Hope Springs Eternal
April 23, 2008
This spring it is good to keep this well-worn phrase in mind: “Hope Springs Eternal.” Although a familiar phrase, it is apropos for our present consideration of climate change. Our society has turned a corner on seriously addressing the issue. There will be concrete action and there’s no turning back.
As I write this, we know that Senator McCain will be the Republican Presidential nominee, and either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama will be the Democratic nominee. The Administration of any of these three presidential contenders will transform this issue. Due to the Supreme Court’s decision that CO2 can be regulated under the Clean Air Act, the next Administration can independently take action even if it can’t work out a deal with Congress—although it is highly likely that a deal will be reached.
I’ve been hopeful for quite some time now. Congress itself has been taking action. A serious, substantive piece of legislation, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, has been voted out of the Environment and Public Works Committee to the full Senate. There could be a vote sometime this spring or summer. While the sooner we seriously address the issue the better, this is tremendous progress—given Congress’ history on climate change.
This movement within the Senate has me hopeful for another reason. Based on some recent changes, the bill is now something I think Christians can feel good about.
The key turning point in this regard was a meeting in late November with Sen. John Warner and religious leaders affiliated with the four partners of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE). (EEN is the evangelical Partner.) We had been told that Sen. Warner would not agree to our major requests to strengthen the provisions related to helping the poorest of the poor around the world adapt to the consequences of climate change. His staff said that he was “intractable.” So although expectations were low, the outcome of the meeting exceeded our wildest expectations.
While all of the religious communities played an important role, Sen. Warner himself singled out evangelicals as a community he felt was important to be behind action on climate change. Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals and I were the evangelicals in the meeting, and Rich mentioned results from a national poll of evangelicals that EEN commissioned, including that 84 percent of evangelicals are in favor of climate legislation. Rich helped him understand that the evangelical community was changing and growing in its concern for the poor and for God’s creation.
When Sen. Warner saw how much all of us were committed to the international adaptation provision, he said to his aide, “Go get the bill.” When the appropriate pages were handed to him, he took out his pen and said, “So tell me what you want.” (All of our jaws metaphorically dropped. This just doesn’t happen.)
I reiterated to Sen. Warner what one of our Catholic colleagues had said earlier for the group, that we wanted the funds targeted to poor countries. So he scratched out the text we wanted deleted and wrote in our language. Then he asked, “What’s next?” At that point a colleague pulled out all of our suggested changes and handed them to him. “Let’s get this done today,” he told his aide. Rabbi David Saperstein closed the meeting by saying to Sen. Warner, “I’m the senior religious leader doing advocacy in Washington, having been doing so for over 30 years, and this is the best meeting I’ve ever been in.” Later that afternoon I called Sen. Warner’s aide to follow up on something. She was just as astounded at the outcome as we were. “You guys did a terrific job,” she said. “We played our roles,” I replied “but it was the Holy Spirit that brought about this success.” Around ten o’clock that evening she emailed us the changed language that is now in the bill.
But as wonderful as this was, I’ve been hopeful before this latest progress in Congress and our meeting with Sen. Warner. In January 2007 a coalition of major corporations called the Climate Action Partnership (CAP)—including such companies as GE, GM, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and BP — called for significant mandatory action.
And I’ve been hopeful since the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) launched more than two years ago— February 6, 2006. We’ve been attacked by some of the most prominent politically-conservative Christian leaders and yet we are still going strong.
Actually, my hope goes back to my recognition more than 15 years ago, when I fi rst started seriously researching global warming. As I began to understand the terrible consequences, I realized that the One with nail-scarred hands has in fact been raised from the dead, and our Risen Lord walks beside us as we tackle the greatest challenges of this and every age. Our God turns crucifixions into resurrections. Indeed, hope springs from the eternal.
- Written by The Rev. Jim Ball, Ph.D., Rev. Ball is an ordained Baptist minister, the President and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, and the national spokesperson for the Evangelical Climate Initiative.
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