The earth is in a hurt right now. And you and I know it. Time to get out in it. But if you can't right now, then at least you can read about it, with feeling. We are launching Insider Fly Fishing with people like Rob Smith, who wrote these words, and delivered them up on Mother's Day. Hope you enjoy them.

Scott

onFlyFishing


Stewards of Creation Sunday sermon
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix, AZ
May 14, 2006

Delivered by Rob Smith
Southwest Staff Director for the Sierra Club


In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

Good morning.

It's hot out and getting hotter. And when it gets hot, our family's thoughts turn to traveling up north. A favorite place of ours is Glacier National Park in Montana.

One of the most popular and beautiful hikes in Glacier National Park is the Grinnell Glacier Trail. The trail goes up a valley and ends at what was – less than 100 years ago -- the foot of a huge wall of ice. The Grinnell Glacier is still there, but the trail now ends at a small lake filled with melt water. The glacier itself is no longer reachable by trail.

At the time, I remember feeling disappointed at not being able to walk to the glacier. Now I feel alarm about why I couldn't.

The Grinnell Glacier is telling us something profound. Most of the park's glaciers have melted away since they were first recorded in 1850. The National Park Service projects that Glacier National Park could become No Glacier National Park within my children's life time – and possibly even my own – if things don't change.

This is happening at almost every glacier and ice field around the world. The Earth is heating up.

According to climatologists, the world's average temperature has risen 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. One degree may not sound like much. But it's the difference in some places between ice -- and liquid water. On a world wide scale, the increased glacial melt water has resulted in an ocean level rise of as much as half a foot since 1900.

What's even more alarming is that the rate of warming is speeding up. The 1990s was the warmest decade on record. Most years after that have been still hotter. The next 100 years may see global temperature increases of 3-7 degrees Fahrenheit. For perspective on what a few degrees can do, consider that the last Ice Age was only about 9 degrees cooler than now.

This rate of change is 30 times faster than naturally occurring climate cycles.

There is no scientific uncertainty about this. And we know why this is happening.

The rise in the global temperature coincides with industrialization. Burning coal to make steam and burning oil for transportation has released carbon dioxide into the air in such large quantities that the Earth's atmosphere has become loaded with it. Carbon dioxide captures the heat from the sun and warms the Earth. There's just enough naturally occurring carbon dioxide to make life possible on our planet. But adding to it is like throwing another blanket around the globe to warm it up. And each year we add another blanket.

The Genesis lesson today says man should subdue the Earth -- and we've certainly done that. But it also says that “God saw all that he had made, and it was good.” So are we doing the Lord's work by changing the global climate?

Consider the consequences.

Warmer air warms the oceans. Warmer oceans feed more moisture into tropical storms, which fuels hurricanes. . In the last 30 years the number of major hurricanes has doubled. We've recently seen the most devastating hurricane in 200 years -- and the first hurricane ever recorded in the South Atlantic

James reminds us that we serve God through how we treat the neediest among us. Climate change hurts those people most -- who have the least -- and who can't move. A look at the neighborhoods and people of New Orleans will tell us that. It's a great irony – some might even say an injustice – that the people who contribute the least to the problem will suffer the greatest harm.

Climate scientists predict that the oceans may rise another 3 feet or more by the end of this century. In Bangladesh, 10 million people live within 3 feet of sea level. Where will they go? What would God have us do with these environmental refugees?

The low-lying island nations of the South Pacific are vulnerable to inundation. One country, the nation of Tuvalu, is already planning to evacuate its entire population to New Zealand – more than a thousand miles away -- and many have moved already.

The most rapidly warming sea on Earth is the Indian Ocean. This has triggered drought by weakening the monsoons across sub-Saharan Africa, including the Darfur region of western Sudan. People desperate for water have come in conflict with one another due to climate change.

No wonder that since 2003 the Pentagon has identified global climate change as a national security concern.

Genesis says that God created the water and the air first so that everything else, including us, would have a place in which to live. We are altering the water and the air, the foundation for life on Earth, and that's jeopardizing the wellbeing of the rest of Creation.

Coral reefs are beginning to bleach to death by warmer seas, and the fish life dependent upon them is disappearing. As the sea ice melts in the Arctic Ocean, polar bears are drowning in the open water. They may go extinct in our children's life time if the ice flows on which they survive vanish beneath them. The rain forests have lost tiny colorful gifts of God like the golden toad and harlequin tree frogs as warmer air dries up the mists which used to shroud the trees and provide essential shade and moisture.

Unfortunately, some things thrive in warmer conditions, such as malaria and dengue fever, and they are spreading.

What the insurance industry calls acts of God – storms, floods, drought, disease – now have become, in fact, acts of man. We are playing God with Creation -- and it is not good.

America has only 5% of the world's population, but emits more than one quarter of all carbon dioxide because of our energy intensive lifestyle. Luke reminds us in the lesson that the righteous life is not about possessions, and in later verses tells us, to whom “much is given, of him much shall be required”. I believe we should be leading the way to reversing global warming. It is time to repent and change our ways.

We have already committed the next generation to living with the effects of a 1 degree world temperature increase. Scientists tell us that we need to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 70% to avoid even further damage to the Earth.

We know what to do to control global warming, and we could start immediately. This is not problem waiting for a solution we don't yet have. Rather, this is a problem waiting for the will to do what needs to be done.
We can make personal choices, and there is lots of information available to help. But in addition, there are some things which need to be done as a community. So we can join with our Presiding Bishop and other denominations in calling for national and international action to address climate change.

James' epistle reminds us that religious people take action. Recently our church youth groups identified in just 20 minutes some obvious ways we can save energy here at Trinity. We could make our Cathedral an example and witness for stewardship of what the Prayer Book calls “our fragile island home”.

Today we welcome some new members into the life of the church through baptism. With them, we will renew our baptismal covenant “to strive for justice and peace among all people.” Consider the course we are on and the world we are creating for our youngest people to live in. Are we truly fulfilling our covenant?

There is a term in the literature of global warming called the “tipping point”. That's the point at which things change suddenly in a major way. Climate scientists worry that there could be a global warming tipping point in our future when the rising heat causes catastrophic melting of the polar ice caps -- which then alters the ocean currents and raises the sea 20 feet or more.

The good news is that the worst doesn't need to happen. The good news is that we have been given the power – not just to subdue the Earth – but to care for Creation. The good news is that each day that God gives us we have a fresh chance to choose a better path and begin to make a difference.

So what is God calling each of us to do?
And what are we waiting for?
And what is your personal tipping point?
Amen.