Thursday, July 24, 2008

Chaos/Kairos Theory & Climate Change

It was one of the first posts on this blog - an explanation of the chaos/kairos connection, in the sense that, if a butterfly flapping its wings might be an initial cause of a hurricane on the other side of the world, so a small thing can be an indication of God's kairos-action - the opportune event which changes the course of reality. So it is that Climate Change can be read this way: not as God's action, but as having that profoundly unpredictable cause-and-effect dynamic - by which I mean, not that we can't comprehend its causes or predict its effects, because so much of it is frighteningly clear (the rich world has caused it, but the poor world will suffer more), but that the effects of climate change are sure to be somewhat chaotic. There will be unpredictable weather events, and shocking levels of suffering - and yet we continue to resist seeing this as a crisis (kairos) moment, rather as a continuation of chronos (normal time), whereas it is essential that green politics, individual behaviour, ecological consciousness and so on should become integrated and we seize this kairos - opportunity for radical lifestyle change/s - with both wings flapping.

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