Warming Earth

Unitarian Universalists have covenanted
to affirm and promote certain principles
including Respect for
the interdependent web of existence
of which we are a part.

Interdependent.
Each creature stands in relationship to every other creature.
Interdependent.
One can not change one aspect of the earths ecology
without changing the whole.
Interdependent.
We are connected and do not live in isolation,
our actions have consequences.

Ethical living begins when we become conscious of our connections
Including our connections to this world, our planet earth.
this home that we did not create,
rather it is we who are children of the earth,
and she gave us life.

As Unitarian Universalists we have committed ourselves
to Respect for the interdependent web of existence
of which we are a part.

And yet our relation to the earth has been disrupted.

The news keeps coming in.
Glaciers melting in Alaska.
No snow in the ski areas.
Polar ice receding.
Ocean waters recording record temperatures.
Glaciers melting in Greenland.
more Glaciers melting...now its Norway.
Tundra showing signs of melting
permafrost not permanent, and not frost.

The earth is warming up. No doubt about it.
And the rise in temperatures
is faster than at any time in the last ten thousand years.

That is something to think about,
human civilizations have existed for about seven thousand years.
So the earth is warmer now,
than at any other time in human civilization.

Talk about a heat wave!

Global warming is a fact.
There is no controversy among scientists about the facts.
Our earth is experiencing climate change.

And that fact
that the earth is warming up
has consequences for the future.

If the earth continues to warm up,
then the ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic will continue to melt.

If that ice melts its water will become part of the oceans.

If that ice melts
then land that is now sea level will be underwater,
and tidal rivers will swell.

If that ices melts at the rate its now melting,
we can expect to see low lying areas flooded in the coming decades.
Florida has many acres of low lying area.

Climate change is already affecting animal and plant life.
Robins are appearing in Northern Alaska,
the Inuits have never seen Robins,
and they have no word for this strange creature.

Polar bears are drowning.
The only way of life this magnificent creature knows
is hunting on the ice,
and now the ice is breaking up leaving the bears swimming,
hopelessly swimming.
That the earth is warming is not in doubt.

Some have cast doubt on the evidence,
but the temperature of the ocean is rising,
the atmosphere is registering higher temperatures,
and Arctic and Antarctic ice is melting.

There are those who argue that this might be a short term warming,
a cyclical warming.

Perhaps, but we have nothing in recorded history
to indicate a similar rise in global temperatures.

But meteorological record keeping only goes back a couple hundred years
argue the nay sayers.

Yes, but we have other evidence based on examining tree rings,
not only living trees
but fossil trees
which give us an indication of the ambient temperature
under which that tree grew from year to year.

No evidence from the fossil evidence of
an comparable warming cycle in millennia.

The evidence does not support the idea that the current warming
is simply part of a cycle.

While all scientists would agree that the earth is warming,
that is a fact,
not all agree on the cause.

The most common explanation,
the one that most scientists support
is the Greenhouse Effect.

We heard a simple explanation of that effect earlier in our service,
and many of us have noticed that on a clear night
one without any clouds
the heat of the day is dissipated
thus it is cooler in the evening.

While on a day with a lot of clouds and smog,
the evenings are warmer.

Carbon and methane particles in the atmosphere prevents dissipation
of solar energy and that trapped heat builds up
a hundredth of a degree Celsius at a time,
slowly and gradually raising the temperatures.

We know that this happened once before
long before human life, even before the dinosaurs,
greenhouse gases left their deposits
we find them in the primitive fossils
and during that time the earth became warmer.

That was a long time ago, and this is now.

And what is the situation now,
carbon and methane are building up in the atmosphere,
and the atmosphere is becoming warmer.

And why is carbon building up in the atmosphere?

Why?
It is here that the debate focuses,
the earth is warming, that is a fact.
The greenhouse
is a well established principle of thermodynamics.
And the gases do trap heat,
thus the greenhouse effect.

But why is carbon building up in the atmosphere?

When we breathe, we expel carbon dioxide.
Grass eating animals expel huge amounts of methane,
as a by product of their digestion.
When we burn a log, we are emitting carbon dioxide.
When we burn coal we are emitting carbon dioxide.
When we burn gasoline, kerosine, diesel fuel, jet fuel
and even the much touted alternative fuel source ethanol
made from processed corn,
we emit carbon dioxide.
Since the earth began, carbon has been consumed and burned,
and carbon dioxide has been emitted.

Plants consume carbon, they take it from the atmosphere.

The natural cycle is carbon emissions by animals and fires,
photosynthesis by plants.
What is different is the amount of carbon being emitted
we have emitted more carbon from industry and motor vehicles
since World War II
than was emitted by all means natural
and as a result of human activity
prior to World War II
going back to when the earth began.

The carbon is accumulating faster than the plants can reprocess it,
which leads to the conclusion that I have drawn,
we have disrupted the natural cycle...

We need to restore the balance of nature.
We have forgotten that we belong to the earth,
the earth does not belong to us.

I observe that
there are several different ways people respond
to the threat of global warming..

And at different times in the last twenty years
I have adopted all those ways of being.

I have denied that global warming was a problem.
just a theory I thought,
all that carbon will encourage more plants to grow.
So my first response was denial.

When I lived in New England I thought,
it wouldn't be so bad if it was warmer in the winter.
its too cold here any how.

I was reminded that warmer winters would mean destruction
of the ski industry and the maple syrup industry

in time with study and searching my soul
I was more open to the idea that global warming was an growing problem.
but I was still resistant.

Ten years ago I saw what a warm winter would mean for Quebec,
and the Northeast US...ice storm.... to warm for snow.
but just cold enough for the ice to form over everything.

Then there was the argument that the warming would be gradual,
and that new forms of energy would be introduced
that would not burn carbon fuels.

Wind power, hydro electricity appeared to me to be good alternatives.

But we have seen little investment in these forms of energy
and as the President has pointed out
we are addicted to carbon fuels.

Of course the recommended cure for addiction,
is giving it up.

Adopting a new life style --- free of the addiction.

I have observed that political leaders are better at naming problems
than seeking solutions.

For me the evidence has convinced me that carbon buildup
is the main cause of global warming,
and global warming is accelerating.

Some have argued that we are on the brink of tipping point,
that even if we stopped driving motor vehicles,
generating electricity with coal,
flying in jet planes
the carbon that is already in the atmosphere
will continue to trap heat,
and the earth will continue to warm,

which will mean melting ice, and rising seas.

But there are other consequences of global warming
not generally appreciated.

I have been married twice,
Marjorie who you have meet is a minister, like me.
My wife of twenty five years is a oceanographic meteorologist,
she studies the relationship of the oceans to generating weather.

Most of the earth's surface is water,
and how warm or how cold that water is, and how it turns,
makes the difference in weather or not
you will need a jacket in the morning,
and when you will need to put up storm shutters again.

The warming of the ocean in the last decade is a cause of concern,
at least for those who working in this field.

The greater intensity of the storms generated by the ocean
will have significant consequences for everyone on the planet,
ocean storms can come as blizzards in Montana
as well as hurricanes in the Yucatan,

the energy building up in the atmosphere
can manifest as tornados in Indiana
and hail storms in San Diego

Let us be clear.
Global warming does not cause storms,

storms are the way the atmosphere makes adjustments
to variations and imbalances.

warm water does create the conditions for more variations and imbalances
and warm water does release energy that intensifies storms.

So global warming will lead to stormy weather,
more intense, larger storms.

And global warming may mean catastrophe,
the ocean currents may change course
because the present ocean currents are products
of the the prevailing ocean conditions.

The ice that is melting in the Arctic is fresh water,
a large amount of fresh water dumped in the ocean
will cause the saline percentage to drop.
The computer models indicate a drop in the salt content of the ocean
will mean change the course of the Gulf Stream
that is moving warm water toward England and France right now.

Northern Europe is as far North as Maritime Canada.
but it is not as cold, thanks to Gulf Steam.
A radical drop in temperature in one of the worlds major economic centers
would have perverse effects on the world politically and economically.

There is more, much more,
the potential problems caused
by even one more degree of global warming
can cause a soul to wonder.

Is this the end, the prophecy foretold,
remember ?

the fire next time!

No not the raging inferno,
just the warming caused by our exhaust.

Catastrophe thinking.
Is that the only solution?

I don't think so,
I believe the earth can and will recover
that human communities are coming to understand the danger.

A gathering majority of the worlds religious communities
have committed themselves to speaking out on this global warming
as a religious issue.

Catholics, Protestant, Buddhist, Orthodox, and most recently
a significant coalition of evangelical Christian leaders spoke out

saying and I quote "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."

Among signers of the statement, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."
"For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough."

These evangelical leaders are among the growing millions
who have seen and heard enough.

Our Unitarian Universalist Association every year puts forth
a study action resolution, and this year that issue
that we as a community are studying is global warming.

What can be done?
What are alternative sources of energy?

What are alternative ways of powering our transportation system?

What are alternative ways of building future homes, and cities

And what is a pressing question for the Treasure Coast,
but increasingly for many parts of the world as well,
how can we prepare for the possibilities of
more frequent and more intense storms.

One of the sources of our living tradition that enriches
and ennobles our faith are the Spiritual traditions
of Earth Centered traditions which celebrate
the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live
in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

We must draw deep from those spiritual traditions
as we prepare to face this challenge.

If we have learned to treat our planet as an object
for mindless explotation,
we have left the sacred way,
If we have neglected to live in harmony with our planet,
we have deserted the wisdom of the ancients.

Let us study, and let us act. So be it.