Not to brilliant, mr President!

(Reuters) - Climate change is not a threat and the consequences of global warming will not be catastrophic, the President of the Czech Republic said on Tuesday.

Vaclav Klaus is a vocal sceptic on the topic of global warming. He published a book in 2007 in which he said global warming had turned into a new religion, an ideology that threatens to undermine freedom and the world's economic and social order.

"Global warming in the last 150 years was modest and future warming and its consequences will not be dangerous or catastrophic. It doesn't look like a threat we should respond to," he told a lecture in London on Tuesday.

Now, this is not so clever Mr President! You act more or less like the good prophets of the time of the old testament. They said everything is fine. Don´t change anything. But those prophets were never remembered. They were just there to make the world easier and smooth for those with power.

No mr President this is not a new religion, but you seems to keep up with the old religion that have devastated the planet for the last centuries; the cult of mammon. I think you better come to your senses and understand that climate-research of today gives us information that we have to respond to. And then we need to get "religious" in that sense that we have to act for the most vulnerable. Just as the old testament prophets said in the old testament.

EU takes one step forward - and a bit closer to were they been!

Good news are not so frequent when it comes to climate change negotiations. But today we have one.
EU was very proactive in 2007 during the UNFCCC negotiations at Bali but one year later they were very defensive and withdraw their ambitions.
Today the good news is that EU is going to Cancun for the COP16 negotiations with the ambitions to prolong the Kyoto protocol.
In these days after the breakdown i Copenhagen this is good news.
The problem is that the world need to do much more than what was in the Kyoto protocol. And that has been known since the Kyoto protocol was formulated in the nineties.
But in these days we have to celebrate everything that is not a step backwards. Even a step back to original ambitions is a good step.
Now, let´s hope that EU raises their bid in Cancun and go for a 30% cut of emissions to 2020 to challenge the other nations in Cancun.

Climate change in the arctic - a risk for geopolitical conflicts

Climate change is not only about environment. It is about food, water, equity and lifestyles. All issues that I have tried to address on this blog.
But the implications of climate change is also about peace.
Due to change in the climatic systems we will probably see a diminishing ice shed of the Arctic. This is highlighted in an article in the Guardian today. That will lead to possibilities to get natural resources that has not been in reach for the different states before. So the tensions between Russia, USA Canada Norway and others will be a new problem that we already can see some signs on.
So if you want to create peace - save the climate and let the natural resources, especially the oil, be untouched for some more years. Go for renewable energy and act for peace.

101010 - a mustard grain

Yesterday the 101010 campaign took place. A global work party for action to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Many churches around the world joined the party and thousands and thousands events around the world occurred.
This is great! And even if this was not a headline on the news in northern Europe it was at least a great step for all those that participated. Even if the decision-makers of the world did not act in Copenhagen and seems very sleepy for the Cancun meeting later this year things like 101010 raise the awareness in the context were it happens.
If Jesus referred to the mustard grain as a picture for how the good things grow. From small things big things come.
I hope that 101010 is a mustard grain that, together with other actions will grow and we will create another world, a sustainable and just world. And we will do it together. One humanity and one world.

The free riders!

The climate discussion seems to be stuck in a discussion about who is supposed to act and do something. Every nation is pointing the finger on the other nation saying- You should act! China should act because you are the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. China say that US and Europe should act because the historical emissions of the world comes from those countries. Small countries like Sweden say that other countries should act because the emissions from Sweden is only0.2% of the world emissions so what happens in Sweden is absolutely of no interest of the world.
And so does the discussions proceed and we are stuck with a bunch of states starting a blame game and looking for a free ride. A free ride that means that everybody else should start and I myself can go on as usual.
Why is it impossible to think of a broader "we"? We are together on this planet and the time to act is running out. If we don´t act as a "we" now there will be only a free ride to a much more complicated world to handle for the future generations.
Where are the faith communities of the world that have a more inclusive perspective and a more long-term vision of the world and life? Time to speak out and together say; We are on this trip together and we must act together, all humankind.

African Earthkeepers

M.L. Daneel wrote some years ago about African Earth-keepers and about interfaith actions in Zimbabwe to keep people and earth together and used sustainable. I was very moved some years ago when I got to see a short film on how they managed to get people of different African initiated churches and traditional religions representatives to have a service together with sacramental parts side by side and then together planting new trees. The idea was that trees planted under these circumstances were much more looked after then traditional aid tree planting or so to say"secular planting".
Now I wonder if this is still happening in Zimbabwe? We need much more of tree planting in sub-Saharan Africa. For many reasons. To keep the earth from erosion, to keep the water in the earth, to catch CO2 from the atmosphere and some more reasons.
(If anyone knows about this project, please comment.)

The Good News

Today on Swedish broadcast there was a part of a programme that highlighted the possibilities to sequestrate CO2 from bio-energy and in that way use energy in a way that it takes the carbon out of the atmosphere. It is more than carbon neutral. It is carbon negative.
Another small scale alternative that is very interesting is the charcoal stove that reduce the impact of deforestation related to use wood for cooking, improve health for women and children in poor districts of the world, captures coal out of the atmosphere and fertilize the earth.
I guess that we need all this good alternative to start the transformation from a fossil based society to a more just and sustainable world.
In the perspective of the poor and vulnerable, that should always be the perspective of faith communities, this is good news and we need to tell the decision makers that there are possibilities to change and the time is now!