Spiritual wickedness in high places

Those of you reading this that don’t live in Michigan may not appreciate what a weird winter we are having.

Many of us who live here do so because we like all four seasons. Winter in particular is a favorite of mine. The cold is cleansing. The snow transforms the landscape into a beautiful sparking white canvas. Sunny days are crisp and clear with a special blue sky. Winter is leveling. It doesn’t matter who you are, it is the same temperature for everyone.

The problem is that we haven’t had any winter so far. I continue to play golf on the weekends even though the course closed a month ago. The ski resorts from here through southern Canada have no snow. Cherry trees in New York think it is spring and are starting to bloom. A 41 square mile ice sheet that jutted into the Arctic Ocean off Canada for the last 3000 years has broken loose. Weather forecasters are predicting that within the next decade there may be an open water passage through the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The sea ice there has already shrunk two million square kilometers. That’s about the size of Alaska.

The vast majority of the world’s credible scientists agree that the earth is warming. Whether or not you are willing to agree that human activity is the cause, from a policy point of view, we can’t continue to ignore the topic. At this point, whether or not cyclical warming is involved, we are adding gases to the atmosphere that at least acerbate the problem if not actually cause it. Those gas emissions come from fossil fuels burned in power plants, automobiles, and factories. Those emissions are the only thing that we can control, and virtually every other nation emitting such gases has been willing to do so.

Unfortunately we have an administration in power that has rejected all attempts to curb emissions even though we are one of the primary sources. It certainly seems short sighted to suggest that we can’t afford it when you look at the costs from rising sea levels alone. But this is the same administration that has run up record deficits through profligate spending and seems perfectly content to pass those along to our children. It is also the same administration which illegally weakened EPA rules through executive order. So simply stonewalling the global community on this issue for six years shouldn’t seem so shocking.

As Christians, we should expect and demand more of our leaders. In addition to learning more about our Maker, we all have the responsibility while we are here to leave this place in better shape than when we found it. That commitment is a perfect demonstration of loving your neighbor as yourself. It is also being the faithful and wise steward that Jesus spoke of.

“And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.” Luke 12:42

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 6th, 2007 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.