Global Warming: time's a'wasting!

The time is now for individuals and communities to take an active role in combating global warming, the challenge of our century. NASA global warming scientist James Hansen gives us a 10-year window to respond-or "we will be producing a different planet."

Global warming is of course not just an "ecological issue," as if that weren't enough to spur our responses. With millions of the world's poor to face water and food shortages and increases in disease, coastal flooding set to displace millions, and some 180 million to perish in Africa alone from warming-induced problems, this is a human justice issue as well.

Want to do something about it?

• Facts about global warming
• Teaching: a lesson plan and action steps
• Other action ideas for your community
• Preaching and worship : approaches and resources

*NCP's Climate Change Action Plan (opens new page)

The Facts:

• Some degree of Greenhouse Effect is necessary for keeping our planet at a cozy temperature, but.
• Humanity is putting out about 30 percent more global warming gases than the planet's trees, seas and soils can absorb, and this is wrapping extra layers of CO2, methane and other gases around the planet-in effect, turning up the heat-and leading to a likely 6-8 F degree rise in earth's temperature by 2100. In particular, CO2 levels have risen from 280 parts per million (pre-1750) to 391 ppm today (rising at about 2 ppm per year); methane from .8 ppm to 1.75 (methane is 20x more potent per unit than CO2 as a global warming gas); nitrous oxide from 260-360 ppm. All told, the concentration of global warming gases in the atmosphere is about one-third higher than before the Industrial Revolution.

• The principle cause of global warming is fossil fuel combustion-primarily coal-fired power plants, industrial energy use, and vehicles; food production is also a big contributor to global warming, as is forest destruction. Here's the breakdown:
  • Transportation: US drivers travel 2.7 trillion miles per year, emitting around 1 billion tons of CO2 in the process-or about one-quarter of all U.S. CO2
  • Food production: In the US, the food sector consumers about 15% of energy for production, packaging, shipping. A recent Food and Agriculture Organization report ranked cattle production as surpassing transportation as a global producer of greenhouse gases (cattle production creates 37% of the world's methane [belching], 9% of the CO2 [fossil fuel inputs in fertilizers and equipment-a bushel of corn requires a quart of oil to produce] and 65% of the NO2 [manure]) (growing rice is also one of the main sources of methane). On average, organic foods use 35% less energy.
  • Household: Household operations are responsible for around 20% of US CO2-or about 5.2 tons per household per year
  • Waste: Landfills are a primary source of methane.
  • Heating: Coal creates 2.37 pounds of CO2 per kilowatt of electricity; natural gas 1.37 per kilowatt; wood creates 2.59 tons of CO2 per cord
  • Industry: Around 35% of US CO2.
  
  • Deforestation: Burning and cutting the world's forests is responsible for about one-quarter of global CO2 emissions.
  • Ethanol: According to a recent study by two University of Minnesota scientists and reported in the Washington Post, by the time you add all the fossil fuel inputs to corn production, even if we planted corn "wall-to-wall" for ethanol production, this would replace only 2.4 percent of current US oil consumption (without subtracting ff inputs, all this corn would still only replace 20 percent of our petroleum)-and only save 15% of the CO2 produced by this amount of gasoline.
• The consequences of global warming are already being felt-the World Health Organization says 160,000 people are dying every year from its effects: more severe weather events, water sources contaminated by flooding, expanded range of disease-carrying insects. Other living things are feeling the heat also-migratory animals are shifting their patterns, coral reefs are on the verge of mass bleaching, millions of acres of spruce trees in Alaska are being devastated by insects that no longer die out in the winter-and are spreading northward
• The future is scary-global warming will cut grain production for the world's poor by as much as 250 million tons annually; mountaintop glaciers are disappearing-and 40% of the world's people depend on their slow melt during the dry season for water; by 2050, one-quarter of land-based species could become extinct due to warmer climate, polar bears-they likely won't be here by the end of the century.
  

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Teaching - a sample lesson plan

• Start by asking all the ways this time is like no other in human history in terms of humankind's broad impact on the planet (some planet-wide human impacts include toxins throughout the ecosystem, over-fishing the seas, world-wide soil loss, desertification, the consumption economy bringing in goods from around the world, etc.) James Speth in Red Sky at Morning says humans are in a new ethical position: for the first time, we are at the planetary controls. Talk about global warming as a planet-wide phenomenon brought on my human activity.
• Go over the basics: Kyoto (calls for 5% less CO2 than 1990 levels-US and Australia only two industrial countries not signed on); name primary Green House gases (above) and their increases in recent history; note the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• Draw the earth, and ask group to name parts of the planetary ecosystem to be affected by global warming. For instance frogs (extinction rates escalating), polar bears (down from 1200 to 950 in Hudson Bay), mountaintop glaciers, coral reefs; earlier spring (affecting migration patterns), shifting growth zones (sugar maple trees migrating to Canada); rainfall patterns (dry areas to be drier); more snow fall in some temperate areas as warmer air holds more moisture; sea level rise (3-7 inches by 2100; a one meter rise would displace 56 million people); spreading diseases (like spruce bud worm in Alaska, already wiping out millions of acres of spruce trees and leading to enormous forest fires); permafrost melting (if it ever all goes, an additional 256 million tons of CO2); melting polar caps (Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica has already collapsed, adding more ice to southern ocean that all ice bergs in past 50 years); more severe hurricanes and tornadoes (within 50 years, a half-step increase in hurricane strength)

• Then ask about human impacts of warming. The list could include: spreading disease as weather warms; displacement due to rising sea levels; breakdown of local rain and weather patterns (possibly 250 million environmental refugees by 2100); hunger (African farmers can expect over 200 million tons less grain per year by 2100); heat waves; stronger storms; polluted water sources from storms and floods
• Show parts of Inconvenient Truth, The Great Warming or other video highlighting impact of warming on the planet
• Move on to talk about sources of warming gases. Ask the group to identify the main human-related sources of global warming gases (transportation, food production, electricity generation, forest loss, household energy use, consumption)
• Invite the group to do the global warming Match Game. Divide these sets of numbers and statements into two columns (of course don't match them up directly across from each other-make the group guess!):
• 760/3.5; pounds US per paper consumption per year / CO2 created in making one pound of paper
• 20/1; % cost to global economy if we wait til 2100 to act on global warming / % if we act now
• 60/21; number of car trips per week per household-US / million barrels of oil used daily in the US
• 19/60; tons of CO2 per person-US / thousand container ships arriving at US ports every year (each emitting as much pollution per mile as a car driving around the world)
• 1/1; one quart of oil / (to make) one pound of beef
• 220/1; cubic kilometers of water melting from Greenland per year (if it ever all melts, will cause 23 foot rise in global sea levels) / cubit km. used by Los Angeles per year
• 40/1.5; million water bottles trashed per day in US / million barrels of oil to make water bottles per year in the US
• 57/10; million cattle in Amazon rainforest / square miles of Amazon being cut each year
• 15/4: $billions spent by advertisers per year on children 12 and under in the US / hours per day children watch television

• Have group do Ecological Footprint activity
• Ask for responses from this activity
• Invite discussion on areas of everyday activity a person/family can cut back on global warming impacts. Divide into categories of:
• Transportation (most important choices according to Union of Concerned Scientists: live close to work; resist second car; buy fuel efficient car; bike/bus/walk/carpool; set goals for lowering car use [on average, every mile driven releases one pound of CO2])
• Diet (most important according to UCS, Why We Eat What We Eat and World Watch: less meat; organic; locally grown; grow your own)
• Household practices (smaller houses; adjust thermostat for heat/cool and water heater [20% of home e is for heating water]; efficient appliances; wash clothes in cold water [90% of e for clothes washing is for heating water]; hang 'em out to dry [clothes drying can use 5% of home e]; change light bulbs [up to 500 pounds CO2 savings per compact florescent bulb][on average, generating one kilowatt of e creates 2 pounds of CO2]
• Consumption (Remember those container ships! Also remember that recycling isn't a cure for our consumption, as over 90 percent of the waste in creating a product happens before we get our hands on it. And keep in mind that you can reduce your trash footprint [a substantial portion of which is due to the energy needed to create the products] from 3.4 acres to .04 acres [80 times reduction!] by pre-cycling [thinking about products' recyclability/reusability /energy cost before purchasing], re-using, buying in bulk, doing home canning, recycling, and generally reducing consumption of non-renewable/reusable products.)
• Television viewing habits (according to Nielsen Media, the average home has the TV on over eight hours per day; children see 50,000 TV commercials per year)
• Remind the group about NCP's Undoing Global Warming program-it helps congregations cut their Greenhouse Gas emissions while saving money on energy bills
• Talk about what a person or group can do to impact the broader community and national government. [Ahead of time: Create a sign-on letter to government officials stating your support for the strongest possible measures to curb global warming gases; announcing steps you are willing to take personally and as a community; and supporting generous relief aid for the world's poor who will suffer from a problem they had little hand in creating. Don't be afraid to use faith language if this is part of your reason for addressing climate change. ]
• Close with words of hope, and hand out NCP's Turn Down the Heat post-it note

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Other action ideas

Lead the way in combating global warming with positive actions

• Preserve rainforest and help reforest parts of Africa : take part in NCP's If a tree falls... campaign ($10 plants 100 trees; $200 preserves an acre of rainforest-every acre absorbs 1000 pounds of CO2 per year!)
• Join the Billion Tree Campaign co-sponsored by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai
• Sponsor a car-free day-and add up the CO2 saved (every mile driven typically puts a pound of CO2 into the air!)
• Organize a compact florescent bulb sales event (one bulb can save 500 pounds of CO2 over 10 years)
• Join an NCP Learning Tour to the Arctic or Amazon or Sudan or Nepal and see the impacts of global warming up close and personal
• Bring in a speaker from NCP (email us)or someone who has been on an NCP Learning Tour to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or Ecuadorian Amazon; put out a booth on Earth Day; or use NCP's global warming info-blurbs in the church newsletter
• Get local: Are there bike lanes in your area? Is there decent public transit? Advocate for such things with your local government.
• Distribute Turn Down the Heat post-it notes door-to-door in your community and/or Cooling Global Warming action guide

Sources for Time's a'wasting: The Consumer's Guide to Effective Consumer Choices (Union of Concerned Scientists); Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; The Stern Report (Nicolas Stern); New York Times; Planet Ark; Red Sky at Morning (James Speth); Crude: The Story of Oil (Sonia Shah); The Way We Eat (Peter Singer); Food and Agricultural Organization (United Nations); World Watch Institute; Radical Simplicity (Jim Merkel)

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Preaching and worship

How might one approach preaching on global warming?

• The justice angle, using texts such as Matthew 25:31ff ("as you did it to the least of these"); another approach is the fact that while the rich countries are the main contributors to global warmer, it will be the poor who are most immediately and drastically affected
• The over-consumption/greed angle (Matt. 6:19 -24); challenging the me/more/now ethos of our time with the us/enough/tomorrow credo of the gospel
• "Eye of the Storm"-we have this moment of awareness after living in oblivion for many years regarding the realities of warming.and we know the rest of the storm will soon be upon us.what will we do with this moment-take action, or delay further? (Matt. 16:2-3)
• The "generational justice" angle: climate change is an ecological challenge that will only worsen as time goes on, impacting coming generations much more severely than our own-what are the demands of generational justice? Us texts that speak of our hopes being bound up in our children, and of God's promise of faithfulness to coming generations.
• The integrity and goodness of creation angle, drawing on Genesis texts noting God's care in creating life ("it was very good"). Climate change threatens to extinguish much of the life God has brought into being.
• Preserving creation, as God instructed Noah to do in the flood (the first Endangered Species Act?)
• Worship resources: Litanies: We've Got the whole world. and Litany of Disappearance; Call to Worship: The Creation Gives Praise;  Scripture rendition: Psalm 8: Then and Now;  bulletin insert on creation care actions: The Nine Commandments;  longer skit: When Mother Calls, The Talk

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