Judith Russenberger

Counting on … day 195

18th October 2024

Scientific concern about the adverse affects of climate change in the Earth capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, extends to the land as well as the oceans.

“In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon…

“A paper published in July found that while the total amount of carbon absorbed by forests between 1990 and 2019 was steady, it varied substantially by region. The boreal forests – home to about a third of all carbon found on land, which stretch across Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska – have seen a sharp fall in the amount of carbon they absorb, down more than a third due to climate crisis-related beetle outbreaks, fire and clearing for timber.

“Combined with the declining resilience of the Amazon and drought conditions in parts of the tropics, the hot conditions in the northern forests helped drive the collapse of the land sink in 2023 – causing a spike in the rate of atmospheric carbon.”

This shortfall or decline in the carbon absorbing capacity of the natural world is a serious concern when we are relying on that capacity to achieve a net zero target. Indeed if this persists, we will have to reduce our human enduced carbon emissions faster and at a greater rate.

Counting on … day 194

17th October 2024

Blue carbon is not just the carbon absorbed in the seas around our coasts. It is an ongoing process that encompasses oceans and deep seabeds. However scientists are concerned that the process is being adversely affected by rising temperatures.

“It begins each day at nightfall. As the light disappears, billions of zooplankton, crustaceans and other marine organisms rise to the ocean surface to feed on microscopic algae, returning to the depths at sunrise. The waste from this frenzy – Earth’s largest migration of creatures – sinks to the ocean floor, removing millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year.

“This activity is one of thousands of natural processes that regulate the Earth’s climate. Together, the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions. But as the Earth heats up, scientists are increasingly concerned that those crucial processes are breaking down….

“Greenland’s glaciers and Arctic ice sheets are melting faster than expected, which is disrupting the Gulf Stream ocean current and slows the rate at which oceans absorb carbon. For the algae-eating zooplankton, melting sea ice is exposing them to more sunlight – a shift scientists say could keep them in the depths for longer, disrupting the vertical migration that stores carbon on the ocean floor.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/14/nature-carbon-sink-collapse-global-heating-models-emissions-targets-evidence-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 193

16th October 2024

Blue carbon is carbon that is absorbed and stored in marine environments. The Wildlife Trusts, The RSOB and WWF have put together a useful report on the importance of blue carbon.

“Over the past few decades, great strides have been made

in recognising the importance of carbon storage in terrestrial

environments … but we’ve largely neglected the vast potential of

‘blue carbon’ found in our coastal and marine areas, which cover three

times the land area of the UK. Marine habitats, including seagrass

meadows, saltmarshes, and subtidal sediments like mud and sand on

the seabed, act as incredible stores of carbon.

“Currently blue carbon remains underappreciated and largely

unprotected within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and marine spatial

planning processes have held little to no regard for the significant

role our seas play in carbon storage. This, combined with ongoing

human pressures that can affect the ability of our seas to effectively

capture and store carbon, means that we are failing to make the most

of this critical natural resource. …

“Through effective planning that includes the protection of blue carbon habitats and

important areas for biodiversity, we can support climate mitigation,

protect nature and minimise the impacts of activities at sea such as

bottom-towed fishing gears and offshore development. We also need

investment in coastal blue carbon habitat restoration projects to

increase the environment’s potential to store carbon and help tackle

the climate crisis.

“Protecting these marine carbon stores matters not just ecologically

but also politically. The UK helped champion the creation and

agreement of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity’s Global

Biodiversity Framework, which drives the 30×30 commitments to

both protect at least 30%, and to restore at least 30% of nature by

2030.” https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/2024_Blue carbon 12pp_A4_Landscape_New_Digital.pdf

Blue carbon https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blue-carbon

Counting on … day 192

15th October 2024

Rewilding the sea – seawilding – is as important as rewilding the land. Rewilding Britain explains why. “Britain’s seas used to be home to the biggest creatures on the planet: blue, humpback, fin, sperm, bottlenose and sei whales. Our rich, soupy waters helped fuel a thriving, diverse ecosystem, attracting huge numbers of small fish, and in turn massive balls of herring and whiting, which would bring these ocean giants to our shores to feed. Like the decline of large mammals on land, whales were hunted to near local extinction for their meat and oil. Alongside the decline of these very visible giants, all marine ecosystems are suffering. The UK has lost around 92% of its seagrass meadows, 95% of its native oyster reefs and nearly all its kelp in regions like Sussex where it once was abundant” (1)

In February 2023 three areas of water of the coast of England were given the status of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) where all activities such as fishing, mining and laying cables that might damage the sea bed, are banned. The aim is to protect marine biodiversity by allowing seaweeds such as kelp and sea creatures to recolonise the sites. That said, these areas cover only 0.5% of English seas.

There are other projects where a proactive approach has been taken by actively replanting new kelp meadows – such as the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project – or in the Humber Estuary by creating oyster reefs to serve as nurseries for the reintroduction of native oysters (2)

https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/why-rewild/what-is-rewilding/examples/introduction-marine-rewilding

(2) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/02/oyster-restoration-project-rebuild-uk-reefs-overfishing-seabed-trawling?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 191

14th October 2024

As important as restoring the biodiversity of our land, is restoring the biodiversity of our coasts. In particular this can include restoring wetland areas which can receive the varying inflow of water, whether tidal or flooding from rivers. These are liminal areas which can support a diversity of plants, birds, animals and sea creatures – many of which are only to be found in these areas of water flow and retreat.

Salt marshes are wetlands that are regularly inundated by sea water, of which WWT Stewart Marshes in Somerset is an example. Steart Marshes are part of an ongoing rewilding project that aims “to recreate natural wetland features that would protect the area against flooding, restore biodiversity, provide a place for people to enjoy nature and mitigate for climate change. The area has already attracted otters, egrets, owls and spoonbills, as well as providing grazing for locally produced saltmarsh lamb and beef.” (1)

In the Thames Estuary another rewilding project has been evolving. “RSPB Wallasea Island is a stunning landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea. The landscape has been restored through a managed realignment project. This ambitious project used more than three million tonnes of earth from the tunnels and shafts created by the Crossrail project in London. The material has allowed the project to create a new 115 ha intertidal area of saltmarsh, mudflats and islands. This has created an important habitat for a wide range of species – from plants, to birds and invertebrates. The whole area now supports an abundance of species rich habitat. Grazing animals on site provide an income stream to the farmer. The project offers guided walks and nature trails, and this increase in visitors has benefitted local shops. (2)

Green Tau: issue 96

13th October 2024

The biodiversity crisis and the Church

Globally we have been loosing vast amounts of the rich biodiversity which God gave us – both with the extinction of individual species and with the loss of numbers within species. The Natural History Museum has produced the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) which “measures biodiversity change using abundance data on plants, fungi and animals worldwide. The Index shows how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human pressures such as land use change and intensification.” A BII of less than 90% is considered to be detrimental to planetary wellbeing. Sadly large amounts of the globe, including Europe, fall below this level. (1) For the UK the BIK is 53%.

The UK’s State of Nature Report 2023 noted that species studied had declined on average by 19% since 1970; that 16% of species were threatened with extinction – including 43% of birds, 31% of amphibians and reptiles, and 28% of fungi and lichen – and that 151 of the 10,008 species assessed had already become extinct since 1500.(2)

This year’s Big Butterfly Count Big Butterfly Count revealed the lowest numbers on record. (3)

Biodiversity loss in the UK – as well as globally – is real and alarming.

Why is the of concern?

Agricultural production is dependent on healthy soils but this relies on a multitude of organisms that live in the soil. If these become depleted in both number and diversity, the health of the soil suffers – and this is not something that can be repaired by the addition of artificial fertilisers.

Many crops are dependent on pollinators, typically insects. If these decline in number and diversity, yields decline.

Agricultural yields can be adversely affected by flooding. Declining areas of wetlands, of peat moors, of woodlands, and of natural river courses and floodplains, increased the risk and extent of flooding.

Food security is also threatened if we become reliant on only a few commercial species. A virus or a change in climate can wipe out crops. Future losses can be avoided if scientists can access wild plants that have more resilient characteristics. But what if those wild alternatives are no longer there?

Air quality too is affected by the decline in biodiversity. Trees in particular, but other plants too, are important natural absorbers of pollutants both in the air and in the water.

The lack of anyone species can cause a cascading affect where other dependent species also decline. Declining numbers of insects lead to declining numbers of species of birds and bats. Biodiversity decline can accelerate at speed.

Biodiversity loss affects us as spiritual beings. Our lives are diminished as biodiversity is diminished. I have never heard a nightingale sing – that is a loss. I am lucky that as a child I did hear cuckoos, and even now as an adult, I do hear sky larks because they are still resident in Richmond Park. If I did not have green spaces to walk in, my mental health would suffer.

God too suffers from the loss of biodiversity. By their very nature, the flora and fauna of this world praises God in an endless wordless song. As they decline, so does this profound worship.

The nations of the world have been rightly concerned at the rapid loss of biodiversity globally and the impact that was – and increasingly would have – on human life and wellbeing. In 2022 the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) agreed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). This set out to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 per cent of the planet and 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. This is often summarised as the 30:30 target. (4)

The UK government was party to this UN Conference and undertook the commitment to achieving this 30:30 target. However it is a tough target and progress to date has been slow and patchy.

Earlier this year Restore Nature Now organised a march in London in which between 60,000 and 100,000 people took part, representing a wide range for groups including the RSPB, the National Trust, the Wildlife Trusts, the Climate Coalition, WWF-UK, the WWT, the Woodland Trust, the Wildlife and Countryside Link, Rewilding Britain, Extinction Rebellion and Christian Climate Action.

Their demand was for more and greater action by the government. (5)

Last weekend another march took place organised by the group, Wild Card. A scroll was unrolled before the vast edifice of St Paul’s Cathedral, revealing 95 theses as to why as Christians and therefore as a Church, we should care about biodiversity and the well-being of the natural world. Just as Martin Luther’s 95 theses were put forward to stimulate theological debate, so too are these theses. (6)

Hymns were sung and speeches given, highlighting the plight of biodiversity and calling on the Church to show leadership in addressing the crisis. In particular the call was made that the Church Commissioners, as stewards of extensive land holdings (105,000 hectares) , should undertake to rewild 30% by 2030. (7)

Wild Card defines rewilding thus: “To rewild the land and water is to allow untamed life to return to ecosystems and landscapes, such that they are once again sustained by the natural processes that created them in the first place. In restoring these processes, humans are often intimately involved. Be it from rewetting bogs to reintroducing missing species, humans are very much invited to the rewilding party.” (8) Rewilding goes beyond goes simply protecting the biodiversity we still have and seeks to restore the biodiversity of our environment back towards 90% BII needed for a sustainable future.

Of course rewilding church land will have a profound effect on what we harvest – less meat and milk, more diverse horticultural and sylvocultural products; less cereal crops for animal feed, more meadows, fenlands and heaths; less livestock, more wild birds and animals; less mono-species plantations, more mixed broadleaf woodlands; less factory farming, more blue and green spaces for spiritual and mental re-creation, and more green jobs. There will be tough decisions to make and we all need to be part of the discussion: what changes in the lifestyles we live are we prepared to make. As Christians we are called throughout our life time to repent and believe, we are called embrace ‘metanoia’ – to see things differently, to change direction, to transform our relationships.

(1) https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/services/data/biodiversity-intactness-index.html

(2) https://stateofnature.org.uk/

(3) https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/uk-butterfly-emergency-declared

(4) https://www.cbd.int/gbf

(5) https://www.restorenaturenow.com/aims

(6) https://wildcard.land/campaigns/rewild-the-church/95-wild-theses

(7) https://wildcard.land/campaigns/rewild-the-church

(8) https://wildcard.land/about/about-wildcard

Proper 23, 20th Sunday after Trinity

13th October 2024

‘Seek the Lord and live’, ‘Seek good and not evil, that you may live’ and ‘teach us to number our days – ie to live that we may apply our hearts to wisdom’

‘The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword … it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’

Life – a good life – is the life we live embracing God’s wisdom, adhering to God’s word. This is the message of our readings today. Oh that we would adhere to them!

Yet it is not just as individuals that we must so act, but as communities, as nations, and as the whole living world. If someone mistreats the poor, not only do the poor suffer but ultimately everyone in the community suffers. This is why Amos talks of people not living in the house they have built or enjoying the harvest of what they have grown. This is why the psalmist speaks of God’s people in the plural. And this is why we see suffering in the world today whether it is the civil war in Sudan, the escalating violence in the Middle East, the floods many parts of the world from Bosnia to Florida to Bangladesh, or the rioting in this country. The growing gap between rich and poor which is a result of injustice and inequality, the exploitation of the Earth’s resources where we take more than can be sustained, mean that ultimately we all suffer.

Nevertheless as individuals can we ever say ‘I have done enough, I have done as much as is necessary’?

Being faithful means continuing always to strive to do good, to do what is God’s will – but not seek a reward but through love. In today’s gospel the young man is focused rewards rather than love. He is motivated by what he hopes to gain. Jesus shows him that this motivation is always going to hit a brick wall, whereas if he can find his way through the love of God, then he will find himself already in God’s Kingdom.

And God’s love will tell us to rest and pause, will tell us not to burn ourselves out. God’s love will tell us to support one another, to ensure that our sisters and brothers don’t overwork, don’t over fixate, don’t think that they can solves all the world’s problems – for only God can do that!

Amos 5:6-7,10-15

Seek the Lord and live,
or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,
and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.

Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,
and bring righteousness to the ground!

They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.

For I know how many are your transgressions,
and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and push aside the needy in the gate.

Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
just as you have said.

Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Psalm 90:12-17

12 So teach us to number our days *
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

13 Return, O Lord; how long will you tarry? *
be gracious to your servants.

14 Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; *
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

15 Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us *
and the years in which we suffered adversity.

16 Show your servants your works *
and your splendour to their children.

17 May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us; *
prosper the work of our hands;
prosper our handiwork.

Hebrews 4:12-16

The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Mark 10:17-31

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

The Joys and Sorrows of Civilisation

12th October 2024

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. Isaiah 11:1

You Lord, are the source of all good things:

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation:

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:

May we live together in peace.

A reading: So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: ‘You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors ….. he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, “I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.” Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised. Acts 13: 16, 17a, 22b,23

Reflection

Roots secure us to the past, ensure that we are part of the continuity of creation; shoots and branches take our lives forward into the as yet unformed future. Without the next generation there will be no ongoing continuity. The gospels of Luke and Matthew both locate Jesus within a human family tree; the prologue of John’s gospel locates him as co existent with the beginning of all creation. Later in John’s gospel, Jesus affirms his coexistence with the Father and the ongoing coexistence, through him, of all believers, all God’s children.

For gifts of past generations

We thank you God:

For the gift of fire for cooking and heating

For the gift of clean water and sewers

We thank you God:

For the domestication of cattle and horses,

Cats and dogs, sheep and pigs,

Hens and geese

We thank you God:

For the gift of gardening and arable cultivation,

sowing and reaping,

growing and harvesting

We thank you God:

For the gift of healing and caring,

of medicine and surgery

For the understanding of the intricacies of mind and body

We thank you God:

For the gift of story telling and drama,

of art and observation

means of sharing grief and joy.

We thank you God:

For the gift of learning and research,

of teaching and sharing

We thank you God:

For the gift of exploration and endeavour, of travel and communication

We thank you God:

For the gift of worship, of self realisation and of the knowledge of God.

We thank you God:

But what shall we pass on to generations to come?

Do we offer gifts or burdens?