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What This Means for All Living Beings, Including Us

1.  Earth's string of 13 straight months of global warming ended in July as the natural El Niño climate pattern began to give way to the cooling El Niña weather pattern, but, according to the European climate agency Copernicus, this changes nothing about the threat posed by climate change.  Even with the natural cooling effects expected later this year, the general trend of warming continues.  July 2024 is second-warmest only to July 2023 in the agency's records, with global sea surface temperatures at record or near record levels for more than a year now.  The oceans have absorbed much of the long-term warming directly related to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and are now a driving force as the heat is released back into the atmosphere.  Some effects include 1) unprecedented levels of shrinking sea ice around Antarctica, 2) the lowest levels ever of the mighty Amazon River, and 3) a global coral bleaching event on track to set a record crisis in the world's oceans.  

 

2.  The evidence is clear that by the time Europeans first arrived on this continent, indigenous people had actively taken care of thriving forests for thousands of years, fostering deep cultural foundations that sustained life for humans, plants and animals, all while cleaning the air and water.  Over he past two centuries, forest health has declined rapidly due to clear-cut logging combined with fire suppression management, and climate change that increasingly exposes our forests to risks from severe wildfires, insects, disease, and drought. State meteorologist Paul Douglas writes that record heat is fueling 88 large wildfires mostly in the western U.S. that have scorched 2,289,077 acres in 2024 nationwide.  Forests damaged by insects sequester 69% less carbon than healthy forests, the equivalent of adding the emissions of 10 million cars into our atmosphere each year.   Old-growth forests nourish vital habitat for important plants and animals, but are present on just 18% of federal national forests, while in Minnesota it is less than half that amount.  To meet these challenges, the U.S. Forest Service is working with indigenous groups to learn from their knowledge of forest management to create healthy and resilient forests.

 

3.  According to research from hundreds of studies and thousands of observations published recently in the journal Nature, the burning of fossil fuels along with the degradation and disruption of earth's environment have created a world in which diseases may be increasingly apt to fester and multiply.  Warming temperatures allow infection-spreading creatures such as mosquitoes and ticks to thrive, while pollution and development push some species to extinction, allowing parasites that have evolved to target the most abundant species to proliferate.  More harm occurs when humans introduce nonnative plants and animals, or chemicals such as herbicides and fungicides to fragile ecosystems.  The resulting loss of biodiversity leaves surviving populations more vulnerable to all kinds of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria and fungi.  Researchers at the University of Notre Dame warn that as diseases become more rampant in the animal world, the likelihood of "spillover" events exposing humans to new pathogens will increase.  They urge actions that will protect the planet and also serve to improve health.

 

4.  All life on Earth is based on the natural element carbon, which passes through air, soil and water, and plants and animals in what is known as the carbon cycle, eventually making its way into deep ocean sediments.  This movement throughout Earth's systems helps regulate our planet's temperatures, unlike the planet Venus, where carbon dioxide makes up most of the hellishly hot atmosphere.  But human emissions of CO2 from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas have thrown the system dangerously out of balance.  According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), fossil-fuel pollution is warming natural systems like wetlands and permafrost, which in turn release even more greenhouse gases as they heat up.  Methane is responsible for about 30% of the current rise in global temperature, and comes from natural wetlands, agriculture, livestock, landfills and leaks and intentional flaring of natural gas in the oil and gas industry.  The study of tree rings, lake sediments and other records of ancient climate reveals that the world is likely warmer now than it has been in more than 100,000 years, which means that humanity now faces conditions unlike anything our species has known before.  

 

5.  As societies add more and more planet-warming carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, the results can be seen in the following three scenarios: 1) THE JUNEAU ICE FIELD in Alaska, comprised originally of 1,050 glaciers covering 1,500 square miles, has lost more than 100 glaciers since 1770, according to studies of tree rings and peat to understand past environments, and every one of the field's glaciers has receded; 2) THE GREAT BARRIER REEF off the coast of Australia, the largest coral reef system in the world, faces its demise in this generation, according to a study published in Nature.  Excess heat causes coral reefs to bleach, losing the symbiotic algae that supports an estimated quarter of marine species, as well as the ability to protect coasts from storms while underpinning the economy at a value of $2.7 trillion a year; 3) THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR, home of a great multitude of species, face a triple threat from warming oceans that interfere with the natural food chain, from nonnative animals (feral cats, dogs, pigs, goats, cattle), that threaten or compete with native species, and from wide-spread microplastics that can be found in the bellies of Galapagos penguins, and likely in the food of every animal.  

 

 

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Laura Raedeke

EcoFaith Network NE MN Team
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, MN

Northeastern Minnesota Synod

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NE-MN Synod ELCA with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation

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