Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Eco-ethics, the reality of the Globe and a Vision for Change


Erin Kruger

Processing readings from “Blessed are the Consumers” by Sally McFague, and four articles from “Post Carbon Reader” compiled by Heinberg and Lerch, leaves a reader with definite knowledge that there are many serious crises concerning the health of the earth and how society functions.  Heavy topics such as poverty, peak oil, and the scalability of alternative energy are subjects that are to be avoided in polite conversation, yet the hard facts of these writings show the reader that this silence is only irritating the problems even more and a change – not a slight change – but a deep change is possible and desperately needed. 

McFague argues for restraint, and presents a model within the Christian faith tradition of “kenosis”, a self emptying of oneself.  She cites the examples of lives such as Augustine, John Woolman, and Dorothy Day (to name a few) to show how a radical life change, steeped in experiences with others and intentional everyday life choices, understanding their effect on others, illustrates the power of kenosis.  Could this kind of change have a positive effect on the financial and ecological crisis?  If one believes that the little choices one makes everyday from choosing paper over plastic or walking instead of driving a car has an impact, then a shift in how and why one makes these choices significantly affects the entirety of a person.

Post Carbon Reader presents the facts around the difficult issues of global warming and energy consumption in a very accessible way.  Bill McKibben does not try to warm up a reader to the reality as he states “Global warming is happening.  It’s been happening.  It’s much worse than we think.  The climate is changing…”  and goes on to show, as many have before him, that climate change is real and linked to human behavior from the melting of the icecaps, the rise in lightning strikes and consecutive fires, a increase in severe ocean storms as a result of a combination of several of these issues all together.  Daniel Lerch explains in simple terms the concept of Peak Oil and points out that this unique product is intrinsically tied to the capitalist marketplace and the global economic system both in public and private sectors.  J. David Hughes, in his article Hydrocarbons in North America, clearly lays out the percentage of each of the major energy sources that the US consumes (hint, it’s not comparable to the general global population’s consumption).  Digging deeper, David Fridley presents his article Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy describing the complicated issues surrounding other energy sources.  The scalability and timing, mostly tied to issues of production and extraction, is one of the crucial issues and plays into many of the others that Fridley lists.  Each of these continues to show the depth of the problems that our current world is so entrenched in.  However, Fridley is still hopeful after these articles, almost echoing the argument of McFauge, “alternative energy forms are crucial for global transition away from fossil fuels, despite the myriad of challenges of their development, scaling, and integration.”  (LOC 4180, Kindle Edition, emphasis mine) 

McFauge presents a four-fold process from belief to action that highlights this transition or process.  Leaders in the church need to continue to be aware that each person is in a different place within their journey.  Walking with someone along their journey is a tremendous honor.  As I walk alongside others, I strive to remember that each one of us comes from our own contexts and have great things to share.  Consumerism and the crises of ecology and economy matter to me, however how I share that with others can either help bring another along a similar path or alienate them in a way that can take many other paths. 

To help dig deeper into these issues I am often curious and ask others, do you have any memories of special places in your life?  Who in your life took you outside?  Where are some of your favorite nature images? How does that place or image make you feel? 

I believe that we as humans are deeply relational and an interdependent part of our larger ecosystems.  The modern world has allowed humans to live in some terms isolated from our natural systems, however many of us find deep meaning in them.  This connection for me is the basis of movement from belief to action. 

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