What is the Real Work of Paris?
Today is bracketed by two events in the courtyard of COP21, where some civil society members can hold public witnesses. As the sun was
still raising this morning Indigenous People held signs and chanted, “Mother Earth is not for 
Sale”. As I left this afternoon the future generations stood with taped mouths shouting “Don’t Bracket Our Future.
This was gender equality day at the COP, where I listened to Ursula from one of the small islands of Bougainville, and probably the first island to relocate itself as a result of climate change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_Island. She was honored by women today for her courage in organizing this difficult move and for efforts to create a new home by organizing the planting of 21,000 food bearing trees and 6,500 cocao trees to assist with the communities food and revenue.
I reflected on the many women dealing with climate change, including those walking miles for water, those wondering where food will come for their children in the droughts, or how they will escape the floods or where there migration will take them. Ursula said that what they needed most was to have their voices heard in the negotiations and to have climate financing enhanced to assist with relocation and solutions.
“The time has come for the women not to lament, but to aggressively come out for their needs and get support. We are not going to wait for the men.” she commented.
Earlier, I sat in on a discussion with representatives of faith groups with the US State Department talking about concerns of human rights, financing and the 1.5 degree limit that is hoped for in a binding agreement.
Then I sat with thousands of people to listen to Al Gore, former Vice President and founder of Climate Reality speak. But, what spoke most loudly were the pictures of brothers and sisters suffering from floods and droughts around the world. Again and again he said, “The poorest suffer the most”. His talk was not the first that also implored people to listen to Pope Francis and the Papal Encyclical Laudato Si. “The Lessons of the encyclical should be remembered by negotiators as the final texts are worked on in Paris.” he said.
Listening, I sat in the delegate seat of Sao-Tome-Et-Principe, a country and people I had never heard of. It turns out they are a very small island country in Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Tom%C3%A9_and_Pr%C3%ADncipe They may very well be one of the small island nations to become displaced. It is all so much to hold: climate crisis; the diversity, beauty and sorrows of the 195 countries gathered in this small space; the disparity of the wealthy countries and vulnerable ones; the call to compassion and justice or to ongoing economic opportunity at the expense of Mother Earth, Humanity and creation and the future.
I found myself reflecting that perhaps the real purpose of COP21 is to come to know and understand what it means to be human at this moment on Our Common Home. If we were to come closer to this spiritual truth, the solutions for the climate crisis might be more possible. This means that we in the developed world really do need to grapple with and act on consumption, if we truly profess the call to Love.
There is hope as the trials and tribulations of the COP continue, especially around finance for adaptation and mitigation; whether compensation for loss an damage will ever make it into a binding agreement; how human rights and transition for the economically challenged to a new energy economy are addressed and whether we will settle upon 1.5 degrees or somewhere in between that and 2 degrees.
As I walked home from the train, it was raining. I remember the people in Chennai, India who on Dec 3 recorded 5 feet of rain within a few days and are now dealing with 2 million affected people and those in the UK who are experiencing the largest rain in history with more than 13 inches in 25 hours. Then I walked past one of the many art installations throughout Paris, this one titled “The tide ebbs and flows”. People of the flooding areas of the planet are depicted partly submerged in the neighborhood lake.
What does it mean to be a human person with a heart and soul in this moment of history? Can we hear the words of our indigenous brothers and sisters, “Mother Earth is not for Sale”? Can we see the children that we seem not to hear crying for a future?
One last picture for today. At the COP 10,000 breads are baked each day to feed the heart and body. What a wonderful image of the meaning of being human. In the Catholic tradition, today begins a year of Mercy. Mercy means “loving kindness”. May our hearts, our decisions and our actions grow in loving kindness as we learn to share bread.