The resources from heaven
Normally I don’t respond to questionable statements by politicians, but when Sarah Palin, in her recent article published in The Washington Post, informed her readers that “God created resources for energy right under our feet,” I had a second read and a knee-jerk response. What Palin’s article did was exemplify the vast amount of misinformation that is circulating. It is to those skeptics who lack the facts or don’t want them that I am writing.
It is true that we have been given natural resources for our use, but never has it been stated by God or anyone else that these resources are meant to be abused or to abuse others. I find it insulting to God that we blast off the tops of God’s beautiful mountains to extract coal, the dirtiest of energy sources ever provided. I find it appalling and actually wonder what Jesus would say to the idea of encouraging roads, trucks and equipment to enter in and destroy pristine areas of the Alaska wilderness seeking oil. Jesus was a healer, not one to harm anything, even the migration path of caribou. Knowing there are alternatives to these destructive means of finding energy, are those methods moral?
I am an advocate for reducing our climate-change pollution so that we may fulfill our responsibility to steward creation. Thousands of congregations that my organization works with around the United States are doing this, and they are saving money on their energy bills while reducing their carbon footprint. To make the point, I would describe those fossil fuels such as oil and coal as the fuels from hell—from the dark places of the earth. Besides providing those sources of energy, God provided energy from heaven—wind and sun. We have overused the resources from hell and we have barely explored the ones from heaven, which are clean, renewable and infinite.
If the U.S. begins to use clean resources by building wind turbines and photovoltaic panels, we can stimulate the economy with the millions of dollars waiting to be invested in perfecting and lowering the prices of these energy sources. This new clean-energy economy will create millions of jobs right here on U.S. soil. Contrary to what the naysayers shout, we will actually prevent jobs from going overseas because we will be creating new jobs and a new trillion-dollar industry right here. The countries that invest in the energy from heaven are, by the way, going to be the leaders of the world economy going forward.
I hope that Jesus, Ghandi and other heroic prophets with visions for a peaceful future will make space in heaven for Rep. Henry Waxman, a man who laid the foundation for a new world economy with his bill supporting a cap-and-trade market-based mechanism to reduce the world’s greenhouse gases. I say “the world” because without the U.S. making a strong commitment to reduce its own emissions, other countries such as China and India will not make the effort either. All eyes are on the U.S. right now. Instead of looking at the past to dictate the future, we need to be more visionary ourselves and create a new future that provides security and health and peace for all of God’s creation. Otherwise we give up our world-leadership role to China, which already is making advances in clean-energy technology.
The idea that a cap-and-trade system will destroy the economy is so far from the truth that as a priest committed to the truth, I struggle with understanding how smart, highly visible people can say such things. I propose that they educate themselves on the facts and science of the matter and not take partisan viewpoints without doing their homework. I will pray over the next few months that the Senate will be able to see the truth of the matter as well and pass a very strong bill limiting greenhouse gases and providing for the poor and vulnerable communities both here and around the world that are now and will continue to suffer the most from something that they did little to create—climate change.
The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham is the founder of The Regeneration Project and Interfaith Power and Light.
