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The Revelation of Global Warming October 16, 2005 The Reverend Roger Fritts Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church Bethesda, Maryland In ancient times the Pharaoh relied on Joseph’s dream interpretation to set policies for the future. Today we turn to scientists to predict the future and form policies that will improve our chances for survival. All the scientific facts about global warming were first assembled by the late 1950s. An article in 1959 in the magazine Scientific American declared that the world’s temperature would rise by the end of the century. The magazine editors published an accompanying photograph of coal smoke belching from factories. The caption read ‘Man upsets the balance of natural processes by adding billions of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.” For over twenty years most people ignored the science about what was then called the “greenhouse effect.” In fact, for a few years in the 1970s the average temperature dropped and some scientists said that we were entering a new ice age. However, by early 1988 the earth was reaching record-breaking warmth. That year the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program established The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Pharaoh had Joseph to interpret his dreams. We have the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of experts from all over the world. Their January 2001 assessment reported that in this century we can expect to see the global average temperature increase about 4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit. That would take it to levels higher than it has ever been in human history, indeed than it has ever been long before human history began. If everything tops out at the upper end of the parameter, we could see average global temperature increases as high as 11 degrees Fahrenheit. A consensus of scientists agrees that climate change will happen because of changing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. I am not a scientist, but I trust these experts. The story of Joseph and the Pharaoh does not explain how Joseph got the Egyptian farmers to cooperate and give him some of their grain to store. Perhaps he told them stories of the famine that was coming and this frightened the Egyptians so much that they agreed to cooperate. When I read scientists’ predictions about global warning, I am frightened. I suspect that many of you have read or heard some of these statements about the future. However, for those of you who have still not switched to fluorescent light bulbs, here are a few visions of our future: Glaciers are retreating throughout the world. Glacier National Park, in our own country, had 150 glaciers when President Taft named it in 1910. Today it has 35. Glacier National Park will have no glaciers at all by about 2030. In South America the glaciers are also melting. A very large glacier near La Paz is a storehouse for water in Bolivia. They are predicting it will be gone in seven or eight years. Imagine how a shortage of water will affect Bolivia, which is already one of the two poorest nations in South America. This is just with a one-degree rise in average global temperatures. The ice cap over the Arctic has thinned 40 percent in the last forty years. As those of you who saw the color photos on the front page of last Thursday’s Washington Post know, Arctic sea ice experienced record shrinkage this past summer. Scientists have speculated that the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet could result in the elevation of sea levels up to six meters. This is enough to flood lands occupied by millions of people. Without the ice to reflect the sun’s heat back into the atmosphere, the earth absorbs the energy and becomes warmer and warmer. Increasing sea levels will inundate countries like Bangladesh, and some small island nations will simply disappear. Health authorities predict increases in diseases carried by insects. Public health officials expect cholera to become a major health threat in many parts of the world. Thousands of plant and animal species around the globe are at risk of extinction. Melting ice is diminishing the size and number of polar bears, and the penguins are at risk. Herds of caribou in Northern Canada are declining. Coral reefs around the world are dying. Of course, you are all aware of the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in August and September. They picked up enormous power in the Gulf, experts think, because the waters of the Gulf were two degrees warmer than normal. Last summer an MIT hurricane specialist published a paper in the British science magazine Nature showing that tropical storms are now lasting half again as long and spinning winds 50 percent more powerful than just a few decades before. The picture of the New Orleans Superdome with its peeling roof marks the beginning of the next story in American history, a story that will dominate our politics in the coming decades: America struggling to cope with a climate that is turning unstable and unpredictable. Our capacity to feel afraid exists to help us survive. I hope you feel afraid. We are doing something senseless and suicidal: If we do not change our behavior, we will make our planet inhospitable for our great-grandchildren. Still, I have hope. Just as Joseph gathered grain four thousand years ago, today we can do much to turn things around. We do not have to wait for the government to respond. Here at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church we have a program begun by our Environmental Task Force. This task force is working to make our church a “Green Sanctuary” Church. The UUA created the Green Sanctuary Program to guide Unitarian Universalist churches and their members in making better environmental choices. The Rev. Katherine Jesch, our ministerial intern five years ago, is a leader in this program. As individuals, on the south side of our houses we can plant trees that lose their leaves in the winter. Reductions in energy use resulting from shade trees can save 2.4 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air annually. We can buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for our most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money over time by using only one fourth the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large coal power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Our Environmental Task force will be selling compact fluorescent bulbs at their table in the lounge after the service. Each bulb we change reduces our use of dirty-burning power plants, cutting down on the carbon dioxide produced. And it will save us money in the process. Whenever possible, we can walk or use mass transit. Every gallon of gasoline we save avoids 22 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. For instance, if my car gets 25 miles per gallon and I reduce my annual driving from 12,000 to 10,000 miles, I will save 1800 pounds of carbon dioxide. This morning I took bus #34 to church, instead of driving. These are just three ideas. Our Environmental Task Force has a list of ways to reduce global warming at their table in the lounge. As a member of the community we can speak up about the issue of global warming, and support institutions that are working in this area. For example, BP’s motto is now “Beyond Petroleum.” They are sponsors of the solar decathlon on our national mall. Today is the last day to see these solar houses. Across our country many state and local governments are developing their own climate change action plans. We have many in our congregation who work in this field.
• Cedar Lane Member Nancy Floreen is Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
• Peter Lowenthal is director of the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation.
• Jeff Leonard is President of the Global Environment Fund: www.globalenvironmentfund.com
• Paul Joffe is Director of International Affairs of the National Wildlife Federation: www.nwf.org/globalwarming/ I am sure there are others in this congregation who work in this area that I do not know about. As a nation, we need to join the rest of the world in agreeing to reduce carbon dioxide. In the U.S. Congress “all but a few members have adopted an ostrich-like attitude toward global warming.” Their analysis has suggested that regulating carbon dioxide will drive up the price of cars and electricity and that will hurt American consumers. They are correct. Four thousand people of Egypt paid a price when they built storehouses and set aside grain from the harvest, preparing for a drought. Changing from coal, oil and gas to a renewable energy future will cost more in the short run. However in the long run the price of not taking action is enormous. Perhaps the flooding of New Orleans will encourage the Congress and the President to take their heads out of the sand. Our national leaders need to be transformed just as the Pharaoh was transformed four thousand years ago. Of course, a small number of scientists contest the view that humanity’s actions have played a significant role in increasing recent temperatures. One critic of global warming wrote that he never accepts a position just because most scientists believe it. He points out that only a few centuries ago most scientists thought the sun revolved around the earth. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorology professor and member of the National Academy of Sciences argues that the increased warming causes ocean evaporation, and the eventual effect of the increased water vapor will be a cooling that will offset the warming. If the consensus of scientists is wrong, and the minority is right, those of us who acted out of fear of global warming will have made a few unnecessary choices. We may have taken public transportation to work rather than driving many, many hours each week. We may have put fluorescent light bulbs in our house and saved a few dollars on electricity. We may have suffered the expense and the labor of planting trees around our houses. If the global warming does not continue, I will confess my error and throw a great party with all the money I saved using energy efficient light bulbs. On the other hand, if the scientific consensus is correct, then our children may see perhaps a quarter, perhaps half or more, of Earth’s species extinct or doomed to extinction in their lifetimes. Our children will see terrible flooding like we have seen in the past few weeks. And they will wonder what their parents and grand- parents did to try to prevent such climate change. The story of Joseph in Egypt has a happy ending.
The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end; and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.’ And since the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world. Each time the people of Egypt saved grain, it was an act of faithfulness. Each time we install an energy-efficient light bulb, it also is an act of faithfulness. Each time we ride our bike or take a bus, or walk, instead of driving it is a spiritual victory. Each time we plant a tree, it is a sign of hope. Each time we study and work to bring the necessary changes to our church, our community, our nation, or our world, we engage in a religious act aimed at helping the survival of our children, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren—the survival of the human race. |
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