As your Senior Influencer, it’s time for me to crawl back up on my soapbox. Gird your loins.

In 1970 we celebrated the first Earth Day. I glommed right on to it, spurred on by Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring and my own fledgling liberal nature which was already starting to rear it’s bicameral mind.

Then 20 years later, after we had stemmed the loss of the pivotal ozone layer and done some serious work on air and water pollution, I went in search of youth ministry materials with which I could influence young minds at church to wrap themselves around the idea of global warming (that’s what we called it then, as some of you will remember.)

There were none. Materials, that is, not young minds. We had plenty of those back then.

So I decided to develop my own. Hence my first book, Cherish the Gift, A Congregational Guide to Earth Stewardship. It was published in 1996, purchased by an actual publisher for $500. I’m pretty certain they lost their shirt on that one.

FUN FACT: As greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere that would otherwise escape into space, average temperatures on the surface are rising. Global warming is one symptom of climate change, the term scientists now prefer to describe the complex shifts affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems. Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts.

nATIONAL gEOGRAPHIC

But it was in my research for that book that I came to realize we had about 50 years to reverse climate change if we wanted to stem the loss of coastal regions due to melting ice caps and glaciers, rainforests due to clearcutting for fuel and grazing, and arable soil due to desertification caused by global warming (yes, still a thing). Not to mention the chaos that would be caused by erratic weather patterns and the earth overstepping its carrying capacity, humanity wise.

FUN FACT: in 1995, the earth’s carrying capacity was expected to be about 5 billion people. As of today, Atlas is staggering under the weight of 7.9 billion, expected to hit 8 billion by the end of the year. That number contributes mightily to climate change.

Sadly my book and the screaming in the wilderness of a lot of scientists didn’t do much to reverse the looming catastrophe. Thirty years later we are now hearing that 2050 will be our dead date. In more ways than one.

Yes, we’ve made some strides: alternative energy sources are on the rise, electric vehicles will one day replace gas-fueled ones, recycling is an everyday thing for some households, and there are international meetings and accords which, thankfully, we are still a part of.

But we have lost so much already, and we are reminded every day of famine and drought, wildfires, freak storms, crazy temperature swings, and more changes to our planet that are beyond our control.

FUN FACT: According to the 2020 Living Planet Report, published by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the world has lost 68% of monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish in the last 50 years. 

wORLDWIDE FUND FOR NATURE

Thirty years is not that far off. So, do something, for God’s sake, and our own. Don’t make me dust off this blog and repost it on Earth Day 2050 when I’m standing in the dry-as-dust bowl that will be Texas, trying to cool off in the 115 degree heat. Yes, it will be a dry heat, but really, will that matter?

Climbing down from my soapbox now. It’s a lot harder than it used to be.

I blame climate change.