Over the last few weeks I’ve been recommending some excellent environmental newsletters for you to check out. They focus on the loss of biological diversity and the dire effects of climate change, as well as what is being done to counter them.These are newsletters I regularly read myself to learn as much as I can. If you haven’t figured it out already, this column is written by an amateur. I’m not a climate scientist or a biologist. My lifework has been entirely in the humanities. But I’m a good researcher. Every week I read many newsletters and articles by journalists and organizations where the articles have been fact checked. I try to pick out stories that will interest members of St. Stephen’s and other readers. I include links, with commentary, so readers can follow up. I’ve now been writing this column, off and on, for five years.
I’ve done this because, although I’ve been an environmentalist “lite” since my thirties, I became increasingly alarmed in the last decade about the fate of humanity. I want the world to be a livable place for my grandchildren and all the people who live in areas where the climate is already getting unsafe for human life. I also have come to see that the way people traditionally have interpreted what the Bible says about humanity’s relationship to creation is wrong. God never meant that we should exploit creation. God wants us to care for it.
In this column I focus a lot on ways ordinary people can start to live sustainably now, because eventually we will be forced to do so. And I believe that the more of us who commit to living sustainably, the more quickly the carbon polluters and their political allies will be forced to change. So I hope that you who read this column use it to learn as much as you can about the climate and biodiversity crises and how to live sustainably. Then, please, use that knowledge to make changes in how you live. Even if we have been trying already to live lightly on the earth, there are always new things to do.
Thanks for your commitment to praying and caring for God’s creation!
