There are calls today for the declaration of a National Emergency over the visits of politicians to areas affected by floods.
"We've been absolutely inundated" said Mabel Soggy of Doncaster "its like someone opened the floodgates - Corbyn, Swinson, Miliband, we're just thankful Boris Johnson is so scared to show his face in Yorkshire that he stopped at Matlock. There's been a constant stream of politicians taking our mops to appear in photos, or interrupting volunteers and the emergency services whilst they're trying to do their job."
Local geologist Abdul Strata added a further note of concern: "there is very clear evidence that the ground itself is sinking. Once a political leader turns up, with their entourage of advisors, minders, photographers, reporters and film crews, the combined weight compacts the ground, already softened by flooding. Areas visited by politicians become more vulnerable to floods in the future."
A passing local estate agent sounded a different note. "Fishlake? Clue's in the name son."
Have you experienced a deluge of unhelpful politicians? Have you had to put sandbags across your property to protect it from film crews? If so, don't worry, by next week everyone might have forgotten all about you.
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Libdem Manifesto: Green Monster with Medicinal Purposes
The smaller the party, the bigger the manifesto. Labour, the Conservative, Green and UKIP all clock in at around 80 pages, but Nick Cleggs little monster, channeling a 70s wallpaper designer, is 158. The pages are a bit smaller, and a couple of them are taken up with an index (bravo!). As with Labour, and the Conservatives, here are a few things which stood out.
1. There is some genuinely radical stuff in here, which the Libdems have either been a bit coy about, or the mainstream media aren't interested in because they'd rather have arguments about maths. That's a shame, because the radical stuff is potentially the most significant.
2. At the same time, spot the consensus: more free childcare, more nhs funding, 0/7% on overseas aid, control immigration, devolve power both to the countries of the UK and to local governments and cities, reduce tax on the low paid, build more houses. All 3 main Westminster parties are saying the same thing in these areas. They all use the word 'plan' on their first page as well. Snore....
3. It may be that the other parties have put their detail elsewhere, or just left it out of public gaze entirely, but there is a lot of detailed thinking and policy here. This document has the only fully-fledged strategy on climate change and the environment, nearly a fully-fledged strategy on mental health (see below), and a lot more finesse in several areas than Labour or the Conservatives. Before you think I'm getting carried away, there are several things I'm completely opposed to....
4. Greenery: there are more nods from Labour towards this than the Tories, but the Libdems tackle climate change and the environment head on. It's one of their 5 'front page' priorities, along with education, balancing the budget, fair taxes and the nhs, and there are '5 Green Laws' which cover a whole raft of stuff, from conservation areas, to zero emission cars to renewable energy. 60% of energy from renewables by 2030, zero carbon economy by 2050 with zero carbon traffic, 70% recycling rate by 2020 and (I liked this) a commission to look at what resources we're using in an unsustainable way, with power to push us to cut consumption. At the same time there's the only proposals I've seen to build houses resilient to rising temperatures, and a lot more incentives towards insulation, energy efficiency etc. And every time a child is born, a tree will be planted. Not many of these will be popular, or cheap, or give a short-term gain, but the Libdems seem to be the only party who are thinking beyond the 8th of May in these areas. Well done.
5. The other one I really like, and you'd expect me to say this, is their policies on mental health - more money, better standards of care, clear waiting time targets. There's a target of getting 25% of of those suffering mental illness into appropriate counselling treatment - that seems a very low target, but perhaps its symptomatic of how poor the support currently is. Imagine of only 25% of people with a broken leg got a plaster cast.... But, for a party which has clearly done a lot of thinking, there wasn't enough on prevention. Yes there's a plan for a '5 a day' type public health campaign on mental health, more on reducing stigma etc. But a lot of mental illness is rooted in what happens when you're young: family breakdown, poor parenting, poor relationships with main carers. As with Labour, and the Tories, this seemed to be a no-go area. Nobody has the courage, or the ideas, to tackle the epidemic of fatherlessness and family breakdown, or to use the network of health visitors and new mums support to give input on parenting and relationships, as well as caring for the new baby. The Libdems are streets ahead of the rest on mental health, but there are still some streets that are no-go areas, and until we walk them, we'll always have a massive problem on our hands. To be fair, the Libdems say more than the Conservatives about promoting and expanding the Troubled Families programme, and want mediation for all separating couples, but wouldn't it be better to build stronger relationships to start with?
6. Cunning plans: everyone is offering more free childcare, the Libdems is are a bit more tailored - 20 hours per week from age 2, but if you're a working parent then it's available from 9 months in, which is when a lot of new mums go back to work part-time after having a child. Discount bus travel for students aged 16-21 is good, to get them into the habit, out of cars, and support the bus network. Getting landlords to insulate houses to an approved standard, putting RE back into the core curriculum alongside some key life skills like finance management. Oh yes, and giving local authorities more power to cut down on betting shops and the use of addictive betting terminals in their communities.
7. A few contentious ones: minimum unit pricing on alcohol (which has been suggested for a while but nobody has done it), legalising cannabis for medicinal use, and a looser drugs law put under the Health department rather than the Home Office. Decriminalising having drugs for personal use would raise a storm of protest at other times, but there hasn't been a peep about it (yet). Perhaps the Daily Mail is too busy looking for celebrities in badly-fitting bikinis.
8. Being liberals, there's quite a bit on civil liberties, control over what data people can hold about you, freedom to be rude about people and to swim where you like, more support and promotion of equality for people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and gay, bisexual and transgender people. The cuts to legal aid are going to be reviewed, and different forms of punishment trialled (badoom-tish) for crime. 'A large prison population is a sign of failure to rehabilitate, not a sign of success'. So they want more tagging, curfews, weekend prison etc., and if you go to prison there's a skills and education assesment in your first week. After the confiscation of books by the Tories, this is a welcome change of direction.
9. Fair play to Clegg, he hasn't given up on proportional representation, there it is again, alongside an elected Lords, more devolution, caps on donations to parties, and a formal process for working out who is in the leaders debates (tick).
10. One which elevated my eyebrows: 'liberalise rules about the location, timing and content of wedding ceremonies'. I guess it depends how liberal, but the gay marriage reforms raised question marks over whether the government even knew how to define marriage, and this takes it a step further. At what point does marriage stop being marriage, and start being something else? There's a difference between pledging 'all that I have I share with you...till death us do part' and singing each other something by Robbie Williams.
11. Housing - again, plenty of detail and evidence of a lot of thinking. Right to Buy is there, but left up to local authorities not enforced by central government. But again, it's frustrating that a party which has done so much work misses some obvious issues. One is housing density - new estates are crammed, with every home overlooked, miniature gardens, and short on facilities. Many new homes have more space for the plasma telly than for a meal table. Joined up thinking on mental health and wellbeing would ask for a maximum housing density and a minimum standard on social space within a home. The Libdems mention loneliness as a problem - well at least give people the space to invite friends round then!
12. There's some thinking on faith, discrimination etc., mostly around supporting interfaith work, protecting Jews and Muslims from hate crime, but also putting RE back in a more central role at schools and giving freedom for 'religious doctrines' to be explained.
13. British Sign Language will be recognised as an official language of the UK. Excellent. Now offer it at GCSE. Outside London and premiership football, most of us are more likely to come across a deaf person than a Frenchman.
And great news for anyone from the SW who likes the Brecon Beacons - once the debts on the Severn Bridge are paid off, the tolls will be scrapped.
Overall, I was quite impressed. Much more than either of the other two parties, the policies seem to be designed with people in mind, and the stress on the environment and mental health is the kind of long-term thinking we need from our politicians, but rarely get. There are some sensible policy reviews (e.g. the constitutional convention on devolution, rather than Camerons divisive populism, legal aid), and more of a sense that this is rooted in vision and values, rather than managerialism and presentation. It's the nearest thing to what the bishops were asking for a few weeks ago, and is mercifully free of the snide political bashing you find throughout the other manifestoes. I wonder if somewhere in a backroom there are Labour and Conservative strategists going 'why didn't we think of that?'
Because of course, that's the context. Clegg is pitching to 2 sets of people. One is us, the voter. The other is the two other main parties. The Libdems main shot at power is to be a more attractive coalition partner than either the SNP or UKIP. To do that he needs as many votes and MPs as possible, and as many policies as possible which the other parties think they can work with. Given all that's in the manifestoes, a coalition with Labour looks much the better fit: the Conservatives will spend 2 years taken up with an EU referendum and take their eye off the ball, and Labour is offering much less in terms of policy anyway, so there are plenty of gaps for the Libdems to fill. Libdems and Labour are both ok with borrowing to invest, and the Conservatives are riddled with people who simply don't get climate change and green energy, from Owen Paterson to Eric Pickles.
However, I still think that doing all this is a massive challenge if 300,000 new people are arriving in the UK every year; all the money and effort that goes into the nhs, housing and education will only enable us to stand still. Meanwhile there aren't any big ideas, from anyone, on how we integrate communities at a local level. Nobody is producing an evidence-based immigration policy (why do people come here, how many will stop coming if we do x or y) based on a sustainable level of immigration, and leaving the EU is a blunt instrument with too much collateral damage. So we still need UKIP to keep this debate on the table, but probably not UKIPs solution.
AND IT DOESN'T MENTION HARD WORKING FAMILIES ONCE! YIPPEEE! If you're as intermittently lazy as I am, at last, a party you can vote for.....
1. There is some genuinely radical stuff in here, which the Libdems have either been a bit coy about, or the mainstream media aren't interested in because they'd rather have arguments about maths. That's a shame, because the radical stuff is potentially the most significant.
2. At the same time, spot the consensus: more free childcare, more nhs funding, 0/7% on overseas aid, control immigration, devolve power both to the countries of the UK and to local governments and cities, reduce tax on the low paid, build more houses. All 3 main Westminster parties are saying the same thing in these areas. They all use the word 'plan' on their first page as well. Snore....
3. It may be that the other parties have put their detail elsewhere, or just left it out of public gaze entirely, but there is a lot of detailed thinking and policy here. This document has the only fully-fledged strategy on climate change and the environment, nearly a fully-fledged strategy on mental health (see below), and a lot more finesse in several areas than Labour or the Conservatives. Before you think I'm getting carried away, there are several things I'm completely opposed to....
4. Greenery: there are more nods from Labour towards this than the Tories, but the Libdems tackle climate change and the environment head on. It's one of their 5 'front page' priorities, along with education, balancing the budget, fair taxes and the nhs, and there are '5 Green Laws' which cover a whole raft of stuff, from conservation areas, to zero emission cars to renewable energy. 60% of energy from renewables by 2030, zero carbon economy by 2050 with zero carbon traffic, 70% recycling rate by 2020 and (I liked this) a commission to look at what resources we're using in an unsustainable way, with power to push us to cut consumption. At the same time there's the only proposals I've seen to build houses resilient to rising temperatures, and a lot more incentives towards insulation, energy efficiency etc. And every time a child is born, a tree will be planted. Not many of these will be popular, or cheap, or give a short-term gain, but the Libdems seem to be the only party who are thinking beyond the 8th of May in these areas. Well done.
5. The other one I really like, and you'd expect me to say this, is their policies on mental health - more money, better standards of care, clear waiting time targets. There's a target of getting 25% of of those suffering mental illness into appropriate counselling treatment - that seems a very low target, but perhaps its symptomatic of how poor the support currently is. Imagine of only 25% of people with a broken leg got a plaster cast.... But, for a party which has clearly done a lot of thinking, there wasn't enough on prevention. Yes there's a plan for a '5 a day' type public health campaign on mental health, more on reducing stigma etc. But a lot of mental illness is rooted in what happens when you're young: family breakdown, poor parenting, poor relationships with main carers. As with Labour, and the Tories, this seemed to be a no-go area. Nobody has the courage, or the ideas, to tackle the epidemic of fatherlessness and family breakdown, or to use the network of health visitors and new mums support to give input on parenting and relationships, as well as caring for the new baby. The Libdems are streets ahead of the rest on mental health, but there are still some streets that are no-go areas, and until we walk them, we'll always have a massive problem on our hands. To be fair, the Libdems say more than the Conservatives about promoting and expanding the Troubled Families programme, and want mediation for all separating couples, but wouldn't it be better to build stronger relationships to start with?
6. Cunning plans: everyone is offering more free childcare, the Libdems is are a bit more tailored - 20 hours per week from age 2, but if you're a working parent then it's available from 9 months in, which is when a lot of new mums go back to work part-time after having a child. Discount bus travel for students aged 16-21 is good, to get them into the habit, out of cars, and support the bus network. Getting landlords to insulate houses to an approved standard, putting RE back into the core curriculum alongside some key life skills like finance management. Oh yes, and giving local authorities more power to cut down on betting shops and the use of addictive betting terminals in their communities.
7. A few contentious ones: minimum unit pricing on alcohol (which has been suggested for a while but nobody has done it), legalising cannabis for medicinal use, and a looser drugs law put under the Health department rather than the Home Office. Decriminalising having drugs for personal use would raise a storm of protest at other times, but there hasn't been a peep about it (yet). Perhaps the Daily Mail is too busy looking for celebrities in badly-fitting bikinis.
8. Being liberals, there's quite a bit on civil liberties, control over what data people can hold about you, freedom to be rude about people and to swim where you like, more support and promotion of equality for people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and gay, bisexual and transgender people. The cuts to legal aid are going to be reviewed, and different forms of punishment trialled (badoom-tish) for crime. 'A large prison population is a sign of failure to rehabilitate, not a sign of success'. So they want more tagging, curfews, weekend prison etc., and if you go to prison there's a skills and education assesment in your first week. After the confiscation of books by the Tories, this is a welcome change of direction.
9. Fair play to Clegg, he hasn't given up on proportional representation, there it is again, alongside an elected Lords, more devolution, caps on donations to parties, and a formal process for working out who is in the leaders debates (tick).
10. One which elevated my eyebrows: 'liberalise rules about the location, timing and content of wedding ceremonies'. I guess it depends how liberal, but the gay marriage reforms raised question marks over whether the government even knew how to define marriage, and this takes it a step further. At what point does marriage stop being marriage, and start being something else? There's a difference between pledging 'all that I have I share with you...till death us do part' and singing each other something by Robbie Williams.
11. Housing - again, plenty of detail and evidence of a lot of thinking. Right to Buy is there, but left up to local authorities not enforced by central government. But again, it's frustrating that a party which has done so much work misses some obvious issues. One is housing density - new estates are crammed, with every home overlooked, miniature gardens, and short on facilities. Many new homes have more space for the plasma telly than for a meal table. Joined up thinking on mental health and wellbeing would ask for a maximum housing density and a minimum standard on social space within a home. The Libdems mention loneliness as a problem - well at least give people the space to invite friends round then!
12. There's some thinking on faith, discrimination etc., mostly around supporting interfaith work, protecting Jews and Muslims from hate crime, but also putting RE back in a more central role at schools and giving freedom for 'religious doctrines' to be explained.
13. British Sign Language will be recognised as an official language of the UK. Excellent. Now offer it at GCSE. Outside London and premiership football, most of us are more likely to come across a deaf person than a Frenchman.
And great news for anyone from the SW who likes the Brecon Beacons - once the debts on the Severn Bridge are paid off, the tolls will be scrapped.
Overall, I was quite impressed. Much more than either of the other two parties, the policies seem to be designed with people in mind, and the stress on the environment and mental health is the kind of long-term thinking we need from our politicians, but rarely get. There are some sensible policy reviews (e.g. the constitutional convention on devolution, rather than Camerons divisive populism, legal aid), and more of a sense that this is rooted in vision and values, rather than managerialism and presentation. It's the nearest thing to what the bishops were asking for a few weeks ago, and is mercifully free of the snide political bashing you find throughout the other manifestoes. I wonder if somewhere in a backroom there are Labour and Conservative strategists going 'why didn't we think of that?'
Because of course, that's the context. Clegg is pitching to 2 sets of people. One is us, the voter. The other is the two other main parties. The Libdems main shot at power is to be a more attractive coalition partner than either the SNP or UKIP. To do that he needs as many votes and MPs as possible, and as many policies as possible which the other parties think they can work with. Given all that's in the manifestoes, a coalition with Labour looks much the better fit: the Conservatives will spend 2 years taken up with an EU referendum and take their eye off the ball, and Labour is offering much less in terms of policy anyway, so there are plenty of gaps for the Libdems to fill. Libdems and Labour are both ok with borrowing to invest, and the Conservatives are riddled with people who simply don't get climate change and green energy, from Owen Paterson to Eric Pickles.
However, I still think that doing all this is a massive challenge if 300,000 new people are arriving in the UK every year; all the money and effort that goes into the nhs, housing and education will only enable us to stand still. Meanwhile there aren't any big ideas, from anyone, on how we integrate communities at a local level. Nobody is producing an evidence-based immigration policy (why do people come here, how many will stop coming if we do x or y) based on a sustainable level of immigration, and leaving the EU is a blunt instrument with too much collateral damage. So we still need UKIP to keep this debate on the table, but probably not UKIPs solution.
AND IT DOESN'T MENTION HARD WORKING FAMILIES ONCE! YIPPEEE! If you're as intermittently lazy as I am, at last, a party you can vote for.....
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Simple Choices
Choose A or B
A: Wind turbine overlooking the land
B: No land as it's all underwater
A: Tidal power
B: Tidal surge
A: Jumping on a plane to get away from the bad weather
B: Having a home to come back to afterwards
A: Solar panels on the roof
B: Nothing on the roof as all the tiles have blown off
A: Get out of the car and walk
B: Get out of the car and wade
A: Change
B: Climate Change
A: Wind turbine overlooking the land
B: No land as it's all underwater
A: Tidal power
B: Tidal surge
A: Jumping on a plane to get away from the bad weather
B: Having a home to come back to afterwards
A: Solar panels on the roof
B: Nothing on the roof as all the tiles have blown off
A: Get out of the car and walk
B: Get out of the car and wade
A: Change
B: Climate Change
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Solar Panels for Somerset Churches
coming up...
Solar powered Bath and Wells Environment Gathering
Organised by the Diocesan Environment Group is a unique chance for environment enthusiasts from across Bath and Wells to come together on Saturday 12 November. Bishop Peter of Taunton will be our key-note speaker and the venue is St Michael’s, Galmington which features in the current edition of Manna celebrating their solar panels.
The aim of the gathering is to bring together those who carry a concern for God’s creation and who may currently feel isolated. The findings of the recent Churches Environment Survey will be shared, with feedback to Bishop Peter and David Maggs, Social Justice and Environment Adviser. It is a chance to become more involved and better supported at a local level through an Environmental Champions Network. There will be information about the Diocesan loan scheme for the fitting of pv panels on church roofs and the Energy Saving Benchmarking scheme will be launched.
The gathering will start at 9.30 (tea and coffee from 9.00) and finish by 12.30. Please indicate your interest in attending by emailing petehawkins.environment@gmail.com
from Connect, the online Bath and Wells newsletter.
Solar powered Bath and Wells Environment Gathering
Organised by the Diocesan Environment Group is a unique chance for environment enthusiasts from across Bath and Wells to come together on Saturday 12 November. Bishop Peter of Taunton will be our key-note speaker and the venue is St Michael’s, Galmington which features in the current edition of Manna celebrating their solar panels.
The aim of the gathering is to bring together those who carry a concern for God’s creation and who may currently feel isolated. The findings of the recent Churches Environment Survey will be shared, with feedback to Bishop Peter and David Maggs, Social Justice and Environment Adviser. It is a chance to become more involved and better supported at a local level through an Environmental Champions Network. There will be information about the Diocesan loan scheme for the fitting of pv panels on church roofs and the Energy Saving Benchmarking scheme will be launched.
The gathering will start at 9.30 (tea and coffee from 9.00) and finish by 12.30. Please indicate your interest in attending by emailing petehawkins.environment@gmail.com
from Connect, the online Bath and Wells newsletter.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
'Go To Your Nearest Church Sunday'
Seems like a simple way to save the planet, make new friends, and connect with people in your community. 1 Sunday a year where people go to the church which is physically the nearest to their home, which for most people will mean it's within walking distance. If you live in a town centre, or the City of London, that will mean some fine calculations with a pencil and a ball of string, but shouldn't be too tough to work out.
The previous Sunday, get everyone in church who got there by car to work out how far they've travelled, and then you can calculate the carbon footprint saved by going local. An unintended side effect might be that certain communities find they have a viable resident churchgoing population, and they decide to get stuck in to where they live, rather than where they commute to.
The only problem I can see is that not every church has a service every Sunday. Our nearest church is in the village of Thorne Coffin (yes, really), and I think they only have a service once a month. It may also mean a very quiet Sunday for town centre churches, but the odd week off won't do anyone any harm.
Mentioned this on twitter and got a couple of retweets, so we'll see if it's got legs. Even if one community, or even one person, picks it up, that's better than nothing. What do you think?
The previous Sunday, get everyone in church who got there by car to work out how far they've travelled, and then you can calculate the carbon footprint saved by going local. An unintended side effect might be that certain communities find they have a viable resident churchgoing population, and they decide to get stuck in to where they live, rather than where they commute to.
The only problem I can see is that not every church has a service every Sunday. Our nearest church is in the village of Thorne Coffin (yes, really), and I think they only have a service once a month. It may also mean a very quiet Sunday for town centre churches, but the odd week off won't do anyone any harm.
Mentioned this on twitter and got a couple of retweets, so we'll see if it's got legs. Even if one community, or even one person, picks it up, that's better than nothing. What do you think?
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Church of England - 42% carbon cut in 11 years
The CofE has just launched its environmental strategy, aiming for a 42% cut in the carbon footprint of church buildings by 2020. Here are some of the targets:
- Carbon reduction target of 80% by 2050, with an interim target of 42% by 2020
- Annual carbon and energy reports for all parishes and dioceses by 2016
- All church buildings to have carbon footprints calculated and recommendations made by 2012
- Advice for all parishes on choosing green energy tariffs by 2010
- Tree-planting to be encouraged on church land
- ‘Eco-twinning’ between UK and developing world parishes, faced with early effects of climate change
- New Climate Justice Fund offering aid to churches in the developing world
- All dioceses to target Fair Trade status before 2016
the full 'Church and Earth' report is available for download here. Will have to look through the small print to see if there's some more permissive planning laws on Grade 1 buildings that'll allow us to put solar panels on the church roof.
- Carbon reduction target of 80% by 2050, with an interim target of 42% by 2020
- Annual carbon and energy reports for all parishes and dioceses by 2016
- All church buildings to have carbon footprints calculated and recommendations made by 2012
- Advice for all parishes on choosing green energy tariffs by 2010
- Tree-planting to be encouraged on church land
- ‘Eco-twinning’ between UK and developing world parishes, faced with early effects of climate change
- New Climate Justice Fund offering aid to churches in the developing world
- All dioceses to target Fair Trade status before 2016
the full 'Church and Earth' report is available for download here. Will have to look through the small print to see if there's some more permissive planning laws on Grade 1 buildings that'll allow us to put solar panels on the church roof.
Monday, September 07, 2009
10:10
Instead of wasting your time reading more of my burblings, head over to the 10:10 site, and sign up to the pledge to reduce your carbon footprint by 10% next year. Plenty of ideas on how to do it here. Climate change is real and it's already killing people.
If you're the creative sort, you could also join the Mass Visual Trespass (MVT) run by Christian Aid, who will be beaming our messages to world leaders at the Copenhagen Summit in December.
More links/info at Dave Walkers blog. Vid for anyone tempted to think they could do with more, rather than less, or for people who still have the attention span to read more than 3 short paragraphs on a blog, there's a cracking post/sermon at MadPriest, with facts and figures on poverty and wealth.
If you're the creative sort, you could also join the Mass Visual Trespass (MVT) run by Christian Aid, who will be beaming our messages to world leaders at the Copenhagen Summit in December.
More links/info at Dave Walkers blog. Vid for anyone tempted to think they could do with more, rather than less, or for people who still have the attention span to read more than 3 short paragraphs on a blog, there's a cracking post/sermon at MadPriest, with facts and figures on poverty and wealth.
Will the World End in 2012?
Having joined 'the Bible' on Facebook, I spotted a comment by someone speculating that the end of the world was due in 2012, when an asteroid would hit the earth. I asked the chap to check his sources and after doing so he revised it to 2036.
But he's not alone: 2012 conspiracy theories are doing the rounds of the New Age community, and there's a disaster movie of the same name ready to retread Day After Tomorrow territory, by the same chap who directed Day After Tomorrow. This slightly tongue-in-cheek article surveys the possible suspects.
Thoughts:
1. By the sound of it, some Christians are jumping on the 2012 bandwagon without really thinking about where the idea comes from. Following Jesus clearly isn't exciting enough for them. Stop and think people: if lots of gullible evangelicals (because it will be evangelicals) start wittering on about 2012, and it doesn't happen (which it won't, most likely), then they'll look gullible. That won't add much credibility to the faith they stand for.
2. We seem to need these things: 1999/2000, now 2012, wonder when the next one will be? There seems to be an inbuilt desire for the apocalyptic to be, at least, possible.
3. A Facebook friend noted the inherent contradiction of a green-tinged New Ager getting into 2012 conspiracy theories. What's the point of saving the planet if it's only got 3 years left?
4. Christians do believe that God, at some stage, will step decisively into history, that Jesus will return. We're also cautioned not to speculate about when it will happen, and history is littered with idiotic predictions about the end of the world. It's more important to live holy lives today than get caught up in conspiracy theories about tomorrow. Whether or not the world has 3, or 3 million years left, makes not one jot of difference to how Christians should be living. We should still be trying to commend our faith to others, and we should still be trying to live as loving stewards of this planet rather than rapacious landlords.
5. The best use of this kind of nonsense is to get people thinking about the future. There are some things that are going to kick in (and are kicking in already) during the next generation: fuel shortages, water shortages, climate change etc. We need to live in the present in a way that is loving and generous towards future generations. The enemy is ourselves, and our approach to life, and the way the capitalist system has encouraged spiralling consumption and greed. Unless we change, this is the way the world as we know it ends: not with a whim but with a banker*.
*not my original line, sadly.
But he's not alone: 2012 conspiracy theories are doing the rounds of the New Age community, and there's a disaster movie of the same name ready to retread Day After Tomorrow territory, by the same chap who directed Day After Tomorrow. This slightly tongue-in-cheek article surveys the possible suspects.
Thoughts:
1. By the sound of it, some Christians are jumping on the 2012 bandwagon without really thinking about where the idea comes from. Following Jesus clearly isn't exciting enough for them. Stop and think people: if lots of gullible evangelicals (because it will be evangelicals) start wittering on about 2012, and it doesn't happen (which it won't, most likely), then they'll look gullible. That won't add much credibility to the faith they stand for.
2. We seem to need these things: 1999/2000, now 2012, wonder when the next one will be? There seems to be an inbuilt desire for the apocalyptic to be, at least, possible.
3. A Facebook friend noted the inherent contradiction of a green-tinged New Ager getting into 2012 conspiracy theories. What's the point of saving the planet if it's only got 3 years left?
4. Christians do believe that God, at some stage, will step decisively into history, that Jesus will return. We're also cautioned not to speculate about when it will happen, and history is littered with idiotic predictions about the end of the world. It's more important to live holy lives today than get caught up in conspiracy theories about tomorrow. Whether or not the world has 3, or 3 million years left, makes not one jot of difference to how Christians should be living. We should still be trying to commend our faith to others, and we should still be trying to live as loving stewards of this planet rather than rapacious landlords.
5. The best use of this kind of nonsense is to get people thinking about the future. There are some things that are going to kick in (and are kicking in already) during the next generation: fuel shortages, water shortages, climate change etc. We need to live in the present in a way that is loving and generous towards future generations. The enemy is ourselves, and our approach to life, and the way the capitalist system has encouraged spiralling consumption and greed. Unless we change, this is the way the world as we know it ends: not with a whim but with a banker*.
*not my original line, sadly.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Green Christianity?
Upcoming event: "A biblical view of environmental issues"
Thursday 2nd July at 7:30 p.m in St. Johns church Yeovil.
The speaker is Professor Bob White FRS, a Cambridge Professor of Geophysics, and joint author of 'Christianity, Climate Change and sustainable living.' He's also associate director of the Faraday Institute, whose new site on science and faith I linked a couple of days ago.
the event is hosted by the Bath and Wells Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship, where there are a few more details. Should be well worth getting to.
Thursday 2nd July at 7:30 p.m in St. Johns church Yeovil.
The speaker is Professor Bob White FRS, a Cambridge Professor of Geophysics, and joint author of 'Christianity, Climate Change and sustainable living.' He's also associate director of the Faraday Institute, whose new site on science and faith I linked a couple of days ago.
the event is hosted by the Bath and Wells Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship, where there are a few more details. Should be well worth getting to.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
A Moral Duty to Spend Money?
Woolly Thinking
Woolworths was heaving with bargain hunters yesterday, duped by the news stories of a big sale, and the sign in the window of 50% OFF EVERYTHING. If your eyesight was poor, you might miss the 'up to' hidden in the corner, and then wonder why there were virtually no half-price items in the store. In fact, the standard discount was 10%, some of which was the VAT cut.
Our appetite for deception hasn't been dulled by the debt crunch. If anything it's become even more acute. One seller in the market yesterday called out 'you'll never see these prices again' and I wanted to stop and ask him if he was telling the truth.
Woolworths was heaving with bargain hunters yesterday, duped by the news stories of a big sale, and the sign in the window of 50% OFF EVERYTHING. If your eyesight was poor, you might miss the 'up to' hidden in the corner, and then wonder why there were virtually no half-price items in the store. In fact, the standard discount was 10%, some of which was the VAT cut.
Our appetite for deception hasn't been dulled by the debt crunch. If anything it's become even more acute. One seller in the market yesterday called out 'you'll never see these prices again' and I wanted to stop and ask him if he was telling the truth.
The Answer to Debt Is..... More Debt
But this pales into insignificance compared to the rabbit hole that is our economic policy. Here we are in a debt crunch (yes I know it's called the 'credit crunch' but the word 'credit' is marketing sophistry. It's debt) brought on by irresponsible lending, unsustainable levels of consumer debt, a house price bubble, and reckless borrowing at levels never seen before in the UK. So what shall we do? I know:
- The government should borrow at levels never seen before in the UK.
- Reduce interest rates, making it less painful to get into debt, whilst penalising those who've been responsible and saved money.
- As businesses struggle for cash, plough billions into the banks, the same banks who got us into this mess and last year gave bonus awards the size of an African country.
- Pass legislation on sustainability and a reduced carbon footprint, and at the same time yank every economic lever possible to raise levels of resource consumption by the general population
These are the kind of solutions that makes homoeopathy look scientific. Okay, within one story they make economic sense, but is the story the Wealth of Nations or Alice in Wonderland? Is there any society in history which has made it the moral responsibility of its citizens to spend money? There is such a desparation to re-clothe the naked Emperor which is our consumer debt society, and quickly, that surely we should be a tad suspicious. Where are the people asking fundamental questions about the system itself?
2 examples:
- after the short-term pain, a fall in house prices will once again enable a family to own a property without both parents having to work full time and shove their kids into (government sponsored) childcare to make it possible. At least, it will until you get clobbered with university fees. Families are suffering now because owning a home puts you at the limit of your financial resources, so if anything gives then there is no slack. But we have waited for the bubble to burst messily, rather than questioning how big it was allowed to grow in the first place.
- Where too are the voices which, when total consumer debt overtook annual GDP, reminded us that debt is money that doesn't really exist, that isn't really yours, and that one day you have to pay it back?
Soul Destroying
A story is told of a Himalayan mountaineering expedition, where the Western climbers wanted to make quick progress. For three days they walked quickly, though the sherpas seemed reluctant. On day 4 the sherpas sat down and couldn't be moved. One climber asked the sherpa translator what was happening, and he replied: "after walking so fast for 3 days, they are now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies."
Maybe this recession, painful though it is for impatient Westerners, is the same thing happening on a national level. We have been rushing ahead of capacity - of our personal capacity, and that of the economy and the planet. It's time to stop and let everything catch up. Maybe as we stop we'll get the time to think, reflect, and adjust.
The danger of the pre-Budget report, the interest rate cut, and the Christmas sales, is that they perpetuate the headlong rush for debt-and-spend that is the UK consumer lifestyle. We rush past the shivering, naked Emperor, and are too busy shopping to wonder why we ache, and feel distant from ourselves.
Spend or Save?
Meanwhile we plaster a terrorist attack on a rich hotel in India across our front pages, but when twice the number fall in Nigeria, nobody hears, whilst 5,000 infants a day die from preventable water-borne diseases. One estimate puts the cost per head of clean water & sanitation at £15. That's under $40billion for all 2,500,000,000 people in the world who lack either clean water or proper sanitation, which is the same as the rise in government borrowing from 2008-9. At what point did this kind of maths start adding up?
In blog threads about faith, it's not long before people like me are taunted for believing in sky fairies and the like. But which Christmas makes more sense, the one where we spend, or the one where we, and others, are saved?
this is a cross post from Touching Base, a column hosted by the Wardman Wire.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Hope for Planet Earth
'Hope for Planet Earth' is a tour of Christian speakers on the ecological crisis, looking at the science behind climate change from a Christian perspective. The website is here, with full tour dates for the 20 venues. If you're in the Yeovil area, there are dates at Taunton and Castle Cary in early March. There are various well-respected agencies backing it, and it looks worth a visit if this is an issue that bothers you.
It's even more worth a visit if this isn't an issue that bothers you!!
It's even more worth a visit if this isn't an issue that bothers you!!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Shameless Plug
Just discovered that my only (and pretty brief) contribution to academic theology can be found online here. It's a summary of my research degree on Matthew Fox. Fox is best known for his book 'Original Blessing', and is one of the more widely read spiritual thinkers on green issues, but his far from orthodox 'theology' is more akin to paganism than to Christianity.
Having originally been a RC priest, Fox was thrown out from the Roman Catholic church and welcomed with open arms as an Episcopal priest - which makes him a fellow Anglican.
So perhaps a split with the Episcopal church ain't such a bad idea after all....
Having originally been a RC priest, Fox was thrown out from the Roman Catholic church and welcomed with open arms as an Episcopal priest - which makes him a fellow Anglican.
So perhaps a split with the Episcopal church ain't such a bad idea after all....
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Connecting Harvest to real life
Ben Witherington's blog quotes at length a brilliant poem by Studdert Kennedy, here's the first few stanzas
Yes I used to believe in Jesus Christ
And I used to go to church.
But since I left home and came to France,
I've been clean knocked off my perch.
For it seemed alright at home it did,
To believe in a God above
And in Jesus Christ his only Son
What died on the cross through Love.
When I went for a walk of a Sunday morn
On a nice fine day in the spring
I could see the proof of the living God
In every living thing.
For how could the grass and the trees grow up,
All alone of their bloomin' selves?
Ye might as well believe in fairy tales,
And think they were made by elves.
So I thought that that long haired atheist
Was nothing but a silly sod
For how did he account for my Brussel sprouts,
If he didn't believe in God?
But it ain't the same out here,
you knowIt's as different as chalk and cheese,
For half of its blood and the other half mud,
And I'm darned if I really see
How the God who has made such a cruel cruel world
Can have love in his heart for men,
And be deaf to the cries of the men as dies
And never comes home again.
With a series of harvest talks, where I'm called to account for Brussel sprouts (are they evidence for or against the existence of God?), it's easy to fall in with English romanticism about the countryside and just spout warm thoughts. But the poem, narrated by a soldier in the trenches, questions whether the God of the vegetable garden cuts any kind of ice at all in the grim realities of a suffering world. We serve people poorly if we let harvest become a day when we romanticise nature and God's place in it. All this does is give anyone with a brain the message that God is irrelevant, a warm thought for people who can't cope with messy reality.
Harvest connects to all sorts of things: climate change, foot and mouth, the struggles of the farming community, the toxic dominance of the supermarkets over food producers, these are all things which come naturally from talking about vegetables. You can even connect it to the Iraq war, because oil is part of the harvest of the earth. In fact, most wars are, in some part, to do with resources (water, oil, land, rivers, people) and who gets to control them. And we also need to remember that God didn't finish creation on the 5th day. People are part of it, the best part of it. Incredible but true.
But if that's all too much for you, just scroll down a bit more on his blog and there's lots of cute pictures of dogs and cats.
Yes I used to believe in Jesus Christ
And I used to go to church.
But since I left home and came to France,
I've been clean knocked off my perch.
For it seemed alright at home it did,
To believe in a God above
And in Jesus Christ his only Son
What died on the cross through Love.
When I went for a walk of a Sunday morn
On a nice fine day in the spring
I could see the proof of the living God
In every living thing.
For how could the grass and the trees grow up,
All alone of their bloomin' selves?
Ye might as well believe in fairy tales,
And think they were made by elves.
So I thought that that long haired atheist
Was nothing but a silly sod
For how did he account for my Brussel sprouts,
If he didn't believe in God?
But it ain't the same out here,
you knowIt's as different as chalk and cheese,
For half of its blood and the other half mud,
And I'm darned if I really see
How the God who has made such a cruel cruel world
Can have love in his heart for men,
And be deaf to the cries of the men as dies
And never comes home again.
With a series of harvest talks, where I'm called to account for Brussel sprouts (are they evidence for or against the existence of God?), it's easy to fall in with English romanticism about the countryside and just spout warm thoughts. But the poem, narrated by a soldier in the trenches, questions whether the God of the vegetable garden cuts any kind of ice at all in the grim realities of a suffering world. We serve people poorly if we let harvest become a day when we romanticise nature and God's place in it. All this does is give anyone with a brain the message that God is irrelevant, a warm thought for people who can't cope with messy reality.
Harvest connects to all sorts of things: climate change, foot and mouth, the struggles of the farming community, the toxic dominance of the supermarkets over food producers, these are all things which come naturally from talking about vegetables. You can even connect it to the Iraq war, because oil is part of the harvest of the earth. In fact, most wars are, in some part, to do with resources (water, oil, land, rivers, people) and who gets to control them. And we also need to remember that God didn't finish creation on the 5th day. People are part of it, the best part of it. Incredible but true.
But if that's all too much for you, just scroll down a bit more on his blog and there's lots of cute pictures of dogs and cats.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Green things
The BBC website has a story about how the gunge from the production of Fosters lager (I don't think they're talking about the lager itself...) is being used to power a battery. At the same time there is the incredible new solar power station in Spain, if you saw the 10 o clock news last night, and the story is on the BBC site here (the most-read story on the site as I'm writing this).
Even the little picture here is quite awesome, never mind seeing the site itself. Makes me think again about solar roofing for our house, never mind all those south-facing slopes on church rooves up and down the country.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Making White Weddings Green
Great story on Ruth Gledhills blog about the Christian couple who had a 'green' wedding at their local church in London.
Featuring a conflict-free diamond (in the news now thanks to the film Blood Diamond), dress bought from an Oxfam bridal store (5 now in the uk), gifts sent to the developing world, a low-emission bridal car etc. Great idea, and good for them for following through their principles. According to the Independent (who didn't mention the couple were Christians, despite a 2 page report on the wedding!), the average wedding emits 14.5 tonnes of CO2 (wonder how much of that is the speeches?) which is 40% more than the average annual carbon footprint of a British adult.
There is (correction, was, Jan 09, someone seems to have taken over the website) a Green Weddings organisation in the UK. Makes me wonder about trying to produce a church leaflet which we can give to wedding couples to help them make their weddings greener. Or even have a wedding planning consultancy linked to local churches with this emphasis? Hmmm...
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