Gathering the Resolve
This was written for the church times August 2007
Nearly 30,000 people were at the Big Green Gathering in Somerset. Coming by car was discouraged, parking charges were heavy, and the whole site was powered through sun and wind, apart from the odd camp fire. But there was a quiet resolve about the five day event. People were going to meet people, and have fun. A man in monk’s habit wandered past the tent selling relics and indulgences: “Bits of the true cross, fingernail clippings from St Paul; earwax from St Ethelreda.” He did not seem to be expecting sales. “Life – not available on television” stretched across another punter’s chest.
More pointed were the gatherings in the campaigns field. Events from the previous week provided the urgency. Floods in India, Bangladesh and England, heat waves and crop failure in Southern Europe demonstrated again the costs of global warming. A key document from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) provided a focus for action. This study, Zero carbon Britain, sets out an integrated model for properly meeting global warming, and like George Monbiot’s Heat, addresses the full range of issues with thought, enthusiasm, and the substance of good answers. It is becoming clearer what should be done in each sector. The report’s suggested measures include: a move to greener eating patterns with less focus on meat production, housing insulation on a large scale, energy efficiencies across industry, use of coaches and electric vehicles, drastic changes in fuel taxation. The details underline a resolve to care for the planet and an awareness that we’re all in this together.
Our involvement was around transport, and we went to meet many groups involved with different aspects of transport action. Insights were passed on, new possibilities opened up; together we saw with some coherence the moves that must be made. Yet even as little victories are won there is confrontation. CAT thinks contraction, while Brown thinks growth. Coalitions oppose road building, but motorways expand. Government will not do anything decisive about plane travel. Car use continues largely untouched and subsidised, whilst coach systems remain under-investigated. Global warming issues seem to stay at a low practical priority. One of the groups, ‘Plane Stupid’ offered careful and cogent arguments against air travel expansion. But opponents are already demonising them, treating them like terrorists because of their coalition’s planned demonstration at Heathrow. When vested commercial interests are threatened, proper debate goes out of the window. .
In this developing scene of climate change activity, Christian resolve seems barely evident. Sir John Houghton, the climate change scientist is, of course, solidly behind the CAT document, setting out the principles of action and affirming its direction. His own work in the area has been urgent and prophetic. The Bishop of London keeps the issue on the agenda, Christian individuals recycle, organisations like Arocha work at sustainable and meek living. Yet, we remain incoherent as a group and even though we’re a significant numerical presence, seem incapable of acting together. We might love our neighbour and seek to care for God’s planet, but in so many of our churches and organisations we have not begun to translate this even in the basic way we use energy. Christians could commit to cut our carbon footprints decisively. We could actively back energy-lean policies and oppose indulgent ones. We could eliminate waste. We could collectively work on greener living. But we don’t. And until we resolve to live out this Christian calling with definite policies and conviction, at least as urgently as these secular stewards, we will be remain part of the problem instead of deliberately embracing solutions.
Cambridge
August 2007
