Nowhere to go and hide?

As if the pandemic were not enough, Secretary-General Petteri Taalas of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently warned:

“Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5C will be impossible, with catastrophic consequences for people and the planet on which we depend.”

Imagine these catastrophic consequences; more frequent and stronger typhoons, a “flooded future” due to rise in sea level leading to lands and homes below “high tide line,” contaminated drinking water, saltier groundwater. These  affect farming, food production and supply, plants and trees, threaten wildlife populations, and cause other profound social, economic and political adverse impacts.

At the onset of the pandemic last year, we thought the planet was provided a “pandemic pause” with lockdowns thought to lessen pollution, and clean up and restore nature.

This was not the case, however, with the world going in the wrong direction, according to Taalas of WMO.

“Reduction targets for emissions are not being met and there is a rising likelihood the world will miss its Paris Agreement aim of reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” according to the WMO’s United in Science 2021 Report.

The United Nations reported that “concentrations in the atmosphere of the major greenhouse gases – CO2, methane and nitrous oxide – continued to increase in 2020 and the first half of 2021.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed and shared that “this year has seen fossil fuel emissions bounce back, greenhouse gas concentrations continuing to rise and severe human-enhanced weather events that have affected health, lives and livelihoods on every continent.”

We are given till 2030 to seriously unite and act to mitigate global warming or it’s doom time for people and planet!

Some important climate-change-mitigating steps; decrease greenhouse gas emissions, protect/preserve trees and forests, manage waste, and best, for all to be more educated and united to fight global warming soonest!

Or we may have nowhere to go and hide if we fail at climate mitigation!

WMO’s Taalas warned, “We would have a permanent problem for at least hundreds or even thousands of years, with …economic, human wellbeing effects much more dramatic than this COVID pandemic.”

Oh dear God, please come, spare and save us from this future climate change catastrophe!

And be our refuge amidst the present crises, especially from this overstaying pandemic!

We are swamped with so much news of increasing cases in our country, in many other parts of the world. We are saddened by daily deluge of prayer requests especially for healing, for the repose of those who succumbed to the virus/variants.

So much darkness, so much grief, so much fear of sickness and death.

All these can be overwhelming and spiritually, can lead many either to despair and hopelessness, or, to faith and hope.

The following verses from I Kings 17:2-4 (NIV) may provide some timely relief during this present challenging phase.

The word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

Kerith means a "cutting" or "separation." At Kerith Ravine, God provided a hiding place, water, and, food for a fleeing Elijah whom King Ahab wanted dead

“Our Lord found His Kerith at Nazareth, in the wilderness of Judea; amid the olives of Bethany,” according to Meyer who wrote “Elijah” and quoted in the September 16 reading in L.B. Cowman’s Streams in the Desert:

In the midst of present and impending crises, let us find and follow God to our Kerith. There, God will hide and gratefully, protect us from our fears and provide for our needs.