NOVEMBER 10 2021
NOBODY, NOTHING EVER DISAPPEARS.
The COP 26 Conference has a problem: nothing ever disappears. We too could have a problem: nobody ever disappears.
The entire 2 weeks get-together of the world’s problem solvers, cannot cure the matter that ‘matter’ is indestructible: it’s a basic law of physics. There is no such thing as ‘waste’. In every natural system, what is excreted by one organism as waste is taken up by another as food. Humans and animals release CO2 as respiratory waste, an essential nutrient of green plants, while plants breathe out oxygen which all living creatures need.
Neither can this conference or any organization do away with the fact that we, as members of humanity, past, present and future, will be held accountable for our actions and equally important our inactions, or, to put it theologically, our sins of commission, and our sins of omission.
Times, insights change.
Take Black coal: it is mostly carbon, pure black carbon, a priced commodity during my wartime experience as a teenager in German-occupied the Netherlands. Then a clump of that shiny glistening substance was treasured as the best source of heat during that terrible winter of 1944-45 in the City of Groningen where I was born and raised. At one time it was known as ‘black gold’ because it powered the early mining machinery, cotton mills and locomotives. Now it is synonymous with the Black Death.
Why death? This same black coal contains mostly CO2, which rises from our car exhausts and factory smokestacks, heats the atmosphere with lethal consequences. When we buy our trinkets at the DOLLAR store, stuff mostly made in China, the world’s largest polluter, then we directly contribute to Climate Heating, which now has elevated the world temperature from 1 degree Celsius in some areas to some 3 degrees in the Arctic and Antarctic, where the mega-methane is emerging.
We need our carbon slaves
Our weakness is that our entire society is based on the use of carbon. Wind does not always blow; sunshine is never guaranteed, so backup systems are needed, as renewables fill only a fraction of the energy required. Realistically, we have painted ourselves in a corner, have created a situation without a fallback option.
Europe versus North America.
Europe’s landscape has a different pedigree: its cities excel in compactness, based on foot traffic and bikes. In my youth I never saw a school bus. Europe’s energy use per capita is half of the North American’s, based on spread-out subdivisions, large yards, green lawns, individual lots.
In Europe mass transportation is economical because city density is so much higher. In North America, built on the automobile, cutting down on fuel consumption, is nigh impossible, so, while words in Glasgow at the COP26 come cheap, deeds become difficult, thanks to the different structures of our society.
Yes, nothing disappears.
Since there is no waste, since nothing really disappears, nothing simply goes away: that’s the problem our world has. The real quandary COP26 is dealing with is that immense amounts of material have been extracted from the earth, converted into new forms, and discharged into the environment without taken into account that ‘everything must go somewhere’, with the result an enormous accumulation of harmful material such as the CO2 has heated the immense oceans, and expanded their reach.
And we, humans, we too never disappear?
Yes, we too never disappear. Revelation, that last Bible book, says, (Rev.20: 12) “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne (of God), and the books were opened….The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.”
Nowadays with our powerful computers everything seems possible. Well, God has an even more all-encompassing system, containing all what we have done, a fool-proof system. A Day of giving account is at hand. The way we have dealt with our bodies, our neighbors and, especially, with God’s world, will be at the center of our discussion.
Our economy is built on ‘faith’ as fundamental as Christians believe in the New Creation. Economic faith belies reduction in Green House Gases, belies reduction in methane. Will you eat less meat, will you buy less yogurt or use less butter or cheese or drink less milk because cows cause a lot of methane? Will you really drive less? Will you, with every one of your actions, keep Climate Change in mind?