Peace on Earth

Today, we live in a world with people uprooted from their homes. They are looking for shelter in numbers never seen before. Some of these are refugees from crime, from repressive governments, from racism, and from hostile environments. Often, lurking behind these statistics Is the rapidly changing climate.

Currently, we have a spirited national debate on immigration. We are asking ourselves if we want more immigrants versus less, can we create a path for people working here that are not citizens, or do we want a physical wall vs something more modern?  It is an emotionally polarizing subject.

With any migration of people there are good, honest, hard working people who are victims of circumstances outside their control. There may be, with-in the masses of good folk, some “bad apples”, as there can be anywhere.  Whatever system we employ, we obviously need to weed out the bad actors, but what about those of good moral fiber? Most of these poor people and their ancestors have, or had, little to do with the causes of global warming. They did not earn the fate that has befallen them.  

We face a multi-faceted moral dilemma. The great Christian rule is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

If you are worried about “foreigners”, I mean the normal middle- and lower-class folks like us, I hope I can reassure you a little about human nature. I traveled and worked in Europe, Morocco, Djibouti, Fujairah, Bahrain, Tanzania, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. I walked and bicycled through many places tourists rarely visit. I interacted with many locals and had no nasty confrontations. Maybe, I was simply lucky. I prefer to think that most humans govern their behavior by a respectable moral code.

If the 97%+ consensus of the world’s climate scientists is correct, we can expect the number of climate refugees to rise and accelerate unless we switch to modern clean energy.  Dry hot lands that sustain humans are turning to desert. Oceans are rising and threatening whole island nations. Rich river deltas, world-wide, are eroding rapidly, and some areas are simply becoming too hot for humans to exist.

It is estimated that by 2050 there may be up to 150 million climate refugees. Our Pentagon has done extensive research to identify the parts and the peoples of the globe most vulnerable.

I do not know how many people we should allow in. At 67, I am not going to be here long enough to worry about it.  I think our younger folk should be given more voice on this matter.

The one moral and scientific question I have 100 percent confidence in is that if we change our behavior to be energy efficient and move to clean energy, that would not only be a wise economic choice, but a just moral choice also.

Peace on Earth is not something we should sing about once a year.  It is a cause we must embrace 365 days a year if we truly wish to achieve it. It involves incorporating the knowledge of science, but more importantly, we will have to take to heart the wisdom of our Christian heritage.

References: The International Red Cross, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The National Geographic Society, The Environmental Justice Foundation, and The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Greyson Morrow www.citizensclimatelobby.org

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