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1990 Trees Please 1993 Use Your Purchasing Power to Maintain Fair Trade with the Third World 1993 Christians and Sustainable Living 2002 The Earth Summit and You -Rosie Welch 2002 Sustainable Living for Christmas -Rosie Welch 2010 Fair Trade Shopping is Needed More than Ever -Alison Woodgate on Tradecraft 2010 The Men Fail To Decide Practically Anything -Robin Dawson Trees please (February 1990 edition of magazine) How important are trees for you? Do you care about trees? Can you tell if a tree is healthy or sick? It is estimated that 15 million trees were felled by the hurricane in October 1987. More than half Britain's trees are affected by acid rain. Half the ancient woodlands present in 1945 have been destroyed, replanted with conifers, or cleared for cereal production, roads and building development. Further afield, tropical rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate. Here are some reasons why trees are vital for us: • They improve the appearance of the landscape. • They provide a natural habitat for animals, birds, and insects. • They prevent erosion of the topsoil. • They help to recycle carbon dioxide and so reduce the greenhouse effect and global warming. • They provide a source of renewable energy. • They provide timber for furniture, buildings, and paper. • They are useful for children to climb. In the Christian tradition, trees are present from start to finish: the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the Crucifixion, the tree of life in the New Jerusalem – ‘its leaves are for the healing of the nations' (Revelation 22:2). Is this a reference to the ‘green lung' of the rainforests? Use Your Purchasing Power to Maintain Fair Trade with the Third World (April 1993 edition of magazine) Christian Aid is working for better conditions in the Third World through their "Trade For Change" campaign. How would you feel if you were working just as hard today as ten years ago but earning a third less? That's exactly what has happened to the poorest communities and countries of the Third World. For many people in developing nations it does not matter how hard they work, they just keep getting poorer - thanks to international terms of trade. So why are they so badly affected by the international trading system - and why are the prices they are paid for their goods and labour so low? Let us consider one instance: In Uganda, one of the world's poorest countries, coffee bushes lie neglected. The reason being that in 1989 international coffee prices plummeted, falling by a third in just one week. For Uganda, the price slump was a catastrophe - coffee provided 97 percent of its foreign exchange earnings. For the country's many small-scale coffee farmers it was a disaster - it was not even worthwhile harvesting the crop on which their livelihoods depended. How can I help? You might ask. In the U.K., a consortium of fair trade organisations Traidcraft, Equal Exchange, Oxfam Trading and Twin Trading have launched Cafedirect, a filter coffee which tastes good and benefits Third World producers. They are paid a premium of 50 percent above the world market price and the benefits go directly to the producers and their communities. Cafedirect is available through the organisations listed above, through Christian Aid and some supermarkets. So next time you go shopping ask for Cafedirect. Also in the future look out for other goods with the Fairtrade mark: This will be a guarantee that they have been traded fairly. Oh! And look out for Christian Aid Week 10th - 15th May. Bernard Blanksby Christians and Sustainable Living (June 1993 edition of magazine) Many of us in Britain lead a very affluent lifestyle. Even those of us who feel we are not particularly well off lead a life of luxury compared to many people in the 'Third World'. We live in comfortable homes with plenty of food and generally have many possessions. Our materialistic society encourages us to buy more goods and to seek greater wealth, indeed, advertisements tell us that happiness comes from the goods we buy. However, our level of consumption is having a costly effect on the planet and on the 'Third World'. Christians need to take seriously their God given call to care for the earth and to adopt a lifestyle that is less damaging to the earth and all its inhabitants. Christian Ecology Link (www.christian-ecology.org.uk) aims: • 1. To alert the Church to the unsustainability of our current lifestyles. • 2. To encourage Christians as stewards of God's creation to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. • 3. To encourage the Christian community to work for change in economic and social structures which will promote sustainable living locally and globally. The present lifestyle of the industrialised nations cannot be equated with our Christian faith. Jesus warns us against materialism for a "man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). The writer to Timothy recommends a simpler lifestyle, arguing that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation (1 Timothy 6:6-10 compare Luke 18:18 to 30). The Bible often speaks of God's concern for the poor. Jesus tells us that he has come to preach good news to the poor and bring liberty to the oppressed. If the Church is not working for justice, then it is in opposition to the will of God. Christians, then, should seek to live a simpler life so that others may simply live and that the earth might endure. There is much that we can do as individuals, for instance: • reduce our energy consumption by insulating our homes, using low energy appliances and travelling by public transport. • recycle as much waste as possible and buy recycled goods. • question our expenditure and resist the materialism of our society. • adopt a diet that is less dependent on meat and processed foods. Sheila Pite The Earth Summit and You (October 2002 edition of magazine) It is often hard to relate to things on a world-wide scale, but the recent Earth Summit - the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg - is relevant to all of us, especially each one of us as Christians. God created a beautiful and awesome earth, entrusting us to live in it. As creative beings, made in God's image, mankind has creatively developed technologies which have brought significant benefits to all sorts of aspects of our lives. But in many cases they have been a mixed blessing, leading to using up resources, exploitation, injustice and serious environmental problems. We are all affected, but the severest impact is often on the vulnerable and the poor. The growing global population and changing lifestyles consume resources and change environments at an ever-increasing rate, and generate mountains of waste. In the `West' we use more than our fair share, and far more than is sustainable: C02 emissions (a measure of fossil-fuel usage) per person in the USA are over 5 times the world average, in the UK it's over 2.5 times the average. There is widespread scientific consensus that increased use of fossil fuels is leading to climate change affecting sea levels and changing weather conditions. Although hard to predict, there are very likely to be devastating consequences for people and wildlife in already vulnerable areas, such as more floods and more droughts and famine. By 2050 there could be as many as 150 million `environmental' refugees. In 1992 at the Rio Summit 179 countries looked at the link between environmental problems, economic conditions and social justice. From this emerged several outcomes including:
So what is sustainable development? "Development that globally meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Or, more emotively, "not cheating on our brothers and sisters, or on our children". This involves very complex trade issues with major implications, including debt repayment/ cancellation and international trade rules, all of which are politically sensitive. We have to think of our interdependence- how the way we live affects others. Justice and equity become an uncomfortable and unavoidable part of the picture. Remember Jesus' saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man- to enter heaven. We may not be able to grapple with all the details and the big issues, but we can look at our own lifestyles, the resources we use, the waste we create, the effect we have on the environment, and we can broaden this to our home, workplace, community and government by each taking our own bit of action. God cares for his creation; we can respond in our stewardship of it, as well as showing our love for our neighbour, and our desire for justice in how we live. "Striving to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain the life of the earth" sounds grand, but doing your bit to look after God's earth in day to day actions and attitudes can be a real witness, as well as starting to make a difference. An article on practical ideas will follow. Meanwhile here is the Christian Ecology Link prayer: Creating God, you have given us a vision of a new heaven and earth ....
Rosie Welch Sustainable Living for Christmas (December 2002 edition of magazine) Before we get totally immersed in the trappings perhaps we could think about how we "do" Christmas this year. We're using up more resources than the earth can regenerate. A fair deal for the poor and for future generations must mean self-restraint for the rich now. This doesn't have to be a guilt trip, but we often pay these issues lip-service and don't actually do anything about it. We habitually do all the trimmings for Christmas Day and put it all - well, most of it - in the dustbin on Boxing Day. So, what could we do differently this year or next year without taking the Spirit out of Christmas?
Rosie Welch Fair Trade Shopping is Needed More than Ever (August 2010 edition of magazine) Alison Woodgate writes to thank those who have supported her Traidcraft stall during the past year. Thanks to your support I have managed to maintain my Traidcraft sales for this year despite the difficult economic times. Paul Chandler, Traidcraft’s Chief Executive, has asked me to pass on Traidcraft’s gratitude to all of you who have supported me in making this possible. You really have made a difference. Paul goes on to say “In these demanding economic times our producers need our support more than ever. As we all know, the increasing visibility of Fairtrade marked products in the mainstream doesn’t change the fact that fair trade still accounts for only 1% of the total sales of potentially fairly traded products in the UK, a tiny proportion of what it could be. The scandal of global poverty is as great as ever. Your support for Traidcraft means that the benefits of fair trade sales get ploughed back into the greater mission of working for a fairer world where all can flourish and enjoy the fruits of their labour. There remains much work to be done but with your continuing efforts and prayers behind us, we are confident that Traidcraft will continue to achieve great things and begin to change the way the world works.” I hope you will continue to fight poverty through fair trade in the coming months and years at church stalls and in your local supermarket. Thank you Alison Woodgate The Men Fail To Decide Practically Anything (October 2010 edition of magazine) At a Men’s Breakfast at St Thomas’ in 2009 Robin Dawson led a discussion on ‘When does economic growth have to stop for good and what are we going to do when it does?’ Robin now muses on the discussion. Eighteen of us sat down to breakfast and a serious but good humoured discussion. I think we agreed that economic growth would have to stop. Some thought that there might be technical fixes that could keep us going. But when would it stop? Who knows? We thought about the triple crunch of economic downturn, climate change and energy shortage. Perhaps we agreed that our economic troubles were the fault of all of us. Nobody seemed to be sure who was in charge of the world economy now. The climate is changing, but there was a range of views about who or what is causing it. There was support both for the pessimistic and the optimistic scenarios of what happens after oil has peaked. As you can imagine, with that range of opinion it was difficult to build up precise scenarios of what might take place. All we could agree on was that it is going to be pretty hard for our grandchildren. We asked whether there was a specific Christian view on this. If things really went pear shaped could we expect God to rescue the world from the consequences of its own greed? Probably not. We looked at Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” and felt that we are given a responsibility as stewards of the earth. Some thought that it would be interesting to see if the principles of jubilee in Leviticus 25 could be applied to the global economy. Or was that just a dream? Was all the discussion worth it? Could we have dwelt a little more on redistribution and community? One thing is certain, we can’t expect the problems to go away if we don’t talk about them. There was one thing we agreed on. It was a cracking breakfast, especially the black pudding. Thanks a lot David Holden! Want to know more? There are some interesting websites: www.arocha.org www.ipcc.ch www.onehundredmonth.org www.neweconomics.org Robin Dawson |