I'd be no place without debate. I depend on it for both my income and my sanity. Relish then, the discussions about global warming, or climate change, or whatever it will be called.
But call a double standard when seen. I see one.
For about 3,000 years and maybe more, we've lived with the unchecked assumption that we have a relief valve; a place after this to land softly if we uphold certain human constructs or with a thud if not. Call it heaven, and god-forbid I question its legitimacy. If for but a minute, consider that the valve is a mirage. This is all we get.
Is the heating of the earth from greenhouse gases debatable? Sure. So is, I suggest, the promise of life after death.
But when you put the two together, you find another human construct: an injustice.
A place to go gives us right to trample the place we are.
The way we use the idea of heaven is to direct our behaviors here: You land softly if you do as told, or at least apologize when you don't. But if the earth is heating and this is it, then there is will be no distinction between polluters and non-polluters in the easy way that we distinguish sinners and nons. No-one is off the hook. An apology is meaningless.
So if the priests are right, so be it. Dust answers. But if the tree-huggers are right, holler all you want, but it's time to get out of the way.
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