Is Carbon Dioxide Really The Problem?

The climate change discussion brings me to tears.  Literally.  I'm probably not going where you think I am with this, so please read on.

What causes me pain is not the conflict about who or what causes changing climate conditions, although the older I get the more I hate conflict.  What hurts is all the things that aren't being said.  Things like: what really matters is not the planet we are living on, but all the other people who are living here with us.  Things like: the choices we make impact other people around us - near and far - and every. single. one. of those people matters. An actual human being, possibly a child, is making the fabulous "eco friendly" (ahem) stuff, which may well be full of toxic chemicals in order to make it energy-saving.  That person matters.  Things like: any decision we make that costs a piece of someone else's life or livelihood is wrong, whether the byproduct is carbon dioxide or ... something else toxic.

I hate how the terms "eco friendly" and "carbon offset" and "energy efficient" have become marketing tools that play on our guilt about hurting the planet... while people are suffering.  Is carbon dioxide really the problem when coal-fired power plants pump out all kinds of poisons other than carbon dioxide into the air and farm run-off and industrial byproducts pollute our waterways?  How about we just learn to live with less stuff?  How about we learn to be a little less comfortable?  How about we stop buying "conveniences" that poison the men, women, and children making them?  If we focus simply on trying not to hurt other people with our selfish indulgences, then I'm 99% sure we would cut carbon dioxide emissions down a heap.  On the other hand, if we simply try to cut down carbon dioxide emissions a heap, I'm pretty sure we'll still hurt a whole bunch of other human beings with our selfish indulgences.

Yep, there are a whole bunch of fingers here pointing straight back at me.  I've gone round in circles trying to buy the "right" stuff, when really, I just need to buy less of it.  Even (gulp) books. 

I try to buy local.  I try to walk instead of drive.  We have solar (although I'm not convinced that it's that awesome - how much energy goes into making those solar cells (shipped from overseas, by the way), and what toxic byproducts result from the process?)  But in the end, my decisions need to be based on how my life is impacting others as a whole.  Am I living a life of greed and self-indulgence?  Or am I trying to give in a meaningful way, wherever and whenever I can?  If the value of my life becomes all about my carbon footprint, then I'm missing a whole lot of other important stuff.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I'm convinced that what this world needs is not merely for peoples' behaviour to change, but for their hearts to change.  Without a change of heart in all the people of the world, the climate situation is hopeless.  And to be honest, I just can't see that the biggest problem this world has (to put it overly simplisticly) is the temperature.  Children all over the world (even prosperous western nations) are being abused, exploited and trafficked in ways that defy belief.  Unborn children are being cut into pieces inside their own mothers' wombs at the consent of their own mothers... to the extent that the annihilation of the unborn is booming business.  The poorest and most vulnerable people of the world are being manipulated into gambling away the little they have for the profit of big investors.  Somehow I can't see how prolonging the "life" of the earth should be a priority over these crimes against humanity.

When my husband looked into "ethical investments" they were all focused on companies that were "environmentally friendly".  My blood boils to think that apparently so few people care about the impact of their investments on actual human beings - an "ethical" investment may exploit children and the poor, but at least it leaves a small carbon footprint?  Seriously?!

I guess you can probably tell I'm angry and sad.  More than anything, the sad wins.  I ache for the change that Jesus Christ alone can bring.  In the meantime, I'm striving to live my life in a way that gives others a tiny glimpse of just what that change will mean.  This is not about a philosophical question of who or what controls the weather and how (and by the way, in the end, I'm convinced that God has way more power than we puny human beings have the arrogance to credit ourselves with):  this is about what's more important to me - God's people or my stuff?