In December 2009, thousands of people from around the world met to discuss climate change at the largest climate change conference of all time, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen screamed climate change from the thousands of bicyclers on the streets, to billboards, to a Christmas tree that was powered by commuters jumping on bikes, to stands and parades. As many as 30 000 people attended the Copenhagen climate change conference (known as COP15).
What was my experience of the conference? Positives: climate change advocacy and education. Negatives: A weak, non-legally binding accord as a result, Africa and other less developed countries side-lined again and thousands of flights that could have been avoided.
As I contemplate the conference and its successes and failures, I ask the question as to why as humans we cannot seem to come together over a phenomenon that is causing and will continue to cause death, disease and ecological destruction? Why politicians and individuals alike respond well only to catastrophe and not to an issue that is long-term, incremental and global? Maybe some parallels can be drawn with how we approach our faith.
Faith is believing in the unseen, for most climate change cannot be seen directly. Our relationship with God needs to be worked upon constantly; it cannot be instantly formed, fixed or developed, climatic changes need to constantly be assessed and adapting to these changes takes time and effort. Maybe the strongest parallel lies in the fact that faith in Jesus calls us to a RADICAL life, a life that is often directly opposite to the world’s ways. It is radical to love beyond boundaries, to show compassion to the world says are ‘nobodies’, to forgive those that constantly wrong us, to seek after wisdom, humility and kindness and not wealth, power and money.
Climate change too is calling for a radical paradigm shift, a change in the way we perceive wealth and success. Climate change says- simplify your life, consume and buy less, a smaller car and house is better, walking and cycling is good for you, and producing your own food is admirable.
I would never attempt to reduce our faith to climate change; I simply seek to indicate the parallels. In essence our faith is far larger than climate change and encapsulates it in every sense, but maybe it would be helpful to reflect today on ways in which we can learn to focus more on the issues of life that are less imminent and instantly gratifying, but often so much more important.