Spirit and the Environment
A Sermon Preached by Dick Prouty
at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church
July 14, 2013
I assume all of you are now concerned more about the environment than you were five years. I sure am! The reality of
the impact of global warming is hitting us hard now, and it not easy to avoid thinking about this severe threat to our
future……even if like Ismael we say nothing, and try to think nothing.
The examples are unfortunately coming at us every day now. Heat waves in Arizona this year reached a record 130
degrees F in June. Last year’s hurricane Sandy was not an anomaly, unfortunately. We can expect more and more fierce
storms, as so much energy is released into the atmosphere by the melting of the ice caps and global warming. The
drought in the southwest will get more and more severe.
As we enjoy a reasonably cool weekend on Cape Ann, and go about our summer rituals, it is tempting to be like Ishmael,
and avoid thinking of this huge issue before us. And, yes the very worst of it will not hit until 30-50 years from now, with
frequent Sandy type hurricanes up and down the east coast, tornadoes happening frequently in Massachusetts.
Agriculture will be damaged to the point with definite widespread starvation, especially in poorer countries. All this is
predicted unless some very significant changes are made, and made soon.
But, unfortunately, this is not just a long term threat; the polar ice cap will disappear completely in somewhere between
20 and 30 years, by optimistic projections. And, the methane locked in the tundra of northern Canada, Russia and China
will start to be released in 15 years, accelerating the global warming trends, as methane is a much more lethal global
warming gas than is CO2.
The scientific evidence is clear, the trends are relentless, and the predictions of the effect of our dumping so much CO2
and other gases into the atmosphere are truly daunting. We are dumping 90 million tons of global warming gases into
the atmosphere each day. And this noxious stuff doesn’t go away easily. The consensus science says that 25% of that 90
tons per day will be in the atmosphere in 10,000 years.
Think about what this geometric accumulation of greenhouse gases means for our planet. It is not a pretty sight, and
indeed, threatens the very survival of our species, not to mention the millions of our related species on our fair planet.
Man, with his Faustian bargains with technology, has become in Al Gore’s words, “a geologic force”. We are
permanently and rather quickly changing the actual geology of our wonderfully unique planet, and not for good.
Population growth, and the vast populations of India and China and Indonesia justifiably wanting to live at the level and
lifestyle we are living, means that this trend is only going to accelerate rapidly in the next decade. We are fouling our
nest at an increasing rate. We have a short window of 10-15 years to reverse these fossil fuel created green-house
gases.
Doris and I took a long planned vacation to Belize recently with friends this past March. It was wonderful, with
snorkeling on some of the most lush barrier coral reefs in the world. But, on this vacation, I was reading material in the
evening that made it clear that unless we reverse these trends, these very beautiful coral reefs are going to be
devastated by global warming, and the resulting acidification of the oceans.
Consensus predictions are that by 2030, many reefs in Belize and worldwide will be dead, with drastic effects on the
local economies and our climate. As my face mask came to within three feet of a giant sea turtle the next day, and I
watched it go down to feed on the grasses on the ocean bottom, I was smiling it was such a wonderful scene. But, on
the ride back to the hotel, my heart breaking to contemplate this beautiful scene being destroyed…
The living ocean absorbs CO2 as it is food to the trillions of small plants called phytoplankton. A healthy ocean is needed
to consume and mop up CO2. As the ocean plant systems start to die, that mopping up ability lessens, then these nasty
global warming trends continue to increase…and the bad trends accelerate.
And so we face a future where in 2040, a year in which I might still be alive at 97 years of age, the sea level will be 24-36
inches higher( an optimistic prediction) and the average temperature at least 2-3 degrees higher. Severe storms and
tornados will occur in the Northeast, much as they do in the southeast, and we don’t even want to consider what will
happen to Florida.
Well, those are the grim facts and where we are right now with our planet. I wish it were not true, and that we were not
really the Pequod, from Hedges earlier reading, but I fear I have actually understated our condition, as things seem to be
moving faster than scientists believed 3 years ago, with the polar icecap going quicker for example.
What to do?!?
As an educator, I believe education has got to part of the solution. Awareness must precede informed action. But, all of
this grim science is difficult to teach. A high school science teacher at the Waring School in Beverly, recently told me
that teaching about all these climate trends presents him with a dilemma. We must teach about it, but the situation and
the trends are so dire that we risk having our children become depressed and resigned to a seeming inevitable fate.
At Project Adventure, where I work, we have created a North Shore Sustainability Partnership,(NSSP), and are helping
schools on the North Shore create joint projects that help our environment and give students a sense of hope. Without
hope living in our students, it is game over.
I believe a fundamental part of the answer to fatalism is deepening our spirituality and faith. Our Unitarian Universalist
faith can be a huge help to us personally and thus can play a role in helping us address climate change. People
connected to spirit have much more energy and optimism!
First and foremost we must use our spiritual community and our spiritual disciplines to connect to our true and
authentic self. Rudolph Otto calls this core of our inner self, the “mysterium tremendum”, the mysterious source of all.
Otto believed, and I agree from my experience, that Spirit is available if we seek it and find a discipline that helps us
connect regularly to it. Prayer, meditation, quiet reflection, experience of the beauty of the natural world, music such as
our hymns and organ music; all these can all help us connect to this self if we are truly seeking to do so.
And….I believe that prayer has the power to actually influence events and the collective atmosphere that supports the
action of all beings.
Prayer works because our world (our bodies, our brains, the earth, and the whole universe) is really more like a thought
than a material object. The source of all this thought is the “mysterium tremendum”….the Source of All in our hynms.
This is the inescapable conclusion of modern physics. The hard material world that obeys the common sense laws of
Newtonian physics has been proven to be a false perception and mental model. Einstein’s work on quantum physics in
the early part of the last century, has continued to gain credibility and is now settled science . The world Einstein and
his fellow scientists have rediscovered is much like the world of the druids and our Celtic traditions where the spirits are
real and thoughts have power.
And, thoughts can affect reality instantly and at long, even distant reaches of the universe. I know this maybe
controversial but let me give some science backing to this idea. Bell’s theorem has proven that electrons at a distance
are affected by the movement of other electrons, instantly and at speeds faster than the speed of light. This
phenomena is well accepted as an unsolved mystery in quantum physics today, and if our minds are at base, made of
the same fundamental stuff, as the space between atomic particles, then our thoughts do affect physical reality.
Thoughts definitely make millions of electrons move, and if all of our minds are having similar thoughts at the same
time, many other electrons will resonate in sympathy, with distance not being an issue at all.
Prayer works!
Prayer and meditation can be a part of our solution, and our faith community here can help us all develop the spiritual
connections and disciplines to develop the effective use of prayer and meditation.
But, as well as having meditated regularly twice a day for forty years, I am a political science major; and so I believe that
prayer is only part of the solution to any problem. I’m a strong believer is planning and strategically using our collective
power to influence others and make changes. When we all row in the same direction, amazing things can happen. I
think that this issue of climate change and making a difference from our community is worthy of addressing in our
church planning process.
Here are some of my own thoughts on what we might include in a plan for the next 5 years.
Our church should explore joining the Green Church movement within the greater UU faith, and see what resources and
ideas there are out there to reduce our carbon footprint to zero, and then start generating power to reduce the overall
need for fossil fuels. Effective insulation to reduce heat loss, and a large solar panel set on our south facing roof above
are just two ideas that I think arde possible for this project. I propose we work on these and other ideas in a Green
Future Committee that we can and should establish soon. I will bring this idea to our Board this month.
Yes, these ideas will take resources, but a plan can help us get resources from city, state and private individuals and
foundations. Our church as a Meeting House for Gloucester and Cape Ann is a vision that Charles Nazarian has been
elaborating on again recently, and one that I heartily support. Having a big piece of this Meeting House vision be our
being a Green Church movement member and eliminating our building’s carbon footprint, would make this vision even
more compelling. There are many people on Cape Ann and beyond, who could be attracted to join our efforts if
environmental sustainability was a central theme of our future planning.
Then there is our fair city of Gloucester. Major Kirk has already been successful in partnering with two private
companies to put our highly visible three wind turbines in action. This has been a true win-win strategy: the companies
got dependable power at a reduced rate, and the city got @ $500,000./year worth of electricity. And, the whole
strategy seems popular with everyone.
I propose we work with existing green initiatives in Gloucester and be a catalyst to help develop a city wide partnership
of churches, not for profits and private companies, and the city itself. Our goal would be to develop and implement a
plan to make Gloucester the first carbon neutral city in the country. I think this would be a very compelling idea and
could help make our city a model for others to emulate. Can we see a wind turbine bank of 30-50 of them across
Dogtown?
A significant building block of a sustainable Gloucester plan would be to grow the local food movement, with many new
players and strategies. Other ideas for a Sustainable Gloucester movement are:
 Fresh fish for locals from our own fleet, through a cooperative
 Developing a permaculture strategy, supported by the city workers and volunteers on city owned property
 Using a city supplied fleet of bikes for use in the inner city from a new central parking garage

Many ideas like these and many more are already in use in northern European countries, who have a much lower carbon
footprint than the US does.
Then there are the state, and the national and international level. More difficult for our church to influence, but not
impossible at all.
Our state needs to renew the subsidies for solar and wind, and do so at a greater level to accelerate the adoption of
personal family level carbon neutral level possibilities. I would think that our significan broader UU influence in this
state could help this happen, and we can encourage our MA Bay District office to support these initiatives.
President Obamas recent speech on the environment was very encouraging as he is moving ahead with many strategies
to reduce fossil fuel dependence with executive action. He mentioned his daughters and their ability to enjoyu the same
world we do, and feel confident about the future. I know he reads extensively and I know he knows this above case is
real.
Our President could do much more if the gridlock in congress is reduced, and perhaps with the constant drumbeat of
science and new damage reported by global warming, this will happen… at least for environmental issues. I remain
optimistic, as I do believe that optimism helps it all happen. Thoughts matter!
Let me close with one example of an unlikely coalition that shows that our environmental crisis has the potential to
bridge wide political differences. We must cooperate on at least the same level as the Danes and other Europeans do,
and fast, if there is to be hope.
Chris Hayes, host of All In, a MSNBC evening show, recently invited Deborah Dooley, the Chair of the Georgia Tea Party
on his show. She is backing a big new state program in Georgia to subsidize solar power to homes and businesses,
against the opposition of the Koch Brothers and the monopoly Georgia Power company. She explained that she wanted
to leave an earth to live in to her grandchildren! To have a Tea Party Chair and a prominent liberal like Chris Hayes
agreeing on solar power might just be an indicator of a new trend…..let’s hope and pray that it is!
We Are All Aboard the Pequod
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig
09 July 13
he most prescient portrait of the American character and our ultimate fate as a species is found in Herman Melville's
"Moby Dick." Melville makes our murderous obsessions, our hubris, violent impulses, moral weakness and inevitable
self-destruction visible in his chronicle of a whaling voyage. He is our foremost oracle. He is to us what William
Shakespeare was to Elizabethan England or Fyodor Dostoyevsky to czarist Russia.
Our country is given shape in the form of the ship, the Pequod, named after the Indian tribe exterminated in 1638 by the
Puritans and their Native American allies. The ship's 30-man crew-there were 30 states in the Union when Melville wrote
the novel-is a mixture of races and creeds. The object of the hunt is a massive white whale, Moby Dick, which, in a
previous encounter, maimed the ship's captain, Ahab, by biting off one of his legs. The self-destructive fury of the quest,
much like that of the one we are on, assures the Pequod's destruction. And those on the ship, on some level, know they are
doomed-just as many of us know that a consumer culture based on corporate profit, limitless exploitation and the
continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed.
"If I had been downright honest with myself," Ishmael admits, "I would have seen very plainly in my heart that I did but
half fancy being committed this way to so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the
absolute dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open sea. But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes
happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself.
And much this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to think nothing."