When we act together and do things not merely for our own state, local, or national economic interest, but for the good of all of us, we are united in Christ and others in working to reduce human suffering due to climate change. Martin Luther King, Jr. also highlighted our responsibility to each other: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
If we determine our climate action based on our current national leadership, our current national actions are not life-giving to others around the world or even people in our own country. As mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:15, 26, “If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body…If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” If our country was a foot in the Conference of Parties, we have decided to tell the rest of the body that we don’t need it.
I especially have been thinking about this as someone who lives in the United States of America. As one of the worst emitters, our president has chosen to withdraw us from the Paris Agreement. There is a national culture and narrative of reverence for American exceptionalism. Our governmental leadership is choosing to leave us behind on the national level, and took us away from the negotiating table instead of pledging to act based on our nationalistic impulses.
A theme discussed repeatedly across sessions is the idea of political will. We have the scientific knowledge and technology to do many things globally to mitigate and reduce climate change’s harms, yet many countries like us fail to follow through on their pledges and promises.
What I found most helpful from the first week of sessions is the questions that Indigenous leaders are asking about the need to regain collective dignity. “We have to ask ourselves: What kind of species and creatures are we? Where can we go since we no longer have the luxury of inaction?” I was invited to rethink AI not as artificial intelligence, but rather as ancestral intelligence from indigenous communities who have solutions on how to take care of the land and environment.
God has given us each other that we may steward the earth and rely on each other. This stands in contrast to the current approach of needing to act because it will protect *our* economy, *our* status as Californians, wanting everyone to look at us to see what great leaders we are.
As Lutherans, we need to be fighting against climate change due to love for our neighbors near and far. This love for our neighbor includes taking the plight of those most impacted seriously. We live by faith, not knowing when the next natural disaster will happen to us or the people we love. Even when the USA rejoins the Paris Agreement and the negotiating table, it is not our ambition alone that will save us; we must depend on each other to sustain life.