My writings - and those of others.
On Earth Day
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that this is the first Earth Day that I have taken seriously – but at least there has been some good preparation. It includes encountering the writings of Thomas Berry and his students and followers last August and becoming immersed in the works ever since. It includes attending the 2018 Parliament of World Religions and meeting the diversity of faith-based groups head on. It includes attending book launches, student research presentations and a day long Symposium on reducing our carbon fossil fuel dependency. It includes encountering the Deep Time Network and joining it. Finally it includes reading two recent books – Tony Clarke’s Getting to Zero, Canada Confronts Global Warming and Paul Hawken’s Drawdown – the latter that encouraged me to join the Toronto team this past month.
Clarke knew about the change of government in Ontario but the recent election in Alberta would be concerning when it is so opposes his case for reframing a Canadian economy hugely dependent on extracting bitumen from tar sands with its subsequent effects on economy and ecology. He faults the national government for its oxymoronic aims to protect the planet and grow the economy. He does provide a clear strategy to wean ourselves from our fossil fuel addiction, but cautions how much that depends on a bottom-up advocacy from a consortium of citizens’ groups. I admire his emphasis on dealing with the human side of the economy to drive the process.
I am convinced nevertheless that the greatest challenge faces traditional religions because what is required is a drastic re-framing of their cosmologies to include what we now know from science. Western Christianity has played a key role in both encouraging the growth of science and technology but also by ignoring it. As Thomas Berry says:
The solution then is not a case of restoring a religious, spiritual, moral or humanist tradition. It is a case of reordering the human in its entire relationship with the planet on which we live, a mission for which Christians are not especially suited, since we have seldom shown any extensive regard for the creation process, dedicated as we have been since the thirteenth century to a primarily redemptive task. (The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth)
There are a growing number of people who accept global warming and its implications for climate change and the active advocacy of the young is a sign of hope. There are a much smaller number that recognize the need for a new role for religions. Theirs is a crucial role – and they must encounter one another with humility and work together to create that role.
Double messages
Fossil fuel corporations are now faced with push back from those who recognize that they cannot foster impressions that they support environmental campaigns while continuing to pollute the atmosphere. We’re getting full page advertisements of how necessary oil sands industries are to our country - remember that they used to be called tar sands.
As we approach a crucial election in one Canadian province, we all have choices to make. Some in other parts of the world are responding to duel messages and you can read about one of them here.
Nature Needs Half
I’ve been busy enough travelling and catching up on event posting and neglecting things to put here. This one is easy - a Podcast reminding us that Nature Needs Half.
Join our hosts, Ruth Midgley and Courtney Burk, while they talk to experts from around the world on the problems facing nature and how we can solve them. From elephants in Mali to mangrove forests in the Kingdom of Tonga, the Nature Needs Half Podcast will explore biodiversity, talk about our relationship to the planet, and introduce you to the people who are fighting to save nature.
Nature Needs Half is an international movement to give nature the space it needs to thrive and benefit all life on earth. You can find the podcast here, where I’m looking forward to hearing it too.
Drawdown Ecochallenge!
I recently signed up for a one day symposium on global warming and an additional lecture by environmentalist, Bill McKibben. One of the benefits of this is learning about another great initiative for the month of April – the Drawdown Ecochallenge. Using an approach to Global Warming that focuses on solutions rather than problems, it posits 100 actions that ordinary people can take that are already tested as effective. The large project is full of names I know from my previous life as an organizational consultant – founder Paul Hawken, biologist, Janine Benyus, and behavioural researcher Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, which still resides on my Ipad. As a background document of the project attests:
““Several studies have shown that one’s belief that they should act and their intention to act are often not enough to help a person change an ingrained behavior, or to develop a less convenient or more difficult alternative to the habits they currently perform.””
When the project started in the US Northwest in 1993, there was a scarcity of information. Now we have too much data that is frequently unfocused, delivered in sound bites and of questionable authority. It’s good to see these concerns addressed in a positive way. This project, running from April 3rd-24th, is designed to do just that. It presents an attractive list of choices – some one-time actions, others to be attempted daily – and it includes a built- in tracking system. The Drawdown Ecochallenge encourages people to join an existing team or form one of their own – and includes another important behavioral technique – points like the stars we earned in second grade; they support the team as well as the individual.
Some of the options include educational awareness. Others include interaction with politicians that remind us to be citizens rather than numbers with names that they like to pin on us such as “taxpayers” or members of the “middle class”. Some actions get right down to how much food we are putting on our plates, or food packaging and food waste. EcoChallenge, the parent of the Drawdown project, also offers course suitable courses for a variety of organizations and enterprises.
I signed up with enthusiasm and forwarded the invitation to a list of colleagues, encouraging them to join our City of Toronto team – which so far is small. The enrollment bot told me that I have been overly ambitious and selected too many options. It already knows me too well and I’ll have to rise to the occasion. It is wonderful to see a positive structure that responds to our wish to begin collective action and gives concrete options to do so in a positive way.
Today's Leaders Have Arrived
Recently I watched a video of a panel in Georgia where a member of the audience asked panelist Mary Evelyn Tucker, “Where are today’s leaders”? He referenced some names of famous adults; Tucker reminded him that Martin Luther King was 26 years of age when he started his crusade for freedom. The moderator noted that emerging leaders are even younger and challenged the audience to watch Greta Thunberg tell us how we are doing so far.
You can see a recent talk here.
Thunberg says that she recognized the crisis on her own and her parents listened to her concerns. Her single action of sitting outside the Swedish Parliament She has inspired thousands of other teens to join her and has spoken at those who enjoy the title of leaders at the UN and Davos.
At the recent WaterDocs festival I became aware of another young leader, Autumn Peltier, who sat at the feet of her great aunt. Josephine Mandamin, known as Grandmother Josephine. She was an Anishinaabe grandmother, elder and water activist involved with the Mother Earth Water Walkers. They have riased awareness of the importance of water and our need to protect it.
Her great niece, Autumn Peltier carries the torch after re great aunt’s recent death and has already spoken to the United Nations on World Water Day in 2018 and earlier berated Canada’s Prime Minister for his inattention to the importance of Water. She connected with Swedish activism by attending the Children’s summit where she shared her story of the sacredness of water from an indigenous perspective. You can see her UN address here.
Both of these young women in their mid teens have a long perspective - already imagining themselves as grandmothers and having to tell their grandchildren how negligent we were in facing up to reality. They already show the pain of their wisdom in their serious young faces when they speak. At very least it has inspired me to share the story of the Water Walkers with the younger children that I know. As information speeds up, they know too much already and will hold us accountable.