i rode my bike today. now it is 4:45 and raining. great.
i rode my bike today even though i knew it would rain because it is the first day when the kyoto protocol on climate change goes into effect. i wanted to protest the united states' lack of participation. it seems a moral imperative that we lead on such issues since the engines of our nation's development are the very source of greenhouse gasses that are producing global warming and what i shall call 'unsustainable development.' in biblical terms, we're the ones who hoarded manna, and it is now beginning to look like the hoarding has negative consequences we're unwilling to admit for the sake of what (short-term) benefit such hoarding brings us.
i take heart that it seems the citizens of the united states want to support this treaty (see here and above graphic). but i have to say that when dick cheney said that "conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for sound, comprehensive energy policy" i knew that more had to be said, and that riding my bike is not enough. he basically challenged those of us who believe that our faith requires an active conservation as a part of the stewardship of creation have to do more than ride our bikes instead of driving. we have to take up cheney's challenge to do the hard thinking about ways to move forward on environmental issues while looking clearly at the importance of jobs and the economy. but it seems to be that this early signal (the speech was april 30, 2001) showed what has become a pattern of unilateral action that serves our often narrowly construed national interest rather than seeking the long view cooperatively with other nations.
some days, i want to sit down with george bush and read him the story of the tortoise and the hare. our power and influence will wane, and his leadership may even be hastening its coming, and when it does come, we'll be much better off if we have built strong allegiances and tended the commons rather than looking after old number one. then we might be a model of the sort of servant leadership that behooves the creatures who isaiah likened to 'grass that withers, and flowers that fade.'
anon, and +peace
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