double the 40 year average. Australia had the worst bush-fire season ever, killing more than a billion animals. In Bangladesh more than one-third of the nation was flooded during monsoon season. Deadly droughts in northeastern Africa have millions without adequate food. In the next 50 years estimates are that more than a billion people will be forced to radical change because of environmental damage.

I can add a personal story to this litany of disasters. A few weeks ago a terrible wildfire burned through the coastal forests south of San Francisco, a state park that had not had fire in over a century. My older son and his family were forced to evacuate their home as the fire raged. A friend loaned them an RV as a temporary shelter for the family. We monitored the satellite imagery and the feeds on social media, seeing every hour the blaze was moving toward their neighborhood. When a news video showed firefighters working just a half-mile from their house, we prepared for the worst. After an anxious night, however, came good news. The heroic efforts of hundreds had saved their house and the little town of Boulder Creek. Three weeks later they returned to clean up the damage. Across California and the mountain West, though, thousands were not so fortunate to escape the worst fire disaster in history.

We can only imagine the emotional trauma that has been inflicted on millions of people by these climate-driven disasters. Psychologists predict the lingering effects will bring increased anxiety, depression, domestic abuse, and suicides as victims struggle to overcome the devastating changes. As a partial result of climate change, life has changed forever for these global neighbors.

The Bible brings wisdom and challenge for us as we consider the environment. The Bible brims with healthy respect for the earth, guidelines for management, and a profound sense of the human role as steward. Adam’s task of tending the Garden of Eden, the goal of the Jubilee Year to let the land lie fallow every 50th year, and the condemnation of greed by Jesus are a few examples of this requirement. The Psalmist sang, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Humans are not owners, to use and abuse the planet as we will. We are charged to work as stewards for God and God’s kingdom. David Gushee and Glen Stassen, in their book Kingdom Ethics, bring the point home, writing, “Caring for God’s creation is a responsibility that belongs to all human beings. Christians, as trailblazers for God’s kingdom, should lead the way.” [395]

The most important and detailed Christian document on the environment was issued by Pope Francis in 2015. It is a direct, comprehensive, and prophetic call to action. He calls us to our responsibility saying, “A fragile world, entrusted by God to human care, challenges us to devise intelligent ways of directing, developing, and limiting our power…. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains – everything is, as it were, a caress of God.” (Laudato Si, 2015)

The year 2021 must be the year of environmental action to make progress on this divine directive. TIME magazine ran a cover story in the July 20, 2020 issue entitled, “One Last Chance: the defining year for the planet.” Scientists are clear that the failure to reduce the output of toxic gases will drastically reshape our world in the next 50 years. We must be taking action now.

Perhaps it is the voice of a teenager that speaks the loudest. Few of us can capture international headlines like the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nobel prize nominee and one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people. She has mobilized millions of students for environmental change. She lays out the challenge like this, “The emergency… is an existential one, based completely on science... Nature doesn’t bargain and you cannot compromise with the laws of physics. Either we accept and understand the reality as it is, or we don’t. Either we go on as a civilization, or we don’t. Doing our best is no longer enough. We must now do the seemingly impossible. And that is up to you and me. No one will do it for us.” (TIME 7/20/2020)

What can one person do? You can make a difference. 

First, take personal action. Learn about the reality of this threat. Turn down your thermostat. Lower your driving mileage and maximize your car efficiency. Recycle and repurpose. Buy less beef. Support organic produce. Use shared transportation. One person can build a movement.

Second, become a vocal proponent of environmental management with politicians and corporate leaders. Communicate the importance of leadership in full collaboration with the Paris Agreement. Advocate for development of clean, renewable energy and reduced use of fossil fuels. Demand that governments regulate polluting industries. Preserve natural resources from corporate exploitation. Join with other environmental activists to be heard at the highest levels.

Our action can make a difference. We all are called to be stewards of this planet.

Pope Francis ended the 2015 encyclical with a prayer. We can some of his petition ours as well.

“God of love, show us our place in this world
 as channels of your love
 for all the creatures of this earth,
 for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
 Enlighten those who possess power and money
 that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
 that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
 and care for this world in which we live.”