Environment & Spiritual Awareness

Pope Francis in Korea

Some say that Pope Francis has elevated the environment to be part of our spiritual awareness. After all, the earth and all of the means provided to us are a gift from God.

More specifically, Pope Francis said on May 21, 2014;
"If we destroy creation, creation will destroy us."

One must give pause to ask if the Pope's words are a hyperbole or prophecy? Is this a prophecy because it is from a study of theology or is this a hyperbole from a review of scientific data?

Some will say perhaps there is a little of both, because of the sound belief that we must all care for what and who we have in our lives. If we are not our brother's keeper and the keeper of our earth, will the results be a profound loss of our biodiversity as we know it?

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"If we destroy creation, creation will destroy us."

Too much time is wasted on debating what disasters will occur or how very little will change, because of Climate Change. The fact is, we don't have all the statistics tabulated to layout the exact time of any specific occurrences that may or may not become a reality because of Climate Change. However, we do have enough scientific data to clearly state our planet's average temperature has increased and yes, humankind is a contributing factor. The What, Where, and When, is not for us to schedule and Who's Fault is not to debate, but for all of us to prevent additional planet wide temperature increases by working together as one team.  If we don't, you only need to look at recent events in Bangladesh and Australia to see the destructive force of a warmer environment.

I am tired of people claiming they know the "We Are Doomed" scenario just for their 15 minutes of fame and the other side saying, "Never In My Lifetime" will this happen. Well, what about your children or grandchildren's lifetime? Both these claims are not formulated well at all and they are immensely selfish. Humankind is very intelligent, when we choose to be, and we can overcome greed by learning how to evaluate all the facts. The book by John Klotz, called Quantum Christ: The Shroud of Turin and the Apocalypse of Selfishness offers an excellent presentation on how we must evaluate everything correctly (even God) and be selfless.

Evaluating the real science about Climate Change shows our oceans are approximately 1.5 to 2 degrees warmer over the past 5 decades. An increase by two more degrees over another decade or two is very disconcerting because   scientific data shows a warmer planet will cause the ice of the Tundra to melt. The known methane trapped within that ice will warm and turn into a gas. Thus, escaping into the atmosphere of our world, causing more warming since methane gas is far worse than the carbon emissions that create a Greenhouse effect. You may wish to consider the information provided by Thom Hartmann in The Last Hours Of Humanity: Warming The World To Extinction.

As individuals, we must make choices that can contribute positively to helping our world and be within our realistic budgets of time and capabilities. For myself, I do not own a car. When the Tesla electric car becomes affordable, I will own that and recharge the batteries with solar panels. Then, yes I will recycle the batteries and all the car parts when the vehicle no longer functions correctly. For political leaders and corporations, the responsibilities are far greater and there is a definitive need to realize basic facts: To paraphrase another Pope, "People ahead of profits" was said by Pope Benedict XVI and Matthew Kelly stated in his book The Dream Manager: "Contrary to unwritten management theory and popular practice, people do not exist for the company. The company exists for people."

The Man Who Saved the World

Once individuals and corporate entities face the facts, realize the truths, and become selfless, humankind will do just fine in spite of ourselves. I just pray we come together as one team before it is too late. Don't say that will never happen, because humankind did accomplish this once before! Yes, only once, but we must learn from history how successful this worldwide effort was and still is today. All started by one man who received a Nobel Prize. Thanks to this Dutch Atmospheric Chemist, Paul Jozef Crutzen, many say the world was saved. His research discovered the effects of Ozone-Depleting compounds and our world came together to pass laws to stop and reverse the damage being done to our Ozone Layer. People, politicians, and corporations became selfless after evaluating all the facts. NASA, America's space program, began documenting the damaged Ozone Layer from space and the world came together. At the time, President Reagan challenged the DuPont Company to find a replacement for their damaging chemicals, they did and stayed solvent. Products stopped being sold and companies changed manufacturing procedures for all products that were contributing to the destruction of our Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol treaty came into existence, because humankind of our world came together! Today, the improved and repaired Ozone Layer is a testament to humankind. So yes, I know we can work together as one team once again. We just need a few more real "Superheroes" like Paul Crutzen.

Bill Lauto,
Environmental Scientist at
GoingTrueGreen.com
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