Comparisons

This is Bill McKibben’s take on why Facebook and the oil companies think in the same way

“For decades, people have asked me why the oil companies don’t just become solar companies. They don’t for the same reason that Facebook doesn’t behave decently: an oil company’s core business is digging stuff up and burning it, just as Facebook’s is to keep people glued to their screens. Digging and burning is all that oil companies know how to do—and why the industry has spent the past thirty years building a disinformation machine to stall action on climate change. It’s why—with the evidence of climate destruction growing by the day—the best that any of them can offer are vague pronouncements about getting to “net zero by 2050”—which is another way of saying, “We’re not going to change much of anything anytime soon.” (The American giants, like ExxonMobil, won’t even do that.)

(From an article recently appearing in The New Yorker)

50 Simple Ways

The Guardian features suggestions from experts for things we can do in our daily lives to improve life for the planet. You can find them here

Becoming Political

Many of us have an internally running script saying how dissatisfied we are with some political action. Every now and then I suggest to others that they should stop complaining on social media and do something more constructive. Here are some suggestions - modified from the American advocacy group, Climate Reality Project:

• Call your elected officials’ offices, especially if a decision or vote is pending. Expect that you are talking to a staff member rather than the representative - who will nevertheless be monitoring opinions.

• Ask for the staff person dealing with the particular issue. Leave a message if you don’t get through to a live person

• Identify yourself as a constituent, when you are one.

• Know your facts and state what you think the leader should do.

• Note any expertise you have in the area.

• Make the call short. There are likely many calls coming in.

• Call all the leaders who have an impact on the issue - municipal, provincial and national

When using social media, share good information by linking to it rather than simply ranting..

When writing letters to the editor:

• Keep it short (100-200 words) and note the article you are referring to. Expect even a short article to be cut - and make every sentence stand alone.

• Check submission rules for the particular publication. Timely letters - sent almost immediately as a response are more likely to get published.

Summer Reading

A friend recently noted how much she had enjoyed The Overstory - mentioned in my own resource list and I highly recommend this one.

But you might also enjoy the summer reading list provided by Professior Stephen Bede Scharper of the University of Toronto, who teaches in several departments ranging from environmental studies to theology. Here it is:

If you are looking for new reading material for the summer, below is a list of books Stephen Scharper highly recommends - enjoy!

On environmentalism:

• The Bridge at the Edge of the World by James Gustave Speth

• For Earth’s Sake by Stephen Bede Scharper

• This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

On plant-based nutrition:

• The China Study by T. Colin Campbell

• The China Study Solution by Thomas M. Campbell

• Natural Feasts by Deliciously Ella (cookbook)

On mindfulness:

• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

• Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

• Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Happy reading!

The Doughnut- an important perspective.

That one? - Or this one?

Canadians are fans of doughnuts with endless brands. But the one I have recently discovered is more than a calorie laden deliverer of sugar but a way to bridge economy and the planet. Kate Raworth’s doughtnut brings these two aspects of our lives together in a remarkably intelligent way.

I was moved after a recent conference to ponder the words in a distributed report entitled Church Growth Statistics. Not surprisingly totals were down showing a decline - and there was an underlying anxiety in what the report showed. If only 25% of the parishes studied were growing what did this predict for the future.

The benchmarks were the number of persons attending on Sundays and the average annual donation. From my not-for-profit director days, I would have used similar ones. What both depend on for a happy outcome is growth. Enter an aging population with aging buildings. The vocabulary shifts at this micro level the same way it does in the macro one. We start to hear about “sustainability”, or “sustainable growth” or” long term sustainability” as the video below shows. What is missing is the reality that we live on a planet whose capacity for growth has limits. To make it even worse, our collective practice of exploiting its resources make it even more devastated

Economics is complicated. So is politics We have to decide whether we are citizens or consumers in every realm in which we exist - even church land. I expect there will be some new perspectives on how we use words like growth and sustainability going forward..

Here’s some help with the doughnut:

You can also visit Kate Raworth’s site for more information here.