Help me out with this one. Seven scientists in Italy have just been convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of more than 300 people after they inaccurately predicted a 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy.
The defendants were accused of giving "inexact, incomplete, and contradictory" information about whether tremors would develop into what proved to be a killer earthquake. After the first tremors many people left their homes and slept outside. On the basis of the reassurances by the scientists they moved back indoors and many perished. The prosecutors accused the scientists of "monumental negligence" and eventually they were convicted.
Don't you wonder why politicians aren't brought up on charges for ignoring the warnings about climate change? If the overwhelming evidenced is that human-made climate change is disrupting the planet, who is held accountable? And who want to hear bad news.
As a preacher I wonder whether I should bother to say anything about climate issues from the pulpit even though I believe we have a responsibility to care for the planet because God is the Creator and we have a unique role in creation. But who wants to come to church to hear gloomy news?
Will those in positions of responsibility ever be charged with "monumental negligence?" I can't believe that those convicted Italian seismologists wished anyone harm or willfully ignored the signs. Yet that's what we are doing with our assault on the Earth.
Have I got it all wrong? Should there be some sort of planetary court for abusers? Just wondering.
I honestly don't know what it will take to get all of us to get with the environmental program. I really don't.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading "Good News For A Change: hope for a troubled planet." (David Suzuki and Holly Dressel) It is quite shocking what we inadvertently give our consent for. The authors talk alot about the 'withdrawal of consent'. I think what you are doing at the pulpit is important. The issues are so intricately webbed that it can be difficult for indiviiduals to easily understand how we are giving our consent for the practices that destroy our earth and conversely how we can withdraw that consent.
ReplyDeleteWow. Does that mean that this could set the precedence for weather forecasters to be indicted when they incorrectly forecast the path of a hurricane or tornado?
ReplyDeleteI guess it comes back to another conversation about the fact that people don't recognize humans as one with the Earth, or as from the Earth. If we only value human lives and materials and the planet always falls down the list of priorities, then it will never matter enough.
Thanks for these observations. It's hard not to be pessimistic, isn't it. I want to live with hope.It will require a shift of public perception and political will.
ReplyDelete