Stories from Global Victims of Climate Change — And an Interfaith Call to Action

~by Juliet rabia Gentile

Reprinted from GOD’S politics on Sojo.net

What if the soul of the world had an alarm clock and it began
ringing … would we wake up and listen? This was the question that came
to my heart at the Global Interfaith Gathering and Call to Action to
the UN Summit on Climate Change, which I attended with my Sufi friend,
Khabir John McGeehan, at Tillman Chapel in the UN Church Center on
Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace. As we sat in the chapel that
morning and “bore witness” to the harrowing stories of the victims of
climate change, this question repeated itself over and over in my mind
like a mantra.

The Qur’an states: “Behold, thy Lord declared to the angels: I will
create perfect humanity to be My mirror on earth” (Holy Qur’an, 2:30).
Another verse relates that in pre-eternity God offered the Khalifat
(viceregency) of the earth to the mountains and the stars, but it was
the primordial human being who accepted the responsibility. That’s
right folks; the buck stops with us.  We are the ones to blame for the
glaciers melting, for the rate at which species are disappearing off
the face of the earth never to be seen again, for the poisoning of
ancestral lands that have fed generations and wells, which once gave
fresh water.

Modern civilizations have lived as if they are the center of the
universe. Pre-modern man had no such illusion, hunter-gatherer
societies knew that if they hunted a species into extinction they would
have to move on in search of more food sources or perish. Subsistence,
not domination, was the necessary relationship to the earth, its
creatures and gifts. Today we see anything but, with endless
consumption of the earth’s resources continuing unabated.  What must
God think of his “mirror” upon the earth? Qur’an states that God is All
Compassionate and All Merciful, I ask myself, are we being
compassionate to those who are suffering from climate change?

The stories that were shared in Tillman Chapel that day were
shocking: standing in front of me were real people who lived close to
the land and who followed centuries old traditions of protecting and
working with the earth, seas, and rivers that in turn, provided their
sustenance. What has changed? What has disrupted that fragile balance?
Tears flowed down the cheeks of Constance Okollet, a woman from Uganda,
as she told her story of how singeing heat caused the seeds that she
planted to “just dry up right there in the ground” followed by three
months of rain that caused flooding so bad that she and all her
relations had to flee the rising waters, leaving their homes and food
crops behind. Another woman, Ulamila Kurai Wragg, from the Cook Islands
spoke of how five cyclones hit her hometown in three weeks and how
rising sea levels have claimed land the her family has tended for
generations — bit by bit, day by day.

We all sat silently, bearing witness. Some cried silent tears. As I
listened I wondered to myself how many other nameless and faceless men,
women, and children are suffering around the world, how many countless
numbers are living in fear that one more flood, drought, tsunami or
cyclone will obliterate their lives and livelihood forever. How we
respond in front of those in need, those suffering and asking for help
means everything. It is what reminds us of our common humanity, our
sacred pact. It is incumbent upon us to ask ourselves what is at stake.
How long are we willing to wait before taking action? In what ways can
we be conscientious objectors to further destruction of the earth’s
resources? Finally, we must ask ourselves: What will our children say
if we do nothing?

In grim reflections, several religious leaders issued “responses” to
the victims. Archbishop John Onaiyekan, RC, of Nigeria issued a call to
action. He stated that we are all “brothers and sisters in one boat,”
calling on the biblical image of Noah’s ark in order to remind us that
change is possible, but requires action. Like Noah, we can survive. We
can bind together to help each other. Many religious and indigenous
elders spoke of the responsibility we must bear as westerners in the
forefront of creating the problem, in repairing the world.

In the words of Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu elder, which my dervish brother Khabir John McGeehan wrote in his notebook:

The Earth is our Mother.
With 6 Billion humans, and billions more other children,
we cannot afford to be anthropocentric.
View all creation with the Eye of the Friend.
Instead of Love of power, we need the Power of Love.

To take a Compassionate Action: please join the Oct. 24 International Day of Climate Action, sponsored by www.350.org.  Or incorporate “green” action into your religious gatherings.  At an event I organized this summer at Faith House on “Seeding the Heart, Harvesting Intentions”,
after reading stories of seeding and harvest from the Muslim and Jewish
traditions, and a seed meditation, we practiced planting seeds and
blessing the earth with some “guerrilla gardening” in our
neighborhoods!  Everyday, we are God’s “mirror” with responsibility to
the earth.