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Muhlenberg Co., KY coal-fired power plant.
(*photo credit)
February 1, 2012 Fossil Fuel Still Favored
over Renewable Energy
We
observe the lengthening days and the warmth of the solar rays beginning to
penetrate our daylight hours. The desire to use more renewable energy strikes
us most deeply in mid-winter. In saying this we ask, "What progress is being
made in challenging global warming through favoring renewable energy (solar,
wind, geothermal, hydro, tidal, and certain biofuels). Certainly wind turbines
are being built globally in unprecedented numbers.
Environmental awareness is
fairly high. Renewables are talked about, but naysayers highlight noise impact
and birds killed due to wind turbines, minor habitat disturbances, and major
bankruptcies within solar projects. On closer inspection we discover that these
difficulties are minor in comparison with the severe impacts of fossil fuels:
elevated carbon dioxide levels, escape of natural gas (with methane at 23 times
CO2 impacts), mountaintop removal, toxic substances loosed into the
environment, unprotected fly-ash piles, gas and oil pipeline breaks, and oil
spillage in deep water drilling and waterway transportation. Unfortunately two
facts constantly stare us in the face: global fossil fuel consumption is
expanding, not contracting; current global assistance is six times more
favorable to fossil fuels than to renewable energy.
In
2010 (the last year with complete statistics), fossil fuel use expanded by over
5%, with coal-fired powerplant construction in China and India setting the
pace. If continued unabated, this will lead to a projected seven degree F
temperature rise by 2050 and a global climate change catastrophe with
accelerated ice sheet melting, ocean current changes, and water level rises that
cover highly-populated shorelines. Japanese, European and even North American
concerns will bring some declines, but not to compensate for the rapid rise in
consumption by emerging economies.
The second disturbing fact (and one easier to correct) is that globally fossil
fuel in 2010 got six times more subsidies than renewables (Reference:
International Energy Agency, "World Energy Outlook"). Much of this is aid ($409
billion) to customers of gasoline, gas, and coal, reflecting rising energy
prices. This is in contrast to $66 billion for renewable energy sources and
electricity supplies. These immense differences result from fossil fuel
subsidies and tax breaks dating back to the Second World War. However, in 2009
the Group of 20 pledged to eliminate their own national assistance to
coal, gas and oil. These very same pledged nations spent $160 billion to assist
in fossil fuel production and consumption -- with over one-quarter from Saudi
Arabia alone. The world is facing immense difficulties, and word is out even
though deniers consider human causes to be insignificant with regard to climate
change. Social addiction exacerbates the picture.
Prayer:
Lord, teach us to know the signs of the times, to see how we have damaged our
fragile Earth, and must now repair it.
Preparing for the coming Spring.
February 2, 2012
Give Light to All in Many Ways
Yes, with you is the
fountain of life;
by your light we see
the light. (Psalm 36:9)
On
Candlemas Day, it is fitting that we review the many ways we can do more
than receive light from sources; this is an exercise in ways we can give and
share light with all around us:
1.
Encourage others to use their talents better and thus benefit from the
many opportunities at hand;
2.
Teach someone or a group about an area in which they need to be educated
such as how to garden or how to handle drugs;
3.
Lighten up the meeting with a sense of humor when the mood of many in the
room is more or less depressed;
4.
Show how energy conservation and choice of proper lighting (fluorescent
or LEDs) can easily brighten a house;
5.
Go outdoors with others and participate in full spectrum sunlight (if
shining today), thus improving our disposition;
6.
Enliven the gathering by some music or singing. Make this a pre-Lenten
Marti Gras celebration;
7.
Give a light touch to meals or the house by rearrangement of stacked up
materials and furnishings;
8.
Tell a story to lighten the spirits of those around you; it is a perfect
time to listen to something new;
9.
Relate the potential of solar PV panels to offer luminescence at no or
very low cost to the domestic environment;
10.
Read an informational book and become personally enlightened so that the
light can be shared with others;
11.
Use a social media outlet to share insights;
12.
Note times of inspiration and record them, for the lights of our insight
shine with ever greater intensity;
13.
Pray for the light to see good and avoid evil;
14.
Let some house lights burn as a welcome to the wayward;
15.
Light a candle and do not curse the darkness; and
16. Keep extra candles
in case the electricity fails.
Prayer:
Lord, you are the light showing the way, inspiring our spiritual growth, and
helping us burn with desire to come to you.
The Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura).
(*photo by Sally Ramsdell)
February 3, 2012
Harbinger of Spring: The Mourning Dove
They call you Zenaida macroura, how sad.
They brand your song
mourning, that's bad.
Little is it known by
the naming folks
That you, gray bird, have other strokes.
First you're a dove,
global sign of peace
Bringing back
olive branches on release,
But few olives grow here
you understand,
You're not nesting in a peaceable land.
Instead,
you're hunted game by my macho cousin,
Who loves to bag
you by the dozen.
Astounding,
since cooked you're hardly a bite,
It's body counts
that bring delight.
I'd
settle that mourning describes your coo
Except that you have another service too.
You
break bitter winter's endless sting,
Great and glorious
harbinger of spring.
When
I heard that sound on February second,
How glorious it broke
the silence, I reckon.
Witch
hazel, groundhog, wooly worm, others?
Mourning doves, if I had my druthers.
See
February 8, 2007 for the first poem entitled by the same name, "Harbinger of
Spring."
Prayer:
Lord, Give us the grace to observe nature in its fullness and to learn from
all. Give us the courage of the mourning dove, a creature willing to announce
the spring in a public way. May we be encouraged to proclaim the coming of the
Lord.
Mount Rushmore, near Keystone, SD.
(*photo credit)
February 4, 2012 Honor Our
Constitution by Initiating a Second One
The
U.S. Constitution is the oldest one in continuous use. We can best honor this
document by making it more relevant in the age of globalization. A constitution
is the special place where we can address disparity of wealth, the greatest
danger today to our democratic structure. Consider these ten points in
preparation for a Second Constitutional Convention:
1. Express the basic
right of all people to life from birth to death. This includes the basic
right of individuals to health facility access. All species have a right to
corporate life.
2. Promote a realistic
dream that all our sisters and brothers on this planet will go to bed
tonight with a full belly, under a decent roof, and with basic security.
3.
Encourage the democratic process, wherein all participate in determining
their own destiny, and through which they can assist non-violently in taking
back what is rightfully the commons.
4.
Champion equal opportunity for work and for earning a living. It must be
enshrined that our government is the ultimate employer; we need not await
private initiatives that take from a pool of human beings who are regarded as
economic commodities.
5. Contribute to Global
Development Funds to alleviate world hunger, lack of housing, and major
health problems.
6.
Restrict incomes to a determined amount dependent to some degree on the
cultural conditions of time and place.
7.
Transfer portions of a military budget to health facilities for the
health security of people in poorer parts of the world.
8.
Promote a spiritual profit-motivation by discouraging a material profit
motivation -- for, in this needy world, material profits for some are at the
expense of others.
9.
Tax excessive wealth so that there are limits to what individuals can
retain. At the same time, reduce the tax burden on lower-income people, but
retain taxes on luxury items and on items and practices linked to
substance-abuse such as alcohol, tobacco, and tanning salons. Commit our
government to help remove tax havens for the wealthy and redistribute this
wealth to the needy.
10.
Organize local groups to discuss these matters and to prepare for the
eventuality of some being delegates to a future Second Constitutional
Convention.
Prayer:
Lord, give us the courage to support needed changes as a way to improve the
quality of life and to heal our wounded Earth. Inspire us to speak in
favor of this change even at the risk that some compromise will be needed.
Ice coating on Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus carota.
(*photo credit) February 5, 2012
Job's Trials Are Ours as Well
Remember that my life is but a breath... (Job 7:7a).
In
the book of Job we discover desolation on the part of one who suffers. However,
this is not specific to one person; rather, all of us suffer desolation at one
or other time through awareness of our mortality and our unfinished work. Some
amount of short- or long-term depression is in each person's life. It is true
when looking back as much as looking ahead; our services undertaken were not
perfect and this pains us. Lent is an opportune time to review our own
approaches, and reaffirm that the Lord is willing to accept us and forgive us
for our past performance. In God alone we trust, our remedy for desolation.
Job discovered this; so ought we. That ever-shortening span of life ahead makes
the reality of Lenten review all the more imperative with each passing year.
Focusing solely on ourselves apart from God adds to our desolation.
Group
desolation may prove more problematic than remedying our individual conditions.
In part this is because our consumer culture captivates so many with a social
addiction that is hard to overcome. For many, the more that is purchased or
consumed, the better, and that material appetite for more is insatiable. The
treadmill of goods gained, maintained and sought is self- perpetuating.
Saint
Paul (I Corinthians 9) says he has made himself all things to all people in
order to save at least some of them. He accepts that his work has some benefit
and feels the need to act accordingly. We join Paul and find hope in the power
of the Lord's Resurrection. Will we succeed? The question haunts us, for the
tasks needed to save our wounded Earth are daunting. Many people strive to
become materially secure, refuse to change behavior, and fail to conserve
limited resources. Along with Job we search for an answer and discover that
true success is rooted in God's designs, and that trust must emerge when we see
and understand the futility of our own limits. Belief in the Resurrection is to
place a sure promise at the heart of our efforts to bring people to see the
problems facing us -- and to act accordingly. The Lord assists us to break
through the fog of desolation. Now we are able to serve God and bring a
promising and renewing spirit to others.
Our trials in these troubled
financial times are real. We stand before God as an addicted people who think
that more and more material things will satisfy us. However, painfully we
realize that a new economy must be in the offing, for material greed is
insatiable -- and the first steps at this realization often come through
realizing the causes of desolation. Jesus implores the Father for help; so
ought we when we are down and out. Lent helps us discover the ultimate
spiritual frontier.
Prayer:
Lord, you heal the brokenhearted and bind up our wounds. Help us gain the
patience it takes to endure these times and circumstances with the sure trust
that you will conquer all.
Dark fishing spider, Dolomedes tenebrosus.
(*photo credit) February 6, 2012
Confrontation as a Possible Christian Virtue
I have come to bring
fire to the earth, and how I wish it were burning already! (Luke 12:49)
Why am I so
confrontational? My answer is that it is neither my particular personality nor
a sense of dysfunctionality, but because I am a Christian. In fact, I regret
not being more confrontational on various occasions. The Luke quotation above
is on the wall in front of me; it strengthens my resolve. It is the
countermeasure to all who seek to caution that my passion for justice ought to
be toned down in order to retain benefactors. One doctor once suggested that
certain anti-depressants could help tone down social activists, and he even had
a name for the malady. Rather, my prayer is that more would burn with the fire
of Jesus.
All
too often the virtues of people, and especially Christians, include how patient
they are, how tolerant of what others do, and how much they are supportive of
the current system. Amazingly, Jesus does not extol these so-called virtues.
Some will remind us that Jesus says to render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but
this must be seen in the political context as a method used to trick Jesus into
affirming one or other competing systems -- that of Rome or that of Jerusalem.
He says to give each its due in taxes, etc. He does not say to promote the
Roman Empire or current religious practice for which he has strong words. Jesus
does not mince words in speaking of the rulers -- "Tell that fox..."
We find Jesus willing to confront others, whether personal or the system itself.
Jesus calls the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for preaching one thing and
acting in other ways. Jesus takes a whip and drives out the moneychangers, and
cites the passages that this is to be the house of prayer FOR ALL THE PEOPLE.
His defense of the commons has a minority of today's Christian followers,
especially from the more "prosperity-minded" sector of Christendom. Will these
in the silent majority learn that saying nothing when democracy needs defense is
not a Christian virtue -- it is conforming to the system of mammon and not
following the gifts of the Spirit within us? People lack essential services and
their rights are violated -- and those who are on fire must say so.
Wealth cannot be condoned when destitution abounds. Again and again, we must
raise the issue: why not share the wealth that is accumulated and is not being
used. If the wealthy are unwilling to share, or to pretend that this is what
keeps an economy running (even while dysfunctional), then citizens must take
matters into their own hands. Christian virtues must come into play, namely, to
take non-violently what is rightfully ours. Downsizing the rich affords them a
better chance for salvation. Overturning the tables of moneychangers hurts no
one physically, only economically. Such actions can arouse opposition. Ask
Jesus.
Prayer:
Lord, allow us to confront the establishment and to do so with heart, lips, and
arm; let our actions be loving and public. |
