The Scoop on 1.5 Degrees to Stay Alive.

Tierra Sagrada (Sacred Earth, Sacred Trust) is the name of a Global Day of Prayer and action for Climate Change on June 12.

June 12 marks six months after the Paris Climate Agreement and coincides with the celebration of International Environment Day (June 5) and the first anniversary of the publication of Pope Francisco’s Encyclical “Laudato Si‘ (June 18).

A record 175 countries have already signed the Paris Climate Agreement. Laudable yes; but we are still set for temperature rises well above the critical 1.5 ° C limit that governments approved, and that scientists, activists and vulnerable communities are fighting for with the weltschmerz cry of ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’. We must stand with them and we must be heard!

The participation of each and every one of us at this point is key, not only to pressure governments to comply with the Paris Agreement but to increase their commitments and the chances of survival for human beings and many other species that are God’s creation.

Latin America is Leading the Way

In Santiago de Chile, the Ecumenical Coalition for Creation Care is organizing a major interfaith Earth act simultaneously highlighting the alarming fallout of communities in socio-environmental conflicts in the regions.

In Colombia, Bogota’s Interfaith Ecotheology Group will host a major event at a metropolitan park which will be shared through an innovative social media network created for the purpose of promoting integral ecology.

In the Dominican Republic, the Capuchins will hold a course about the encyclical Laudato Si’ and will unite their voices with those who profess that the earth is One Sacred and Interconnected Web of Life, in need of our moral stewardship and corresponding reverence.

You are invited to join this campaign for an Earth that is sacred. She nourishes, sustains, and welcomes us. Gaia is our home, our sacred charge deserving of our time, awareness, and contemplative attention.

The Dylan Connection

Bob Dylan’s legendary ballad, Blowin’ in the Wind poses a series of rhetorical questions: How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man? How many years must some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?  How many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see?

The refrain, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” has been described as “impenetrably ambiguous; either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind.” *

When I reflect on the contentious and inflammatory issue of climate change on our planet, I contend that the answer to our strife is not to be found in the “impenetrable ambiguity” of political posturing: It is to be found in the human heart.

We are all aware of the indisputable and threatening climate data of our times. That’s the heady, intellectual hardware we mostly operate from. Now With uplifted hearts, let’s give thanks for Earth’s many blessings, celebrate our amazement at how wonderful the planet is and our outrage at the extent of its destruction and contamination. Let us show inter-species solidarity with all the living, conscious forms of life who share this planet with us.

So mark your calendars: June 12 Global Day of Prayer and Climate Action. Logo: ‘1.5°C to Stay Alive’: paint it on your forehead; on a school mural; compose a YouTube Video (Song); or simply post it using #SacredEearth2016 on Twitter, Instagram, FB . . you get the drift.

Join the Universal Cause  for a Safer, Healthier, more prosperous and ultimately Flourishing Planet we call home.

Image Insert: Pixabay

* Mick Gold, “Life and Life Only: Dylan at 60,” in Judas! Magazine, April 2002, p.43