2024: A Review
This is the time of year when bloggers review their achievements and disappointments for the year just gone. With regard to this blog ― Faith in a Changing Climate ― here are my impressions of 2024.
Lack of Urgency
The year 2024 was the hottest on record. In our area (central Virginia) the first frost was six weeks late (see the comments below to do with the garden). Yet the world’s response to the ‘Faster than Expected’ meme has been a collective shrug. For example, the delegates at COP29 did not even commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (see COP29 and the Episcopal Delegation).
Locally, the response to the hot summer and mild winter has been mostly, “Isn’t this weather nice for the time year.”
Peak Oil
My introduction to Age of Limits issues was learning about Peak Oil.
We met that crisis sixteen years ago by exploiting the tight/shale oil reserves in the United States. (Note: Peak Oil does not mean that we run out of oil. It means either (a) the output from a given field or location has peaked and is now declining, or (b) it is no longer economic to extract any more oil from that location.)
This year Peak Oil seems to be looming once more. In the post A Truly Extraordinary ExxonMobil Report I suggest that the August 2024 report from ExxonMobil was more important than the recent election. Yet who has even heard of that report? And this time there does not appear to be a deus ex machina to save us.
OK Boomer
I am a Boomer (those born between 1946 and 1964). We were the lucky generation; economic growth and prosperity were taken for granted, and climate change (we called it global warming) had not started to kick in. We did not grasp that infinite growth on a finite planet does not work.
The generations that follow us have not been so fortunate. Which is why I find the reddit/collapse site to be informative. At that site most of the commenters take it for granted that we are heading for some type of societal collapse, probably within the next decade. The people who post there are anonymous, but my impression is that they are mostly young people. They share a resentment, even an anger, toward us Boomers. We have taken so much and given back so little.
As I write this post, the lead article at the reddit site is On December 29th, the global surface temperature anomaly hit 1.95°C above the 1850-1900 baseline. The first sentence of the post says,
Earth's surface temperature continues to spiral out of control, exceeding even the most skeptical scientific models. At this pace, we will exceed 3C by 2050, and perhaps even 4C. We hit 1.95C two days ago, and we're not even in an El Nino weather pattern. As we in the community know, the human brain won't let almost all of humanity even see this type of information, since denial is magnitudes easier than accepting what this will mean for us in the near future.
So much for the 1.5°C by 2030 target set in the year 2015 at COP21.
The Garden
When it comes to responding to Age of Limits predicaments there are two two approaches: macro and micro. The macro approach calls for us to work with national governments and international agencies on overall policy. The micro approach focuses on our personal actions and lifestyle.
Both approaches have their place, and most of us work in both areas. For myself, the micro part of the response consists mostly of gardening. The aim is to grow food, not only for personal consumption, but also to share with the various food banks around town.
Last year (2024) resulted in a good crop of blueberries, a great crop of raspberries, and a bumper crop of weeds. This year I am trying for a better start. I have three vegetable areas: a back garden, a side garden and a greenhouse. I have already planted peas and onions outsid, and so far they are surviving. The peas in the greenhouse are already root bound and have started vining. They have been transplanted into pots or outside.
Our first crop was on New Year’s Eve: two radishes weighing a grand total of 20 grams (1 oz.)
Here are a few random observations.
Our first frost was six weeks late. The official date is mid-October. The actual date was late-November. The response from most people was, “What nice weather we’re having”. Only a few people seemed to be concerned about the long-term implications.
We have not had a really hard frost yet. (My measuring stick is the amount of ice on top of the rain barrel, and so far we have had thin layers of ice on just two occasions.)
The official last frost date for our area is early April. Could it be early March this year?
I am not looking forward to July and August ― they are likely to be brutally hot.
No Happy Chapter
Sadly, the post which drew the strongest response was No Happy Chapter. In it I cite many experts who have shared their distress as to our lack of response. The following is a representative quotation.
I’m calling the game over. I just cannot see a solution that has humanity going on in any kind of lifestyle that we have grown accustomed to in the 21st century. My advice is head for the hills . . . And, good luck.
The Church
A theme of this site is that the church has an opportunity to provide much-needed leadership. Yet, to date, it has largely failed to do so because, in my opinion, the leaders often do not understand the magnitude and complexity of the challenges that they face.
For example, when it comes to climate change, the church community tends to focus on social justice. Those of us in the economically developed world are responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is people in the poorer countries who seem to be feeling the impact most severely. It’s not fair.
The focus on social justice deserves our full support. Yet, in some ways, I feel that we are missing the point. Here are some of the topics that I rarely (actually, never) hear discussed in the church community.
Climate change is going to affect all of us, sooner or later. It is not an us/them issue.
Climate change is just one facet of an enormously complex system that includes resource depletion, biosphere destruction, ocean acidification, top soil loss, and over-population. Concentrating just on climate change does not address root causes.
Some of the statements made by church leaders are not physically or thermodynamically possible.
Many church members adhere to the idea that we can have our environmental cake and eat it. In other words, we can control climate change and maintain our first-world lifestyle, even though sacrifice is an essential component of the faith.
Overall, I have been disappointed at the church’s response. But, at it says in 1 Corinthians, ‘Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong’.
Conclusion
2024 was a challenging year, and it appears as if 2025 could be even tougher. We will see.
In the meantime, I wish everyone a good New Year. We can be sure that it will be an interesting year.
