There’s
a song by Julie Gold that’s been sung by Nancy Griffiths and Bette Middler that’s
called, “From a Distance.” Beautiful
song. And it says that from a distance
you can’t see any of the problems that we can see all too clearly. From a distance, all you can see is the
beauty of this planet. And it is a
beautiful planet. And the only home we
have.
It’s
easy to talk about the threats the planet faces. Climate change – and I can say that because this
isn’t Florida – climate change is just what it sounds like: the changing of the climate, and those
changes aren’t going to be good for us or for the vast majority of the things
on the planet that need clean air and water to live. That’d be most things.
So it’d
be easy to talk about the increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere
and what that’s doing -- and projected to do – to global temperatures and
weather patterns. It’d be easy to talk
about the diversity of plants and animals that are dying off; easy to talk
about rising sea levels and the destruction of essential habitats. (Including ours.) It’d be easy to talk about the apathy, the
indifference, the sheer ignorance of so many among our political leaders and
the ordinary person on the street. All
of that would be easy; ad all of that you’ve heard before. As one of our own environmental
activists put is: “if we don’t have a habitable
planet, no other social justice issue will make much difference.”
When the subject of the
environment comes up it often does so in the context of how endangered it
is. Climate change – which since we’re
not in Florida I can say – climate change seems to intractable that,
Yet we needn’t simply
bemoan our fate. We can also celebrate
our successes, and there are
successes in the environmental movement.
According
to a report published by the United
Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization, we are
well on our way to repairing the damage to our ozone layer such that it might
actually recover fully in the next few decades.
Some of thought we might never see that.
From
2010 to 2013, 441 new
species have been scientifically identified in the
Amazon, including a titi monkey that purrs like a cat and a new passion flower
that sprouts spaghetti-like filaments from the center of the bloom. Various
scientists described the new species and World Wildlife Federation compiled the
list of 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 18 birds and one
mammal.
While
the West African Black Rhino has now been officially declared extinct, still
the remaining population of Northern White Rhino in Kenya is under 24-hour
protection, and the Indian Rhino has returned from the brink of extinction.
Closer
to home, Charlottesville is taking part in The
Georgetown University Energy Prize, a
nation-wide competition open to small and medium-sized localities with the goal
of reducing energy use. The Grand
Prize -- the $5 million grand prize –will be awarded in 2017. It’s exciting to note
that Charlottesville has moved into the semi-finals, competing against 49 other
communities across the country. (And
these 50 were winnowed down from the 8,000 communities who entered!) There is a city employee, Susan Elliott, whose
sole objective is to lead the EnergizeCharlottesville effort to win the grant, which has to be used to reward the community as a whole and to further its
energy savings efforts. If you
are a city resident you may have noticed Susan’s call for citizens to take
specific actions to reduce their environmental impact which appeared in the
City News that comes with the gas & water bill. In order to win the grant Charlottesville has
to show that it is already making meaningful and significant changes even without the money. We have 2 years to accomplish this; and by
our status as a semi-finalist we seem to be doing well.
Members
of our Forever Green group – formerly the Environmental Action Committee – will
be handing out something called the “Greenfaith Pledge.” It is a list dozens of things – things large
and small – that each of us can do to help reduce the damage our species is
doing to our planet. Things that you and
I can do.
Did you
know that our congregation has already been doing quite a lot to make a difference? Our
incredible Environmental Action Committee led us in a process that culminated
in our being officially recognized UUA “Green Sanctuary.” (And I’m sure that any of these folks would
be proud to tell you about all that went into that accomplishment. A couple of years ago we mounted solar panels
on our roof to help offset our dependence on fossil fuel derived electricity
(the only church in Charlottesville, I believe, to do so). This decision was controversial at the time,
but it’s exciting to be able to say that we are currently displacing
approximately 25% of our electrical energy costs here in the main church
building. (That’s roughly $1,500 a year
in savings as well as reducing our impact on the planet.)
And we
are working to further reduce our impact on our environment when we voted at
our last congregational meeting to divest our endowment fund of all fossil-fuel
related investments. (We have already sent
$200,000 of our endowment to be managed as part of the UUA’s socially
responsible Common Endowment Fund.)
Even
close to home, there are individuals and families in this congregation who are
actively and conscientiously making decisions in the way they live their lives so
as to make to make a difference. Some
have put solar panels on their homes, some are careful about what cleaning
products they use, or the kind of car they drive (and how often), the
temperature they set their thermostat, or dozens of other measures to help the environment. If you are one of these people who are
consciously trying to make a difference, would you please rise. You may not have been honored this morning as
our 2015 Eco Hero, but you are all heroes nonetheless.
Bust so
far all I’ve given you is information.
Useful information, I hope.
Inspiring, even. Yet that’s not
what makes a sermon. That’s what makes a
lecture. At best a “talk.” And if all we offer are talks and lectures,
we have already lost. If environmental
justice is a simply a cause we struggle for, then we will, in fact, be part of
the problem.
I say
that because the challenges facing the earth are not “out there.” We are not apart from the earth; we are a
part of the earth. That wonderful astrophysics
Neil deGrasse Tyson revels in pointing out that the iron in our blood is
exactly the same thing as the iron in the rocks around us, is exactly the same
thing as the iron in the stars in the universe.
We are made of the same stuff. We
are a part of the world.
And
thinking that we are apart from it, that we are separated from it and some how
different, is a good bit of how we got in this mess in the first place. Some trace it back to the Judeo-Christian
traditions which, in the book of Genesis remember God as saying that humanity
should have “dominion over the earth.”
For generations we have acted as though that meant that we could do
anything we wanted with it. We’ve acted
as though the earth and all that’s on and in it were objects for our use.
Yet
today many scholars and theologians are saying, as some scholars and
theologians have always said, that what that passage really meant is that we
are to be stewards of the earth. That we
are to care for it. As the only species
that we know of that is capable of understanding the consequences of our
actions and of thinking ahead, we have the responsibility – whether called by
God or not – to care for this place, our home.
And it’s
important that we remain mindful that the earth is not just the home in which
we live. Calling on St. Francis again,
one of his great gifts is his modeling of a recognition that everything that is
is part of one great family. The rocks,
the trees, the sun, the wind, the water, the birds, the wolves … brothers,
sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles.
This is our family, and just as we are beholden to take care of our
human families, so, too, are we beholden to care for all of our relatives.
Turning
down the thermostat is good, but why
do we do it? Because our family needs us
to. Deciding not to drive gas-guzzling
vehicles is good, but why do we make
that choice? Because our relatives are
crying out to us. As in so many other
areas there is no “us” and “them” here.
There is only “us.” One
family. One home. Let us do what we can.
Pax tecum,
RevWik
Pax tecum,
RevWik
Print this post
No comments:
Post a Comment