Flooding is not unknown to our area, so the fact that we had such major flooding this week is not unexpected, even while it is tragic. That said, the increase in the frequency of major flooding events in our area and our state is a clear sign of the unfortunate effects of a warming planet and a worrisome indication of a new normal. Pair this with some conversations I have recently had with our very passionate and dedicated Care for Creation team at the parish, and this seems like an apt time for a few short reflections on climate change.
First, from a religious perspective, concern about this theme is far, far more about people than it is about the planet. Our planet has warmed and cooled at far greater levels even than those we are presently projecting. We have seen species come and go in waves long before human activity. (Consider, for example, this video about the time when the emergence of trees led to dangerous global cooling.) Our goal is not to preserve one moment in planetary time. Instead, we care about climate change because it impacts people, often with outsized impacts on the poor who do not have the resources to escape it or overcome it. We also care about climate change because our attitudes toward the environment are a good barometer of our spiritual health: if we treat everything as expendable, if we live as consumerists, if with think primarily of our needs before others’, not only do we contribute to the factors effecting climate change, but we reveal that we are not living according to sound, Christian principles. Though I myself have yet to read it cover to cover, I believe articulating these connections between climate change and Christian spirituality was exactly why Pope Francis wrote the encyclical Laudato Si’.
However, as much as we might care about climate change, I find the dialogue around it is usually unhelpful. It becomes a fight about science or government rather than about faith or people. In particular, I find the phrases “Believe the Science” or those yard signs that declare “We Believe that Science is Real” to be counterproductive, an opinion I solidified after reading two recent articles making this argument, one secular and one religious. The religious article was even written by the Jesuit brother in charge of the Vatican observatories! Granted, both were in relation to the COVID vaccine debates, but the points are equally valid when talking about climate change.
(Religious article: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/10/22/covid-vaccine-anti-vax-science-241697)
(Secular article: https://www.cracked.com/article_31605_stop-telling-people-to-believe-the-science.html)
Personally, I find myself less and less motivated by political issues every year, so I have been rather apathetic to discussions of climate change to-date, as they always seem to focus on political or governmental solutions. But the second something becomes about Jesus or the faith, I am suddenly quite interested. The idea that climate change might be impacting my people and my community, in a way we were viscerally reminded of this week, definitely makes me want to care more about it. And if caring about it makes me a holier Christian in the process – by increasing my selflessness and asceticism – all the better!
Fr. Moore 