Heavenly Father, give us politicians who listen to you

February 15, 2014 at 6:50 am (Uncategorized)

I hope to find a better picture to bring home that climate change is a global crisis.  The storms battering the U.K. are caused by the extreme weather experienced the other side of the Atlantic ocean driven by the world’s greatest carbon polluter the USA, which in turn is driven by what is happening over and in the Pacific ocean, driven by the carbon emissions of China, soon to overtake the USA as the world’s biggest carbon polluter – as it produces the cheapest available material goods for the world.  Per head of population, I think Dubai might come out on top, but then of course Europe cannot be far down the scale….

In the  Church of England General Synod this week, Steven Croft, the bishop of Sheffield, described the threat of climate change as “a giant evil; a great demon of our day”, adding: “Its power is fed by greed, blindness and complacency in the present generation, and we know that this giant wreaks havoc though the immense power of the weather systems, which are themselves unpredictable.”

I have come across a website, that I suggest is well worth putting a link on all desktops: http://www.rtcc.org – Responding To Climate Change.  It informs prayer…..

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The promise of spring

February 5, 2014 at 11:16 pm (Uncategorized)

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In three months time I should be enjoying this view again, just a few minutes’ walk from the house. These days however wind and rain sweep in from the Atlantic; after walking very soggy paths through the woods I enjoy a bright fire in a dry house, but for many households since a first storm in October, they suffer repeated and persistent floods. Climate change sceptics continue to doubt a human cause. Another example of the human ability to ignore the blindingly obvious?

My January 7th blog queried the Chancellor’s denying the latest ‘housing bubble’. Today the Prime Minister claims to have ‘got a grip’ on the flooding. Nevile Shute’s ‘On the beach’ describes the end of the world after nuclear war, as he foresaw its possibility in the 1950’s. It was still a real possibility in the cold war period of the ’60’s and ’70’s, Richard Adams humoured me then, in sharing one or two precautions in case we needed to protect our young families.

‘Now, as fanatical governments combine medieval attitudes with 21st century technological weaponry: perhaps Shute’s then futuristic novel with its foreboding of tragedy still points to one possible, terrible future.’ (From a web comment on ‘On the beach’).

Are people around me in a state of denial of what actually lies in our near future – just as life carried on in the days before Nevile Shute’s imagined fallout covered the last vestiges of humanity? Are church leaders wilfully ignoring the ‘signs of the times, failing to warn and prepare?’

Shute’s last novel “Trustee in the Toolroom” was a particular favourite, as Hilary and I modelled our guardianship. I begin reading that now – in between preparing the garden for spring, and working out my ‘licence for Gospel ministry with other faith communities…’

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