Thought for the Week

by Fr David Pickett

Vicar of St Oswald's, Guiseley

WHAT in heaven’s name is going on in the world with regard to weather? Over the Christmas period the Eastern Sea-Board of the United States saw record snowfall, accompanied by record low temperatures, with many places experiencing artic-type temperatures of -20 Degrees C and below. Over a week ago the Mount Washington observatory in New Hampshire registered a temperature of -38C with a wind chill of -69C. Aviation, roads, industry and the way of life of ordinary people were greatly affected by these extreme weather conditions. Snow even reached as far south as Florida, with communities experiencing their first sight in the state for over 30 years.

Contrast this with temperatures in Sydney, Australia last Sunday that reached a record high of 47.3C (117F), the highest recorded in almost 80 years. This too had an adverse affect on the population with a severe fire-danger rating being issued for Sydney and the rest of the state (I would like to argue that the unseasonably high temperatures may be one of the reasons that we lost the cricketing Ashes, though these may just be the desperate words of a whingeing ‘Pom’).

So what is the cause of these unprecedented weather events? It’s not as if they come as a surprise any more. Regularly we see these kinds of phenomenon somewhere in the world, with the words ‘record’ or ‘unprecedented’ attached to the story of how the country/place has been adversely affected by sun, rain, wind or snow. Regularly we have to helplessly watch as people – usually the poor – see their homes and livelihoods destroyed or swept away. Too often we have to listen to politicians and scholars argue and deny that it is not us (humanity) that is at fault for the rising sea temperatures and the melting of the polar ice caps; but something is amiss, something is going dreadfully wrong.

Imagine owning a wonderful, beautiful house that you designed yourself - the most wonderful house ever built; one that you loved so much because it was absolutely perfect to live in and gave you so much joy. Imagine then renting it out to other people for a year, and after a year taking back possession only to find that it had been trashed; that this beautiful house is now in such a state that you may never be able to bring it back to its former glory. Imagine confronting the tenants who did this to ask why they treated your home in such a dreadful way, and them saying, ‘we thought that as we paid the rent we could do whatever we wanted!’

The story of creation in the Book of Genesis tells us that God created humankind ‘and let them have dominion over fish of the sea, and over the the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ Basically God gave to humanity the gift of stewardship of the earth, to take care of it and keep it like the Garden of Eden. But like the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden we have rebelled. We haven’t looked after the earth; we have used it and abused it to our own ends with thoughts only for the here-and-now and not for the future.

Whether you believe in a creator God or not, it is evident that continued abuse of the planet is unsustainable. From deforestation, to seas full of plastic waste; from pollution - through the burning of fossil fuels - to the hunting to extinction of our wild animals, it doesn’t take too much thought to work out that eventually, given this level of abuse, something has to give. Stewards are meant to take care of what they are put in charge of, and we are guardians of all that is needed to sustain life, for this generation and for generations to come.

To do this, as earth-keepers, we may need to make sacrifices as we seek to live out a simpler lifestyle that involves walking lightly on the earth. We need to learn to love and be kind to the earth and all of creation, toward people and other creatures, to our environment and natural resources. By doing this we will engender hope for the future, not through fear, guilt or shame, but through love, the love that was originally given us through creation; the love that will enable us to be responsible stewards of a beautiful sustainable planet for multiple generations to come.