Refugia Newsletter #27: COP 27, selfish motivations for climate justice, traveling moss balls, and new holidays
Refugia News
Last week spouse Ron and I spent long, enriching days with our faithful cohort of Western Theological Seminary's Doctor of Ministry students, gathered for their in-residence week. Our cohort is called "Refugia Church," and these wise and feisty folks are trying to figure out together how to enact refugia church practices in their ministry contexts. We read some heavy theology, visited examples of refugia sites, laughed a lot, and ate some fantastic homemade pizza. A great week.
Meanwhile, Season 3 of the Refugia Podcast keeps on a-coming. I have to apologize for promising in my last newsletter that the episode featuring Rev. Gerry Koning would drop on the 23rd. We ended up not releasing it until the 30th, but it's available now. Three more episodes still on their way!
While I'm at it, I should apologize for numbering the last newsletter incorrectly. It was supposed to be #26, but uh... well, oops. This platform makes it hard to go back and fix things. So now we have two #27s.
Finally, I invite you to join me for an online discussion of Refugia Faith in January, an event sponsored by the Climate Witness Project. They're calling the event a "Climate Huddle," which sounds very cozy. You can sign up here.
This Week in Climate News
This week's newsletter features a climate justice theme.
But first, a quick word about the recent election in Brazil. Thankfully, the rainforest destroyer lost and the climate champion won. As reported by Denise Chow for NBC News, "Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's narrow defeat over Jair Bolsonaro offered hope to environmentalists in Brazil and around the world for a new era of aggressive climate action, including much-needed efforts to save the Amazon."
What will happen in the US midterm elections is still distressingly uncertain, especially because accurate polling seems to have become almost impossible. So while we chew our fingernails over Nov. 8, we can also wring our hands over a new report from UN Climate Change that came out on Oct. 26. Bottom line: we are not doing enough to hit that goal of limiting average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Here's the lede from the UN press release:
"A new report from UN Climate Change shows countries are bending the curve of global greenhouse gas emissions downward but underlines that these efforts remain insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
According to the report, the combined climate pledges of 193 Parties under the Paris Agreement could put the world on track for around 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century." [emphasis added]
In other words, we have to do more, faster, all over the globe.
Which is why COP 27 is important, even if the promise of big results seems faint. COP 27 is set to begin tomorrow as 35,000 delegates descend upon Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on the Red Sea coast. The proceedings this year are likely to sharpen ongoing conflicts over what rich countries owe to poor countries. After all, rich countries have done the most to contribute to the climate crisis, but poor countries are already suffering first and worst from the impacts.
At previous COPs a decade ago, rich countries promised to provide $100 billion in aid annually by the year 2020. That did not happen, not nearly at that level. Rich countries are willing to provide (some) aid to help transition poorer countries to renewables, but the toughest sticking point is the concept of "loss and damage"--that is, climate reparations. Agreeing to climate reparations would entail more than just acting out of magnanimity and fellow feeling. It would entail rich countries admitting they have done wrong. Lots of resistance to that admission.
Further, it's hard to tote up the value of damages, let alone loss of things that might have happened without climate change. People do try, though, and I always find the numbers tossed around--billions for this, billions for this--hard to fathom.
Will anything be accomplished at COP 27? Who knows. Greta Thunberg is skipping this year. And climate activists are none too happy that Coca Cola is a sponsor, noting that one of the world's chief plastic polluters might possibly be doing a little greenwashing? Maybe?
Speaking of climate injustice, Kristoffer Tigue reported in Inside Climate News this week that the justification for a windfall tax on fossil fuel giants just keeps getting stronger:
"But while customers have suffered at the pumps, the biggest oil companies in the world are reaping windfall profits this year. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and TotalEnergy have together earned more than $100 billion in profits so far this year. That’s more than they earned all of last year, and nearly triple what they earned during the same period in 2021. Last quarter alone, Exxon reported $19.7 billion in earnings." [emphasis added]
Voters who blame inflation on the current administration are barking up the wrong tree.
Deeper Dive
Continuing with the theme of climate justice, I want to feature an article by Justin Worland in this week's Time Magazine. Thanks to Dale Hulst for drawing the article to my attention.
Many people have been making the argument that rich countries helping poor countries with climate mitigation and adaptation is a matter of justice. The Global North should be doing this because it's the right and just thing to do. However, the justice argument hasn't turned out to be all that motivating. It's so much easier not to care.
As Worland writes, a more effective motivation is: fear. The military has long regarded climate change as a "threat multiplier," and US intelligence reports outline the details. Either we help poor countries, or our way of life will be threatened by instability, migration, economic collapse:
"Wealthy countries can embrace an agenda that helps the most vulnerable parts of the world address catastrophic flooding, deadly famines, and unchecked migration, and in doing so help prevent destabilizing ripple effects. Or wealthy countries can dismiss the concerns of their developing counterparts and hunker down to await the inevitable shock waves."
I find it disappointing that humans have a hard time acting out of mutual care and a sense of justice. But "an appeal to self-interest," as Worland reports, already appears to a more effective motivation. This article is well worth a read.
Refugia Sighting
Two fun sightings today: a church nature trail and glacier moss balls.
My own church, Church of the Servant Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been working for a number of years to create a literal refugium on our property. Along with numerous other climate-sensitive initiatives--such as our big solar array--we have been creating a nature trail through our property featuring native prairie areas, little wetlands, many native trees and more. My friend Dave Koetje has created on online mini-tour featuring descriptions of each stop on the trail and terrific fall photos. We are working up a more extensive trail guide combining science facts with spiritual reflections.
What are those weird, rolling blobs of green spotting the surface of yon glacier? Why those are glacier moss balls! Each of these weird little balls is--according to Audrey Ramming, "a literal, free-rolling ball of moss growing around a rock or pebble core."
I'm not sure they're refugia, technically, since they're not really a response to crisis. They might just be a regular adaptation to the glacial ecosystem. But "the balls themselves provide key habitat for invertebrates and other life, acting as little green islands amidst a sea of white." Cool!
Thanks to Refugia Church cohort member Betsy King-McDonald for sending me this article.
The Wayback Machine
As Thanksgiving approaches, I recall this mildly sardonic piece from 2012. Getting ready to manage the responsibilities of the holiday season sent me off on a weird imaginative journey in which I attempted to invent new holidays:
"If Thanksgiving is a time to practice the virtue of gratitude, why not some other holidays to promote other Christian virtues?"
Things got strange from there.
Thank you!
Thanks for reading! I keep these newsletters quickly scannable, with opportunities for deeper reading as you are able. I also tend to emphasize the connections between faith communities and climate action.
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