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Jonah on Climate Change

Written by Joe Turner : April 21, 2008

I’d really like to know something, please educate me if you can. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites moaned and complained and worshiped false idols, and then spent 40 years wandering around in the desert being miserable.

Another time, God sent the world’s-worst-prophet to Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria one of the enemies of the God-people. Jonah eventually proceeded to preach destruction on these people, who he really hated.

The first group were the God-people and had seen some pretty amazing things. Locusts, frogs, rivers of blood, water from rocks. The second group weren’t the God-people, presumably knew nothing of the stuff this crazy man was saying (and it is a bit of a surprise they didn’t just kill him on the spot, given he was covered in fish sick) and yet “turned from their evil ways.” What was the difference?

The reason I’m asking is that it seems to me that Global Warming is clearly the most critical issue any of us are likely to face in our lifetimes. To be frank, it scares me. Did you know, for example, that one of the leading climate scientists is now saying that the CO2 target in last year’s IPCC report was a serious overestimate? According to his calculations, the international negotiations are pointless - because they are all assuming that we can reduce the /rate/ of increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, whereas the truth is that we actually have to reduce the /absolute/ amount in the atmosphere. If true, it has massive ramifications. It isn’t good enough to stabilize the current CO2, causing economic growth. We actually have to cut back.

And given that we are within the 10% of the world’s population rich enough to actually read and understand these words, that has implications to the way we live our lives.

Or try this one: did you know that 50% of all food produced by farms in America is wasted before anyone eats it? That, if we somehow had the technology and willpower, all that wasted food in a year could meet half the annual import needs for the entire continent of Africa. That amount is just the wasted food from the UK. Imagine the amount of wasted food from all the developed countries. Think of all the cost of producing that food, only for it to end up in the dustbin.

The problem is not the thousands of people in Egypt fighting over bread or the billions living in absolute poverty, who face an even more uncertain future due to climate change. The problem is the small percentage of rich people who are taking more than their fair share: us.

I know many of us have been banging on about this for a long time. And I know there are some churches which have really grasped the message. But is anyone actually prepared to repent of their wealthy lifestyles and face up to their responsibility for our greed which is causing the climate to change? OK, we might be prepared to change a few light bulbs, but is that honestly going to stop the tsunami that is coming?

This morning in church, I heard something a bit like this from the pulpit - “Climate change is a fact. But thinking about it can paralyze us because of the magnitude of the problem. So I just want you to remember this: don’t panic, God is in control.”

Don’t panic? Millions are dying because of the human greed of a few rich fat people, and the church is telling us “not to panic?” Whilst panicking might not be the best move in the face of a global catastrophe, surely repentance is. Costly repentance. The kind that says actually my lifestyle is totally wrong and I need to change my ways, fast. God being in control in some ways is irrelevant. From my bible knowledge, it seems quite likely to me that we are going to have to live with the consequences of our actions. God being in control does not necessarily offer a Get Out of Jail Free Card for the future. So what does this knowledge mean in our own lives, and how do we get the message out? How do we do better than Moses - with all his multi-media presentations and flashy graphics - and take lessons from the miserable, soaked, sick-smelling Jonah? Is there any point in even trying?

Author Bio:: Joe Turner is an angry 30-something with a bad memory for dates. He is founder of the Freedom Clothing Project - an effort to bring trade to some pretty dark places - a regular contributor to the Celsias climate change blog, a husband, father and ham-fisted user of theology. Blunt and annoying.

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