The Stern report on global warming has been top of the news over the last couple of days. Finally, it seems, someone is being taking seriously- interestingly and probably quite predictably, it's an economist that's finally got the great, the good, and the not-so-good's attention. (It's uncanny how money can concentrate the mind.)
As a group of people with lots, some and no faith - I wonder what our reaction to the report is. Personally, I think it doesn't matter a toss what my reaction is if it doesn't make a blind bit of difference to what I do - in fifty years time my grandchildren won't care if I thought carbon emissions were worrying - they'll be wanting to know what I did about it. It seems to me it's all about the thinking and the talking being translated into action. That's where it can all get a bit 'difficult' and quietly, I'd like to cling to the idea that it's just not as bad as the experts make out and things will all be sorted out somehow. That's when I'm grateful for friends who shift up a gear and put the talk into action - they have a good effect on me and stop me getting too comfy. I'd like to be part of a community that seeks to do that for one another - not through a sense of superiority, or through pressure, but through example, encouragement and accountability. What d'you think?
And, as I drove back from work tonight, listening to the radio, I couldn't help but draw some comparisons with my reaction to the Stern report and with what we have said about the Church.(see saturday's post) The thinking and the talking is absolutely necessary and good - but at what point does it need to become action? We've had many a talk about our concerns about the need for the church to change - but maybe now is the time to take some action, take some risks and get a little bit uncomfortable before it's too late.
"The task is urgent. Delaying action, even by a decade or two, will take us into dangerous territory. We must not let this window of opportunity pass.' Sir Nicholas Stern
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12 comments:
Does it mean that I can never fly again?
According to articles by Christopher Monckton in the Sunday Telegraph global warming has been exposed as a left wing UN inspired fraud.
is Monkton an American?
If you are rapture ready, then presumably you couldn't give a monkeys about global warming and thus leap on articles by right wing conspiracy nutters. If you have kids however and are not convinced by dodgy US rapture theology, global warming does matter. Who's bulilding the renewed earth? Gouty.
I agree with gouty's comments, we have to do something urgently about global warming. I have had problems at church trying to convince people that global warming requires urgent action from us all.
I'm a member of a bible believing church.
What about foreign holidays?
Christopher Monckton is infact British and also known as Viscount Monckton. He has a degree in classics, so he must be an expert on climate change.
Latest thing I read about global warming claimed it was caused by solar activity.
Lets compare Biblical muscles and kick theological sand in each others faces as we trash God's creation which he declared GOOD and gave to us to steward. For those who cling to extreme minority "scientific" positions,what's your actual motivation? Are you consistent when going to the consultant? "You've got cancer." "Plese give me an extreme minority diagnosis, so that I don't have to have treatment or alter my lifestyle. Tell me I've got flatulence please." Gouty.
What's the good of us changing our lifestyles to reduce CO2 production if the USA and China dont make big changes?
Cosmozootec implies that the 22 year sunspot cycle is to blame for our perception of the world being warmer at the moment. This is obviously not borne out by measurements. CO2 measurements started being taken in Hawaii in the 1950's, these show a remorseless rise with no sign of a 22 year cycle. Global temperature measurements up to the 1960's do show all sorts of cyclical effects, due to El NINO, and sunspots. But the temperatures over the last 30 years are locally and globally upwards. The hottest years on record for the UK almost all lie in the last 20 years, and there is data back to 1914 for the whole of the UK, and good records back to 1650 for central and southern England. Perpetuating doubt about the truth of global warming and its man-made causes is grossly immoral. Let us get on and make the painful and difficult choices that will minimise the damage, rather than wasting time with false theories.
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