Sister Janet Ryan: Hope motivates in need to face climate crisis
Three faiths are celebrating this season and each reverence water as sacred. Jews recount at Seder meals the Passover event from April 5-13 where God made a way for them to cross the Red Sea and flee slavery. Christians marked the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in holy days culminating on Easter, April 9, with baptismal water prominent in that service. Muslims observe Ramadan from March 22-April 21 with a fast from food and water from sunrise to sunset, to become better messengers of Allah. Ancient indigenous peoples and cultures understand water as revealing the sacred dimensions of existence. These spiritualities and faiths celebrate water as mysterious – both life-giving and capable of death and destruction.
Hope, resilience and the belief in transformation drawn from these spiritualities are needed in facing our climate crisis with hope, not despair. The world is experiencing the destructive force water can become with climate change.
“Almost half the world’s populations live in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, death from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable areas,” stated Aditi Mukerji, an author of the March 20, 2023, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report.
These planet water shocks include: Pakistan, in the Middle East, where a devastating flood destroyed a third of the land; East African Mozambique pummeled by cyclones twice in the month of March; and Kiribati, a Pacific island nation, coping with sinking into the sea whose government is moving entire villages to neighboring countries for safety.
In the U.S., March saw water crises in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan. Atmospheric rivers led to heavy, wet snows and flooding, causing trees to topple and lose limbs which knock down powerlines. Damage to homes and lost income, furnishings and food occurred, while residents, like me, shivered in the dark for days proving that climate change is here, right now. Katherine Hayhoe, chief scientist of The Nature Conservancy, recently observed that one in three Americans have been affected by weather events this year. These unprecedented events will continue to occur.
The question arising is: Do we have the will to change? Time is running out, and more frequent, dramatic climate change destruction is occurring. Transformative change with more climate resilience development is happening, but the speed of change needs to drastically increase.
International efforts are visible in the game-changing water actions and solutions from across the world presented to build momentum as part of the United Nations 2023 Water Conference held March 22-24 in New York City. Agreements and accountable action plans to preserve water and prevent flooding must be the result.
Locally, efforts are underway with committed champions and strong-willed residents of the five Great Lakes working at maintaining them for future generations. April 22, 1970, marked the first Earth Day. Since that time, the Great Lakes region has made great strides to reduce pollution in these lakes, which hold one-fifth of the fresh water of Earth. In “Great Lakes Champions,” author John Hartig delineates the importance of the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972, 1978 and 2012 as illustrative of how good governmental policy and partnerships with knowledgeable citizens have made the Great Lakes more climate resilient. Fourteen champions are highlighted, including local environmentalist Richard Micka, who led efforts to restore Lake Erie shoreland and clean up the River Raisin.
The international work of Monroe-based Fluid Equipment Development Co. (FEDCO), which recently held a poster conference for Monroe schools with the theme of Make Every Drop Count to mark March 22, World Water Day, testifies to its accelerated efforts to educate and provide equipment needed for the planet to have safe water.
Hope, believing in transformation and resilience motivates. Our faith and spirituality can impel us to become more attuned to climate change issues, to change lifelong habits and push for legislative action.
Sister Janet Ryan, IHM, is a member of Stronger Together Huddle, a group engaged in supporting and promoting the common good of all. She can be reached at mcneil102@icloud.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Sister Janet Ryan: Hope motivates in need to face climate crisis
