this is an email i wrote a while back, in response to a question to a group of us (my extended family), by my son, wondering if the climate crisis was the moral issue of our time, and asking for the christians in the group (of whom i am not one) for their perspective.
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good question, logan, and i’ve been pondering it. i think you’re onto something.
bill – in case you missed that day in 5th grade, weather is not climate, and my guess is that people who call this a question of weather are trying to get you and me to trivialize it.
here are a few guys at the pentagon who think that climate change is problematic – when the droughts become larger and longer and the water is harder to get, we have tension over what water and land and food there is, large scale refugee pressures and so on.
http://thehill.com/policy/
http://mediamatters.org/blog/
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/22/
well, those are about security and maybe you’ve already seen them, but the question is the moral issue of our time.
so i take that to mean the moral issue for me – where do i need to look to keep my conscience clean? and why is it so hard to take the problem seriously?
here’s a book i read recently which i recommend: don’t even think about it – why our brains are wired to ignore climate change. you can get it for $2 for your kindle.
here’s one i have not read, but it showed up when i googled ‘christian climate scientist’. the person i was looking for was katherine hayhoe. i don’t see the original article but there is plenty more, including a ted talk. (she’s a professor at texas tech and was surprised when moving to the usa that the christians were having so much trouble with it, since the bible talks about being stewards of the earth) www.amazon.com/gp/product/
anyway – the moral issue – am i willing to question my ideology to look at the facts? the problem with looking at the facts of course, is that when i do, i may have to change my thinking and then i may have to change what i’m doing. oh s**t. i’d rather not do that.
my mama taught me something about morals – that you do what’s right even if you don’t like it and even if no one else knows about it.