麻豆社

Good morning.

Yesterday, on this programme, the US special envoy and former secretary of state, John Kerry, gave a stark warning on climate change. He said that, 鈥渘o country is moving with the speed that the united community of scientists say we must.鈥�

I live in the northern England flood-plain city of York 鈥� where we are no strangers to flooded streets and houses, in spite of our continuously upgraded flood defences. But York has never seen anything on the scale or power of the torrential inundations in China鈥檚 Hunan province, India鈥檚 Mumbai, or northwest Germany and Belgium. Nor, until now, had Oregon ever seen forest fires as early or as ferocious as its current 鈥榖ootleg blaze鈥� 鈥� who knew there was such a terrifying thing as a 鈥榩yro-cumulus鈥� cloud?

鈥楢re we facing an Apocalypse?鈥� John Kerry was asked in an earlier interview. 鈥淣ot if we act much more urgently鈥� he replied. And he said he was optimistic, pointing to the scientific solutions at hand.

In spite of popular usage, the true meaning of the word 鈥榓pocalypse鈥� isn鈥檛 firestorms, devastation and the end of the world at all - its Greek derivation points to an 鈥榰nveiling鈥� 鈥� literally a 鈥榙is-covering鈥�, or 鈥榬evelation.鈥� It鈥檚 the opposite of 鈥榚clipse鈥� 鈥� a hiding or covering. In this sense, we might think of science itself as a sort of 鈥榓pocalypse鈥� 鈥� an extraordinary gift of unveiling the structure and inner workings of nature.

Although this marvellous unveiling can be slow, it is possible for us to take urgent action when we need to, based on the gifts of the science bestowed by generations past. The development and testing of Covid vaccines, after two centuries of medical science, has taught us that. The realisation that human burning of fossil fuels could significantly warm the planet goes back to the Swedish pioneer Svante Arrhenius in 1896. We鈥檝e been discovering more ever since, a hundred-year gift of how sunshine, chemistry, wind and water can unbalance our Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.

These gifts of 鈥榬evelation,鈥� 鈥� of 鈥榙is-covery鈥� 鈥� including knowledge of nature, form a deep and continuous theme in the Bible. From God鈥檚 first command to humans to cherish the Earth and make it fruitful in Genesis, to Job鈥檚 honest cries at the pain of disease and storms, to St. Paul鈥檚 description of all creation groaning until we can really know ourselves, as well as our world. Our relationship with the material world has always struck me as one in need of healing, of reconciliation. Science plays the role of a counsellor, but we are the ones in the relationship, who will need to change our behaviour.

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