The world is headed right down that road. It killed 4 children in Valley View, Texas in the darkened, early morning hours of Sunday, May 26, 2024. Over that Sunday, tornadoes also killed “at least 23 people in a long-weekend swarm of deadly weather.”
In a rare 60 minutes interview on the 19th of May this year, Pope Francis had this warning about climate change: “Global warming is a serious problem. Climate change at this moment is a road to death.”
He listed the danger signals of climate change that oil company executives and politicians have ignored or downplayed for decades. So far in 2024, tornadoes have killed “…at least three dozen people” in the United States, as we endured a horrific season of tornadoes tearing up the ground, smashing into houses, towns and even cities, creating terrible damage.
In March, climatology experts confirmed “….climate change is impacting the conditions in which tornadoes form and could lead to changes in when and where the U.S. sees them.”
Pope Francis is the first pope in history to issue Vatican documents about climate change, warning “…our world is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.” But he isn’t the only Christian leader publicly expressing concern: ”The Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church and almost all of the mainline Protestant churches have statements that say climate change is real, humans are causing it, and we have a responsibility to address this, but the research indicates that’s not filtering out – at least not in the U. S.”
In that article, a Boston University theologian cites Bible verses that instruct people to protect the earth, but little is happening in America. She says the pope can say something but if the parish priest doesn’t, it won’t do much.
So people, it’s time to get our priests and pastors to help.
When I read all this last week, after seeing Pope Francis’ interview on 60 minutes, I found this little poem on my Facebook page: Keep on driving…keep on flying…keep on eating beef Leave your precious children to live in misery and grief.
Yes, cars, trucks and planes spew climate changing emissions, but so does our food system.” “Emissions from meat and dairy make up around 14 percent of all global emissions,” with 57 percent coming just from meat. Bad news for the cattle industry.
But our children face a grim future if we don’t address climate change. The Valley View tornado killed 2 kids and their mother, Laura Esparza.
If Laura had lived she’d be begging us between sobs not to ignore climate change. There’s not much time to do that, according to Pope Francis and NASA. It’s been warning us since 1960 about this. If we don’t make changes by 2030, there may be no turning back.
So buck up, Texas. Time to choose between your kids and your hamburgers unless you want to condemn your kids and your grandchildren to hell. That’s no cheap joke.
Jodie Sinclair is an award-winning writer who holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and resides in Bandera, Texas.
