The fact that we haven't wanted to face "inconvenient truths" doesn't alter the realities they point to, nor does it mitigate the devastating consequences of our continuing denial.
It is interesting to reflect on what has fed our illusion that climate change is just a "maybe." For a time scientists published studies, and other scientists (as well as politicians and political appointees) challenged them. Many communities began recycling waste rather than reducing it, thinking that might fix the problem.
But probably the biggest factor in our denial is simply fear; we like our way of life, sustainable or not. Given our dependence on so many things we do not control, as well as the global scale of the problem, we naturally feel powerless to deal with what threatens it.
Nevertheless, the case has been made. It is now time for us to look honestly at the kinds of choices we will have to consider.
Never has the counsel to "think globally and act locally" been more to the point. Just days before the Nobel awards were announced, Gov. Jon Huntsman's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change issued its report indicating Utah is projected to warm more than the average for the entire Earth. For us this brings both the issues and our responses very close to home.
Obviously, no single action or policy on anyone's part will be sufficient to respond effectively over the long haul, but the advisory council did raise many possibilities for active response. As citizens, however, it may be necessary for us to rethink some of our most basic assumptions and attitudes before the policy recommendations and practical restrictions are put forward.
Chief among these is the recognition that in certain areas, the common good must take precedence over the personal preferences of individuals. Freedom, as well as security, is about much more than what each of us wants and can afford to claim.
We must also be willing to choose and support informed and courageous leaders at all levels of public life, who will not just promise what we prefer to hear, encouraging our illusion of safety in the context of global warming. We need radically new land, energy and water policies that offer long-range protection of the resources we are blessed to have, sharing them more equitably among all our people.
It is often said that competition is what makes America work. But America is not working; we are a major part of the problem, not the solution. Our overconsumption, incredible waste and inequitable distribution of benefits and sacrifices will challenge the well-being of all our people.
There is, finally, a spiritual dimension to all the problems we face and to the resolutions we may discover. When we use the term "global" we are referring to a harmoniously intricate world we did not create, but were given.
The gift of human life and human community on this Earth brings with it a vocation to steward and care for the great community of creatures that sustain life.
We ignore that vocation at great peril. Peace, "shalom," is the blessing of our constant fidelity to it. And only this shalom is worthy of our ultimate hope.
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* THE RT. REV. CAROLYN TANNER IRISH is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah and a frequent commentator on issues of spirituality and the environment.
