“Repent: The End is Near”

             I recall a cartoon from my early years that showed a picture of a slightly disheveled man wearing a poster board that had printed in bold letters: “Repent. The End is Near.”  

            We used to laugh at that because it seemed silly to think anyone could be so sure of the end. 

            Now I am no longer so sure that is the case.

            In the final two weeks of September, I saw the following new items. NPR had a story, repeated in other media outlets, about a meeting of representatives of three Christian denominations, Catholic Pope Francis, the Episcopal Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, together urging us to pray for the planet and its peoples.

            “Widespread fires and droughts threaten entire continents,” the clergy leaders said, “sea levels rise, forcing whole communities to evacuate; cyclones devastate entire regions, ruining lives and livelihoods. Water has become scarce and food supplies insecure, causing conflict and displacement for millions of people.”

            The Christian leaders then called upon “everyone, whatever their belief or world view. . .to listen to the cry of the earth and its people who are poor, examining their behavior and pledging meaningful sacrifice for the sake of the earth which God has given us.”

            In a more secular or non-religious setting, I also heard António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, proclaiming on a network news show that it was almost too late to stop a disaster from fast-increasing climate change.  We need to curb carbon emissions—and every country was well behind on their promises to do so.

            So what are we Americans doing about this patently bipartisan threat? 

Congress seems to find too expensive a bill that would, according to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, put the United States in a position to reach only 50% emission reductions by 2030. 

            That goal does not come close to meeting satisfying the urgency underlying the plea of the UN General Secretary and the Christian leaders. And the bill to do this will be reduced in both money and intent before it is approved.

            And Senator Joe Manchin says he doesn’t think that eliminating fossil fuels will “clean up the global climate” anyway.  Of course, what else should we expect of the Senator from a state that produces 91% of its energy needs from coal?

            Are we doomed?  Well, that depends on whether we have the political courage to actually tax in some form or fashion the continuing use of fossil fuels and to do so quickly.

            President Biden’s climate proposals would have us introduce tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles.  It would also establish a standard for what constitutes clean energy, and would create a “civilian climate corps” modeled on the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps.  It would hire 20,000 people annually, similar to Americorp, at $15.00 an hour, to do such things as restore wetlands, fight wildfires, and improve our environment by removing invasive species.

            Of course, the key to any attempt to save our world and the human species requires a change in attitude. Do we value human and other life more than money? Democrats seem more willing than Republicans to put the survival of humanity ahead of immediate financial gain for wealthy executives and stockholders in the fossil fuel industry. 

            But the “proof is in the pudding,” as we like to say, even though the original expression was that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating or tasting.”   This helps to clarify the meaning.

            Another way to say this is to say that the proof is in the walking, not in the talking, or in the “lawing” instead of the jawing.  

            So maybe we should all write or call our Congress people. Or call our state representative and senator, Ms. Imes and Mr. Howell at the Legislative Message Line (800 372-7181), and ask them to set a bi-partisan example on the state level by supporting legislation to promote clean energy in Kentucky. 

            Then we could all be pro-life, in the deepest and most important way possible!