Litany for Those Lost to Climate Change

A field in Mongolia of dirt, deeply cut by cracks. The phenomenon, called a “dzud," is a drought in the summer and an extremely cold winter.

Leader: [if applicable: In addition to our own beloved dead], we take the time to acknowledge all those already lost as the world feels the effects of global warming and climate change. Thousands of people, as well as animals and plants, die every year from the effects of global climate change. As we acknowledge these lost, we shall respond, “We remember you.”

Leader: To all those people lost to extreme heat waves
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those people lost to floods, hurricanes, mudslides, and other disasters caused by changing weather patterns
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those people lost to hunger as crop patterns change
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those people lost to drought as weather patterns change
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those people lost to disease as the environment shifts
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those animals, siblings of flesh and blood, breath and bone, whose lives have been lost as global climates change
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those plant spirits, siblings of the green world, whose lives have been lost as global climates change
All: We remember you.

Leader: To all those species lost forever as global climate changes
All: We remember you.

Leader: We remember you, and we commit ourselves to restoring balance. So may it be.
All: So may it be.