The defining issue of our time

The Very Rev Dr John Chalmers emphasises the need to take urgent action on climate change.

IT’S not every day that inspiration comes from the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches but following the frenzy and then the fudge at COP26 (the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow in November) it was good to read their press release which said:

“The science of climate change is implacable, not amenable to negotiation, and unforgiving of political short-termism,” and adds: “This is the last crucial decade for climate action to avoid the catastrophe long foretold. In Glasgow our political leaders have once again procrastinated on taking the actions that the climate emergency demands and diminished the window of opportunity for taking that action.”

It is of great concern that it is proving so difficult to shift the thinking of those who own and control the systems which are leading us into such danger. Perhaps the leaders of governments and industries are leading their lives too far removed from the realities that are being faced by those who are living beside rising oceans, expanding deserts and burning forests. It is salutary lesson that it takes a teenager to point out that not everyone suffers equally in this global crisis. Greta Thunberg for whom COP26 was “Blah, Blah, Blah” also reminds us that: “Africa is being disproportionately hit by the climate crisis, despite contributing to it among the least. Africa is a key in the fight for climate justice and now faces both huge risks as well as many opportunities to develop sustainable societies which put people and planet first.”

Africa cannot do this on its own. Only a new form of global community and a proper understanding of the place of women and men in the order of creation can help.

Reflecting on COP26, Professor Tim Gorringe, Emeritus Professor of Theological Studies at the University of Exeter points to a deep truth when he reminds us that the ‘adam’ of the creation story was formed from the earth. “Humans,” he says, “are part of creation. They do not live in an environment but are indissolubly linked with every other part of creation: everything, as the ecologists tell us, is related to everything else.” So, this movement is not about saving the planet – this planet, to which we have given the name earth, will be here long after us. This movement is not about saving a way of life – for it is this way of life that is killing us.

This movement is about a transformation of our way of living – away from ‘me’ to ‘us’ and towards the great lesson that the Covid pandemic is teaching us, that no one is safe until everyone is safe.”

Gorringe in his reflection on COP26 also uses the metaphor of the second creation story in Genesis 2 to underline the role of adam as being that cog in the creation wheel who is given the responsibility for tilling and keeping the garden. In Genesis 2 the garden represents the whole earth, and we should be lured into thinking that somehow or another the story of the fall annuls the responsibility that those who are made in the image of God still have for this planet which we call home.

“Let’s hope that COP26 was not just “Blah, Blah, Blah” but that those who made promises will now find ways of implementing them.

Let’s hope that COP26 was not just “Blah, Blah, Blah” but that those who made promises will now find ways of implementing them. On the matter of implementation the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches was also clear and unequivocal: “we need a series of important new initiatives taken to mitigate the climate crisis; and [we need] a fundamental conversion –a metanoia – in all our nations, societies, churches and communities, away from the destructive exploitative path which has led us to this precipice, towards a just and sustainable future.”

It can’t be said any more succinctly, but we can add our voices to those that say climate change is the defining issue of our time and the future rests on the actions we take now.