An Active Participant in Creation from the Illinois River Valley

  This month is the 30 th Conference of the Parties (COP30).   It is encouraging that so many people and so many countries are taking the Earth and Climate Change seriously.   It is also so discouraging that it seems that these efforts have hit a standstill due to the roadblocks of elite and greedy.   It is most frustrating that my own country and its political decay is one of the major evils in the current situation. COP21 brought us the Paris Climate Treaty in 2016.   Pope Francis issued his powerful prophetic statement on our Common Home in Laudato Si in 2015.   Then work on addressing Climate Change ceased from the US government in the Trump administrations of 2016 and 2024.   The lack of leadership by the US does not change the fact that climate change is happening.   The lack of leadership and outright hostility of the rich, powerful and selfish is a roadblock to further movement by the world governments to work together and making the ne...

We have our work cut out for us, if we expect to arrest this trend and give our grandchildren a chance of a reasonable life.  There are a few things to think about with this graph - look back to when you were born - how much has the world temperature increased since then - think about what's ahead - earth systems are beginning to tip and fail - the speed of climate change is increasing - this is hard data - no politicians can spin it for their own selfish gain.

The policies of the Trump administration, the Republican Party, which controls Congress, and the acquiescence of the Supreme Court, is doing great harm to our children in the future.  While they can hide behind multiple red herring ideas, such as protecting future children by having a strong border, protecting their culture, protecting family values (as they define), they cannot refute two issues that are in the forefront of their recent activity, the destruction of the environment and stealing future generations' financial resources. It is difficult to understand that anyone could deny the evidence of what is happening to our planet right now - weather disasters, including floods, heat, hurricanes, world-wide temperature and ocean rise, wild-fires, loss of biodiversity, loss of habitat, loss of species, changing migration patterns, and migrations of plants, forests and invasive species.  The planet is at a tipping point right now and any delay in addressing it may put the pla...

The technocratic paradigm has been brewing for 200 years and is the major cause of the global environmental collapse.  This paradigm is that every technological discovery and every economic (financial) gain is positive and drives society into the future.  These factors take precedence over any other concerns which should be the most important such as human beings and the environment.  The naming of the dismal condition is eloquently expressed by Pope Francis in Laudato Si.  The rising global temperatures, which rose to 1.5 degrees above historic levels in 2024, is hard data showing one result of following this paradigm.  The rapid loss of biodiversity and extinction of species is another. Cults emerge from time to time, with the current Trump administration in the United States being the most recent.  In Laudato Si (122-123), Pope Francis states, "Hence we should not be surprised to find, in conjunction with the omnipresent technocratic paradigm and the cul...

Global warming surpassed the 1.5 deg C (2.7 deg F) level in 2024. This increase is measured over the last 100 years and caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels. 1.5 degrees Celsius was the limit set by the United States and 194 other nations in Paris, 2015. We promised ourselves to reduce carbon emissions enough to stay below 1.5 C. We have failed that goal, but the world can still make changes. The policy and personal lifestyle choices need to be strengthened so this trend can be halted and reversed. What was global warming when you were born? It was about 0.5 degrees if you were born in 1960. What will it be for your grandchildren? That is up to every one of us. It is frightening and daunting to imagine how I, as a single person could make a difference in this trend that has been happening for over 100 years, before even any of our great grandparents were born. Each one of us can reduce our own carbon emissions, thereby taking that proverbial first step on the jour...

During the Christmas season Christians visit the 1st Chapter of John to know that "The Word became flesh".  A recent reflection by a homilist at church focused on this word and that this word is LOVE.  Jesus taught there were really two commandments, LOVE God and LOVE your neighbor as yourself.  This homilist proposed that all that could be said about living and all rules and any other commandments could be distilled to the word, LOVE. Creation is really LOVE, as also stated by John, "In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God's presence, and the Word was God."  Creation is that first breath of God, which made the universe.  We breath in and out in the unfolding of creation, the Word of God, LOVE. Our breath, in and out, is not the only creation.  In Laudato Si (8) Pope Francis quotes Patriarch Bartholomew regarding "sins against creation: For human beings ... to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation; for human beings to degrade the...