The New Noah

The Biebs is everywhere, isn't he? The cover of Rolling Stone- -- go figure. In my day, the old guy wheezed through his gums, the cover was home for rock stars, not pop stars, but that was literally in another century.

It is not the all-Canadian boy whose story I want to mention from that issue. The handy little arrow points to an article by the prolific writer and new Noah, as someone has called him, Bill McKibben. http://www.billmckibben.com/ I have written about Mr. McKibben before because he is a well-respected voice on the important subject of climate change. Actually, he uses the older term, global warming, because the math shows us that the planet is getting hotter and we humans are making it happen.

At the beginning of the article in Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719
he mentions a rainstorm in Saudi Arabia which happened even though the temperature was 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celcius) making it the hottest downpour in recorded history.  McKibben's 350.org  initiative http://www.350.org/en/node/22 is an attempt to get us to wake up to the dramatic increases in greenhouses (now well above 350 parts per million) which results in climate change.

It's not out of line to refer to McKibben as a modern-day Noah because he plugs away at the cause even though it doesn't seem that a lot of us are listening. A recent poll in Canada found that 98% of us believe that humans contribute to climate change, which is a start. But we seem paralyzed when it comes to changing our destructive ways. We are amongst the most voracious consumers of energy in the world and the tar sands have given us an international black eye. In the States -- home for  McKibben -- the percentage is in the 60's. Bill aka Noah is also a Christian and teaches Sunday School in his rural Vermont congregation. I actually contacted him once to ask if he brings his environmentalism into Sunday School.

At times I wonder if I have gotten worse rather than better when it comes to my energy consumption, and because the problems are so vast I just tune out some of the bad news. But McKibben points out that while many of us may have a will, there is no way the fossil-fuel giants will readily comply with the notion of regulations which might limit profits.

What about you? Have you grown weary or cynical?  Are you more or less committed to caring for creation? Have you made lifestyle choices which reflect your faith in a Creator?