To Till and to Tend

With baited breath, people around the world have been waiting for this week to arrive.  This Friday, representatives from 205 countries around the world will make their grand entrance into the Olympic Stadium.  But this year is not like all other years. Being that the 2008 summer Olympics will be held in Beijing, China, I am sure there will be extra fireworks, magical dragons and beautiful masks galore.  Being that the 2008 summer Olympics are being held in Beijing, China, some of the athletes will be wearing masks, too.  But these masks aren’t so beautiful, they’re functional.  By wearing the masks, athletes hope to keep their lungs clean of the heavy pollution and particulate matter that covers Beijing.

The International Olympic Committee knew that China’s pollution was a concern, but awarded the honor to China with the understanding that it (and issues like human rights and freedom of press) would be fixed.  Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC, was even reported in the NY Times as saying he was confident the air would be clean because Chinese officials “are not going to let down the world.”  Meanwhile, China surpassed the US and took the gold for annual carbon dioxide emissions and China’s air and water continue to be one of the most polluted in the world.  Needless to say, since the IOC awarded China with the 2008 Olympics, little has been done to alleviate anyone’s concerns. 

So, with the Olympics nearing, China did what any nation might do: forcibly shut down nearby factories, discontinue construction and shove half the city’s cars off the road.  Though air quality did improve, it hasn’t been enough.  Now they’re attempting to alter the weather.

With the worlds’ eyes on China, solutions needed to be found and implemented years ago. But they started too late, pollution concerns remain, and China is being publicly embarrassed. 

The Olympics will come and go, but will the world learn the lesson?  Last year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Sir Nicholas Stern and even some American politicians have said that we have until 2050 to reduce our carbon dioxide by 80%.  Like cleaning China’s air, such reductions in CO₂ emissions is an enormous challenge; and like China, if we wait too long it will be impossible to achieve.

Word on the street (or, really, from British Consulate) is that British royalty and political leadership have been interested in the US faith-based initiatives on climate change. Under the auspices of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, the Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical communities have come together to advocate for the health of our shared planet and the poorest among us who will be most affected. Consequently, representatives from the different communities of faith (including someone from Presbyterians for Restoring Creation) were asked to share our experiences in interfaith programming and advocacy with religious, communal and political leaders of Belfast, Northern Ireland as part of a US Interfaith Climate Change Delegation last week.

In the United States, we use the strength of a coalition of religious voices to make a powerful unified statement on Capitol Hill. In Belfast, it is not only rare for the Catholic and Protestant communities to advocate together for a cause – it is nearly unheard of; these communities have been fighting to the death over Irish vs. British alliance in a thirty-plus year conflict called “the Troubles.” The hope of the British Consulate was that uniting on climate change could be a catalyst for greater peace.

Though it was difficult to look beyond the fear and anger that remains in the divided communities, our mission was clear and our language strong. As religious communities, we have obligations to our neighbors, the poorest among us and generations yet to come. This is a mandate we all share and may inspire dialogue and joint action.

How a people can move fully beyond the terror of the Troubles and into a place of cross-community environmental efforts will not be easy. Nonetheless, neither the memory of terror nor the issues of climate change will simply disappear. Both require great effort and compromise. I hope that we, the delegates, enabled new conversations and connections and empowered the current efforts of the grassroots movement.

Some interesting links:

Northern Ireland Environmental Link

The Christian International Aid organizations are focusing on Climate Change and its impact on the World’s Poor this Lenten season – fantastic and powerful materials:
Trocaire
TearFund‘s Carbon Fast