(Disclaimer: Before I begin, everyone needs to know this about me. I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus is God’s one and only, that in one singular moment he saved the world by dying, becoming a zombie and then levitating in the air before teleporting to heaven. I believe that wholeheartedly, or at least, something along those lines. It’s important to mention us because this belief shapes everything about my ethos.)
The whispers have been going around for some time now. After all, according to the Bible, the world was supposed to end sometime around now. Links have been made between the weird shifts in weather, the uncommonly high rate of natural disasters and death around the world, and people have wondered about where this is all heading. It might be, they said. It just might be. Somehow, though, when gas prices rose to an uncomfortable pinch in the purse and people had to reach further into their finances to pay for their commutes, the whispers became much, much louder.
Is the world coming to an end?, people asked.
And to this, I must ask:
Seriously?
Because we have to pay the price of a value meal to go about thirty miles in our cars, the apocalypse is finally on us. Really? THAT’S the sign of the times?
Good (pause) Lawd (slapping hand to head)
To all my Christian brothers and sisters out there, with all the Jesufied love I can muster, I say this:
Tin shit on a stick, get your dumb ass head out of the sand.
It isn’t that you’re wrong. For all I and anyone else knows, it might be the end. It really might be. We might incinerate ourselves in a nuclear holocaust, unleash a devastating virus that decimates everyone, turn into brain-craving zombies, or get invaded by aliens who want to use our planet to grow the intergalactic version of ethanol. Wouldn't’t that be ironic?
Yeah, the world just might end. That doesn’t mean we shouldn't’t do everything in our power to prevent it. Despite whatever God said about the world coming to an end one day, he also told us to take care of the earth. Look it up. It’s in there. And yet here we are, some two thousand odd years after Jesus saved the world, finding ways to ruin everything. We’re turning the air above our cities into chunky soups full of carcinogens. We’re killing off species of animals are so perfectly adapted to their environment they haven’t needed to change for millions of years. And to this, people shrug their shoulders and say, what a shame, what a shame.
We need to take that charge seriously. Being a good steward of the earth is as much a spiritual and moral responsibility as it is a political and civic responsibility. Unfortunately, at least here in the States, such a dirty, dirty stigma is attached to the word ‘environmentalist’ that most Christians won’t go near it with a ten-foot, ill-informed pole.
It’s such an arbitrarily polarizing issue. For so long, environmentalists have been cast as these liberal extremists who actively promote and encourage this wildly radical anticapitalist message. Either that, or they’re whacked out hippy tree huggers. So when Christians get together to talk about the environment, that side of the argument is always thrown in an awkwardly skewed light. Because so many nut jobs carry the environmentalism banner, people don’t take it seriously. And if people do, conversations, as inevitable as the manner in which a turd finds its way to the drain upon a flush, usually circle back around to global warming.
Ugh.
It’s not about global warming.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. Go ahead, disprove it. Disprove how glaciers are just melting on their own accord and that is just a cycle. Tell me how Al Gore is a lying hypocrite and that he’s only in it for the money. Here’s the thing. Global warming isn’t the problem. Ironically enough, since we’re talking about them anyway, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I live in Southern California, the epicenter of waste and hubris. I’ve already decided that I can’t live here long-term, based off the simple fact that the city is smack dab in the middle of a desert region and has no business trying to sustain this many people.
Look at all those tens of thousands of cars on the freeways. Most, if not all, are still chained to an energy infrastructure that uses liquefied dinosaurs as its main resource. Again, argue all you want to about how there are still billions of drums of oil in the Middle East, off our coasts and in the arctic wastelands of Canada. It doesn’t matter. Last I checked, dinosaurs haven’t been around for quite some time and therefore oil is not a renewable resource. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Think about what is going to happen when it does run out and we don’t have a viable alternative. This should scare you.
In Southern California, clouds migrate to for the better part of the summer. Why isn’t Los Angeles run on solar power? Seriously, put a set of solar panels on every rooftop in downtown. Better yet, why don’t we have transparent solar panels and start replacing windows? This is an easy energy source and we have the technology to get it, so why aren’t we?
And while I’m talking about wasted opportunities, let’s talk about the water situation here. Southern California sucks long and hard at Northern California’s h2o teat. Again, we live in a semiarid desert. But , BUT, we also live next to the Pacific Ocean. Scientists are trying hard to figure out a way to effectively desalinate saltwater but it’s not quite ready. Good on them, but this should been done years ago. My basic philosophy is that if you can build it in SimCity, you should be able to build it in real life.
Look. Taking care of the environment doesn’t mean that we all have to shift back to hunter-gatherer societies and wear loin clothes made from dried tofu and hemp. It doesn’t mean that we have to give up technology, cars, medicine or any of the other myriads of trappings that we currently enjoy. It just means that we have to think more carefully about how we choose to live. It means we have to work on developing a system that is sustainable and renewable rather than simply consumable.
We’re getting there. I’m a firm believer in the progressive ability of humanity, and that when the time comes, we’ll be able to adapt. If we can send monkeys into space, teleport music and videos through the air, and split an atom, then surely we can figure out how to make a car run on water. Surely we can make things better. While this is what I believe, a darker side of me thinks when that time comes around it will be too late. What has been done might not be able to be undone, and sadly, it’s a possibility that the end of the world might be a prophecy of the absolute worst kind: self-fulfilling.
What are we doing to change it?
Comments (19)
I'm not religious, but that doesnt really matter to the message of your entry here. there are so many things that people can and should do just individually in their own lives. people think they're too small to even matter in the grander scope of the world, but that in itself is just another huge contributing factor to the problems. people waste far far too much. if people had to hold onto all they wasted in their back yards and or their closet space for 20 years, they wouldnt waste a thing or they'd find ways to compact that waste as much as they could. its a sad shame that people dont care about the future or this planet above their own greedy need for instant gratification for whatever they want NOW.
Dude...sign me up for the loin cloth!
Also, I dig your post. I think momentum is building in America to get some of this stuff done. While I'm personally an Obama supporter, I have a lot of respect for McCain for acknowledging the effects of global warming. I do wonder how he's going to do anything about it with big business breathing down his back. But I'll stay positive for now...
@Reality_vs_Ideality - no doubt. all people, religious or not, need to think about how much we waste as individuals and society. i always look at history and the way people just stupidly kept doing the same thing even though the warning signs were there (hunting buffaloes to near extinction, going to watch gladiator matches when the roman empire was collapsing), and i think 'wtf were they thinking?' the answer is the same then as it is now: we're not.
@CanadianConspiracy - totally agree. there needs to be a dramatic shift in our culture. problem is, that culture has been building steam for thousands of years and may be really difficult, if not impossible, to change.
AMEN!!! AWESOME post, my thoughts exactly. I'm often labeled as "hippie-like" or "environmentally-minded" because I try to recycle and do whatever I can to help take care of the earth. So if that's the case, EVERYONE should be hippies like me!
great stuff. this is the kicker for me.
"My basic philosophy is that if you can build it in SimCity, you should be able to build it in real life."
now i'm gonna play simcity 2000 again...
@woodrowwilson - Impossible? Perhaps. But the planet has turned the tide on challenges of similar proportions before: the abuses of the church in the middle ages, dictatorial monarchies, racism and slavery, etc. As long as woodrowwilson keeps talking sense, I'm gonna keep positive.
@roughball - yeah, but this whole consumerist mentality, i believe, goes far beyond american culture and capitalism. i'm talking fertile crescent and the advent of agriculture, yo.
i'm not saying we can't change. i hope we can. in the words of rocky to the russians in rocky IV: 'If I can change, and yous can change, then we all can change! We call can change!'.....
ADRIAN!!!!!
Sure, I recycle and I'd rather walk then drive to places within walking distance but the world needs more people to be proactive and it's discouraging thinking nothing will change unless we do it as a whole...and it's not a top priority for most people. I could do more, I could spread more awareness for the cause.
@woodrowwilson - I hear you. Rocky's the man. You're totally right...our culture is wasteful and irresponsible. I'm part of that. But I do think humans felt a need to oppress and exploit people who were different from them since fertile crescent days, too, and at least in America and Western Europe, things have changed in that regard. And even if not everyone's on board, I think legislation can help. Think Emancipation Proclamation. How about government funding to make solar power more accessible? Legislation to promote recycling and eliminate excessive waste? Straight up forcing people to use cloth bags at grocery stores (I admit I've been inconsistent about it myself)? My sister-in-law was reading about a hydrogen-cell car in the LA Times today. A lot has changed---not that where we need to be yet, obviously. But the same can be said for civil rights. And your post got me thinking about what I can do, so that's something. Rocky's the man.
Also, nice profile pic.
Well said. I, too, hope we will be able to change before it's too late.
@roughball - the solar power thing is already starting. i have a co-worker who has solar panels at her house. they produce enough power to run their house AND the energy company buys the surplus from them. the only downside is the panels cost upwards of 80k. if you're a big family who needs a lot of energy, that pays itself off quick, but for everyone else, the price of such technology needs to, and should, come down.
amen, brother.
Signs of the end, but not the end itself. If anyone thinks this is the end, s/he hasn't seen ANYthing yet!!!!!!! Personally, I don't figure on being around when the big stuff hits the fan (see www.raptureready.com to see what I mean, crack open the Bible [online at www.blueletterbible.org or http://bibleresources.bible.com], or, best of all, do both...).
http://www.50waystohelp.com/
http://www.thestoryofstuff.com
i led a discussion on "green living" at church yesterday. it's cool that churches are starting to embrace this stuff.
i told bryant yesterday that i wish i could go to some freakishly gorgeous nature place, you know, the type of place that christians use to justify their belief in God (how can this amazing scenery be created by "science"; surely there is a God!). and then, i want to fly by in a jumbo plane and dump a bajillion pounds of trash on it (but on closer inspection is stuff you could've recycled 50 years ago).
@margaretlee - hahaha....could you imagine seqouyah (sp?) with about a bajillion pounds of old vhs tapes and baby diapers hanging off branches? that would be spectacular.
i forget their names but there was an interesting article in time's 100 most influential people about two men who were ardent environmentalists. Interestingly, one was extremely liberal and the other was a conservative pastor (in England, I think.) Apparently they were united by a common cause. Pretty cool.
Yup.
But people like you have to live around these parts, because otherwise it'd just be the crazy wasters who live without thinking stewardly.
Plus, Jack Bauer totally lives in LA.
ya...trying to make the bubble a lot stronger!! and disclaimer: you are....it should be CLAIMER ;)..
lastly..i'm in Cali right now..wheatland...burbs area too...small town =)