Two and a half years ago the severity of the climate crisis was weighing heavily on me. I had recently returned from Egypt where I had been able to participate as a delegate-observer at COP 27, a trip made possible by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The Convention of the Parties (COP) and its international efforts were failing to meet even the most basic climate goals. I travelled to New York to meet with other ICUUW members, and meeting fellow ICUUW member Carmen from Bolivia, brought comfort and hope. Much younger than I, she, too, had recently returned from COP 27, and after a dozen or more UN Climate Conferences she kept showing up.
In the meantime, climate change has continued its rampage of extreme weather events around the world, glaciers continue to melt at unbelievable speed and the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times was breached last year. But global resistance and UU resistance has grown as well. We have to take on this struggle.
Peace, Equity, and Climate (PE&C), a task force of the Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC) was created to address this shifting focus. As its chair for the past year, raising our denomination’s awareness about the role of the Petro-Military- Industrial Complex was an imperative. We must not remain silent when our own military is the world’s largest institutional user of fossil fuels and also the world’s biggest institutional contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing this global disaster. Those suffering the most, in Africa, the Pacific Islands, and in the least developed countries have contributed almost nothing to cause this disaster, but the US has.
PE&C’s monthly webinars reflect the urgency of demanding peace and diplomacy as critical to meeting climate objectives. To accomplish this, we have networked with others within and outside of the UU World. Collaboration is critical to building the dynamic movement needed to save our beleaguered democracy and our planet. Veterans For Peace’s Climate Crisis and Militarism Project (VFP CCMP) offered innovative and fresh methodologies to counter the entrenched and toxic ideologies of our time. For example, geologist Dr. Jim Rine, a veteran from CCMP, dreamed up what he called a “Wake-Up to the Climate Crisis Tour” calling to end war and save the planet. I was fortunate to be able to join this year’s successful California tour. We stopped to join various protests in our rented “Naomi, the Wake-Up Mobile”, show Abby Martin’s revolutionary new film, “Earth’s Greatest Enemy”, and to talk with attendees afterwards. Next year the plans are to take the tour to the East Coast and the Mid-West.
The hard truth about war is that it is obsolete. Bombs do not just kill the targeted victims, but produce millions of tons of emissions that are circulating back to all of us as deadly climate change. Peace is now essential to help keep our planet viable for ourselves, those on the front lines who are already paying the price, future generations and for all species wild or tame. As UUs, we must know and understand the truth. Before we can fight for what we need to save the viability of our planet.
Please join Carmen and myself for our COP 30 Report Back on Thursday, December 11th at 5 PM PST, 6 PM MST, 7 PM CST and 8 PM EST. Click here to Register. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkf-6gqjgoHdEXfUvOLnuHUw8JcWqRPdLp
If the timing doesn’t work for you, my apologies, and reassurance that it will be up shortly on UUJEC’s website as well as YouTube.