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I usually try and blog on whatever is on my mind – perhaps something I am pondering, a wonderment, or a question that I’ve been struggling with.  This week, as I look out my window, our usually panoramic view has been replaced with a thick blanket of smoke.  When I wake in the morning, sometimes my eyes are burning from it and I know if it continues much longer, I will be sucking on my inhaler.  I’m wondering not only about the devastation to forests and creation but the effect on the lives of those who have evacuated and may not have a home to return to – or worse yet, have lost their lives.  And on the other side of the continent, Hurricane Sally, a storm of epic proportions is flooding Florida and Alabama and once again people are losing homes and lives are at risk. Natural disasters are definitely on my mind this week.  

I was sitting in front of the TV, having my morning coffee and was transfixed by the horror of it all.  So much destruction in one week just seems unfathomable. And who should appear on my screen?  None other than President Trump.  He had travelled to California to witness first hand the destruction of thousands of acres of forest and had called a press conference.  There, he shared with us the cause of all these catastrophic fires.  It is poor forest management.  Apparently, when a tree falls in the forest, we should be removing it quickly or it will turn into fuel that will ignite the entire forest, and we have been very negligent in doing that.  We simply let underbrush and dead trees accumulate and this is what we get.  When asked about the role of Global Warming in contributing to these unprecedented fires along the majority of the American west coast, he stated, “I don’t believe that there is such a thing as Global Warming!”  Really Donald – this is what you believe as the leader of the most powerful (??) nation in the world in 2020?  

For the rest of the developed world, we accept that not only is Global Warming a reality but extreme storms, drought and the ensuing fires are a direct result.  For those of us who have been watching documentaries on CBC during COVID or reading the United Church Magazine, Broadview, we know that melting permafrost in the Canadian north is changing our landscape and even our national identity.  

As a minister in the United Church of Canada and as a person who has been reading Al Gore and Naomi Klein, among other environmental authors, I feel that this shouldn’t be a pondering.  I should stand-up, protest and be totally opposed to pipelines, fossil fuels, and all of the human activity that contributes to Global Warming.  

And yet, for me, it is not that easy.  Both Carol and I have family and friends back in Alberta who rely on the energy industry.  They are suffering with the down-turn in the energy industry and have been hard hit by the world wide economic slow down and reduced demand for fossil fuels caused by COVID.  We know a number of young people in Campbell River that not only fly into Alberta to work in the Tar Sands but are beginning to work in Kitimat on the LNG plant.  These are all families that rely on their pay cheques to make mortgage payments and buy groceries.  

But I do believe in Global Warming, and I am heart broken when I see the devastation it causes and the pain and suffering endured by so many humans.  

It’s messy!  It’s an issue with varying sides of grey.  I believe we do need to work towards a world that can sustain humans in a healthy way.  But I also believe that justice, as Jesus portrays it, means that no one group benefits at the expense of another.  And that is the tricky road that lies ahead of us.  How do we value the rights of those who are affected by Global Warming without diminishing the rights of those who rely on fossil fuels to house and feed their families?  The simple answer is, “I don’t know.”  

I do know that God is with all of us in this dilemma.  That is where the answers lie –  in prayer, in consideration and in compassion not just for other humans but creation itself.  We must acknowledge that Global Warming is a reality, that we have the intellect and technology to reverse it, and we must value the needs and rights of all parties on both sides of the equation.  Just as we must change the economy, we must provide for those who will be affected so that all humans and creation benefit equally.  For we are in this together and we are called to not only care for creation but for each other.  It is a difficult road we must travel but we must do this as people of faith, committed to following in the way of Jesus, bringing justice, wholeness and healing to all.  

Amen