Clare Potts
Topics & People in this post
Jesus said, famously, that the golden rule of life is to love God with your whole heart and love your neighbour as yourself. I’m feeling the heat of that call as I realise how much neighbourly love extends even to the weather forecast.
Today is August 28 and it’s supposed to hit 28 degrees Celsius in Sydney. Fitting symmetry if you forget that it’s August and we’re still in winter.
I just heard a climate scientist cheerfully explain how the hot weather is due to a big warm air pocket sitting right above the east coast. But after she giggled about this with the radio presenter, the conversation turned glum.
“It’s a record-breaking August, isn’t it?” he said. “Well,” she replied, “there’s only going to be record-breaking years from now on. In twenty years, we’ll look back at 28 degrees in August and say, ‘that was nothing’.”
I’ve heard these comments before, but this one struck me dumb. When I’m 50, 28 degrees in August will seem cool.
I immediately started googling house prices in Tasmania, figuring the island might better withstand climate change. And then I stopped, slightly disgusted with myself.
My immediate reaction when I heard that news, and felt that fear, was to find a safe space for myself. To seek out a small section of the earth where I could be ok – even while the rest of the world suffered.
Our desire to put ourselves first, before others, comes so naturally to us. And arguably, this is the human instinct that got us into this global warming mess.
It’s natural to want to look after ourselves. But the irony is that we’ll only get through this global catastrophe with immense self-sacrifice and hardship. We’ll only get through if we learn to love our neighbour as ourselves.
