Tennessee blues and hope on the horizon

By Leo Dee

Tennessee is getting hotter each decade. The proportion of record hot days to record cold nights has switched from the 1960’s where 90% of the record measures were cold nights, to the current decade where 80% of the record temperatures are hot days.

Why should we care? Well, Tennessee has a $56 billion industry in agriculture, and the higher temperatures affect yields and require more valuable water for irrigation. And it’s not just crops, livestock yields have dropped some 10% since the 1960’s as animal fertility is affected by the excessive heat.

February 2018 was also a record month for rain in Nashville with the city receiving 9% more than the previous wettest February back in 1880 when records began!

Human caused climate change is behind this strange weather pattern as carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels insulates the earth and prevents natural cooling. The excessive heat also powers a much stronger water cycle, with more water evaporating from the oceans and being dropped on land.

So what’s the solution?

Well, part of the solution is making people aware. And that’s just what the School of Theology in the University of the South (Sewanee) is doing. It has an MA in religion and environment and courses on “God in Nature”, “Creation, Evolution and God” and “Climate Ethics”. And their Center for Religion and Environment is offering a course in “Contemplation and Care for Creation”.

Training religious leaders of the future who will inspire their communities with the importance of living a life that respects the world and climate, is an important step towards getting to a solution.