Lenten Lentils: Melting Ice: Climate Change and the Humanities

Carolyn Merchant is the Chancellor's professor of Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She spoke at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on February 22. These are notable pieces from that lecture.

Status

• Kyoto set aggressive goals, but did not have the support of the United States and Australia. Progress has been halted in recent months; however, Merchant believes that political will to address climate change is proportional to economic strength.
• The world has already experienced extensive environmental damage resulting from climate change: rising ocean temperatures, causing extensive bleaching of coral reefs; greater flooding; higher worldwide temperatures; and we are closer to creating the fabled northern shipping route.
• An example of coral bleaching: in Papua New Guinea reef fish communities were greatly impacted by coral loss due to ocean warming and sedimentation run-off from the conversion of forest to oil palm plantations.
• Polls Merchant quoted indicate a broad supermajority exists in support of action to mitigate the dangers of climate change with a spike after the release of An Inconvenient Truth.
• Glacier National Park is at risk, for it is losing its glaciers.

Climate Ethics

The Humanities can respond to the climate change crisis by developing ethics systems. Merchant believes that an ethics system must address:

• The impact of climate change upon socio-economic groups
• Actions taken to mitigate climate change are ethically grounded
• Contextually nuanced to account for differences in carbon needs (e.g., many communities’ greater carbon footprint is in the use wood to cook)
• The need to create a global governance structure to share responsibility for the atmosphere

How might the church (universal), the United Methodist Church, and Wesley particularly be part of the conversation about Climate Ethics?

Climate Justice

Merchant defines justice as “ethics on the ground”. She sees tensions between a utilitarian (needs of the many) and rights based (individual) approach to the question. Environmental hazards adversely and disproportionately impact persons in poverty, necessitating direct involvement of marginalized people in the conversation. Exacerbating the problem is the deep gap between wealthy and impoverished residents in the United States compared to other industrialized nations. A higher percentage of people in poverty live near toxic sites, spend a higher percentage of income on food, are susceptible to diseases caused by toxins, and do not have health insurance. Native populations—arctic native and native American populations—are burdened by the impact of climate change (e.g., shoreline dropping off into the ocean and the loss of spiritually acceptable water). Finally, the humanities should develop a justice centered on the common good that addresses species and habitat loss.

How might the church (universal), the United Methodist Church, and Wesley particularly be part of the conversation about Climate Justice?

Climate Change and the Arts

Perceptions are often developed through exposure to artistic expressions. Many artistic pieces relating to climate change challenge the notion that humanity is set apart from, more important than and at the center of creation. Examples include the Cape Farewell Project, the “Ice Car”, landscape art, and romantic poets and writers.

How can the church (universal), the United Methodist Church, and Wesley particularly use the arts to deliver a message about Climate Change?

Climate Change and Religion

Religious denominations have organizations that address the climate change crisis. Furthermore, interfaith and ecumenical groups are forming to mitigate climate change. The National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America (NCCCUSA) is a partner in stopglobalwarming.orgSome of the work is being done on a local level; for example, Green Faith in New Jersey is working to put solar panels on houses of faith.

Religions play a role in how people conceptualize creation, humanity’s role and responsibility within creation, and formation of ecological ethics.

How might the church (universal), the United Methodist Church, and Wesley particularly address Climate Change crisis? What graces and gifts—that is, what tools are in our toolkit—equip us for this endeavor?

Final Notes

Merchant envisions hope for the environment through eradication of class differences, by developing a framework through which humanity and creation are mutually interdependent actors, using responsible sustainable development practices that are culturally critiqued, and by creating bio-regional communities. Merchant encourages us to “listen” through our senses in creating a dialogue with nature.