June 24 2023
THE RUSH IS ON.
From my student days a Greek saying pops up after 75 years: panta rhei, oude menei, which translates as ‘everything (panta), flows (rhei), nothing (oude), menei (remains the same). (The rivers Rhine and Rhone have their root in ‘rhei’.)
The ‘flowing’ in that slogan is not an orderly process: it gnaws at the existing system so carefully coordinated to regularity and order. That ‘gnawing’ is dangerous, because our societal structure is fragile and built on a monoculture: our poisonous petrol dependency.
Our very present peril lies North, at the Pole. There the loss of Arctic Sea ice albedo, (that white snow-covered top layer, reflecting the sunrays), signals the disappearance of an important heat buffer, exposing the shallow seafloor consisting of methane, trillions of tons. That stuff is 80 x more lethal than our very own CO2. The bubbling up of this gas constitutes a dangerous tipping point, and could abruptly accelerate the temperature rise in the Arctic: yes, the rush is on: and the El Nino has yet to arrive!
Also, the Jet Stream is strongly deformed, threatening to result in heatwaves that extend over the Arctic Ocean and cause hot water from rivers to enter the Arctic Ocean, while storms accelerate the flow of ocean heat there, with forest fires ash and choppy waters contributing to disintegrate the sea ice, speeding up its demise.
I repeat: The rush is on that threatens to release the methane on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean. Once that process starts, it will shoot up the world’s temperature: then the rush becomes a crush!
Nature is stronger than any man-made machinery.
One thing is becoming certain beyond a doubt: There is nothing that can withstand the force of nature: no nuclear bomb has this devastating power. Already an endless series of ever more frightening events roll over the world and over people everywhere, preceding the last things.
Preceding the last things.
The tamed earth, given by God as our own domain, is now rebelling, is now rising up against us, its tormentors. It is as if nature that, for so long, for so many centuries, has faithfully furnished humanity with all its needs, has now become our enemy, and full of fury has thrown itself upon humanity. And this humanity, this so superior human race, with her nuclear energy, her Artificial Intelligence, her mighty medical system, her military prowess, and her entertainment establishment all of which made her feel so immense mighty and strong, these same men and women are now in a total humiliating fashion confronted with the fact that in the final analysis they amount to nothing, that they are a mere rag that is thrown out as useless.
Yes, the signs of ‘change and decay’ are all around us. It even has affected the church in all its manifestations: its pronouncements of certainty themselves are signs of doubt and uncertainty.
The Southern Baptist Church, America’s largest, has reaffirmed that women are not fit for the ministry. The church I grew up in, the Christian Reformed Church, has pronounced that practicing homosexuals are living in sin: Their ruling ‘males’ know exactly what God has commanded, in itself an aberration and sin against God’s majesty.
Ora et Labora, Pray and Work.
This is not a hopeless situation: on the contrary: the current situation contains valuable information: We are being prepared for eternity, where the lessons learned NOW will be applied THEN.
In that regard I want to pay tribute to Dr. Barry Commoner, who has formulated the four laws of ecology:
- nothing disappears,
- everything is connected to everything else,
- nature is our best guide,
- nothing comes free.
These bills are now due, and they are more than humanity can afford: we must pay with our lives: nobody is excepted, not you, not me.
Long ago, the church sent out missionaries with a message containing only a partial truth.
I made a song reflecting that:
Tune: all creatures that on earth do dwell
Five Hundred Thirty years ago
Columbus left the Spanish shore
He praised the Lord, lauda Deum
He did this ad infinitum.
He and his crew sailed duly west
To India was their unknown quest
When the outlook cried, ‘land ahoy’,
They praised the Lord and danced with joy.
They took along the perfect crutch
“Nobody’s saved outside the church”.
Set out to tell the natives there,
Their pagan ways lead them nowhere.
(Their pagan ways redeem them!)
They kill the prey only for food
They see in forests only good,
Regard the earth a holy gift
For them it is a spiritual lift.
We have ignored their keen insight
molested their indigenous right
We should pay homage to their way
Before we totally go astray.