As we recover from the clash between the
Beast from the East and Storm Emma, I recall what was being said some years
ago, that a consequence of global warming could be that overheating at the
North Pole would disrupt the Gulf Stream and plunge us into extremely cold
weather. This is the basis of what happened this last week. I first heard the
term ‘climate change’ in 1969. We had a supply teacher for a term, on our
A-level Biology course, who came from a very different background to that of
our normal teachers. He was a Marine Biologist, rather than a teacher, and he was
in the process of writing up his PhD thesis. At a convenient gap between two
parts of the syllabus, we spent a lesson listening to him explaining his
research to us. I forget now what he had been studying, but it was some
minuscule wee beastie that lived in the sea and he had been looking at the
effects of climate change on it. Over time it had survived a steady increase in
temperature, so a key question was whether there was any limit to what it could
survive and what effect a further increase in temperature would have. How might
it adapt? The answer was that it was doing fine at its current temperature, but
at a further increase of only 0.5C it would become extinct. It had seemed that
things were looking good for it. It was coping with climate change, but what had
not been apparent was that it was at the very limit of survivability. We had
never heard the term ‘climate change’ before, but he told us that this would
become the biggest issue in our lives.
Recently a TV program on the demise of the
dinosaurs suggested that most of them were killed off within 24 hours, with the
remaining survivors perishing within two weeks of the meteorite
strike. The overall message was of the
fragility of life and the fact that, for any species or ecosystem, extinction
can arrive very suddenly and very brutally. It is an extraordinary statistic
that over 99% of all species that have ever lived on this planet are now
extinct. What of humanity? The warnings, so often given, yet ignored by many, are
not simply that we are the major contributor to global warming, but that we are
destroying the very environment in which we live and are the prime cause of
what has been dubbed the ‘sixth extinction’, which is our present age. The
history of our planet is often divided into epochs, such as the Jurassic, which
ended some 145 million years ago. In our own time it has been suggested that we
have brought about a new epoch, which has been called the Anthropocene, because
of the significant impact that humanity has had on the planet’s ecosystems. It
is not yet decided exactly when to date the start of this new epoch, but a
significant number of people opt for 16th July 1945, which is the
date of the detonation of the very first atomic bomb in New Mexico, USA. In
geological terms, that event has left its signature in our environment. Future intelligent
beings, millions of years from now, will be doing geological digs and finding
the tell-tale signature in the rocks which was laid down by the Trinity test on
16th July 1945. The Anthropocene might well last for millions of
years, an epoch shaped by the human race, but humanity itself might well be on
the very edge of extinction.
Where is the theology in all of this? The
bible is full of challenge and the prophets of old proclaimed doom to those who
did not walk the way of the Lord. Yet there was also the looking forward in
hope for the Day of the Lord. Jesus, as he started his public ministry, read
from a scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and then told his listeners that, today, this
prophecy had found its fulfillment. As Christians we believe that God is in
Christ reconciling the world to himself. We look forward to the fulfillment of
the promised Kingdom, which even now is breaking into our lives. We live in the
expectation that Christ will come again. I firmly believe in all these things,
that our lives are in God’s hands and that we shall be caught up into the life
of God and experience the joys of eternal life. To believe this is to live with
hope for a future that we can now only glimpse at. Yet I also believe that we
might yet destroy ourselves, as we continue to destroy the environment that
sustains us. To think otherwise is highly dangerous, for it leaves us with the
idea that our actions have no consequences and that somehow, however we abuse
our planet, God will step in to negate what we are doing. The answer must be to
hear again the message of scripture and to live with a joyful vibrancy the life
of the Kingdom in ways that engage in and challenge the assumptions and vested
interests of our world. It is to be the people through whom God is stepping in
to point to a better way.
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