It's not enough to worship the Earth. People must organize to force governments to make the regulatory changes necessary to fight climate change, argues David Cox in the Guardian.
The real problem is that no amount of action on the part of a committed minority will ever do the trick.
Most of the world's infidels will never convert to the faith. Anathematising them may warm the hearts of the faithful, but it will not change the miscreants' pagan ways. The only thing that could achieve this is a far-reaching programme of compulsion. And that could be engineered only by the world's governments.
At present, these governments have yet to rise to this challenge on anything like a sufficient scale. It may be that they never will. However, if they are to be prodded into taking the necessary measures, more will be required than the piety of a sanctimonious few. It will take relentless political action.
Sadly, politics enjoys none of the charisma that once more attends religion. On the contrary, its machinations are everywhere abominated. These days, those concerned with self-image and social standing want nothing to do with the wearisome and unlovely grind that constitutes political activism.
It is therefore understandable that professed champions of the atmosphere should avoid humdrum agitprop, and opt instead for a combination of modest self-chastisement and preening self-righteousness. Yet, by putting piety before politics, they doom their cause.
Earth worship may make the worshippers feel better. The Earth, however, needs something more.