This report quoted in part should terrify us all. The Emissions Trading Scheme passed into law today, exempts our major polluters, agriculture and transport, from paying anything like the real cost, while the cost predicted for households is kept under $200 per year. This is a gross distortion of reality for short term political gain, and cannot be sustained.

We can no longer continue living the way we have been, because we live in a closed world that is being degraded by our actions. I am naturally frugal by nature, so the decision to use the car less was not too difficult – no parking worries. I love taking my dog up the many tracks in the Town Belt – free exercise – no gym needed! I try to buy locally-sourced food when possible. There are farmers’ markets in many towns now. The transition_towns movement has people helping people bypass the cash economy and build networks of solidarity. All these new initiatives give rise to hope. Yet all these actions have a minuscule effect in face of the problem, which can only be tackled at government and world level. It is up to us – all of us – to insist that our elected leaders take this responsibility seriously at Copenhagen. The consequences of delaying will far outweigh present pain, and rob our descendants of their future. Do we have the right to put such a burden on our children and their children?

We have a sacred duty to care for God’s creation, not just as owners or even stewards, but as part of an interlocking whole. Our collective greed has caused this situation. Are we not obliged in justice to alleviate it? We are in God’s hand, we trust in our Creator’s love for all of us, so ’Pray to God, but [insist our leaders] row away from the rocks’. [Hindu proverb]

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