Tom Butler's Thought for the Day was remarkable today

I hope the BBC puts up the link to the 2nd Feb thought for the day soon; I was both a little annoyed at an apparent series of 'climate change denial' statements; then in turn in awe of the skill used in getting across the key message; that the only response worthy of humanity today to its current predicament is to develop new ways of being generous. This methodology of empathising with the cynics then slowly showing that we are all but 'groundhogs' on one level and that we can be bold with our sharing to rise above the 'groundhog' of denial or despair -masterful. (If you prefer to listen to any of Tom Butler's Thoughts for the Day, including the 2nd February one (text below)- they are all here).

"In the Church's calendar this day, February 2nd is Candlemas: the day when we recall the parents of Jesus Christ bringing their new baby to the Temple in thanksgiving. The birth of any child is a cause for thanksgiving but all Christians join in the thanksgiving for this particular child because of the man he became, in the words of the old man who held him that day in the temple, he will be a light to enlighten the nations and be the glory of God's people. And that theme of light, illumination, new hope is taken up in worship with an abundance of candles - so Candle-mas.
It's intriguing that February 2nd Candlemas is also a day of hope in nature in the Northern hemisphere, for it's halfway between winter and spring. Some parts of the United States have adopted the traditional German name Groundhog day, for the story goes that the groundhog on this day peeps out of its winter quarters and, if he sees his shadow, he pops back again for another six weeks. If it's cloudy outside, he remains out believing that the weather ahead will be moderate and spring is on its way.
Well the groundhog might make a better fist at predicting the weather than we do. Certainly on this groundhog day 2010 its difficult to know what to believe about climate change. It had become common place to believe that global warming was the major threat to life on earth - then the disappointing outcome to the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December was followed by the coldest winter for a generation, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted that it had made exaggerated claims about the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, and climate scientists at a British university are accused of attempting to suppress experimental results that don't fit their theory. Like the groundhog, having sniffed all of this, it's not at all surprising if we're tempted to bolt back underground and sleep through it all.
I suspect that this would be a mistake. Of course it's in our short term interests to be sceptical about all this talk of climate change. Then we don't have to take unpopular decisions to curb carbon emissions, or see higher energy bills, but in the long term this might well spell disaster for future generations. If we in our generation on this Candlemas day are to be a light to enlighten the nations we'd better stay alert, keep sniffing the evidence for climate change and then be prepared to live generously or even sacrificially for others. But that takes us back to the baby in the temple and the example of the life of the man he became."