We live in a time of great transition from a global economy based on non-renewable resources with their consequences of environmental devastation to some form of sustainable new order. This dilemma is forcing us to radically rethink all our ideologies, be they economic or theological.
Within such a context, President George W. Bush’s recent State of the Union address to Congress falls behind the curve. It lacks any desperately needed correction and innovation and shows little awareness of humankind’s largest challenge to be stewards of the Creation. We are “staying the course” on this titanic, indestructible ship of state, moving around the deck chairs as we bear directly toward glaciers in the night.
Was there any passion in the speech? It came through when he was speaking of our generational struggle with terrorism and especially Al Qaeda. “Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists,” claimed the president. Such rhetoric obscured the truth once more, and sought to appeal to fear, rather than hope, in our populace.
Two wars are being waged. One is the declared war on terrorism that has been used to justify our invasion of Iraq. There was no rhetorical passion about the other — the undeclared and seemingly unconscious war on the environment. Our global economic system is entrusted increasingly to large multinational corporations based on coal and oil, manipulated through trade agreements, releasing climate-changing hydrocarbons.
The undeclared war on God’s Creation can particularly be understood by looking at the release of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. (Here the president at last mentioned “global climate change”.) Auto and truck emissions produce about one third of greenhouse gases; another 40% comes from power plants generating electricity. One scientific report has estimated that a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be needed to stabilize climate change. Such a figure calls for an urgent mobilization on behalf of environmental peacemaking.
The State of the Union moved only slightly in the direction needed, without passion and without any serious awareness of our dire state. Although mileage standards have been established for cars and trucks, they won’t be implemented until after 2010 and even then the annual change wlll be a meager one mile per gallon better fuel efficiency.
The President set a goal of reducing gasoline consumption by 20% in the next decade. Ethanol production promises to help realize that goal. Yet that sets up other problems. Most ethanol comes from corn; a competition could arise between the need for food and the need for fuel. Other renewable fuels such as switchgrass demand a new infrastructure plus 40 million additional acres dedicated to planting. Ethanol produced in this way has yet to be made at a competitive price.
The President did express hopes of finding alternatives for the production of electrical energy, but included no mandated efficiencies for power plants, and no “bench marks” for performance. Instead he invoked the technological fix, saying, “It is in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply, and the way forward is through technology.” The same has been said of what to do with the nuclear waste from spent fuel rods, and we still don’t have an answer. Yet, he listed “safe nuclear energy” as one of the technologies to help us diversify.
A mobilization against the war on Creation will require creative new technologies and more. Most importantly it will take something akin to the spirit of a Franklin Roosevelt and the response of the American people in World War II as we mobilized for our defense. New renewable energy technologies must be accompanied with a realistic awareness of the environmental dangers, a much more enlightened vision, and a leadership capable of educating and mobilizing the public.
Such leadership probably will not come from the Titanic Ship of State but from other sources. For example, one looks for the time when the federal government will emulate the best of urban and state governments in moving toward a wide array of solutions, and will work with the nations of the world through Kyoto-type agreements on greenhouse gas reduction.
In the Church, the question arises: Where, in all this, can we find both truth and hope? How do we bring our commitment to justice and peacemaking to bear on the truth of both wars and the hope for peace? We know that political spin and ideology do not produce the truth we seek, nor can outmoded metaphysical truth with a capital T. Neither should our hope be only for our souls.
Can we discern God at work at the grassroots of humanity? Is that work with faithful people beginning to be heard in city halls, in state houses, and even within our own congregations? Behind the Creation and the war against it stands the Creator whose Spirit moves to redeem and sustain the Creation, bringing wars to an end, and fostering peace.
Will the preaching and mission of the church confirm this discernment? When we rekindle our prophetic tradition and apply it to the great work of global transformation, isn’t it then that we will speak the truth and engender hope?
John Preston is regional representative of Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, and author of Wrestling Until Dawn: The Fight for Biblical Justice in a Postmodern World.
