Climate Change Isn't Funny?

Smoke Haze Over Edmonton

The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

  ² And as they migrated from the east,they came upon a plain

in the land of Shinar and settled there. 

 ³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.”

And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 

 ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city,

and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves;

otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 

 ⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 

 ⁶ And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language;

and this is only the beginning of what they will do;

nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 

 ⁷ Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there,

so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 

 ⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth,

 and they left off building the city. 

 ⁹ Therefore it was called Babel,

because there the Lord confused^[ the language of all the earth;

and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:1-9  (NRSV)

I've always figured that God has a wry sense of humour, otherwise we'd be a bunch of crispy critters, zapped by an exasperated deity.

Actually, the Creator may have been inviting us all into a belly laugh at the expense of Alberta's Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party...or is than Unhinged? As the legislature killed the carbon tax in the province, members were coughing due to the smoke in the air from wildfires which have displaced 10,000 people, destroyed homes, and disrupted business. While scientists say that anthropogenic climate change is a significant contributor to these fires Kenney intones that climate change is complex and that their have always been fires in Alberta.

My thought is that yes, climate change is complex, so listen to those whose lives are dedicated to understanding climate based on scientific evidence rather than ideology. And, yes, there have always been fires in British Columbia and Alberta, but not with this intensity and scope and starting so early in the season. We have friends who've lived in central BC for decades who wonder if they can stay because of the pall of smoke which hangs over their area all summer now. There is an urgency to this issue which is being ignored.



Tower of Babel Pieter Brueghel 1 16th C

There are some excellent stories in the early part of the book of Genesis which were probably never meant to be considered factual, but are true. One is the Tower of Babel where the hubris of people leads them to build a tower higher and higher to "make a name for themselves," only to be scattered by God in their confusion.

This story sure seems applicable today as we talk past one another about the future of Planet Earth. Surely God, Creator, Redeemer. Spirit is losing patience with our species, filled with false pride and speaking in circles. For me it's just not funny.