"GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: CHALLENGE FOR HUMANITY"
Jack Heckelman
Sunday, September 28th, 2003

Thank you for inviting me to share ideas with you. I much appreciate the honor. I congratulate you for having spent the last year studying Global Climate Change (GCC) with your Eco-Spirituality group. You are privileged to have such a group in your church.

I speak to you today after a long personal journey. I have been an environmentalist and social activist for over 40 years, motivated initially by Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring and by the civil rights movement of the 60's. Most recently I have been working to help build a more sustainable world, and spread awareness of the Earth Charter.

As an Engineer I have been deeply concerned about Global Climate Change, otherwise known as Global Warming, for several decades. I worked actively with the coalition of non-profit organizations to get the United States to agree to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 -one of our most successful accomplishments. Now I am appalled at our current government's position on GCC, and deeply concerned by the consequences of their ignoring it.

In the development of my own consciousness I first believed that if people knew the facts, they would change their behaviors. As I saw us further degrading the ecosystems of the planet over the next three decades, I realized that facts were not enough - something else was needed.

Then, in the mid 90's, I was introduced to the works of Father Thomas Berry and Sister Miriam Magillis at Genesis Farm, and became entranced with the Epic of Evolution, the story of how we humans came to be on this unique planet in the Universe, and what our mission is. I learned to feel deeply for what we are doing to the earth, to personally grieve for Gaia, our living earth, and speak from my heart rather than just my head. I came to realize that understanding facts was only the first step - I needed a true spiritual transformation to motivate me to do what I knew I must do. That is why I am here today, So today I will speak both of physical facts and spiritual motivations.

GCC is a fact. It is happening. It will have grave consequences for all life on the planet if it continues. Unlike the contrarians who believe it is science fiction, the global scientific community is almost unanimously in agreement that it exists, that human activity is a major contributor, and, most alarmingly, it has increased rapidly in the last three decades. Carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas causing global climate change, has increased more than 30% since the start of the industrial age.

The principal problem with dealing with GCC is that it is usually very subtle. It sneaks up on us without our knowing it. We wake up on a delightful, cool morning, look up at the clear sky, and say surely nothing is going on, we’re just fine. In a way it’s like the growth of smog, which didn’t exist when I first flew overseas in 1946, over 50 years ago, but now is everywhere around the planet, yet we’ve hardly noticed

Yes, Global Climate Change is usually very subtle, except when it erupts into major natural disasters. Three of the past four decades have been the hottest on record. You’ve heard about the hurricanes, the heat wave in Europe this summer which killed 19,000 people, and all the other weather extremes. They are not solely due to GCC, but seriously exacerbated by it.

The predictions, as I said, are dire. In just 100 years our weather here in Minnesota will be like Kansas in the summer. Many of our lakes will dry up. Our agriculture will be seriously disrupted. Our maple trees, source of our joy in summer shade and autumn brilliance, will probably disappear completely, as may our pine boreal forests. Our children and grandchildren will be personally affected.

Globally the sea will rise more than three feet, causing some Pacific island nations to disappear, 20 million Bangladesh people to become refugees, and major seacoast flooding worldwide, including Cape Cod, Florida and the gulf states.

Even before that there could be more dramatic and abrupt changes. Melting polar ice could cause the Gulf stream to change course, as it has before in history, and move away from the coast of Europe, causing a renewal of the ice age there.

Indigenous people know what is happening. I was moved to tears by the plea made by a Greenlander at the United Nations Conference of Religious and Spiritual leaders in New York in the year 2000. He begged us in the industrialized world to pay attention to what we are doing to the world by our actions. He personalized it with the facts that mothers could no longer breast feed their children due to pollution in the air, and I could actually visualize his picture of the glaciers melting by his village.

Our actions are summed up best by E.O. Wilson in his book “The Future of Life”

He states: A new Armageddon is approaching at the beginning of the third millennium....It is the wreckage of the planet by an exuberantly plentiful and ingenious humanity......

Or, as in your scripture this morning from James “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and have been wanton”

GCC is caused by 6 billion of us on the earth living our values, not our professed ones but the ones we act on. We in the US are caught in a cultural paradox. We, valuing our comfort and convenience, create over 25% of the greenhouse gasses, while being only 4% of the global population. That’s not right or fair.

And our values are formed by our world views. Though our personal ones may differ, the predominant world view of our culture is that we are separate from nature, that the planet’s resources are for our use, that technology can fix every problem. Only when we transform those world views, acknowledging our intimate interconnectedness with everything, can we expect significant changes.

It’s not only us individually. Our current government denials make action even more difficult. The British newspaper Observer on September 21 documents the aggressive conspiracy of the Bush White House to cover up the existence of global warming, and use public relations to mislead our citizens. Their policy is biased by close connections with the oil industry, and with the conservative right. It is short-sighted and terribly dangerous for our future.

So where do we find REASONS FOR HOPE?

First the good news. It is possible to slow, stop, even reverse GCC. In his outstanding book “Plan B, Rescuing a Planet Under Stress” noted environmentalist Lester Brown gives us a plan for cutting our carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2015, in just 12 years, using basically available technology. The challenge is that it will take a monumental mobilization of our social will and commitment to do so. I recommend it to you - both the book and the action plan.

I see hope for the future in many places. In the young people, in the coming together of so many of us Cultural Creatives in working for peace, for fair trade rather than free trade, for love of the earth. On Thursday evening Julia Butterfly Hill shared stories of her personal commitment and inspired 650 students from St. Thomas to work for a better world. She urged us to connect in community with others.

I find inspiration and hope in the Earth Charter. You heard part of the preamble earlier. This, to me, is the road map to a sustainable future. In a spiritual sense, I feel that it is our planet Gaia speaking to us, a guide for us as humans to live with the earth, and live with each other. There are copies available on the table in back, as well as announcements of the very important Earth Charter conference we are holding on October 11 and 12 at Saint Catherine’s College. Please attend the conference, and if possible get involved.

Speaking of getting involved, what can we do about GCC? I understand you have been getting notices in your bulletins and newsletters from your Eco-spirituality group. I’m sure each of you already knows most of the things you can do personally to reduce Global Climate Change.

Today, however, I’ll concentrate on just three additional recommendations for actions that I have found useful in my life.

First, BE AWARE! . Be informed. Live with what my colleague Susan Curry calls “Sustainability Consciousness,” thinking of your every act in terms of its effect on the planet. Whether it is what you eat, how you use water, where you spend your money, what ideas you share, BE AWARE.

Second, it is especially important, in whatever way you are inspired, to GET INVOLVED POLITICALLY! I personally believe we are at a very critical turning point in the history of our nation, and of our planet. We must change direction quickly to reverse global climate change, and build a more sustainable world. WE MUST ELECT A GOVERNMENT THAT IS ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE! There is hope. We still live in a democracy, even though it is certainly distorted by money, and if we all get together we can make a change. Third, but most important, FOLLOW YOUR HEART! Only you know where your heart is leading you, where you are called, where your passion is for helping build a better world. Celebrate your life. Everything you do changes yourself, your community, the world, the universe, for better or for worse. Make it for the better.

In closing, yes, we live in challenging times, and so many things seem to be going the wrong way. But, for me, there are so many signs of hope in what dedicated, committed people are doing to build a better world, and you are among them just by being here today. Let me close by again quoting E. O. Wilson: ” We will be wise and listen carefully to the heart, then act with rational intention and all the tools we can gather and bring to bear.”

May it be so.