Trying my best - and failing

Hopefully we all realise that we need to do more to look after our planet. But it can be very difficult and confusing to know what we can do that will really make a difference. I thought I’d start a series of blogs with the things that I’m discovering on this journey – you may find it helpful. Feel free to comment below with your suggestions, tips and advice.

What with COP26 taking place in Glasgow recently the climate crisis has seen a lot of media air time. As a church we marked the middle weekend of COP26 with a Sunday service exploring the theme: ‘COP26, the Climate Crisis and all that’. If you wanted to watch the highlights you’ll find them here: https://youtu.be/iNHm0wy4BVI

 

I expect that for most of us we have similar thoughts when it comes to this whole area.

·      My current lifestyle is partly responsible for the suffering of others who are experiencing the sharp end of the climate crisis.

·      I would like to do more in order to have a less damaging impact on the environment.

·      But what can I do?

·      And, what real difference will that make?

 

A couple of months ago we were challenged by one of our daughters to have a meat free week. It is widely reported that we need to eat less meat if we are going to reach carbon targets. In the end, our meat free week stretched to about a month, with us only eating chicken a couple of times – and that was chicken that we had in the freezer from before the meat free week started. Since then our diet has gone largely meat free. But is that necessarily better for the planet?

 

On the Sunday that I just mentioned above - our service was followed by a picnic tea. Previously a picnic tea might involve mini pork pies, sausage rolls, some ham. Occasionally even a pastie. But in the meat free spirit we thought rather than meat we’d get some bread, snacks and nice cheese – including brie and one of my favourites Castello pineapple halo soft cheese.

 

Once we’d done the shopping we watched a really interesting programme on BBC2 (it’s still available on iPlayer for a month) – Horizon: Feast to save the planet.

 

Five celebrities come together for a three-course meal where scientists have rated every dish for its carbon footprint. I’d recommend watching. The programme recognises that in practice, your average shopper is not going to be able to crunch all the numbers – but broadly speaking if you buy food that is local and in season then it doesn’t have transport miles attached (but boats are a lot better than planes) and anything that comes from a cow almost certainly has a high carbon footprint.

 

The take away for our picnic (so to speak) is that our cheese may well have been worse for the planet than a pork pie. 

 

Now, I don’t know, as I don’t have the details. But my pineapple soft cheese contained pineapple, papaya and almonds. None of these grow in the UK. The cheese is crafted in Denmark. At least it was a soft cheese – which is better than a hard cheese!

 

In contrast my pork pie would have been made in the UK with British pork. But it does contain Palm Oil – I’ve visited enough zoos to know that that’s bad for the rainforest and orangutans in particular.

I reckon I need to find an app – there’s bound to be one – that gives some indication of the carbon footprint of any food item. I also need to find out my current carbon footprint. And what that carbon footprint needs to be if the world’s not going to exceed the 1.5 deg C limit that everyone’s been talking about recently. 

 

Join me again next week.

 

 

Reflection 10 - the one about climate change

Unless you’ve been hibernating for the past few weeks it can’t have escaped your attention that there’s an important UN climate change conference taking place in Glasgow at the moment. On Sunday we were thinking about our response to the climate crisis and praying for those with important decisions to make at COP26.

A compilation of most of the talks, videos and interviews from Sunday can also be found here: https://youtu.be/iNHm0wy4BVI

One thing that can be said about the climate crisis is that it is an extremely complex issue. Not all scientists agree on where we are and what we need to do. But the majority voice coming out of Glasgow is that we need to do something and we’re running out of time in which to do it. Unless big changes are made now then it is going to be too late. Many of the world’s most vulnerable communities are already finding that it is too late as they are struck by ever more extreme climate events leading to drought, fires or floods.

In Philippians 2:3-4 Paul tells us that we are not simply supposed to look out for our own interests but each of us should be looking out for the interests of others. We now live in what has been described as a global village. Recent interruption in global supply chains has highlighted just how dependent we all are on communities that live on the other side of the planet. 

But it can be very easy to take an ‘out of sight – out of mind’ attitude. In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan to redefine how his audience understood the concept of ‘neighbour’. If Jesus was telling this parable today would the man who was left for dead at the side of the road be replaced by an exploited worker who picked the beans for my morning coffee or a Bangladeshi farmer whose fields are knee deep in flood water?

I expect that most of us agree that something needs to be done. The question is ‘what?’ And by whom?

Paul’s instruction to put the interests of others first is counter-cultural – especially when the other person doesn’t live next door, doesn’t look like you, doesn’t speak your language and you’re never going to meet them. There seems to be mentality that we in the west can keep on getting richer whilst enabling the poorer nations to get richer too. Of course, that is not true. As a planet we share a finite set of resources. The reason we are where we are is because a minority have more than their fair share. Any primary school aged child with a bag full of sweets will know that if everyone else is going to have a fair share of the sweets then that means that they are going to have less for themselves. And as anyone with primary school aged children will tell you – most people think that sharing is a good idea, unless they’re the one holding the bag!

Part of the solution to the climate crisis is for us to consume less. To live more simply. And each of us will need God’s wisdom on what that looks like for us.

As I’ve already said, this is a really complex issue. 

On Saturday there was an interesting programme on BBC2 – Horizon: Feast to save the planet. Watch it on iPlayer if you get the chance. This programme was just looking at diet and the CO2 impact of the dinner choices of five celebrities. They appreciate that most people don’t have the time or the ability to do what their scientists did - rating every plate for its environmental impact based on the exact weight of each specific ingredient. But there were some broad take-aways. Eat food that is locally sourced and in season and therefore hasn’t been flown half-way round the planet. (But if it does need to travel, boats are better than planes.) And avoid anything that comes from a cow!

But the purpose of the programme wasn’t to get us all to go vegan overnight. As beneficial as that might be for the planet - in practice, it’s simply not going to happen. Neither was the programme trying to use shame as a motive to get us to change our behaviour. But it was a very interesting programme that will no doubt start some very interesting conversations. And that’s the point, because it’s not just about what we choose to give up but also about the choices we make with what we carry on eating. Whether we’re buying wine, cheese, meat, or even vegetables – some choices are significantly worse than others. Not all asparagus is equal.

I don’t know what you thought about Pete Grieg’s comment on Sunday when he talked about looking forward to a time when every person who became a follower of Jesus saw becoming a climate activist as a part of the package. But we certainly talk about our faith impacting every area of our lives. I wonder if it’s time to start thinking about what we eat as one of those areas that Jesus wants to change. Our vision deliberately uses the language of a journey - and you know what they say about every journey: it starts with a single step.