The story you are about to read is remarkable for at least these reasons:

It’s breaking news.
It’s participatory. You can be part of the action.
It was officially launched March 8; if that date had been even a week later it would have been scratched. Aborted, let’s say, before it ever saw the light of day, under coronavirus regulations.
In a time when people split into rival nations and feud over political preferences, this healing story comes as a welcome promise of spring.

So, to the story. Let your imagination soar! See yourself as a guest on Jeopardy. The subject is Otterbein University. How much do you know about it? Would your private answer be “zilch!” (never heard of it). Or “practically everything” (I’m the school’s president, after all!) or something in between? In any case, hold on a few moments; what follows could make a difference in your own life and the life of the world. It has to do with what happened at that school on a recent Sunday afternoon.

To be precise, it started at 2:30 P.M. March 8. The location was Otterbein’s main campus in Westerville, Ohio, just outside Columbus. “Too nice a day to spend indoors” might, to many, have seemed a valid reason to stay away. Others, taking the rising threat of coronavirus infection seriously, might have decided to keep out of crowds.

Still, a thousand people got to the Auditorium early in hope of getting a good seat. And listened attentively through the full program.

The platform featured three prominent figures – two former governors and a former Secretary of State. Including two who had run for presidential pick of their party, so bridging the chasm between Democrats and Republicans. Co-sponsoring the event was the non-profit, non-partisan Columbus Foundation.

John Kasich, John Kerry, Arnold Schwarzenegger confer before the session (photo by Chris Kaiser)

The event took as its title

World War Zero

That word Zero points to the goal: an American economy with net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In short, a healthier planet, healthier people.

World War stands for full, all-out mobilization – the kind that nations knew in two world wars and will be required if we are to win this new war for survival.

Though I was not at the conference, I had a representative: Chris Kaiser, a member of the Board of Otterbein (and my son) who provides the following summary:

This is not a political issue
Air pollution kills 200,000 per year in the U.S., 8 million worldwide (for comparison, total deaths from COVID-19 are just under 12,000 as I write)
We should buy locally, so goods are not shipped across oceans. (Question: How to fit this with our global economy?)
World War Zero has a grassroots goal: to initiate 10 million conversations
Most similar movements begin with individual efforts. This is a bottom-up approach, not a top-down effort by government
Earth Day, which began in 1970 after an oil spill, was an effort by individuals rather than government
The burning of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio launched a public outcry which was a factor in establishing the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970
WW Zero now seeks a people’s movement akin to these two examples

So What’s the Problem?

Let’s face it: 200,000 deaths a year isn’t enough to get everybody into action, hence the call to total mobilization. The World War Zero appeal aims to present facts such as these visuals (called cartograms, combining the qualities of a map and a diagram).

The first example. The size of any area is the clue to its pollution of the air we breathe. What does it tell you about North and South America? How would you compare China and India? Alaska and Spain?

Countries sized according to their total CO2 emissions

In the second image, which uses the Mercator projection, size of area offers no clue as to either actual size or how much pollution any country adds to our air. But it has this advantage: it adds statistics on pollution by country. Comparing the United States and Canada, for example, is more precise than in the first cartogram. (Click on the image for a full-size view.)

Communities of Faith Set the Example

In this video interview a young Canadian activist sets out the tight connection between faith and climate action.

Hey, with support from Alden Legault and Greta Thunberg (see Greta Thunberg’s Dream) and Elizabeth May (former head of Canada’s Green Party) and a million others all over the world –especially you – there may yet be hope we will get to Zero, otherwise known as Victory!

Thanks for doing your part!!

Can COVID-19 Help Heal a Wounded World?

A Poet’s Perspective attributed to Kitty O’Meara

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

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