Here in Macon, it was 104 on Tuesday. In my 41 years here, the hottest I remember it ever getting was 108 (in the early 1980s). And then there was the time in the early 2000s when it got above 100 for two weeks straight I believe. But these were temperatures in July/August, not June!
Unbelievably, one time when we were visiting back home in England, again in the early 2000s, it was forecast to reach 102 the day we left. They can really suffer with the heat across the Pond (and elsewhere in the world) because it is not usual to have air conditioning in the home. The same is true here, of course, for those who cannot afford air conditioning. Such temperatures can be positively dangerous, especially when the humidity is high. Tragically, people even die, especially the elderly.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to deny the reality of global climate change. Perhaps Pope Francis (and his two immediate predecessors) were right to focus our attention on the issue?
You are fortunate to be on the coast. Do you go in the sea to help cool off on such days?
Pope Benedict XVI insisted that climate change is real.
In 2010 A.D., Pope Benedict XVI declared:
-- "Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change..."
"Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?"
Via his Papal Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (2009), Pope Benedict XVI declared:
"The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole.
"The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption, either through an evolution in manufacturing methods or through greater ecological sensitivity among their citizens."
"...the protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate obliges all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet."
"The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa."
"The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing, she must defend not only earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone.
"She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction."
Pope Saint John Paul II, on January 17, 2001 A.D., declared in powerful fashion:
"Unfortunately, if we scan the regions of our planet, we immediately see that humanity has disappointed God’s expectations.
"Man, especially in our time, has without hesitation devastated wooded plains and valleys, polluted waters, disfigured the earth’s habitat, made the air unbreathable, disturbed the hydrogeological and atmospheric systems, turned luxuriant areas into deserts and undertaken forms of unrestrained industrialization, degrading that “flowerbed” – to use an image from Dante Alighieri (Paradiso, XXII, 151) – which is the earth, our dwelling-place.
"We must therefore encourage and support the “ecological conversion” which in recent decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe to which it has been heading.
"Man is no longer the Creator’s “steward”, but an autonomous despot, who is finally beginning to understand that he must stop at the edge of the abyss."
Wow! "Man is no longer the Creator’s “steward”, but an autonomous despot..." Wow!
Quite so, Mark. And the idea that "Man is no longer the Creator’s ‘steward’, but an autonomous despot..." helps to connect the stewardship of creation with abortion, doesn’t it? Like new life, our planet and its environment are divine gifts before which we should exhibit the virtues of gratitude and humility.
Perhaps connecting these gifts, as Pope Francis does in Laudato Si, and emphasizing these virtues would help change hearts and minds across the political spectrum, convicting those on the “right” about the environment and climate change and those on the “left” about abortion, as the following article seems to suggest:
5 comments:
That’s one word for it. -:)
Here in Macon, it was 104 on Tuesday. In my 41 years here, the hottest I remember it ever getting was 108 (in the early 1980s). And then there was the time in the early 2000s when it got above 100 for two weeks straight I believe. But these were temperatures in July/August, not June!
Unbelievably, one time when we were visiting back home in England, again in the early 2000s, it was forecast to reach 102 the day we left. They can really suffer with the heat across the Pond (and elsewhere in the world) because it is not usual to have air conditioning in the home. The same is true here, of course, for those who cannot afford air conditioning. Such temperatures can be positively dangerous, especially when the humidity is high. Tragically, people even die, especially the elderly.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to deny the reality of global climate change. Perhaps Pope Francis (and his two immediate predecessors) were right to focus our attention on the issue?
You are fortunate to be on the coast. Do you go in the sea to help cool off on such days?
Pope Benedict XVI insisted that climate change is real.
In 2010 A.D., Pope Benedict XVI declared:
-- "Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change..."
"Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?"
Via his Papal Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (2009), Pope Benedict XVI declared:
"The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole.
"The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption, either through an evolution in manufacturing methods or through greater ecological sensitivity among their citizens."
"...the protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate obliges all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet."
"The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa."
"The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing, she must defend not only earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone.
"She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Pope Saint John Paul II, on January 17, 2001 A.D., declared in powerful fashion:
"Unfortunately, if we scan the regions of our planet, we immediately see that humanity has disappointed God’s expectations.
"Man, especially in our time, has without hesitation devastated wooded plains and valleys, polluted waters, disfigured the earth’s habitat, made the air unbreathable, disturbed the hydrogeological and atmospheric systems, turned luxuriant areas into deserts and undertaken forms of unrestrained industrialization, degrading that “flowerbed” – to use an image from Dante Alighieri (Paradiso, XXII, 151) – which is the earth, our dwelling-place.
"We must therefore encourage and support the “ecological conversion” which in recent decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe to which it has been heading.
"Man is no longer the Creator’s “steward”, but an autonomous despot, who is finally beginning to understand that he must stop at the edge of the abyss."
Wow! "Man is no longer the Creator’s “steward”, but an autonomous despot..." Wow!
Pax.
Mark Thomas
But the living is easy. Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.
Quite so, Mark. And the idea that "Man is no longer the Creator’s ‘steward’, but an autonomous despot..." helps to connect the stewardship of creation with abortion, doesn’t it? Like new life, our planet and its environment are divine gifts before which we should exhibit the virtues of gratitude and humility.
Perhaps connecting these gifts, as Pope Francis does in Laudato Si, and emphasizing these virtues would help change hearts and minds across the political spectrum, convicting those on the “right” about the environment and climate change and those on the “left” about abortion, as the following article seems to suggest:
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/what-does-abortion-have-to-do-with-climate-change-119192
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