The 140 characters of Twitter mean a lot of twaddle wafts my way and may even emanate from my account from time to time. It is also remarkable how much can be communicated in the equivalent of a couple of sentences. The environmentalist Bill McKibben tweeted today that the arctic sea ice is at one-fifth the area of 1979. I remember 1979 as though it were...thirty-four years ago! Granted, none of our kids were born yet, but I had been married three years, was finishing my second university degree, looking forward to ordination and getting paid for a living. Thirty-four years is a blip in time, but 80% of the sea ice area has disappeared since then.
Most of us don't give a thought to ice, other than putting it in a drink, or trying not to go for a slide on the sidewalk (bad winter for that) but sea ice is essential for the ecosystems of the North and for reflecting the heat of the sun. Open water absorbs heat instead, resulting in rising ocean temperatures and levels along with flooding and so on and so on. Someone has described this as "Earth's attic is on fire," a startling notion. Just because we don't climb up into the attic it doesn't mean it isn't on fire. Just because I don't want it to happen doesn't mean it isn't happening.
To me it is a matter of awareness, and a willingness to acknowledge the truth about our changing climate. And I can't be self-righteous. I can scoff at climate change deniers, including alarming numbers of conservative Christians. But if I'm not willing to pay attention and alter my expectations and lifestyle, am I really much different?
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