Reflections on Life and Faith,
by David Keating

No Snowboard This Year

January 13, 2007

Environment Canada says that Canadians should not expect much traditional winter weather until March. March? An unseasonably warm ... uhhh... season will be had by all.

For some of us, this isn't all that disturbing. While I do like winter, I also like being able to go out for a walk in January without heavy duty winter gear. But if I don't need that gear, neither does anyone else and the people who make that gear don't have to bother coming to work. Not good.

I won't complain about needing less heating oil either (well, here in the apartment I don't have to buy it anyway but let's not nitpick). And the price of gas is down because the price of crude is down. But several thousand people who normally work winters at ski resorts are not working there this year. And the money those people would have spent in their communities on everything from pizza to puppies isn't being spent. Also not good.

Nice weather has its own implications and they're not all positive.

On the other hand, things are booming in British Columbia. At least in the disaster cleanup and recovery business. Torrential rain, punishing winds, and storm surged seas are demonstrating just how easily nature can disrupt our presumption that we're in some sort of control.

The world she be a changin'.

And if the media is correct, Canadians have noticed. Climate change has become our number one priority.

Now, I don't want to turn this column into yet another discussion of the causes of global warming, who's at fault or whether it's real. I do want to talk about our reaction to it.

If global warming is caused by what human beings have done, we have to work together to help those who are adversely affected by it.

If global warming is caused by a natural process that would have happened even if we weren't around, we have to work together to help those who are adversely affected by it.

Some may read the above and argue that in order to "fix" the climate, we have to understand what's "wrong" with it.

Perhaps so. However, I would argue that, regardless of the causes, lowering greenhouse gas emissions makes sense. Even if they're not the cause, no one is arguing that they're a good thing.

Improving the fuel efficiency of cars and lowering the amount of noxious exhaust they produce is just good stewardship. It's not necessary to prove the exact percentage of harm caused. Whatever it is, I can tell you confidently that less is better. None would be good too.

It does not require a degree in biology to know that dumping industrial and urban waste into the water is just plain wrong.

The Golden Rule, in Christianity usually rendered as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", can be applied to the planet as easily as it's applied to each of us.

If our positions were reversed, would we want the planet Earth to blow clouds of toxic fumes around our heads? Would we want Mother Nature to pour the discarded waste of all her creatures down our throats?

Probably not.

"Do unto others" calls us into relationship. Whether that's with our neighbour, our neighbourhood or our planet.

And I am encouraged by the fact that we're apparently beginning to realize that.

We may not be able to "fix" the climate, at least not if fixing it means making it the same as it was when we were kids. But we can change our relationship with it.

Maybe if we treat Earth the way we'd like Earth to treat us, it'll let us stick around for a while.