I am not sure how many people have heard of Greta Thunberg, but all of us should know about her and about her cause. Because her cause is our cause and the cause of all our kids and yet to be born kids in this world. Greta is the teen-age young woman from Sweden who is speaking about climate change. She has received immense press. Recently she made it to this country and has been traveling around speaking about her cause. In a dramatic way, she wants to save the world---literally.
I am amazed and thrilled to watch her in action. She is speaking about something that I am convinced is very real and, yet, not popular. Any of us who have thought for five minutes about climate change has to feel a twinge of guilt. I know I do. There seems little scientific doubt that humans have affected the global climate and probably harmed it in significant ways. As I read the scientific material, it sounds like the ticking global clock is nearing midnight. Can we make necessary changes to stave off what could be a slow, but looming disaster?
Of course, it is easy for me to be concerned and do nothing because in all likelihood I will escape the consequences because I will die before bad things really happen. Were this the case---and I believe it is---it is a selfish way to think about things. It is also irresponsible to think and act this way, especially if I say I care about my grandkids and their future. When I ponder it, my grandkids are just ten years younger than Greta. It is their world, not my world. I need to be responsible for more skin than just my own!
Greta gave a TEDtalk and posed some good questions in the midst of her commentary on life. Greta tells us that she was eight years old when she first heard of climate change or, as it is popularly labeled, global warming. Over the next couple years, this spun Greta into depression. She has Asperger syndrome, became obsessive-compulsive and life became more difficult. At one point in her talk she simply says, “We have to change.”
I guess that sums it up: we have to change. But who wants to change? Change comes hard, especially if it asks from me something sacrificial. Why should I think about alternating my habits to make this world any better? Why should I change if no one else is going to change? Can you make me change? Can Uncle Sam make me change? Sadly to me, it seems like our country is resistant to that notion. Instead of taking Greta seriously, we pull out of the Paris agreement and proudly say that we are going it alone. We proclaim by our actions either there is no problem or I am not the problem.
As Greta says, we are dealing with tough issues here. Ignorance probably still rules the world with respect to global warming. I think too many people don’t know about it and even more folks don’t believe it. For most of us, it is not obvious. I am fascinated by this young gal and the way she is going about her witness. I hope she is effective.
She is dismissive of the normal track of the conversation. She acknowledges this is the place where we typically start to talk about solar panels and all the little things we could start doing. Of course, we could start doing this---and no doubt will. But she says, “pep talking and selling positive ideas doesn’t work---or does not go far enough. She lays it on the line. “…one thing we need more than hope is action.” And to this she notes, “Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.” No doubt, this is true.
I hear Greta telling us simply to say, “I hope things get better,” does nothing. Act! And then there is a real basis for hope. “So, instead of looking for hope, look for action.” That is good advice. Look for those people and those actions that are moving us forward. “Everything needs to change---and it has to start today.” That is a clarion call to action.
“Wake up and change” is her prophetic message. You are a child of God living in the garden God placed you. We blew it once and were driven out of Eden to live, as Genesis puts it, east of Eden. This is the title of a wonderful novel by John Steinbeck. But real life is not a novel; real life is not fiction, but like a book, there may be an ending. Will the ending be a comedy or a tragedy? Will folks be crying or celebrating?
I appreciate this young woman speaking truth to power. She speaks to the power in each of us to do things differently---do things better. Wake up and change. The tricky part is most of us don’t think we are asleep or unaware. I am willing to consider that I do need a wake-up call. I am sure I can do things better and differently. I can hope, but as Greta tells us, hope is a bet on the future that has not yet come. Is my hope a real hope or is it merely a wish-dream, as the Nazi resister and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, told his audience.
Wake up and change may be a prick to our bubble of comfort. It has the threat of a little discomfort. It can make me irritable and uncooperative. That is what I sense is going on in our country today. We don’t want anybody in the world telling us what might be wrong with our world and making suggestions how we have to go about things differently.
We take action, but it is not the right action to address the real problems. God wants us to cultivate paradise, not pollute it. We are supposed to tend to the globe, not trash it. All this is easy to write, but the real test comes if I and others are willing to wake up and change.
https://www.ted.com/talks/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_case_to_act_right_now_on_climate/transcript?language=en#t-660729
Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber. I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s. It was already a famous book by then. I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it. It has been a while since I looked at the book. Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks? I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece. I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation. I wish more people read him and took him seriously. Brooks’ article focused on the 2016 contentious election. He provocatively suggests, “Read Buber, Not the Polls!” I think Brooks puts
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