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Counting on … day 123

11th July 2024

It is easy to see how plant and animal/ fish resources can be regenerated. But what about metals?

The iron ore that is mined from the earth was typically formed millions of years ago – the exception being where recent volcanic eruptions release iron-containing magma. So rather than talking about regenerating metals, we should talk about recycling metals.

Do we recycle as much – indeed all – the metal we discard?

The FT reports “The UK produces 10mn-11mn tonnes of scrap steel each year of which less than 3mn is recycled. The rest is exported as there is not enough demand from domestic steelmakers.” https://www.ft.com/content/1e273a6d-2683-419c-9567-91281df3c648 However as the UK switches from coal burning blast furnaces to green electric furnaces, which smelt 100% recycled steel, that demand will grow.

What about newer metals such as lithium, which we have only recently begun to exploit? Even if we did recycle all that we discard, growing demand for lithium still means more raw ore will be mined. Can this be sustained – and sustained in a way that does it exploit people nor damage their land and ecosystems?

“Q. How can I recycle my lithium-ion batteries?

You can take your used batteries to designated collection points such as local authorities, civic amenity sites, retailers, and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling sites that hold an ABTO license.” https://www.cellcycle.co.uk/a-guide-to-lithium-ion-battery-recycling-in-the-uk/

Counting on … day 122

10th July 2024

In less than a month the world’s population will have used up a year’s worth of renewable resources. Earth Overshoot Day – this year 1st August – is the day when our consumption of resources exceeds the rate at which the earth can regenerate those resources for future consumption.

Natural resources regenerate over time. For example annual plants such as wheat, poppies, beans lettuces produce seeds each year which can sprout and produce a fresh crop. Some do this on an annual cycle, whilst others, such as rice, may reproduce several crops per year – depending on climatic conditions. Other plants have a much longer regenerative time frame. An oak for example may take 150 years to be of an age to produce acorns.

The same is true for fauna. Some species such as fruit flies will produce the next generation within a matter of days, where as for an elephant, the time scale is closer to twenty years.

Other regenerative resources include water, nitrogen and carbon. The life cycle of these varies according to climatic, topographical, and other factors. In tropical rain forests water can go through a daily cycle of rainfall, evaporation, condensation and once again, rainfall. In the artic regions rainfall is usually infrequent with much of the water then being locked away as ice sheets and glaciers.

Air, soil and water have regenerative features in terms of absorbing and ‘cleaning’ pollutants. One of the major causes of the current climate breakdown is our human action in pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than can safely be absorbed. The safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is around 280 part per million. In March 2024 CO2 levels were at 425 ppm and still rising.

Counting on … day 121

9th July 2024

This year we returned (by train) to Wengen in Switzerland where we had not been for four years. We noticed a few changes – shops that had closed (sadly the pharmacy) and hotels that were being rebuilt. But most surprising was the arrival of take-away coffees. There are now at least three outlets where you can buy a take-away coffee – at the news kiosk by the station, at the Co-op, and from a new small coffee shop in the main street. Whereas before people bought a coffee in a real cup and sat down to drink it, now they could buy a coffee and walk the streets with it in a throw-away cup.

With that comes the environmental cost of making single -use cups, collecting them after use and – provided they don’t end up in landfill – recycling them. Like buying water in a plastic bottle we have been sucked into a throw away culture on the false premise that it is both cheap and convenient.

We can begin to change that culture by opting for a ‘sit down coffee in a cup’ and where that is not possible, carrying and using a ‘keep-cup’.

From a previous posts on keep cups – https://greentau.org/2022/08/24/counting-on-day-288/

Counting on … Day 4

Counting on … day 120

8th July 2024

We’re now in Plastic Free July – https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/

Cutting back on our use of plastic and our failure to prevent waste plastic from entering our food, water and other ecosystems is important. Last year I wrote “The United Nations Environment Programme is calling on all countries to reduce their plastic consumption by 80% by 2040. Plastics are problem items because they are made from oil and thus come with an inbuilt unsustainable carbon footprint, and because much of the plastic is not recycled and instead causes pollution – especially in marine areas”

Sadly we now live in a culture where buying things wrapped in plastic – sandwiches and strawberries, biros and note books – is the norm. One item that stands out is water. We live in a country where tap water is drinkable and, to all intents and purposes, free yet shops and cafes are stacked out with bottles (plastic ) of water. In the UK we consume more than 2.5 billion litres of bottled water per year and throw away over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles.

We need to change this culture of buying bottled water – using a refillable water bottle would save money, protect the environment, and make a stand against the market economy that wants to make everything into a retail opportunity .

Further reading: https://greentau.org/tag/plastic/

Proper 9, 6th Sunday after Trinity

7th July 2024

Reflection with readings below.

Do people in our generation know that there had been prophets amongst us?

Who are prophets? Prophets are people who speak up for God’s desire for social justice both in our own communities and globally, and for God’s call that we should care for and ensure the flourishing of the earth’s environment. I would include in this category of prophets groups like Extinction Rebellion, Christian Climate Action, Greenpeace and Just Stop Oil. But like Ezekiel, I think people often choose not to hear what the prophets are saying – the truth can be uncomfortable.

Whether we are a prophets or not, we still need, I think, to ‘look with the eyes of a servant’ – that is to look with focused attention – to see what God wants us to do and to know how God wants us to live. For this we need to a patient, trusting relationship with God. One in which we read the scriptures, look at nature (the second book of scripture), listen in our hearts, and look at the state of the world around us. We should do this with humility and openness, not assuming that we know the answers nor assuming that our discerning will make us rich and powerful. If we thus pay attention, we will learn what it is that God wants and hopes for us, both as individuals and as communities.

I firmly believe God asks us to honour all that is divine by honouring and respecting all creation, and to care for and enable the flourishing of all creation – and that that includes the people in our own families and communities, the people in our own country, and the people in all other parts of the world. And further that God calls us to honour and care not just for our fellow human beings but everything that lives – birds and insects, fish and mammals, trees and plants, rivers and oceans, and even things like glaciers and icecaps.

And this is something we are patently not doing. 10 people died as a result of floods in the Alps this last fortnight. 100s of pilgrims undertaking the Haj in Mecca have died from excess heat. 10,000s of people have died in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.Many more are dying unnoticed in the intertribal conflict in Sudan. Many are starving in the refugee camps in Chad. Entire islands have been overwhelmed by hurricane Beryl in the Carribean.

Record temperatures are again being recorded in the southern Mediterranean, the Indian sub continent and across North America. Drought and excess heat are devastating wildlife as well as livestock and crops. Rising temperatures and receding glaciers are decimating native alpine plants. Increased use of pesticides and herbicides and diminishing natural habitats are depleting the numbers of songbirds and insects. Ocean bed trawling and pollution are contributing to the sharp decline in fish stocks and sea birds.

The continued expansion of oil and gas production is accelerating climate breakdown. The continued widespread production and consumption of beef, chicken and other animal based food, is likewise contributing to climate breakdown, deforestation and biodiversity decline – as well as diverting large tracts of land to feed the rich few at the expense of the greater proportion of the global population. We eat our western meat based diet at the expense of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who suffer hunger and malnutrition.

Such observations are disconcerting, unsettling and frequently ignored. We do not lift our eyes to God, to see what God sees. We do not open our ears to hear what God hears. We do not open our hearts to love as God loves. Yet often the problems we would encounter are not the fault of individuals but of the cultures and systems of which we are a part.

Should we then, as a church, call on our communities to repent of the systems and cultures and the ways of living, that are causing social injustice and climate change and biodiversity loss? As well as calling for repentance, do we also need to share a vision for how we can ensure social justice – both making up for past injustices and creating a just society going forwards? A vision of how we can tackle climate breakdown, living different lifestyles that cause less pollution and sharing resources more equitably? A vision of how we can make good the loss of biodiversity and ensure the flourishing of the natural environment of which we humans are a part?

Yes, I think we do. Just as Jesus commissioned his disciples to be prophetic – calling for repentance and preaching the good news – and to share the reality of the kingdom of God – healing the sick and casting aside all that destroys wellbeing. And to do this through the power and wisdom of God.

As individuals and as the church we need to pay attention and learn about the state of the environment locally and globally, about the well being – or not – of wildlife and about the wellbeing – or not – of humankind, bearing in mind that there should be justice for all. In honouring God, we need to envisage what changes and what work God requires to firmly establish God’s rule – God’s way of living – here on earth. In repenting, we need to heal the wounds and injustices we humans have caused, and to lead new, reformed lives, changing the culture in which we live.

Let’s start today!

Ezekiel 2:1-5

The Lord said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

Psalm 123

1 To you I lift up my eyes, *
to you enthroned in the heavens.

2 As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, *
and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

3 So our eyes look to the Lord our God, *
until he show us his mercy.

4 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, *
for we have had more than enough of contempt,

5 Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, *
and of the derision of the proud.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Mark 6:1-13

Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honour, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Prayers following a general election

6th July 2024

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Colossians 3:12

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 from Matthew 25: 31- 45

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

Loving God

who called upon the first humans

to care and nurture all that had been created,

we ask your blessing on those we have elected

to create a new government to direct the ways of this nation.

Bless those we have elected with compassion

that they will be mindful always of those in need.