I’m aching with all this hard to absorb news of my current reality, but Eaarth is full of important facts I need to remember. The Arctic ice cap and inland glaciers are melting. The oceans are warmer, distinctly more acid and their level is rising. The rain forest of the Amazon is drying, and the great boreal forest of North America is dying, and oil in the earth is more empty than full. This isn’t new information for me, but reading so much at one time makes me feel it more. But feeling is probably part of my problem. My earth is dramatically different, yet my life still feels so normal. I have plenty of food, clean water still comes out of my faucet, and my yard isn’t dust. I can still afford gas in my car, (I’m trying hard to be wiser with my driving). The impact of how bad things really are hasn’t impacted my daily life, although I can see it coming.
My “seeing” was helped as I watched the video “The Story of Stuff.” The simple illustrations gave me a visual anchor. And the commentary filled in vital information. Extraction means using finite natural resources, which cause irreparable damage to my world. During production we regularly produce 4 billion pounds of toxic waste. Distribution doesn’t completely pay expenses (particularly fair wages and quality health care). Consumption (with the pulsing golden arrow) hit the hardest—we only use 1% of our stuff 6 months after purchasing it. Gross! During disposal all the toxins we use in production wind up in a landfill or burned up, which only spreads the poison.
Good grief this is all horrible news! Talk about needing to hold the pain of the world--it is excruciating! So I’m crying to God to help me bare it. But somehow I’m encouraged that we are engaging this material as a class. We have a chance to talk and support one another in coming to grips with the agony that is a different future than we expected or wanted.
No comments:
Post a Comment