There goes the neighborhood.

The ice is melting in North. In time the water will rise and our present seacoast will be under water.

I think of the Gulf Coast where I live. No use rebuilding New Orleans. We should abandon Miami and most of Tampa too. Rising oceans alone would impact the hometowns of about one third of the population of the United States directly. But another third lives in river valleys that drain into the oceans, and along the Lakes that depend on access to the Atlantic.

But isn't that a long time from now? Not at the rate the ice is melting, it means no Cape Cod (or Key West or Catalina) in life time of many of my readers.

But there are other more immediate problems. The big kill of the polar animals is happening now. Despite triumphalist interpretation of Genesis I we were not given this earth to abuse. Inuits are losing their homeland. Another genocidal attack by an arrogant and self absorbed people.

And the ice is fresh water. Melting that much ice means the saline mix of the ocean will change and that will change the circulation of the oceans. The Gulf Steam is that is moving by me right now is on its way to Western Europe. Look at a map, Europe is kind of far North. Without the Gulf Stream it will be cold like Thunder Bay, Ontario in Paris. I love Paris in the spring time will be no more.

Apparently some don't want to hear it. I receive a protest from a blogger that would prefer his Unitarian Universalism to be pablum. He writes "For a long time i quit watching nature shows because I got sick of the constant complaining about deforestation.

Constantly reminding people how bad they are and how they are ruining the world is not, in my opinion, a good way to grow our churches either."

Religion isn't about making us comfortable. Check out any serious tradition you want. Religion makes demands on our lives and on our conduct. Any religion that makes us self absorbed and comfortable is no religion at all.

And the world will go on very nicely without so many of us. No we won't ruin the world.

The struggle against deforestation reversed what could have been a disaster, and the people who made a difference did a lot more than watch nature shows. Can we reverse global warming? Yes. The earth is a living, breathing organism and she has recovered in the past and she will again if we respect what she is telling us, and begin to make the changes that are called for.

People don't need to be reminded of how bad they are, people aren't bad. We do need that gift that Universalist John Murray urged his preachers to preach, we need to give our people hope and courage.

Hope requires conviction and determination to realize those convictions. Hope without conviction is wishing.

We must reclaim the conviction that we are a nation "of the people, for the people and by the people." To realize that conviction means having the courage to rid our nation of the corrupt political culture that masquerades as democracy. Previous generations of religious liberals rose up against the powers that be, and created new political alinements. We must as well. To become effective in our rising we must become citizens once more rather than consumers and spectators of what passes for election campaigns. We must have as a goal to check the corporate vultures who have turned this land into America, Inc.

We must do this because of a religious imperative namely: we belong to the earth, the earth does not belong to us. Treating this earth as a thing is killing to our souls, and if history teaches us anything it is this, soulless people have no future.