5.1.3. Global warming
Global Warming or Climate Change is the measurable increases
in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and landmasses.
Scientists believe Earth is currently facing a period of rapid warming brought
on by rising levels of heat-trapping gases, known as greenhouse gases, in the
atmosphere. Earth has warmed and cooled many times since its formation about
4.6 billion years ago. Global climate changes were due to many factors,
including massive volcanic eruptions, which increased carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere; changes in the intensity of energy emitted by the Sun; and
variations in Earth's position relative to the Sun, both in its orbit and in
the inclination of its spin axis. Scientists project global warming to continue
at a rate that is unprecedented in hundreds of thousands or even millions of
years of Earth's history. They predict considerably more warming in the 2Ist
century, depending on the level of future greenhouse gas emissions.
In the Teilhardian vision of the world, despite the
autodestruction of the planet by the human activity which leads to any kind of
pollution, evolution continues its process and matter as well as humanity is
evolving towards perfection, towards the Omega Point.I There is no
need for humanity to despair. Even if we are witnessing
I See appendix I and appendix II.
nowadays many conflicts in many parts of the earth, in the
Middle East, in Africa, Teilhard de Chardin who had witnessed both the First
and the Second World Wars, calls for optimism. He was a man of science and most
especially a man of faith. He believed that despite wars and hatred, the
general movement of civilization was leading them towards a form of
conviviality, he called on mankind to build a new earth by spiritualisin g it
with love. For Teilhard de Chardin, man has the duty to give to the world a
consistency in the movement of constant effort towards unity. As man becomes
great, so too humanity becomes united, conscious of its common destiny and
master of its strength. Despite all kinds of disorder, failure, crisis and
imperfections, humanity is in progress. He has faith in man and calls upon him
to fight against dispersion and discordance which only work for the delay of
the process of unification of humankind.
Teilhard de Chardin asserts that nature is moving, erratically
and haltingly perhaps, but nonetheless moving, towards higher and higher forms
of consciousness. This movement is most apparent in the evolution of the human
species. It is humanity in particular which has a clear concept of nature and
nature's inner workings. Teilhard de Chardin quotes Julian Huxley
approvingly: humanity is "nothing else than evolution become conscious of
itself"' The specific insights that come into the foreground of
awareness as one reflects upon the ascent of this species are both its
uniqueness and its relatedness to the whole of the natural world. For Teilhard
de Chardin, the most sublime product of evolution is the human person, the
individual person uniquely aware of itself as a person, yet also aware of his
interdependence with the whole community.
Calling for more solidarity and love amongst the inhabitants
of the earth, Teilhard de Chardin laid emphasis on the spiritual aspect of
evolution. Evolution is not only that of consciousness or that of nature; it
aims at the spiritualization of the earth with love. This is because, in the
process of evolution, matter is always serving the spirit. Neither money, nor
riches, should be the motives or the basis of human conviviality,
I Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of
Man, New York, I959, p. 220.
material goods should not take a place of pride in human
relationships. But then, our century is one marked by the endless quest for
riches and power, placing money and profit above all values and globalisation
thus appears as the spirit serving matter.
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