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Nov 30, 2009

For many religious communities, caring for the environment is an essential expression of faith. The upcoming Parliament of the World's Religions (taking place in Melbourne, Australia, from 3-9 December '09) will draw forth the sacred nature of the environment from all religious and spiritual traditions. It will also showcase the partnership between communities and other guiding institutions in pursuing practical approaches for reversing climate change and its effects.

If you have the good fortune to attend: "At the Parliament, you’ll experience dozens of keynote speakers, seminars, debates, workshops, discussions and more on topics including local farming, reducing energy consumption, mitigating climate change, the growth of green architecture, and more." Check out the theme: Healing the Earth with Care and Concern

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Posted: Nov 30, 2009 1:16pm
Nov 28, 2009

The Lancet has just published a series of articles on health and climate change. Besides being informative, I love the following sentence in the executive summary: "Addressing climate change is not just an issue of international agreements, or economic costs; it is a choice of what kind of world we want to live".

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Posted: Nov 28, 2009 8:27am
Nov 25, 2009

Just back from a trip to Tunisia to support a Sphere Arabic Training of Trainers (ToT), hosted by IFRC N-Africa. One of the nice things I saw is during a 'social' day is water harvesting methods in mosques (or zaouias/ zawiyas, Sufi study places) in Kairouan about 1,000 years old... if we want to live sustainably, so many options are already out there, we just need to remember them and reuse them...because as the Grand Mufti of Egypt said in July 2009: "The development and the preservation of environment as well as human rights are one package. They also constitute a whole integrated vision."

And in othe
r good news: the Faith & Climate Change project I helped initiate some years ago now and am fortunately still greatly involved with today got announced as winner of The Guardian Green Hero Awards for Best Urban Project at the Green Communities Conference. [added link on 2 Dec '09]

Happy to see the acknowledgement and hopely give our work more exposure and thus hopefully inspire others to do similar things in their localities.

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Posted: Nov 25, 2009 2:10pm
Nov 15, 2009

According to an article in The Independent, the GLOBAL number of swine flu deaths so far is 6,250. Of course a tragedy for the affected families, no doubt. However, let's again put these figures in perspective: that's PEANUTS compared with the 20.5 MILLION who died of starvation, just so far in 2009. According to Jean Ziegler (the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2000 to March 2008 in his book L'Empire de la honte, Fayard, 2007), mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58% of the total mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 million people, all causes of death combined, die each year. One in twelve people worldwide are malnourished. In 2006, more than 36 millions died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients.

And considering that, as economist Amartya Sen observed, in recent decades, famine has always a problem of food distribution and/or poverty (inability to exercise purchase/ procure food), as there has been sufficient food to feed the whole population of the world (so NO need to push GM - this will only make things worse, putting start of food chain in hands of global corporate behemoths), this is a collective disgrace in my opinion.

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Posted: Nov 15, 2009 8:19am
Nov 10, 2009

According to an article in The Independent, the total number of deaths from swine flu in the UK so far is 154. Though these are tragedies for the affected families, let's keep it in perspective: road traffic FATALITIES in the UK in 2008: 2,530; all road traffic casualties in the UK in 2008: 212,733. But do we stop driving? No, we focus on the MANY less affected by swine flu (and private corporate companies heat up swine flu PANIC).

On food: more than £12bn worth of food and drink that could have been consumed is thrown out every year by householders in the UK alone, according to new figures today that reveal the scale of the UK's food waste mountain.

According to an article in The Guardian, the world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit (according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying). But going for nuclear is NO alternative in my view: for starters the UK is thinking of just burying the nuclear waste... out of sight, out of mind (just small matter of £18 bn price tag and morality of dumping consequences of our choices onto generations after us).

However, to not make you (and myself) too depressed to stay hopeful and take action (as is our God-given duty to look after Creation):
When thinking of Spain, do we have images of a country full of wind turbines? No, but, according to an article in The Times, Spain was yesterday celebrating its commitment to renewable energy after wind turbines dotted across the country produced more than half of all its electricity for the first time. If they can do it, why not others?

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Posted: Nov 10, 2009 4:02am
Nov 2, 2009
The argument that mining resources will help alleviate poverty gets busted (again...): South Sudan got $7 billion for pumping oil, but the local, ordinary people have yet to see any of this, according to an article in the BBC. We CAN alleviate poverty, but do we want it (share the resources a bit more equitably)?

According to article in The Independent, the Peruvian empire of the Nasca went down due to a self-inflicted wound of cutting down the huarango tree, exposing the land to floods and drought and subsequent soil erosion, turning the lush agricultural land into desert. We CAN save ourselves (by stopping the cutting of trees for monocultures), but do we want it?


According to an article in The Times, research by TerraChoice, a US marketing company, the amount of goods sold as 'green' in the UK, US, Canada and Australia has risen by an average of 79 per cent since 2007. It also found that 98 per cent of products being advertised as green had some environmental failings. Do we realise this? Do we care? We CAN do it (change this fakery and push for true sustainability), but do we want it?


In more positive news:


Solar power from Sahara is a step closer: the German-led Desertec initiative believes it can deliver power to Europe as early as 2015, according to an article in The Guardian (but I've read about it for quite a while now...technology is there, what's stopping it is will – those who would lose out from deserting nuclear, oil and gas.


And in more good news: The Maldives announce windfarm plan to provide 40% of island's electricityAs Mark Lynas sums it up in The Guardian: "If a middle-income country can cut its emissions by a quarter through standard commercial partnerships, the rich world has little excuse for saying that carbon reductions are too expensive."

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Posted: Nov 2, 2009 12:48pm
Nov 1, 2009

With less than 40 days to go before the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, representatives of several faiths present in the UK got together at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury on 29 October at Lambeth Palace. In the first statement of its kind, signed by leaders from every faith community (including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Baha'i, Jain and Zoastrian) the signatories recognise "unequivocally that there is a moral imperative to tackle the causes of global warming" and that "Faith communities have a crucial role to play in pressing for changes in behaviour at every level of society and in every economic sector. We all have a responsibility to learn how to live and develop sustainably in a world of finite resources".

God willing we can all reflect on that, that God has given us so many blessings, but also a duty to behave responsibly in using those blessings and sharing them equitably (with all our brothers and sisters in the current generations, but also our brothers and sisters in time, those after us, who have just as much right to God's blessings/ Creation as us).

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Posted: Nov 1, 2009 10:18am
Oct 26, 2009

God has given us so many gifts, we tend to forget... for example, I like this article (which is not unique, though fossil fuel funded etc sources won't want you to know!) that indeed "shifting the World to 100 percent clean, renewable energy as early as 2030: here are the numbers" IS possible as "most of the technology needed to shift the world from fossil fuel to clean, renewable energy ALREADY EXISTS." (my emphasis, and this fact is contrary to some of the fancy suggestions regarding options on fossil fuel (e.g. so-called 'carbon capture & storage' - sound nice, but NOT proven beyond lab). The 'only' things that stops us is "implementing that technology requires overcoming obstacles in planning and politics." Might help to remind people that of the 100 biggest economic entities, MORE THAN 50 are COMPANIES (NOT countries!), and that of the 10 biggest companies, 7 sell cars and/ or oil... money talks & big money talks a lot...

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Posted: Oct 26, 2009 10:54am
Oct 21, 2009
According to an article in today's The Guardian, the nuclear industry funds a special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and - most worryingly! - secret documents show the "750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets". I thought we were living in a democratic state... and yes, we need to protect ourselves from those who wish us harm, but this 'private police force' is spying etc on ANTI-nuclear protesters...? Oh yes, and on nuclear: UK families face nuclear tax on power bills (so there goes the argument that nuclear is presented as cheaper - don't know who tried to do the sums! - than proper renewables like wind and solar.

On climate change, scientists request "the BBC should report climate change facts rather than political spin" refuting the BBC's Richard Black that "if their reporting gets criticised equally from both sides, it must be about right." However, like Rahmstorf (a climate scientist and oceanographer at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), that for science reporting, journalists should "stick with more old-fashioned indicators of good science: peer-reviewed publications and personal reputations built on a solid track record of relevant research"

Thirdly, the UK Royal Society calls for "£2 billion needed for science ’Grand Challenge’ to help feed the world", again p
ushing for GM... but there IS enough food to feed us all, it's the access to food that's unequal and unjust... there are an almost equal number of overweight and malnourished number of people (according to the UN's WHO and FAO), then the amount of food we throw away is disgusting, and rich countries buy land in poor countries to grow food for export and thus further limit poor countries' ability to feed themselves. Ethiopia for example is one country that we always know has issues with starvation and hunger. There are five million people who live in hunger in Ethiopia. And, according to Devinder Sharma (award-winning researcher, journalist, activist) "you'll be surprised. Eight THOUSAND companies are vying for buying land in Ethiopia [to grow cheap food for export to EU/ US etc, often under guise of 'development/ providing employment', RtV]." Two easy things we can do to have more food is to look at our addiction to fossil fuel and not look at biofuels to replace the depleting availability of fossil fuels. Plus we can eat 'lower down the food chain'.
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Posted: Oct 21, 2009 4:00am
Oct 15, 2009
Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web, and dedicated to Climate Change. First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. By all focusing on the same topic/ issue on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

My 2p to the discussion, because stewardship and/ or reverence for Creation are central themes of all faiths (and we all share the one only earth available), is a call for all people of faith (and none!) to pray for a positive outcome for Creation at the Copenhagen and - because faith is more powerful when followed by action - to help achieve this by also signing the following two calls:

350- Interfaith call ("350 represents more than just a scientific benchmark for a safe climate – there are also deeply moral and spiritual reasons for getting the world back below 350 ppm CO2. Social justice, creation care, stewardship, earth community, beloved community - there are many ways we can name and express our moral and spiritual perspectives related to this issue.")

Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change ("Stewardship and reverence for creation are central tenets of all faiths on Earth. Yet today we are endangering life on Earth with dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions. These gases are destabilizing the global climate system, heating the Earth, acidifying the oceans, and putting both humanity and all living creatures at unacceptable risk.")

Also, do feel free to pay a visit to Birmingham-based Faith and Climate Change project for any inspiration for further action in your locality.
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Posted: Oct 15, 2009 12:21pm

 

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Rianne t.
female , committed relationship
Birmingham, W-midlands, United Kingdom
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