12th December 2021
Take a walk somewhere green. It should re-energise you and let you see why it is that we want to protect the natural world.
Here in Richmond Park, cattle are brought in each year to graze some of the land., a practice that has being going on now for about ten years. As cattle have different grazing patterns from deer, their presence can encourage a greater diversity of wild plants that can thrive on the local acidic soils.
11th December 2021
The ethics of chocolate
One of the many treats we associate with Christmas is chocolate. In the UK we spend about £325 a year, supporting an industry worth around £4 billion. However at the other end of the story cocoa farmers in Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire (the largest producers of cocoa beans) may earn as little as 75p a day – or about half what is needed to cover the essentials of food, housing, health car and education – and some cocoa plantations are known to use child slave labour. This hardly seems fair! Why is it so?
In a recent report, the Ethical Consumer magazine recommends that consumers should check up on the chocolate they buy:
Does it come from a company where the manufacturer of the chocolate is closely linked to the grower of the cocoa beans?
Is it made from organically grown cocoa and sugar?
Is the production of the beans linked to deforestation and/ or slave labour?
Are the producers of the cocoa beans paid a fair income?
Is the chocolate manufactured in the country where the beans are grown?
The Rain Forest Alliance and Fair Trade are both organisations set up to ensure the welfare of those who grow the beans and to ensure the environmental sustainability of the farming methods used. They can provide a direct link between supplier and producer. They also provide a certification system which helps the consumer to buy sustainable chocolate products.
Sustainably and fairly produced chocolate will cost more than the cheaper alternatives, but this is just one way in which we can make our money work to improve and protect life on the earth.
For more information watch this informative YouTube programme: https://youtu.be/-XbP4cn8xhU
Further reading: https://newrepublic.com/article/156569/challenge-sustainable-chocolate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56687427
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/shopping-guide/ethical-chocolate
11th December 2021
As well as fir comes, seed heads and dried leaves, paper makes a good material for Christmas decorations. It is easy to get hold off and easy to recycle and doesn’t damage the environment. The following YouTube episode demonstrates how to make a paper star – do feel free to fast forward past the introduction.
10th December 2021
On average about 18% of the food we buy at Christmas is thrown away! According to Marija Rompani, director of ethics and sustainability at John Lewis Partnership “The reality is food waste creates six times more greenhouse gases than aviation. When we throw food away, we waste the precious resources taken to grow, package and transport it – and as it rots in landfill, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. So the simple action of throwing food in the bin has more of a negative impact on our planet than people often realise.” (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/04/avoid-food-waste-christmas-climate)
The means to avoiding such waste is two pronged: don’t buy more than you actually need, and make sure you do use all that you do buy. For more tips on how to reduce food waste see https://greentau.org/2021/08/09/eco-tips-4/
9th December 2021
Pens can be recycled at Ryman stores who participate in the Terra Cycle scheme. This includes all writing instruments (except for wooden pencils and chalk) are accepted : Any brand of pen, felt tip, highlighter, marker, correction fluid pot, correction tape, mechanical pencil and eraser pen regardless of their composition.
8th December 2021
The first issue of Green Tau included a quote from Paul’s Letter to the Romans – “Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). – and a quote from the Guardian: “Change is Possible. hope is Power.”
This issue was written looking forwards – without much optimism – to COP26. Six month later I am not sure much has changed.
But there still has hope. As long as we have hope, however small, then there is something to strive for. Later in his letter Paul suggests that by its nature what we hope for is something we can’t see, for if we could see it, what would our hope be about? (Romans 8:24). Here I think I disagree with Paul. I think in order to have hope we have to have some idea of what it is we are hoping for, however vague or indistinct that vision might be. If our hope is for life after death, we have to have some – however tenuous – understanding of what that life might be: eg a life free of fear and pain, a life of joy etc.
In terms of the climate crisis, I think we have to have some kind of vision, some sort of imagination, of what the world would be like if we could alleviate the crises. Perhaps a vision of a world where there are great expanses and multiple pockets of re wilded landscape; a world teeming with different plant and animal species; a world of clean air and un-polluted water; a world where there are no extremes of wealth and poverty; a world where there is neither industrial farming nor industrial fishing … and so on. If we didn’t have any such vision, then we what would be hoping for? And if we had nothing to hope for, why would we bother trying to change things?
Hope is important because it becomes our inspiration, a catalyst, a source of energy. And hope that is shared multiplies it’s effect. As a group sharing one hope, we can share the burden of keeping that little flame of hope alive. We can share the load of working for change. We can back each other. We can become each other’s supporters. We can take turns carry each other when the effort becomes too overwhelming.
It is therefore important that we come together with our neighbours, with our church and faith communities, with local campaign groups, business groups – and work together and share the vision .
One such group of local businesses came together in Glasgow to create a visual sign, a sculpture, of what hope was, post COP26. “The Hope Sculpture started as a conversation with Ramboll and became a gift from 50 companies to Glasgow. It is a testament to the power of collaboration and dedication to deliver a better future” said the artist Steuart Padwick. His sculpture comprises a 20m tall beacon, on top of which is a child. The child’s arms reach out as if embracing its surroundings, hopeful of a green, better future. It is constructed using low carbon, reclaimed, recycled or sustainable materials, of which, almost all were locally sourced. (https://ramboll.com/media/rgr/gift-of-hope-low-carbon-sculptures-legacy-to-glasgow-and-cop26)
We are often reminded in the Bible how cause and effect spread between generations. From the Book of Exodus when the people are embarking on a new life travelling with God into a new land, a journey surrounded by threat but focused on a great hope for a better future: “I, the LORD, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness. I keep my promise for thousands of generations and forgive evil and sin; but I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.” Exodus 34: 6-7. And in the prophetic words of Mary in the Gospel of Luke, as once again humanity begins a new journey and a new relationship with God: “He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who honour him”. Luke 1: 50
What we do now in our time will have consequence for generations to come. And maybe that is where our hope does the environment, for the world, has to lie. We will not turn round the crises we face in one generation. We can only be the instigators of a new way of life, a new journey, that will have repercussions for generations to come. To keep our hope alive, maybe we also need some short term projects where we will be able to see effort rewarded. One of the Advent readings from Isaiah was not a prophesy for the long term, foretelling the coming of the saviour, and for the short term, foretelling a time of peace that would come about in a matter of years.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the virgin is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted”. Isaiah 7:13-16.
Maybe we need to focus too on changes that we can bring about by the time this year’s new borns are eating solid foods – or maybe at primary school learning about right and wrong, giving us a five year time frame. Reducing the numbers of petrol and diesel vehicles on our roads and this reducing air pollution. Changing our UK diets such that eating meat is an occasional treat, leading to a reduction in the factory farming of animals, and an increase in land set aside for rewilding. Halving our carbon footprints, such that global temperature rises are still below 1.5C.
Together let’s us maintain – and work for – the hope of better, greener future.
8th December 2021
Following on from yesterday’s thoughts, what happens to people who do stand up and protest? And why do they take the risk of ending up in prison?
The following piece comes from one of XR’s newsletters:
Emma Smart, 44, from Weymouth, Dorset, has been on hunger strike since 16th November. On Friday 26th November Emma was moved out of her cell onto the hospital wing at HMP Bronzefield.
Speaking from the prison, Emma said:
“The window of my cell in the hospital wing is blocked up and there is little natural light, in my previous cell I could see the birds and trees that line the prison fence. I have less time to go outside in the prison yard for exercise now. All of this is testing my resolve to continue, but I feel that not eating is the only thing I can do from prison to draw attention to those who will have to make the choice between heating and eating this winter.
“Not standing by while our government commits treason against the people of this country feels like the most important thing I will do in my life.”
7th December 2021
Often we count on others to demonstrate on our behalf. We may agree with the sentiments of the protestors but may be don’t have the time or the ability to join in. Not all the women who wanted the vote were able to protest. Not everyone who opposed the war against Iraq were able to protest. Not everyone who wants the Government to give better leadership over the climate crisis is able to protest.
But what do we do if the Government determines to curtail the right to protest?
The following article comes from the Campaign Against Climate Change:
In contempt for the democratic process, Priti Patel has added to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill an additional 18 pages of amendments after the Bill has gone through the House of Commons and after second reading in the House of Lords. This is a clear attempt to bypass Parliamentary scrutiny. The Bill as it stood was already a dangerous assault on the right to protest. The new amendments turn it into something which which you would expect to see in a dictatorship, not a democracy.
Next Wednesday, 8th December, the House of Lords will begin amending the Bill. A protest has been called for 5-7pm in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.
We’ll update our website with details and links to solidarity protests in other cities as we hear about them. If you are on social media, check your local campaigns for news, search #KillTheBill, and there are also national accounts for Kill the Bill on Twitter, Instagram.and Facebook.
Can’t make a protest? See below for information about writing to your MP etc: ‘What you can do‘
Further information including Liberty’s useful summary can be found on their web site https://www.campaigncc.org/police_bill_new_threat
In the last people were often reliant for their survival on the generosity of others. The young man, who became St Nicholas, lost both his parents due to a plague. Maybe he realised that money itself was not a guaranteed source of security. Instead he turned to the advice of Jesus and sold his inheritance and gave the proceeds to those in need. One such recipient was a poor widower with three unmarried daughters. With no money, he could not afford dowries nor could he afford to look after them. The remaining option was slavery. Nicholas came under cover of dark and threw three bags of money through the window of their house, and saved the family from destitution.
Some 1700 years later and people still find themselves trapped in poverty and needing to count on the generosity of others. This time of year many charities that provide relief look to us for funds.
A gift secretly given, needing no receipt.
A gift freely bestowed -no strings attached
A gift that meets your needs, no questions asked,
nor application forms to fill
A gift to free your children from poverty
A gift to restore – not diminish – your pride
A gift you do not have to earn.
St Nicholas’s gift.
Reduce reuse and recycle are the three “R”s for the well being of the environment. In the run up to Christmas use the three “R”s as often as possible. Take wrapping paper, for example:-
Reduce = buy less: it is easy to think I’ll just buy an extra roll in case we run out, only to find three half used rolls from last year.
Reuse = make a habit of keeping wrapping paper after unwrapping your gifts. Flatten and fold it neatly ready to be reused. You can ease the future re usability of paper by using string or ribbon or elastic bands rather than sticky tape. You can also reuse things like paper bags or sheets of newspaper as wrapping – the Guardian’s middle page is often a full spread picture which can make an ideal gift wrapper.
Recycle = when the paper is beyond reusability, recycle it. NB plastic coated paper cannot be recycled – if after scrunching the paper it springs back, it most likely has plastic in it.
The Green Tau 