No Moral High Ground
Written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. ”
It isn’t your imagination; summers last longer, according to scientists. Remember the old phrase, “April showers bring May flowers?” Now, it is the end of February showers brings March flowers. According to the Washington Post article dated September 22nd by Kasha Patel, “Over the past seven decades, researchers found high summertime temperatures are arriving earlier and lasting longer in the year because of global warming.” Patel continues, “By late this century, summer could last six months, winter could be less than two.”Longer summers would have devastating consequences on farming, even having enough fresh water for the world’s population.
More frightening, even if the United States becomes the perfect example of climate change, without similar sacrifice by countries like Brazil, India, and China, our world will not experience necessary renewal. Yet rather than point the finger of accusation at these other countries, we should look further inside ourselves. It is not fair for the United States to say, “you other nations should sacrifice your economic growth,” when our own polluting helped make us the wealthiest nation in the world. Other countries want what we have, and we do not have the moral high ground to demand others to give up striving for what we possess.
As painful as it will be if our world will profoundly address the danger of climate change, we, the wealthiest nation, must sacrifice more. The U.S.’s sacrifice will give us the integrity to demand it from other, less affluent countries. Otherwise, the other nations are going to say, “You polluted to achieve wealth, now it is our turn.”Climate change is a global disaster, and the only hope for our future is a faithful global response.
Climate change is a spiritual issue because God gave humans dominion over all creation. In our ignorance and selfishness, we have destroyed a vast amount of God’s creation. We are on the brink of mutilating what God lovingly gave us. We stripped God’s world to make ourselves comfortable and wealthy. It is time to negotiate globally, to save our world before it is too late. Pray the Holy Spirit will give our nations’ leaders and each person in the world the willingness to see beyond the self, and sacrifice, so all might heal God’s creation.
