At the end of 2011, the Global Carbon Project reported that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion grew by nearly 6% in 2010—the highest annual growth on record. If these rates continue, temperatures could increase far beyond 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.
That 2 degrees is an important figure. Governments have pledged to stay below that mark “to avoid the most dangerous aspects of climate change such as widespread water stress and sea level rise, and increases in extreme climatic events.”
About three-quarters of that increase comes from developing countries anxious to catch up with their wealthy cousins in the West, implying that those of us sucking up most of the resources are starting to get a handle on our myopic habits, despite the zealot naysayers who argue that greenhouse gases and rising temperatures are the stuff of science fiction and of little consequence to our everyday lives.
But closer examination suggests that all we’ve really done is export our problems to those developing countries that have taken on much of the energy-intensive manufacturing we used to do, while we continue to consume and waste and beg for more. And more is what we’re getting, especially when it comes to greenhouse gases.
Most credible scientists agree that a rise of just 2 degrees Celsius is enough to set off a series of global climate changes that can result in extreme weather conditions everywhere, whether droughts or floods or hurricanes or record snowfalls. Not only will the oceans continue to rise, but we could see widespread famine and disease.
In fact, rising temperatures may be threatening not only the quality of life for future generations, but also the ability of those generations to survive, whether in the next few decades or next few centuries. Add to this mix the record number of species at risk and shrinking pockets of sustainable ecosystems, and we have before us a doomsday scenario that makes the Mayan calendar seem like apocalyptic amateur hour.
Of course, it’s never easy to predict what will happen 90 years into the future, and most of us will have checked out long before we can learn if our predictions come true, let alone have to answer for our actions. Besides, even at its best, scientific theory is just that—theory. Despite the melting icecaps and record droughts and shrinking glaciers and loss of habitat and record high temperatures—all measurable, verifiable, present-day facts—we cannot know for certain what is to come at the end of the century. Yet even our most optimistic projections paint a dark and frightening future when we take into account the rapidly rising temperatures.
Even so, as a global community, as sovereign nations, as individuals, we are generally ignoring the problem and are more than willing to pass the consequences of our careless actions onto future generations.
In his book The World We Have, Thich Nhat Hanh says that each of us can do something to protect and care for our planet. “We have to live in such a way that a future will be possible for our children and our grandchildren. Our own life has to be our message.”
We all know that our planet is in danger, Thich Nhat Hanh says. The way in which we walk on the earth has a great influence on the plants and animals. “Yet we act as if our daily lives have nothing to do with the condition of the world. We are like sleepwalkers, not knowing what we are doing or where we are heading.” He believes that the future of all life, including our own, depends on us learning how to “live in a way that a future will be possible for our children and our grandchildren.”
Clearly, Thich Nhat Hanh sees no contradiction between spirituality and conservationism, a viewpoint, as it turns out, shared by numerous other spiritual leaders.
The Dalai Lama, for instance, believes that our current activities demonstrate a lack of commitment to humanitarian values and consequently threaten life on earth as we know it. Because of our greed, ignorance, and lack of respect for living things, we are destroying nature and its resources, which will result in future generations inheriting a vastly degraded planet.
It’s not just a question of ethics, says the Dalai Lama, but a question of our own survival. We have no other planet than this one, and that should be reason enough to protect it.
And it’s not just Buddhists who want to protect the environment. Sally Bingham, an Episcopal priest at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, heads the Regeneration Project. The Project is an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Recently, the Project brought together leaders from Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faith groups to ask the White House and US Congress to act on climate change.
Then there’s Joel Hunter, a Florida pastor and board member of the National Association of Evangelicals. In addition to being one of 86 Christian leaders to sign the Evangelical Climate Initiative, he was part of a coalition of over 20 religious groups that urged the Bush administration and US Congress to do something about climate change.
There’s also Richard Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs for the US National Association of Evangelicals. He thinks that evangelicals should become known for their love and care of the earth and their fellow human beings. He shares with others a belief that the Bible supports the idea that Christians have a duty to be environmental stewards.
Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, believes that Christians have a moral duty to practice sustainable consumption. In fact, the Pope himself—Benedict XVI—endorsed the need for environmental stewardship, ideas echoed by Fazlun Khalid, founder and director of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Warren Stone, founder and chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Committee on the Environment.
Then there’s Miriam MacGillis, a Catholic nun who founded the Genesis Farm in order to provide a learning center for earth studies. And Karen Baker-Fletcher, an eco-justice theologian who interprets the Bible from an environmental, womanist, and African-American perspective. And Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of over 30 million Orthodox Christians, who says that crimes against the natural world are sins and that to protect the oceans is to do God’s work.
There are more, of course. Many more. People of all faiths who believe that protecting the environment is a spiritual responsibility as well as an ethical one, people who understand that you cannot express a doctrine of family values while disregarding future families. That’s not to say that all politicians in Washington and executives in corporate boardrooms are listening, but the greater the numbers who speak up for the environment, the louder the voices become. Eventually, even the staunchest anti-environmentalist will have to listen.
“When we walk upon Mother Earth,” says Oren Lyons of the Onondaga Nation, “we always plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them.”
That’s the point, isn’t it? Never to forget the children and the grandchildren.