By Kip Coerper
The International Climate meeting in Glasgow (COP 26) was a reminder of the urgency to address climate change. Arctic ice is losing at alarming rates, for example.
But what does all that have to with me?
It matters a lot if you live near the ocean. The sea level is rising due to all the melting ice and your home could soon be underwater. For the rest of us, the melting ice is revealing frozen tundra beneath that was preventing methane being released into the atmosphere.
The new bare ground is now releasing methane, which increases global warming. Therefore, we need to be mindful of how much fossil fuels we use.
God created the earth and all its natural resources to be used wisely and not for recklessly exploiting. Too often, the fossil fuel industry has focused on the perceived benefits of fossil fuel production while ignoring or even whitewashing the reality of the side-effects of burning fossil fuel.
Unfortunately, even our government bought into a false narrative that fossil-fuel production was only good because of the many things it allows us to do. We now know better and it is time for us to encourage fossil fuel extraction to be responsible, and to reduce the amount of fossil fuel that is allowed to be created. The consumer has many choices that can directly impact the bottom line for fossil fuel production.
Plastic products are made with fossil fuel, therefore we cannot use them.
– choose products in stores by how they are packaged i.e. Instead of buying plastic bags and boxes for fruits and veggies, opt for loose ones. Buy reusable shopping bags.
– reuse plastic containers, and bags
– encourage our legislators to end all subsidies of fossil fuels – check out the Sierra Club beyond coal campaign –coal.sierraclub.org
– send our unusual plastic products to Terracycle –terracycle.com/en-US/– who will provide you a box in which to put your excess plastic products to be shipped back to them.
– divest our money from banks and institutions who are still supporting the fossil fuel industry. Instead invest in green businesses which are showing a greater return on investment than fossil fuels –gofossilfree.org/divestment/what-is-fossil-fuel-divestment/
– consider purchasing an electric car/truck, thus not burning gas while you are driving and subsequently removing a significant amount of pollution and greenhouse gases from our highways –forbes.com/wheels/news/ev-reliability-varied-as-gasoline-cars-consumer-reports/
Climate change is all around us.
It is difficult to see the severity in the Northeast U.S. because we will not experience the extremes and tropical storms seen elsewhere.
Our lakes are being threatened by fertilizer runoff from nearby farms, which is exacerbated by climate change’s more severe rain events.
Due to rising temperatures, more buildings will have air conditioning. This is bad news for global warming.
So let us try to pay more attention to what we use – how it is packaged, how it will be shipped, can we find a used one, and what will we do with the waste that purchase creates.
We must be encouraged and supported to speak up to corporate and government officials who can make big and bold changes in our environment. We are to enjoy the abundance of God’s creation and not exploit it.
