It has finally warmed up enough that I will go out for a run this afternoon. It is -18C and not -30 as it has been for the past 2 weeks. But that is not what I want to talk about today.

I am really bugged by the Climate Conference in Copenhagen and the incapacity (unwillingness) of so many politicians and business people to realize or care that we are destroying the planet that has given us birth and life. If we do not change the way we live, as individuals, communities, and nations we will have only death to bequeath to our children and grandchildren. How has our sense of moral values gotten drowned in the sea of profit and efficiency and self-centeredness? As a Christian I understand the Earth and the life on it as a gift from the Creator. This implies that I (we) should take care of that gift, not abuse it.

This gift of life and land is a rich and bountiful feast that has been laid in front of us, to be honored and respected. We should strive to leave all we touch healthier than we found it, that our children may also be blessed by it. Our consumer culture is a very unhealthy structure and needs to be changed. Buying more and more and more of stuff we don't need and most of us don't even really want is foolish, wasteful and ultimately suicidal.

I completely fail to understand the thinking of those who deny global climate change. Whatever the failings and foibles of individual scientists, issues of turf protection and academic politics do not change the science itself, which is very clear in showing that we human beings are altering the planet in so many ways at an unprecendented rate.

This opinion column from the Washington Times is an excellent example of what I see as head-in-the-sand money rules all values mean nothing thinking. Or try this marvelous blog for a collection of the most 'prominent' deniers