The following talk was given by Suzanne Weiss and John Riddell at Glen Rhodes United Church, Toronto, September 18, 2016.
Suzanne Weiss: What will Toronto’s weather be like thirty years from now? A study commissioned by Toronto City Hall says climate change will hit our city hard. Within thirty years:
- Extreme rain storms will be three times heavier.
- Days with extreme heat will be five times more frequent.
- The need for air conditioning will be six times greater.
And that is only the beginning.
Toronto flooding 2013
A cross-Toronto tar sands pipeline
John Riddell: Let’s take just one side of this: the torrential downpours. Enbridge Inc. has a project to run a pipeline carrying dangerous tar sands oil across Toronto’s river valleys. It’s called “Line 9.” Could flooding from such a storm rupture Line 9 and spill poisons into the water? Into the very water that we drink?
Three years ago, our neighbourhood group, East End Against Line 9, put that question to the City Manager, Joe Pennachetti. He replied that the pipeline could definitely rupture, and in that case the water supply might have to be turned off. He added that the city was talking about this to the pipeline company, Enbridge.
But the discussions were secret. We do not know what was decided or what is flowing today in the pipeline. For three years our committee has worked to put this right. Our call has been, “Stop Line 9.”
We say that not only does climate change threaten to wreck the pipeline, but the pipeline itself speeds this process of climate change. It heightens the burning of petroleum, the main factor causing global warming.
In addition, we say, pipelines are laid right through Indigenous lands, violating rights of First Nations. And the warming process causes devastation to poor and vulnerable people around the world.
Community campaign
Suzanne: To spread the word we’ve held dozens of meetings, canvassed, staffed street-corner tables, taken part in street protests, petitioned, and talked to elected officials. Our leaflets, signs, and Internet sites have reached tens of thousands.
We’ve made gains. Three times our city council passed motions of concern. The National Energy Board, which regulates pipelines, refused to hear us on Line 9. But it demanded safety upgrades and imposed delays that cost the pipeline owner, Enbridge, dearly.
We have not yet been able to stop Line 9. But we contributed to a vast change in public awareness. This was registered in the last federal elections, where almost two-third of voters chose parties committed to remaking the pipeline approval process and bringing climate change under control.
Prime Minister Trudeau even promised before the election to apply these changes to “existing pipelines” – and that includes Line 9.
Spotlight on climate change
Over these years, our community has become more aware of signs everywhere showing that our planet is out of kilter.
- A pipeline burst recently in Saskatchewan, and seventy thousand people lost their water supply.
- A wildfire in Alberta, fueled in part by climate change, drove eighty thousand people from their homes.
- Glaciers and polar icecaps are melting, while sea levels rise.
- In poor countries, millions are being driven from their homes.
What is happening here, and what does it mean for humanity?
Typhoon drenches the Philippines – Marshable News 2016
Scriptural stimulus
John: Let us turn to the thought-provoking passages of scripture offered in the readings today. Those who wrote these passages never imagined that the actions of human beings could dislocate the processes of nature: the atmosphere, the rain, the cycle of heating and cooling. But great literature brings new insights to each age, including our own, an age in which the planet is reshaped by our actions.
We read in Genesis that God saw the corruption of the world and the evil of human beings, and judged that they must perish in a great flood. This now reads like a warning to our times. But we need a better response than an ark for the chosen few.
And Luke’s gospel also offers us the enigmatic parable of the corrupt manager. Let us interpret it in terms of our world today. Let us apply the age-old outlook of Indigenous peoples, a conception now influential among young environmentalists.
We read in Genesis that we as humans were made to “rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature.” The Indigenous world outlook rejects this concept.
A Native friend of ours from Peru put it this way: “Each of us is a part of all, and all are of the soil. The soil could never belong to us because we are its sons and daughters, and we belong to the soil.”
Indigenous world outlook
Suzanne: Six years ago, there was an international gathering of more than 30,000 people in Bolivia, known as the Cochabamba conference. It declared that “Mother Earth is a living being that concentrates energy and life, while giving shelter and life to all without asking anything in return. We have lived in coexistence with her for thousands of years, with our wisdom and cosmic spirituality linked to nature.”
This conference recognized that “all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk.” It blamed “the capitalist system.”
“In an interdependent living community,” the conference said, “it is not possible to recognize the rights of human beings alone without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth.” The conference adopted a “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth,” parts of which are in your programme. We encourage you to make it known to others.
Parable of the dishonest manager
John: Let’s apply this Indigenous approach to the Biblical parable of the dishonest manager (see text below). The “rich man” in the story is not the CEO of a big corporation. No, the “rich man” represents the entire living organism of which we are part, Mother Earth. And the dishonest manager is ourselves, humanity, which, as the text says, is “squandering the property.” But Mother Earth is calling us to account, showing us how her living systems are being disrupted by our actions, and asking us to put things right.
The parable asks us, as managers, to call on the debtors to repay. The debtors are the human institutions that have profited by causing this damage.
But we do so dishonestly, seeking to curry favour with these debtor corporations by protecting their “dishonest wealth.”
In the parable, the “master” says the manager is acting shrewdly and in harmony with a dishonest age. But the Evangelist probes more deeply, concluding that you cannot serve two masters; “you cannot serve [both] God and wealth.”
And the Evangelist hints at a coming transformation, when the “dishonest wealth” is no more and the Earth is inherited by the “children of light.”
Leave the oil in the soil
Suzanne: There are many ways to interpret this story. For me, it calls to mind a meeting some weeks ago held by our member of parliament, Julie Dabrusin. This was a neighbourhood town hall on national climate action. Sixty people were there, including some from our No Line 9 committee.
Dabrusin laid out the Trudeau government’s position. Then one audience member after another said these proposals contained a basic contradiction. The government wants to reduce burning of oil, gas, and coal, which cause climate change. Yet it wants to produce and transport more of these products by building more pipelines like Line 9. Participants called on the government to halt pipeline construction and restrict tar sands extraction.
As the meeting ended, a young man called on the audience to take a standing vote to “leave the tar sands in the ground.” Everyone rose amid much applause.
Contested pipelines
John: This call for us to be “honest managers” was heard at town halls across the country. A few months from now, the government will present its proposals. But meanwhile the pipeline struggle is flaring up across the country. Two new giant pipelines are proposed, and both have met with fierce opposition, especially from First Nations. In one case, the regulatory review has been shown to be biased, and it has collapsed.
Meanwhile, a small but courageous First Nation located west of London, the Chippewas of the Thames, has launched a legal suit against Line 9, pointing out that the pipeline crosses its traditional lands, yet it was its constitutional right to be consulted was ignored. In an unusual move, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. If the Chippewas win, Line 9 will be in question, and the right of aboriginal peoples to meaningful consultation will be affirmed.
So our efforts to Stop Line 9 continue, and the movement for effective action to defend Mother Earth against climate change and other forms of ecological and human devastation broadens.
And in the process, we are working to bring humanity together in a great unity for change through which all of us, as good managers, can protect ourselves and all living things from destruction.
Thank you.
With thanks to Rev. Robin Wardlaw for his encouragement and editorial suggestions.
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The parable of the dishonest manager
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.”
Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.”
So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.”
And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
– Luke 16:1-13
First published Toronto East End Against Line 9