As I write this, no one knows how the Copenhagen COP15 climate talks will end. There is some good news about forest protection, but much remains unknown. It’s not looking good for those of us who hoped for a moment of radical unity from world leaders and a commitment to equitable and effective action. I have been glued to enviro-blogs and the COP15 website all day, combing YouTube for pictures of the protests, and monitoring Twitter for signals of wisdom, conflict or breakthrough. It’s mind numbing.
In times like these, it is easy to get stuck in one’s head, obsessed with wording and breaking events, paying little heed to the body or spirit. So tomorrow…I’ll be skipping breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. I’m supporting the Climate Justice Fast on December 17. The nonprofit campaigning organization Avaaz is calling for the fast:
“We will fast voluntarily, for one day on Thursday, in solidarity with the millions who have and could lose their lives to preventable and involuntary hunger, disease and conflict resulting from climate change. We call on world leaders for a real climate deal now.”
I was alerted to the fast by a mass email from Bill McKibben of 350. An amazing journalist, writer and activist, I saw McKibben speak last year at Herbst Theater in San Francisco. He told the story of a personal turning point. While traveling in Bangladesh in 2007, he contracted dengue fever. This nasty disease is spreading due to climate change, as mosquitos migrate and thrive. McKibben recovered after a miserable time in a Bangladeshi hospital, surrounded by hundreds of people from Dakka who were suffering and dying from dengue. He noted that since the U.S. contributes 25% of greenhouse gases (from 4% of the world’s population), one in four of those hospital cases is our responsibility. McKibben added that Bangladesh’s population had pretty much zero carbon footprint: “I’m a Methodist Sunday school teacher,” he added. “This defines immoral to me. Enough said.”
For better or for worse, most middle class Americans will not be among the first to feel the effects of climate change. Like McKibben’s story, the global fast is a way of connecting to those around the world who will suffer from rising waters, spreading disease, and violent conflict over land and resources brought on by our warming planet and by the actions of the “haves.”
Depriving the body of food is a time-honored way of reconnecting to the spirit. From medieval monks to tribal vision quests, it is known that fasting sharpens the mind and brings us closer to the infinite. The goal of tomorrow’s fast for me is to demonstrate once again that we are multi-dimensional beings, mental, physical and spiritual, who have more in common than we have differences. Hunger pangs now will help us to reconnect with our profound, human selves, and will make it easier to take a deep breath, lift our eyes to the horizon, and act now for a sustainable and healthy future.
Join the Climate Justice fast here.
Sign Avaaz’s Real Deal COP15 petition here.
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