Green Creation 

The following news from Nr 10 reminds me of Ecocide..."The UK Government today granted BP and its partners — Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron — approval to proceed with the £4.5 billion Clair Ridge project, the second phase of development of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands."

So we're in severe financially straightened times but we still have £4.5 BILLION to give away to ruin our planet?! How about trying more win-win solution for economy and planet by investing this in green energy/ jobs? (oh sorry, I forgot about oil lobbying who would lose...) .... the press release says "Clair Ridge project will create hundreds of jobs over the next five years and produce a vital source of domestic oil until around 2050" ... investing £4.5bn in renewable energy will create *more* than hundreds of jobs and provide energy security forever...        

Check out this mock trial on ecocide (geocide of the environment/ crimes against the planet)... food for thought! 

Some random but serious food for thought thoughts that have been running around my head (unfortunately not all environment related although they are indirectly... if we're busy with arms we have less attention for our duty of guardian of Creation; living in cities with limited greenery can make us go a bit funny, outside our natural [fitra] situation)

The UK Prime Minister, Mr Cameron says some youngsters grow up in "a culture that glorifies violence." ... while London hosts DSEi, the world's biggest arms fair in five weeks time (it "will be even bigger [than 2009]").

Highest estimated cost of riots in UK in past week: £100m
Tax avoidance by Vodafone: £6 billion
Tax spent on Libyan intervention: £1 billion
Tax avoidance in 2010 by richest people in the UK: £7 bllion
Tax payers bill for banking crisis: £131 billion
Tax money spent in Iraqi conflict: £4.5 billion
Tax money spent on Afghan conflict (up until 2007): £7 billion

Tax money to be spent on replacement of UK nuclear weapons £over 100bn

Total MP expenses bill (2007) £87.6m

UN emergency response requirements for Horn of Africa £2.5 billion (only half committed so far)

Norwegian killing 78 got so much more attention than news that collectively we're responsible for deaths of 30,000 kids who've died in Horn of Africa just in last 90 days (in a world of plenty there's nothing natural about starvation; global governance leads to unjust distribution and access to food)

Birmingham (UK) City Council leaders awarding themselves 37% payrise (from 37 to 51 MILLION GBP) while local services and community safety get a 78% budget CUT (from 55 to 13 million GBP)

Shell admits Nigeria oil spills and Shell fights spill near North Sea oil platform, but also Oil giant Shell profits jump 77%

What have we done to the world? What are we doing to the world?

Having just been appointed Associate Lecturer to a new and exciting module 'Business, human rights law and corporate social responsibility', several articles caught my attention in the last few days. I admire the 'shareholder nun' who uses her Christian inspiration to stand up for social justice, "While executive compensation spirals out of control, so does the number of people who suffer from food insecurity throughout the world. Companies have a moral obligation to be accountable, to...consider equity and justice for the worker." The campaign is supported by the ethical investment group FairPensions.

And while it seems generous of Total (one of the world's largest oil companies) to invest 800mn USD in solar, it's peanuts compared with the 40bn USD BP is suing the owner of the Deepwater Horizon Rig for and Shell's Q1 2011 profits (yes, profits, not turnover) are 6.9bn USD.

A positive initiative (brought on by the endless pushing of climate change science denying... oil co's have lots to lose and as we've seen above, more than a bit of pocket money to confuse us - to our detriment!) is the Skeptical Science website.

Talking of oil, and contemplating the serious turmoil in the Middle East and wider, is the difference in approach to the situations related to oil? We now finally know oil was a relevant issue in Iraq (if denied at the time). Libya exports 1.5mn/ day, Syria 0.15mn barrels/ day (> 400 civilians dead), and the Ivory Coast (with many hundreds of dead since election last November)... exports cocoa.

Food for thought...

Double checking some facts for a colleague (sharing with him something I'd learned from preliminary PhD research), realise it's even worse than I thought/ remembered:

Climate change cost calculations are *so* unequitable: the value of a statistical life is set at $250,000 plus 175 times per capita income then discounted to relevant year. This means an American death in '05 is valued at $1,525,928 while that of a Sub-Saharan African is valued at $4,380!

OMG!

Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34). These words of Jesus do not release us from our responsibilities to future generations. We know that if we eat sour grapes (radiation, ultraviolet rays, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, etc.), not only our teeth but also "the children’s teeth are set on edge" (Jeremiah 31:30). Therefore, we should have as much awareness as possible of our responsibilities. We are no longer allowed to postpone performing our responsibilities to “tomorrow.”

For a copy of the full talk, go to the Muslim World League speech by Encounter between Ecology and Eschatology, a consideration of Ecological Eschatology, submitted by Katsuhiro KOHARA, Professor of the School of Theology, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR), to Conference On 'Dialogue, A Common Human Bond', sponsored by Muslim World League, Taipei - Taiwan, Rabi'I 18 and 19, 1432H/ February 21 and 22, 2011G.

Sometimes 'non-greenies' think that 'us greenies' want to 'deprive' people of the 'good things' and live in a cave... but that's *not* what it's about as this new report by the UN international Labour Organisation (ILO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP):

Sometimes dicussions about climate change can sound so abstract, or distant. A powerful reminder that it's actually (already) affecting real people in very real ways, it's good (well, it's bad, but good to know IYKWIM) to visit this site from time to time:

Worldview of Climate Change

On 12 January both NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced, based on independent analyses of global weather station data, that 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year on this planet since annual records began in the late 19th century. This is despite the UK having the coldest December in 30 years. Thst's it with 'global warming', the warming is at global level, but locally it's more 'climate change' or even 'climate chaos'.

As climate scientists have confirmed this IS due to our human behaviour (notwithstanding oil-backed and others trying to deny this bad news), how long will this continue before we reflect more on our faith teachings and live more within our planetary means and duties? The Quran says much about this, as humans we are caretaker/ guardian of Creation [6:165] (where we are species just like others [6:38], but only species with free will and guardianship duty is to test us to see if we deserve paradies in the next life [2:214].