Pope Francis minced no words: “Despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over or relativize the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident. No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought, and other cries of protest on the part of the earth that are only a few palpable expressions of a silent disease that affects everyone. If up to now we could have heat waves several times a year, what will happen if the global temperature increases by 1.5° C, which we are approaching? …Those heat waves will be much more frequent and with greater intensity. If it should rise above 2 degrees, the icecaps of Greenland and a large part of Antarctica will melt completely, with immensely grave consequences for everyone.”
I am old enough to remember the release of “Heat Wave”
by the ferociously peppy and love-exuding Gladys Knight and the Pips.
Living on the icy edge of Lake Michigan (where we still tried to swim
in late winter before the ice flows melted), we welcomed the idea of “heat waves.”
But last summer, when Arizona suffered day after day of temperatures over 110 degrees,
I felt a grief over what that might mean for future generations living where I now live.
Year ago, when traveling across the Sahara in a sandstorm
with a National Academy of Sciences research team,
the carburetor in our Land Cruiser failed and we screeched to a stop
in the middle of nowhere on a hundred twenty-two-degree day.
There was hardly any visibility, and barely any traffic. Luckily, within an hour,
we were back on the road after another vehicle came to the rescue.
But for most residents of the Sahara, there is no such rescue or privilege
as we enjoyed. When they suffer “systems failure of electricity, coolers,
air conditioning or drying up of their water supplies, it means certain death.
We may feel buffered from most summer heat waves,
but what other humans, animals or plants living on the edge
who have no buffer to speak of, rather than going underground?
Remember these words from Genesis, “
I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle,
and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark,
to every beast of the earth.” What is our reciprocal part of that covenant?
