This has been a season of weather watching. Wildfires swirled out of control in our interior, in the peat fields of Greenland and throughout Europe. Whirlwinds Franklin, Harvey, Irma and Maria wreaked category 5 fury, meanwhile 1/3 of Bangladesh sat under water. A warmer ocean is like a giant engine that uses warm moist air as fuel (NASA) Record high temperatures–three years running–warmed the ocean, melted ice caps, and scorched the earth. Rising sea levels produced by ice cap melt exacerbate flooding, while bone-dry areas burned. Extreme weather, increasing in frequency and severity is our new normal. it is clear from the scientific evidence that human beings have changed the chemistry and physics of the planet– the ocean has acidified, warmed, lost oxygen–shifting global weather cycles; ushering in a new geological age some call the Anthropocene (the current geological epoche beginning in the 18th century when for the first time, human activities have changed global climate and ecosystems).No one here needs to be convinced of the urgency of our global environmental situation, or the irony of Francis Bacon’s conviction that nature could be conquered (Novum Organum, 1620). Rene Descartes believed science would make humans masters, possessors and dominators of nature. In retrospect, this sounds shocking in its arrogance. Now, weather and science tell us otherwise. Never masters, we are an integral part of nature. Laudato Si addressed the churches devastating misunderstanding of the word “dominate”, identifying the ecological crisis as a spiritual problem (Pope Francis, On The Care For Our Common Home). Decoupling scientific and humanistic-spiritual traditions while possessing, mastering and dominating the earth has created what some are calling the 6th Extinction.
“Irreversible end of civilization” and “the size of the remnant depends on how much we change now” are phrases seared into my memory (Seizing An Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization). Profound loss is the sorry legacy of a mechanistic model of the universe, loss of forests, loss of ice, loss of cold, loss of species–according to the wildlife conservancy ¼ of the earth’s species will be extinct by 2050. Extinct is forever. Human caused climate change has halted the fecundity of what can only be described as the paradisal flourishing of the Cenozoic Era (dozens of millions of years).