“We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe.” That is the headline that hit the internet not too long ago after the UN panel on climate change (IPCC) released an updated report on the state of the climate. News agencies relayed warnings of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty. Most readers didn’t make it past the headline and “12 years” was the tag line that spread through social media, governments and education systems. I had people asking me if this was true? Their kids had come home from school talking about it and it was trending on FB. They know I’m “in to climate change stuff” and they wanted to know if we were at a tipping point.
That’s not what I want to talk about here today because that question is the intersection of people and the environment and I want to cross that meeting point with one more line, God. In brief though, climate scientists and others have been warning us about this since the 90s. Not that in the late 2010’s we would reach a tipping point with a “12 year” warning but that we had reached a tipping point in the 90s. The result of that tipping point will last for hundreds of years already but that has passed over the attention of most. We are past so many tipping points at this time in history it is heartbreaking but I’m glad that at least some people are paying attention now and they have another man made line in the sand to work towards.
But where do we meet God today and in the next 12 years?
Does God think that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial temperatures is more significant that 1.49 degrees or 1.51? I have to think no. God doesn’t really seem to be limited by these numbers or even whether we live to see tomorrow. He cares about the heart of that which he created. He has found people throughout all time and space who took the leap and offered up their heart to him. Their soul, their body, their existence. He took that and used it to give back to them a real, authentic life. For many it meant a horrible death so that others could get the same opportunity to live for real and live forever.
I think God has a heart for more than just one of his creations as well. Recently a species of Macaw was identified as extinct (as far as anyone can measure so far) because of human impacts on habitat and the last struggling population (there are another 12% or bird species are at risk of extinction according to the IPCC report as well). Was God sad? Did He feel the loss of those little hearts that were living out their lives as He intended? I think so. I’m sad when my tomato plant dies when it had so much potential so I can’t imagine how he feels.
From my perspective, rather than thinking about tipping points I think of it more like the entire population holding up the planet. There are some people who have their arms above their heads and they are straining to hold up the globe (picture Atlas). Sometime a few of their fellow humans will hold up their hands to help which prolongs the time before the world comes crashing down on everyone. Maybe some help for a time and give up and leave it for others to take care of, but if everyone would stick up their hands at the same time we could hold up the world forever and actually enjoy that connection. Where does God fit in to this analogy? I picture God sending Jesus to be a person who could come bear the weight for a time. And everyone standing next to Jesus was encouraged and uplifted by having God with them. Then God sent the Holy Spirit and the word spread like wildfire and people came to know God through Jesus’ story and the Holy Spirit whispering among them and more arms went up. Maybe this was a tipping point? While some didn’t know that they needed to lift their arms and simply listened to what they could understand. They walked among their fellow humans, encouraging them along the way which was really great but people lost sight of their connection to the earth and turned inward to saving hearts while neglecting the created things.
Now, 12 years to disaster, those believers are considering their responsibility. The connection to the created is more apparent. A flooded neighbourhood or a burned down community is catching their attention where a melted ice field or dying crop that they could never relate to failed to make the connection.
God has never stopped speaking to us, telling us to hold our arms up and do our part. He has spoken to us of unity and peace with the planet over and over. To take joy in what he created alongside us. To love one another and everything He called good and encourage us that this is the best way to experience living. We are so easily distracted though. We are limited in our ability to comprehend God’s order of things and so we focus on a gospel message that would save people from burning in hell but fail to offer them life to the fullest right now. We center in on select scriptures that fit our current culture and ignore the words of God’s bigger vision for Eden. We can’t comprehend the myriad of climate reports over decades so we focus on a headline “12 years to disaster.”
So put your arms up, touch the earth, be unified with God’s people and listen to Immanuel, God with us, as His whisper unveils the things you can never comprehend with your mind alone. Listen as His message speaks directly to your tiny heart instructing you in a way that yet another report ever could.
