Climate emergency demands immediate action; activists will demonstrate Monday in Raleigh

A few days ago, NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid as an experiment in how to “ protect the earth.” I am sure many are relieved to know that someone is paying attention to this threat from beyond that may, in time, confront us. Others may find NASA’s exercise somewhat ironic, given the lack of sustained attention to the great threats of climate change.  These threats are materializing here and now, on our very doorsteps.

NASA itself has told us on its climate website that “Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment.” We have all the scientific proof we need to know that soon it will be too late to stop the catastrophic effects of greenhouse gases, deforestation, lost water resources, inevitable sea level rise, and other climate related dangers. Hurricane Ian just showed us this again.

Caring for Creation, protecting the earth, is no longer something that can be put off for another day. The time is now, and the place to begin is wherever you are registered to vote, at your designated polling places or by absentee options. We can and must choose local, state, and federal leaders who support a clear path for saving the only home we have. From their stated platforms, we can discern which candidates for public office, from city councilor to US Senator, support creation care

On Monday, October 3, at 5 pm, a diverse group of people of faith and people of conscience, of all ages and denominations, will stand up to protect the earth, holding signs along Wade Avenue in Raleigh as part of the 2nd Annual Interfaith Prayer Chain for the Earth to ask all citizens to vote for climate action. Sponsored by Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle, all are invited to this second annual prayer chain that will stretch from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship towards downtown. Those in the line make a commitment that they see as a sacred responsibility: to care for the earth and to protect its resources through advocacy and action.

This event is a nonpartisan effort to get out the vote, beginning with early voting that begins on October 20. When we exercise our right to vote and encourage others to vote for climate action, we mobilize a formidable force. A spacecraft can smash into an asteroid, theoretically altering its path,  but we can do something even more life sustaining at the ballot box. We can elect leaders willing to alter the catastrophic course of climate change, those who support  policies that will make a difference right on earth, right here, right now.

Click here to learn more information about Monday’s event and here for a video chronicling last year’s prayer chain.

Lucinda MacKethan ia Professor Emerita at N.C. State University and a member of Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle.