Tamara Harbar
Going Green

Last week, I wanted to know one thing: who scheduled the Copenhagen climate change talks for December when most people are preparing for Christmas or other important cultural and faith festivals?

I felt squeezed between Christmas and the climate talks, what with having a mild flu, my Christmas shopping not even started, and wanting to contribute somehow to what was happening in Copenhagen. Should I write about an eco-friendly Christmas or about climate change?

But the squeeze between Christmas and climate change talks was a figment of my imagination. December was the perfect month to hold the talks.

My point of view began changing last Saturday. My husband and I headed over to the Climate Change Vigil organized by Rhianna More. It was dark when we arrived at Stratford’s Cenotaph around 5:30 p.m.

More people arrived until we were about 25 in all. As we lit our candles, we chatted about how people of all ages had come. Rhianna handed out signs for us to hold, reading, “The World Wants a Real Deal.” We stood in front of the statues for a few photos.

Then we each read from a statement asking for a fair and binding agreement to address climate change, blew out our candles, chatted some more and dispersed. Our peaceful, quiet and cheerful gathering had been short but filled with community, caring and hope for a better world.

(See the photos at www.flickr.com/photos/realdeal09/4180628492/in/photostream. I’m the indistinguishable blob in the back row, but it’s a good shot of my mittens. For photos of vigils around the world, go to 350.org.)

The next day I helped ring the bells at St. James Anglican Church at 3 p.m. The bells were pealing as I climbed the winding stairs up to the bell tower to join chimer Peter Ryde and a small group of non-chimers. More people climbed the stairs and we took turns pushing the levers until we’d rung the bells 350 times.

I imagined other churches and temples around the world doing the same thing, all sending a message to world leaders to set carbon emission targets at 350 parts per million, the safe upper limit before ice begins to melt. With CO2 at about 390 ppm, polar ice and glaciers are melting at record rates.

While driving home, Christmas and the climate change talks came together for me. Climate change is already hitting the poorest and most vulnerable, like the island nations of The Maldives and Tuvalu. The push is on to help and protect them, as well as non-human life that can’t speak up for itself, like polar bears, coral reefs, trees and birds.

I remembered reading that Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, had recently said: “…if, in Christianity and other faiths, we are called upon above all else to love God and love our neighbours, drowning your neighbour in Bangladesh is a pretty bad way to go about it.”
With so many cultures and faiths celebrating light this month and with the earth itself turning back to the light after the December 21 solstice, suddenly Christmas and the climate change talks seemed to be about the same things.

Those things are, quite simply, peace on Earth, good will towards men and women everywhere, and joy to the world.