Fighting climate change: human solidarity in a divided world

Abstract

Delivered in a sermon on social justice four decades ago, Martin Luther King’s words retain a powerful resonance. At the start of the 21_st Century, we too are confronted with the “fierce urgency” of a crisis that links today and tomorrow. Th at crisis is climate change. It is still a preventable crisis—but only just. Th e world has less than a decade to change course. No issue merits more urgent attention—or more immediate action.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. We are faced now with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late…We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late.”

Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Where do we go from here: chaos or community