BeFriending Creation
The earth is growing hotter as a result of choices we have made. The signs are all around us in rising yearly average temperatures, melting glaciers, expanding deserts, increasing rates of extinctions, and weather extremes. There is unity within the scientific community that this is serious, that it is caused by human activity, and that the consequences of a failure to address global warming will be catastrophic.
We have a small window of opportunity. Over the course of the next nine years, if humanity fails to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, the result is likely to be a sea level rise of 10 to 13 feet per century until the level stabilizes at 80 feet above today's level. Loss of productivity in ecosystems and crops worldwide will also occur, resulting in mass starvation.
We appeal to Friends to make this concern a priority in our families, communities, and meetings, and to commit ourselves to learn more about this urgent planetary crisis, so that each of us may discern further actions that will be required of us.
Some actions that we can recommend at this time include:
- Reduses a drawing of a centipede to illustrate the many-faceted challenge of getting the world to act effectively on global climate change.uce our own greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent in the coming year by cutting driving, flying, and residential energy use. Walk and bicycle more, use mass transit and fluorescent light bulbs.
- When we have cut our own use of fossil fuel, labor with others to help them do the same.
- Labor with our legislators and if that doesn't work, replace them.
We urge Friends as individuals and as Meetings to engage in the conversation and stay with it. Meetings should institute quarterly threshing sessions to discern how we are led corporately to act.
Some of the changes that concern us deeply we can not escape. But others we can if we act responsibly now and into the future. The consequences of not acting are unthinkable for us, our children, and our grandchildren.
Friends, we urge you to attend to our call. For the love of everything you hold most dear, please take up this concern now and carry it back to your Meeting.
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*Shared with Friends at the concluding Meeting for Worship, 2006 Friends General Conference Gathering, Tacoma, Washington, July 7, 2006
Many references are available on this topic such as <www.climatecrisis.org> <www.pathsoflight.us/musing> and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, found at <www.unep.ch/ipcc/>.
This document can be found on <www.LeavesofGrass.org>.
More exciting titles for the QEW video lending library
Grants from the Quaker Missions Stamp Project and the Yarnall Fund of Chestnut Hill (Pa.) Friends Meeting have allowed QEW to purchase 13 more Earthcare-related DVDs for its video lending library. These include:
David Suzuki's Sacred Balance
"We all know where home is—It's with our family, with memory and hope. But our family is far larger than we realize. ...The important thing is that if we can see and feel the web we're part of, we can change the way we act toward it." Two discs,
four parts, about 55-minutes each.
The Ecological Footprint—Accounting for a Small Planet
"We can choose to live on a depleted planet or we can choose to live on a rich, biologically diverse, more stable planet," proposes Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the Ecological Footprint. He suggests that by tracking ecological assets, we can make more informed choices." 30 min.
When is Enough, Enough? The Appetite for Oil
"A small Cree band in Alberta battles major oil companies for their land, which lies on top of one of the world's richest oil tar sands deposits." 44 min.
Blue Vinyl
"With humor, chutzah, and a piece of vinyl siding in hand, two award-winning filmmakers travel to America's vinyl manufacturing capital and beyond in search of the [toxic] truth about vinyl." 97 min.
The full list can be seen on the QEW website. To order, contact QEW office.
