№ 661. The Man Who Planted Trees

Stuck in a Book

 

“For a human character to reveal truly exceptional qualities, one must have the good fortune to be able to observe its performance over many years. If this performance is devoid of all egoism, if its guiding motive is unparalleled generosity, if it is absolutely certain that there is no thought of recompense and that, in addition, it has left its visible mark upon the earth, then there can be no mistake.”

― Jean Giono, The Man Who Planted Trees

 

 

№ 420. Climate Change

Climate change is not a belief system.

We know that the earth’s climate is changing thanks to observations, facts and data that we can see with our eyes and test with the sound minds that God has given us.

And still more fundamentally, here's why it matters: because real people are being affected today; and as Christians we believe that God’s love has been poured in our hearts to share with our brothers and sisters here and around the world who are suffering.

Caring about this planet and every living thing on it is not somehow antithetical to who we are as Christians, but rather central to it.

Being concerned about climate change is a genuine expression of our faith, bringing our attitudes and actions more closely into line with who we already are and what we most want to be.

And not only that; if we truly believe we’ve been given responsibility for every living thing on this planet (including each other) as it says in Genesis 1, then it isn’t only a matter of caring: we should be at the front of the line demanding action.

№ 71. Monday Mind Melds: Green Planet

Mondays can have their perks, too. They can give the week a shot in the arm especially for armchair green revolutionaries.

Earth Day is almost here. What better way to prepare than to inspect current thinking and maybe learn something.

Here's one very engaging article from Utne:

"Today we operate the world with our growth paradigm and our economic imperative and our social imperative as being the supreme goals for our societies. We then add, at best, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and all the good work we’re doing with clean tech and efforts to be more efficient, all with the explicit goal of minimizing environmental impacts within the overarching growth paradigm. The insights of the Anthropocene and tipping points show this paradigm doesn’t work anymore. We have to reverse the whole order and agree that the biosphere is the basis for everything else. This is quite dramatic, because it means human development has to be subordinate to Earth system boundaries. It changes the whole idea of macroeconomic theory, because macroeconomic theory basically states that as long as you put the right price on the environment, you automatically get the most cost-efficient way of solving environmental problems."

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