Christmas and Climate Change

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change has just taken place in Copenhagen. Before the event the host city had been nicknamed ‘Hopenhagen’, because of the hope that a strong agreement would be reached by the nations of the world that would tackle the global crisis of climate change in a legally binding and accountable way.

Sadly, it was not to be. Instead a toothless, unenforceable Accord was signed that falls well short of what many scientists say is required to avert a global environmental catastrophe. The headlines of the Sunday Independent a few days’ ago read, ‘The Hopelesshagen Flop’. What’s most revealing about the Copenhagen Accord is that in trying to get it accepted before the UN-mandated deadline it was presented to only 28 of the 192 signatory nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who just happen to be the strongest economies in the world (source The Sunday Independent, 20 December 2009, p.1.)
So, on an issue of far-reaching global importance that will impact everyone on the planet, but especially the poorer nations of the world, a minority consisting of the wealthiest and most powerful nations have determined the outcome not according to the principle of the greatest good for all, but according to their own narrow, short-term, economic self-interest.
Now I fully acknowledge that there are all sorts of complexities to these things that I do not understand, and that all sorts of delicate and extremely difficult balancing acts are part of the burden of global leadership. But I cannot help but think that ‘the rich and mighty’ have failed the people of the earth in this matter.
Which makes me think of Christmas, and its subversive, upside-down message of the respective places of the poor and the rich in God’s plans for the transformation of the world. I think of Mary’s song when she sings of what the world misses in what God is doing, who “…has scattered the proud, brought down rulers from their thrones, lifted up the humble, filled the hungry with good things but sent the rich away empty” (see Lk 1:51-53).
I think of the shepherds, who were amongst the most economically-marginalized members of society, but who nevertheless were the first to hear the good news of the birth of a Saviour, and who were the first to spread this good news with others. (see Lk 2:8-18).
I think of the compelling truth that God entered our world not in a palace, but in the obscurity of a humble stable, as one who was poor, homeless, vulnerable to state power and soon forced to be a refugee / asylum seeker (see Matthew 2:13-14).
What does this say to the crisis of climate change? Well, it says to me that if we continue to look to the rich and mighty for providing the initiative and impetus this world needs for ecological transformation, we are looking in the wrong place – as the Copenhagen Conference so tragically reveals. Rather, it will be in the gathering, growing voices of ordinary people everywhere, and especially the poor, that will provide the groundswell for global transformation that ‘the rich and mighty’ will ultimately be unable to ignore.
For many this will seem like nothing – a hopeless scenario that cannot possibly bring about the change which we so desperately need. But for others with Christmas light in their eyes, they will see that this is how God’s greatest work always unfolds. And for them, it is reason enough to commit themselves to being part of the birthing of the altogether surprising answer that awaits our world.

PRAYER

Lord, it doesn’t make sense. That your change-agents in this world are not the mighty but the meek, not the powerful but the poor. We find ourselves asking, ‘How can this be? How can we be part of the healing of our planet?’
May the Holy Spirit come upon us, and may the power of the Most High overshadow us, and may we come to see that truly nothing is impossible with God. Amen

COMMENT

What ideas do you have for how ordinary people can become change-agents for the sake of our planet?

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