The original aim was to find a successor deal to Kyoto, which expires at the end of 2012. The international community had set a December deadline to make it happen.
However, a rift between developed and developing nations over emissions — who should cut, how much, and who should pay for it — has dampened expectations for what will come out of Copenhagen.
The words of yet to be Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2002 when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party, "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations." His rationale may have shifted slightly since then, but, Canada is still more of an obstacle to see constructive action in the Global Warming/ Climate Change Crisis. And with the down turn in the economy globally, the huge loss of jobs in the global work force, the continual shifting sands in the Stock Markets and national debts that are entering the realm of infinite...the reality to do something about Global Warming effects the climate of many many factors. Global warming is an insidious self inflicted disease that not only destroys life, but also spreads injustice especially in the poor marginalized spaces on the planet.
It is surely not a socialist scheme, I would like to coin the term a " Genesis Accord ". Above any thing it is about " All " creation, every speck...every race and language of people; beyond borders and boundaries; all land, all waters, all the landscape, the air in which we all breathe communally with each other. Without a an accord in which all inhabitants of creation take seriously as individuals and as countries...we can without a doubt say creation is coming to an end. It's Over!
Sadly a lot of the worlds faiths are not engaging their communities in the importance of this crisis. There are pockets of conversation and action, but not what you would expect. Especially when all faiths theologically are woven into the very fabric of creation.
Since the last reformation " Christianity's theology of redemption and salvation have been pretty myoptic in terms of vision...saving the individual soul. One of the biggest challenges for the emerging/ missional church will be to develope a theology that is cosmic where redemption is about " ALL " of creation, and how that will play out interms of the church's missiology.
26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
And there it was.31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross .
Emphasis mine of course, but in the context of above, people of faith can not ignore any part of creation. Lay hold of this thought...if Christ spoke all creation into existence, is in and holds it all together...on that cross it wasn't just your redemption and salvation that hung in balance...it was " all " of creation. So...the resurrection, the new creation...has to be about redeeming " all " of creation. This is the Missio Dei for people of faith.
I'm not a theologian...more of a dreamer, that prays that the same Spirit that filled Jesus would fill me with the imagination of Christ. The thought that Jesus spoke " absolutely everything " into existence, seen and unseen...and that when the Father saw it, he said it was good...very good. And, that even at this moment...He is in, and of all things...and holds it all together.
If I make " the theology of redemption " about " All " of creation, instead of just you and me...and people...am I diluting, watering down what the cross is about. And if the " new creation " in to which Jesus calls as as partners, to co-create to build the new creation " the Kingdom "...is about everything. Everything...from people, to the environment, to social justice, global equality, poverty, politics, wealth, ...what does that mean for the Missio Dei of the church, for your faith community and for you as an individual. Could it be our view of redemption is so incredibly shallow...compared to the imagination of Christ. The challenge for the missional/emerging church will be to write and live a theology...that captures the imagination of the Kingdom Jesus wants to live.
Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.
Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation
We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.
Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...
Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."
As Sherry & Geoff Maddock state in their chapter 'An ever-renewed adventure of faith' in An Emergent Manifest of Hope,:
"Not only soul, whole body!
Not only whole body, all of the faithful community!
Nor only all of the faithful community, all of humanity!
Not only all of humanity, all of God's creation!"
We really are missing much of the point when we limit redemption to the human soul.
As you point out from Colossians, Christ is responsible for the creation of more than just the soul, and wants to redeem more than just the soul.
Posted by: Al | December 08, 2009 at 01:35 PM