As I write this, I'm nursing a sore ankle... the repercussions of our first real snow/ice of the year and my subsequent fall on the DC metro escalator. It's hard to think about global temperatures increasing on a day like today, but they are.

And it's worse than we realized.

An international team of researchers has concluded that global warming can't be backtracked as easily as we were hoping. Even if we somehow, miraculously figure out how to curb our carbon emissions, the report says global temperatures could remain high for 1,000 years.

To make matters worse, the report goes on to say that if we don't cut down on the CO2 being released into our environment, we should expect dry-season rainfall--- comparable to the 1930s North American Dust Bowl!-- around the world, in southern Europe, northern Africa, southwestern North America, southern Africa and western Australia.

This is serious, and scary, business, and we need to figure out what to do about it. I think it's going to require working together as communities, states, and countries and it's going to require sacrifices.

President Obama has tasked the Environmental Protection Agency with new, tough standards for carbons emissions. Our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has said the US will be "energetic, focused, strategic and serious about addressing global climate change and the corollary issue of clean energy." We need this attention being paid to the issues, as well as tangible policy initiatives that will change the way we interact with the Earth.

Let's take some responsibility for human actions and work together to care for the planet. Here are some ideas:

1. Calculate your congregation's carbon footprint: http://www.coolcongregations.com/.

2. Take steps in your own life to combat climate change and environmental degradation. Carpool or ride your bike (though not in this ice!). Get educated about politicians' positions on environmental issues and write to them when you think they're doing harm not good. Cut down on how much trash your family produces. Recycle! Buy locally grown produce to not only support local businesses and farmers, but also to eliminate a carbon footprint from the transit process of getting your food to you.

2. Get talking with your friends and family about the issue-- about the seriousness of it and about our moral responsibility to be good stewards of God's earth. One passage which I found that helps sum up a Biblical call on this comes from Numbers : "Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell..."

I'm also reminded of God's command to care for God's creation when I recite the Presbyterian Church (USA) Brief Statement of Faith at my church. We have this terrific line, which helps hold me accountable:

"[We] threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God's condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation."

Just as God acts with justice and mercy, so let us too work to redeem creation-- ensuring justice and mercy not only to God's planet, but also to the millions of people around the globe who are suffering from the effects of global warming, whether by drought and subsequent crop failure and starvation or by conflict over diminishing natural resources. The time to act is now.