Tag Archives: Washington Post

FFF #12: Climate messages looking for ears to hear

Posting every Friday at noon is how I act in solidarity with young climate strikers all over the world who want their elders to save their future.

There is no lack of information, no shortage of prophecy when it comes to climate change. But there is a distinct lack of listening and repenting. There is so much hysterical information and misinformation around people tend to generally tune out and miss crucial stuff!

Here is a set of guidelines for communicating in a crisis in a way that does not close the listener’s ears in case you are looking for an audience [link].

Since I decided to add my voice to the process, I have heard a lot of congratulations. But I think my subscribers to my blog tend to skip the titles dealing with the climate and wait to see if something looks more intriguing.  They hear about the climate every day — and media is full of the novel for a reason!

Communicating is important, but finding ways to advocate and act in more communal and personal ways are probably more important. That being said, I want to make sure you have seen two amazing and terrifying stories from two go-to sources: the New York Times and the Washington Post.

From NYT article

On December 13, the  Times published a monumental piece of research to tell us what was happening in every country of the world, one by one, in regard to climate change – 193 stories called Postcards from a World on Fire.  The editorial board summary is a must, “The planet is sending an SOS. Answer it.”

Rainfall in Greenland has been unusual, here seen from Zion’s Church in Ilulissat, Greenland (WaPo)

On December 14, the Washingtom Post published an article about the 2021 Arctic report care from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Climate change has destabilized the Earth’s poles, putting the rest of the planet in peril. It says, “Record highs have also sounded the death knell for ice on land. Three historic melting episodes struck Greenland in July and August, causing the island’s massive ice sheet to lose about 77 trillion pounds. On Aug. 14, for the first time in recorded history, rain fell at the ice sheet summit.” Wow!

Maybe you are with my hero, Greta Thunberg, who hears old people talking and says, “Blah. Blah. Blah.” I know I feel that way. So what if we feel that way? What shall we do? There are a lot of people who are telling us exactly what is happening and exactly what needs to happen.

Jesus laments

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them. (Matthew 13:13-15)