BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THERE are now 15.5 million tycoons that are millionaires. Almost 4.5 million new millionaire tycoons have arisen in recent years and refuse to share the wealth with the hungry, needy and abused people, women and children. There are now 702 million people living in extreme poverty, barely surviving on a dollar a day and millions more in “normal” poverty eating one substantial meal a day. The wealth of the money moguls totals more than $58.7 trillion. (A trillion is a million, or 1000 billion).
The 2,153 billionaire barons that rule the world of trade have more wealth than 4.6 billion people. There is no modern Jesus of Nazareth that can sanction them all. That means if the climate destruction continues, as many as 2.4 billion people will be gasping for a cup of water to drink by 2025. The merchants and traders in fossil fuels will not invest in renewable energy.
They could change the world and stop global warming but their greed for profits prevents them from doing good. The dependency of Europe on Russian oil and gas makes it weak in blocking Putin’s war against Ukraine and they pay Putin for it and are enabling him to wage that war. Unlike Jesus, they can’t blockade the courtyard or pipeline of Russian gas or they would cripple their economies and cause a recession.
The day of reckoning for the world is getting closer. A new UN climate report says that we have the last chance, it is now or never, to change and get off the merry-go-round of fossil fuel-supported lifestyles of consumer spending, lavish lifestyles, waste and consumption of the earth’s resources while billions of poor live in poverty. Pope Francis, an environmental activist himself, said in 2019:
“We have created a climate emergency, which seriously threatens nature and life, including our own. . . This is the time to reflect on our lifestyles and how our daily choices in terms of food, consumption, travel, use of water, energy and many other material goods are often reckless and harmful.”
Unless people elect leaders of integrity with environmental commitments to change to renewable electricity generation, the planet will become uninhabitable, the UN report said. The CO2 emissions have got worse, not better. There will be flooded cities, unbearable heat waves, gigantic storms, crop failures from drought, sickness and disease, and the extinction of many plants and animals that will never exist again. It is a coming catastrophe but there is a glimmer of hope. The Co-Chair, Priyadarshi Shukla of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change I(PCC) told the media that “the right policies, infrastructure and technology…to enable changes to our lifestyles and behavior, can result in a 40 to 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and well-being”. He said. If the rich will spend on renewable energy and share their wealth with the starving and the rest of us change to a healthy, plant-based food diet, then there is hope of survival. (preda.org/PN)
