It is still raining and the wind is still gusting in Northeast Ohio this morning. While we suffered nothing of the consequences that folks experienced along the east coast, the effects of Hurricane Sandy are still with us some 48 hours after the event. In my mind, this “unprecedented” weather event raises serious questions about our world, the climate, and our corporate responsibility as stewards of the creation.
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| Sandy's Aftermath in the Dominican Republic |
Bill McKibben at 350.org wrote, "The images coming out of the Atlantic seaboard, and from the refugee camps in Haiti, made us not just sad but angry. This storm was literally unprecedented. It had lower barometric pressure, a higher storm surge, and greater size than the region had ever seen before. It's as out of kilter as the melting Arctic or the acidifying ocean. And if there were any poetic justice, it would be named Hurricane Chevron or Hurricane Exxon, not Hurricane Sandy."
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| Lower Manhattan - Avenue C at 8th Street |
The picture to the left was taken in Lower Manhattan this week at the corner of Avenue C and 8th street near Tompkins Square Park. This was my old neighborhood when I was a kid because the church that my father was the assistant minister was less than five blocks from this location. It is almost inconceivable that water from the East River would over run that neighborhood. The storm surge must have been incredible and terrifying. I can only imagine what the parks along the East River look like. The pictures are hard to believe and yet we know that it happened.
Having lived through Hurricane Hugo when it struck South Carolina and blitzed its way through North Carolina where we were living at the time, one of the things I remember most, since it was my first experience of a Hurricane, was the amazing and beautiful calm that took place immediately after the event. The sun came out. While there was devastation all around us, the weather cleared and the storm dissipated.
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| Hurricane Sandy New York Daily News |
This is not the case with “Sandy”, the largest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. Some weird stuff is happening. The Maine coast line is being battered with tropical moisture and warm temperatures, West Virginia has three feet of snow in some places, and it is still raining in Northeast Ohio. I am not a meteorologist, but even I can discern that something is not right with this picture.
After 9/11, the Charlotte public television station ran a program of a lecture given by Rabbi Harold Kushner who spoke to a group of local college students. During the program, the good rabbi mentioned that in the midst of trial and tribulation, the question was not to ascertain who was to blame. Instead we should be asking one another: Now that this has happened, what are we going to do about it?
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| Lake Erie - October 30, 2012 boston.com |
As I went to bed last night, the Rabbi’s question came to mind. Sandy was a whopper of a storm, “the perfect storm” some will say. But, perhaps, there are larger and more important issues that need to be taken seriously. What is really transpiring with the climate? Who are the important voices in the scientific world that we should be listening to and learning from? Are there actions that the nations of the world can take together to reduce the use of fossil fuels which seem to have a devastating effect on the creation?
The scientists who predicted this kind of megastorm have issued another stark warning: if we stay on our current path, our children will live on a super-heated planet that's four or five degrees warmer than it is right now. As stewards of creation, can we allow that to happen? Gas prices are falling just before an election to their lowest level in months. Is our society’s addiction to oil leading us on a path to destruction and death? What can be done to overcome that addiction?
There are no easy answers to these complex issues and the critics will make us believe there is no problem. But the evidence of this week should bring all who are concerned to the table and ask: Now, that this has happened, what are we going to do about it?
Love One Another - Brian
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