Of course, this issue is well known and so I will not go into a lot of detail about the science. In three posts I will attempt first to scope the issue, then reflect upon its theology and finally to look at what the churches might do to address it. Many organisations and websites provide more detail; this is as always broad brush strokes.
This issue is born entirely out of affluence. This affluence has been a great achievement. For the first time in human history, millions of people can live in a degree of wealth undreamed of in the past.
The problem is, of course, we're locked into patterns of consumption. Who will willingly surrender the comforts and freedoms of this wealth? It is a surrender not just for ourselves but also for our families. How do we explain to our children they cannot have the wealth we knew? Our problem is we cannot give this up, and so at some point something has to give.
This is not exactly a matter of greed. It is more like an addiction. Even if we want to give it up we cannot.
The problem is further compounded by financial inequalities. In recent months the British public has caught a glimpse of the usually invisible wealth of the financial and political elites. It is already decided who will keep their wealth when all of us are forced to cut back. The wealthiest people have already accumulated what they need and will be able to afford the things the rest of us will lose as goods become more expensive.
The other side of the equation is the poor, the people who have not even bought into the wealth of the British middle and working classes. Furthermore it is the world's poor who experience today at first hand what economists call externalities, the negative effects of the global economy.
What is not generally understood is this is a double crisis. Not only is the environment under increasing strain, but also the resources humanity might use to address these problems are becoming scarce. Peak oil is the term used to describe the situation where half the world's known and anticipated oil reserves have been used (see the diagram, by Iowem). The second half is already being used at a faster rate than ever before, so it won't last as long as the first.
Finally, the integrity of our relationships has been eroded by monetarism. Do we have the emotional and relational resources to face these problems? I will address this question in the next two posts.
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