It seems like greedy and thoughtless people have been with us since the beginning of time. Some of these people have become better than others at using their "gods" to justify catastrophic actions. After all, anyone who is able to acquire great wealth and power to wreak large-scale havoc on the world must be a divine favorite.
This system of belief has also been used to shield against seeing the consequences of irresponsible actions. Many wealthy, powerful "rulers in high places" justified greedy choices by blaming God (or their gods) for resulting damage to other people and the environment. Unfortunately, this pattern doesn't just reflect ancient history.
My mother told me her story of a similar hoax that caused pain, sickness and death in the Southern Plains in the late 20's. She was a little girl when she first heard the stories from relatives farther west. Her father was one of some three million young men seeking their fortunes in the southern plains. These men ended up spending most of their daylight hours hanging onto two plow handles behind two horses every spring until the prairie sod froze in the fall, turning over virgin prairie sod row after row. They came to be labeled in the bars of Kansas towns as "hanyackers."
This system of exploitation was promoted and not just by the many pioneer farmers, but by Wall Street wheat investors. At that time, mile upon mile of golden wheat grew in the newly turned topsoil of the heartland prairies. People living in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota in the late 20's thought the bounty would never end. It was, to millions of farmers and a few wealthy investors, a permanent wealth-generating resource. My mother was one of those who believed that all was well, as she was told that her Kansas wheat farm was too far east for the dust storms to reach.
Eventually the rains stopped and my grandparent's crop shriveled, along with that of their neighbors. One July afternoon the fields lay with little residue under a hot clear Kansas sky. The wind stilled, the birds stopped singing, and the chickens went to the barn. A dark rolling bank of clouds rose from the northwest horizon to darken the sky. My grandparents, informed by relatives farther west, knew what to do. My mother was ordered indoors. The windows were shut and wet bed sheets were draped over cracks. She remembers her father going out to check on livestock, and to similarly drape wet burlap around barn windows, as darkness fell and the wind rose to a furious level. She remembers sticking her finger into cracks in the west wall of the house to stop dust from pouring in, driven by the wind. Her father came in and they waited out the storm into the night. It only happened once to them. They were more fortunate than most.
Almost a century later, we are still struggling with the effects of the large-scale topsoil depletion of the 1920s. Soil scientists are belatedly recognizing the catastrophic death of billions of beings in every cubic inch of soil when prairie sod is busted. Without these microscopic creatures, production of soil nutrients for plant health ceases, and must be externally applied for plant growth. We live with that legacy and effects of misunderstood human-created additives to soil to this day.
It took more than a decade to undo this hoax of the never-ending wheat bounty from just plowing and planting. Government agents were paid and deployed to convince farmers to start strip cropping their wheat between rows of fallow and planting hedgerows around fields, efforts to hold the fragile soil from blowing into the wind. Some churches began supporting the evidence for more responsible farming practices and a great soul-searching allowed farmers to connect stewardship of the Lord's provision with care for the environment, especially that of the soil. That's the tradition into which my parents were born, like many of our Big Horn County ancestors. But many remained in the darkness, unwilling to look at the real options.
During this Christmas season, I'm reminded of how Jesus dedicated his life to bringing the light of truth to bear on many hoaxes, including that of greed trumping virtue. Mary's eloquent song (St.Luke 1, 46f), expresses her hope that her unborn child will bring a new understanding to the world. I also have hope that as we seek to emulate the life of Christ we will not overlook Mary's "Magnificat." We can overcome our human tendencies to value immediate rewards for a few over prosperity for all. History has shown that kingdoms that rise this way still fall. Edifices of power on their thrones are still cast down. The "people who walked in darkness" of hopelessness and despair, those losers and low life, still come around to see a great light. Truth again becomes a legitimate pursuit, and human life, especially that of the "least of these," flourishes as the "rich go away empty," and the "hungry are filled." In early Christianity, this was the heart of the advent message.
The following is continued from my incomplete column in the Big Horn County News December 4, 2012:
It's true right now. See the new documentary Chasing Ice, soon to appear in Billings. For now, check this web link to a 59-year-old committed Bill O'Reilly fan just after watching it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzw1dZNWiL8
The "hoax of global warming" is in reality the big money-perpetrated hoax that we can continue greedy consumption of fossil energy, and that the consequences to climate are legitimately placed in God's hands. We are living on the cusp of the most catastrophic climate change in recorded history. Unlike previous changes, this one is connected to our behavior. The science is conclusive. Governments, the energy industry, insurance agencies and our pentagon are already deep into strategic planning on climate change. The only questions are what kind of planning, for how soon, with what degree of human catastrophe. There's also the question, as in the dustbowl days when farmers kept breaking prairie sod years after the dust storms started, of how long we will persist in ignoring basic changes needed, and how long we will hide behind our theology about God's providence when our greed violates his basic ethics about compassion for all creation.
It really is in our corporate hands as human inhabitants of the planet. I hope we as a nation do not prepare to enter the wars almost sure to break out with roots in climate catastrophe. I hope we will start now to alleviate the severity and build infrastructure in keeping with our historical commitment as a nation to human rights.
David Graber
Hardin, MT 59034
graberdb@gmail.com
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