Templer Record - Templesociety.com

Page 4 Templer Record 739 – June 2011
behaving like the Greek gods on Mt Olympus, feeling separate from and
superior to the earth below and doing as they please, with no thought for the
consequences – rape the Earth, burn her lungs (the rainforests) to make
space for palm oil plantations, never mind the orang utans or other
creatures, chip old growth forests for private gain, never mind the common
good or the awful effect on a million others.
In contrast, native cultures, Celtic spirituality and women tend to value and
care for the land, nature and its creatures, springs and clean agriculture for
the sake of their tribe and their children’s grandchildren. Their
belief/attitude is more that they belong to the land and don’t own it as
individuals. (These people are considered heathens and inferior by the
militant arm of the Christian Church, but certainly not by all Christians.)
Dr Black also emphasised that changing attitudes is crucial: seeing man,
humanity as part of the web of life, inter-related, with responsibility for one
another and the environment – acting with more humility and restraint,
limiting our consumption, being fairer to all, which progressive scholar John
Dominic Crossan calls ‘God’s distributive justice’. So that the ‘kingdom of
God’ can come about.
A question to Dr Logan (who does research on Climate Change for the
French Government) was ‘How do we know it’s not just the end of an ice
age, a natural, cyclical occurrence?’ Because of the unprecedented rate of
change. She showed a rocky picture of the Engadine Valley: a whole glacier
gone in ten years!
A big issue is: whose voice can we trust? News reports are shallow and
slanted towards the sensational grab, not reasoned argument. The opinions
(and aren’t we an opinionated culture now!) of shock jocks, or a ‘heroic’
rebel scientist (who may be a nuclear physicist or a molecular biologist with
no expertise in climate change) are often given more prominence than less
‘sexy’ climate scientists’ data. Then there are the powerful lobby groups (e.g.
mining, tobacco) unwilling to share their profits for the greater good. So how
can an effective plan of action be formed and promoted to counteract the
enormous change coming ever faster towards us?
Interestingly, the May Warte tackles related issues. The French movement
Décroissance protests against the mantra of ever greater economic growth
based on consumerism and its massively ‘more-than-enough’ for a few, to
the detriment of very many others who have nothing. Instead, it advocates a
lifestyle of ‘enough’, of voluntary moderation, so that a great many more can
share in the limited available resources on our Earth – a social and ecojustice
issue. Dr Brigitte Hoffmann (who has a talent for analysis) adds
considerations for and against. How could CO2 emissions be decreased and