and climate change as a whole:
and this
I know I have posted this before but just in case. This topic has come up some in conversation.
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Dive In
I know I talk about the environment quite a bit which I think is just a product of just living closer to the rhythms of nature. The alternating dry and wet seasons coming and going have noticeably changed my life over the last year and made me a stronger advocate of nature and protecting the earth. I have recently moved to the capital Kigali which takes me a step away from nature but I had this last week off and decided to head down Nyungwe National Park to go camping. I believe it’s the highest elevation rainforest in the world or if not at least in Africa. I imagine many tourists just swing into Rwanda to go see the gorillas in Virunga Park and keep traveling so Nyungwe is a relatively untouched paradise. Over the course of the 4 days I was there, a total of 18 people visited the park. This really let me see the raw beauty of God’s creation unlike I had ever seen it before. I’m in love. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful earth to provide us with everything we need. From 13 species of monkeys, to hundreds of different types of birds and butterflies and the surprisingly human like chimpanzees, our world is beautiful. The simplicity of carrying everything you need on your back, setting up your own shelter has a strange hard love appeal that I can’t explain. To lay in bed hearing the orchestra of natural sounds from the nocturnal animals of the rainforest is one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.
I promise I’m not writing this to gloat about a nice camping trip I went on. I want to urge you to go camping yourself. Go find a nature trail close to your home and just walk, breathe, take in the rawness of God’s creation. You might fall in love like I have. I’m not sure where you are reading this and if you have an intimate relationship with God’s creation or not but regardless of where you are, give nature a try. Find a little place to get away from the air conditioning or heater, where you might get a little dirt under your finger nails or a couple more deep breaths of some good old pure fresh air. I know I’m not in the states right now but I believe it the season fall. Fall is a great time to enjoy nature. There might be a cool crisp freshness in the air when as the sun rises. The coolness of the morning might disappear by the middle of the day which might have enough warm glow from the sun to stop you in your tracks and make you say “dang it’s a beautiful day, I am blessed.”
I also believe that if you and those around you start to have this strange closer connection to nature, your actions might change to maybe keep this environment, to keep God’s creation. Dive in, don’t just go from car to house, turn around and walk on a path that isn’t concrete. Let the beauty of nature take your heart and just see what happens.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Bloop Blop Bleep Stop Climate Change!
I’m not sure if anybody actually reads my blehg but a couple weeks ago, I was gloating about the new garden that I planted. I also encouraged you to grow a garden. I still think growing a garden is a great idea but I have recently been thwarted by climate change. Everyone in my village had thought that the rains had come to stay but it turned out to be a big mother nature pump fake. Here you have the rainy season and the dry season. Either you get no rain or lots of rain, never just some rain. A couple of weeks ago, we had 3 solid days of rain and everyone thought that the rains had returned. It also was about the time the rains used to return. Dry season usually starts in May and ends in September. As of the last few years the wet season hasn’t returned until October. At the beginning of September we got those 3 solid days of rain and everyone thought the rain was returning to its old schedule and planted their plot. It turns out that it wasn’t and as a result, everyone’s crops died and they are going to have to dig again and replant. This means a loss of seed which also means a loss of money. I know I’m not a climatologist and that this unusual change in weather can be explained though many different reasons but it’s not only me noticing it. I was spending time with a friend who is an agriculture professor at the local university and told her that my garden died. She started to tell me that my case fairly common. For hundreds of years farmers have been on a similar schedule. The rains rarely fail or trick them. The changes in weather have left farmers confused and growing less.
It’s not that big of a deal for me. I’m sad I wouldn’t be able to eat any fresh veggies or basil before I go, but I don’t make my living growing crops like 92% of the population in Rwanda does. The earth’s condition is life or death for billions around the world and we must take care of it.
My time here in Rwanda has brought me closer to the earth and shown me just how important it is to take care of God’s creation. My neighbors all around me make their living from the earth and if we keep continuing to poison the earth our neighbors will have no means for survival. We are all in this together. Please, do your part in protecting our earth.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
SHOUTOUT: Bill Mckibben
Bill is an activist, writer, Christian and founder of the non-profit 350.org. There are many reasons I love this man. He has a very sharp but not condemning voice in all of his interviews and books. He does a good job of challenging and calling Christians to do something about climate change, especially in an apocalyptic obsessed culture where many don’t care about the environment because they think the end time is coming. On the other side some people don’t believe there aren’t enough facts to support climate change and he does a good job of clearly presenting his case. The name for his group 350.org is named after the scientific fact that we need to get down to 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, we are at around 392 right now. I could ramble on about how much I like Bill Mckibben or just show some things that he has done
http://harpers.org/archive/2005/08/0080695
http://www.grist.org/article/mckibben8/
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