Faithfully Effective

At the Delta 5 trial in order to prove the necessity defense the 5 defendants were asked repeatedly to tell the other things they had done and to say whether these things were effective.  They said no they were not effective as that was part of proving that the act of breaking the law was necessary.  I think this is a very confusing message for our movement.

In reflecting upon this I think it is an incorrect question.  I think in fact that everything we do to fight climate change is somewhat effective and also not successful.   But I think the correct question was: but is it faithful?  

In facing the greatest moral challenge of our lifetimes we can only listen for God's guidance and be faithful.   Joanna Macy famously says: "We must realized that the ancestors, the descendants, and the other life forms on this earth and the earth itself are all trying to help us."   I was deeply moved when I heard Joanna say this.  I have struggled with the feeling of the weight on the world on my shoulders as we face this grave crisis.   But when I heard that I realized "hmmm yes why do I assume it is a human brain that will think of the solution or even create the movement for change?  Or that we can even recognize the solution as it emerges?"

When Shell was here in Seattle last year with their arctic rig - hundreds of people came out in their kayaks and tried to stop them.   They basically pushed us aside like flies and proceeded.  However they ran aground outside of Bremerton (while evading only 3 kayaks) and were stuck there for a few hours.  I could not help but think of Joanna and believe the earth itself had reached up and grabbed the rig.

Later their one required ice breaker, sprung a leak (apparently from ice slashing the steel) and therefore had to come back to Portland for repairs.   While they were there,was when the world watched them be delayed for several days by protesters dangling off the bridge stopping them from going forward.   The leak itself cost them several weeks, the protesters several days.   In the end their short window for drilling was shortened enough that they got only one hole drilled instead of two as they had planned.   And because of that their very expensive mission failed and they therefore have given up on arctic drilling.   In my mind the earth is helping us...the ice reached up and in its own act of vandalism, slashed, and said no!

It would seem to me therefore in God's universe it is unknowable what the outcome of climate change will be, but we all must be not so much effective as faithful in the fight against climate change because we do not know how life will act to protect life!