Monkey Business

Last year at this time we were struggling with the slow demise of our cat, Bustopher, who was sixteen years old. That's a great run for an outdoor cat and he managed to live through three moves and four different residences. He was my constant companion in the house and would follow me from room to room. Where my lap was, he was. Although Ruth has been ready for another dog or cat for months, it has taken the better part of a year for me to consider another pet.

Many of us have special relationship with our pets and companion animals. I visit elderly folk who spend days in apartments with no other contact than Fluffy, and it heartwarming to see the relationship. We have a member who takes her dog to visit in hospitals and patients love it. Another member is a kindness teacher, going to schools to speak with kids about compassion and kindness. And yes, her dog goes with her. Of course there are guide dogs and working dogs such as the Border Collie our friends use with their sheep.

 

All this said, I know that Bustopher was a companion in our household, but he wasn't human. Which brings me to the now infamous, stylin' Darwin, the Ikea monkey. This monkey was discovered wandering the Ikea parking lot in Toronto and quickly became an international sensation. Trouble was, said monkey was illegal, and was seized from the distraught owner. We have learned that she treated the monkey as though it were a child (see above) and she petitioned the courts to have Darwin returned. Today a judge decided no, at least not before Christmas, in order to better consider his long-term fate. The word is Darwin is doing well in a primate sanctuary, so apparently the human is more traumatized than the monkey.

What should our relationship be with our non-human companions? It makes me a little queasy when folk lose their perspective and treat pets like kids. And events like Woofstock horrify me, at least in the extremes to which some will go in spending on animals. Where is their moral perspective in a world of need?

I do think we need to respect animals other than the human kind, and that it is appropriate to form emotional bonds with them. As many of you know, we have a blessing of the animals in October at the time of the Feast of St. Francis. I was surprised when I offered an invitation to some of my ministerial colleagues to have a joint service, only to have several say that they wouldn't on theological grounds. Huh? My bible tells me that God is the creator of all critters and there are verses which tell the people of Israel to treat working animals with respect.

I suppose it is a matter of balance. What do you think about the Darwin case? What about our "theology" of relationships with non-humans creatures?

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson

Yikes, this is a busy time to work in a few blogs alongside that Christmas thing. I am finishing up William Souder's remarkable biography of the woman who was arguably the founder of the environmental movement and I thought I would share how good it is.

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson is about 500 pages long, including the footnotes but I have found it an insightful and inspiring read. Carson is best known for Silent Spring, published fifty years ago. But she was already an established and popular author when it was released, having sold millions of copies of her other books about the sea and the way its complex ecosystems work.

Souder helps us see that Carson was aware of climate change sixty years ago, and understood that tampering with the web of life affected all the organisms within it. This is commonly accepted today but wasn't appreciated by many of her contemporaries.

Carson knew that Silent Spring would be a different book from her others, a polemic against chemical toxins such as DDT which would incur the wrath of the companies that produced them, as well as some members of the scientific community. She was labelled a communist, an hysterical woman, a spinster, a poor scientist. The offended companies, such as Dow, threatened to sue her and her publisher, but they never did, because she was accurate with her research.

 I hadn't realized that the scientist who invented DDT was awarded the Nobel Prize for Science because initially it was believed that it was not toxic to humans, mammals or birds and was a sort of Wonder Pesticide. In the end it was shown that DDT and others in this family of toxins poison everything. The photo of children playing on a beach being fogged wtih DDT makes me shudder.

Carson was secretive about the cancer which made writing Silent Spring a challenge, and she died not long after its publication. She did live to enjoythe book's success.I admire her resolve and ability to rise above conventional wisdom to offer something new and world-changing. As I have said before, that's what prophetic figures do, including the great leaders of religions.

Do you know much about Rachel Carson? Were you aware of how

A Theology of Trash?

I wonder what will happen for garbage pick-up the week of Christmas, since Tuesday would be our usual trash day? The municipal website will tell us, the way it informs us about yard waste schedules, and Christmas tree disposa,l and e-waste pick-up. We keep churning it out and they keep cruising by to spirit it away. There are only two of us in our house, we try not to bring home packaging, and we compost in our backyard. Still, the gift that keeps on giving. Good news though. Before long we will be sending it all up in smoke in Clarington, thanks to a shiny new incinerator. Well, not so good.

There is a new documentary film called Trashed which I hope comes to a theatre near me, because it sounds interesting. Jeremy Irons narrates and Vangelis (Chariots of Fire!) wrote the score. Do we get to see a group of garbage collectors running down a street in slow motion to the strains of synth music? The film is about our extraordinary ability to create junk and what the solutions might be:

The beauty of our planet from space forms a violent contrast to the scenes of human detritus across the globe. Vast landscapes in China are covered in tons of rubbish. The wide waters of the Ciliwung River in Indonesia are now barely visible under a never-ending tide of plastic. Children swim among leaking bags; mothers wash in the sewage-filled supply. Each year, we now throw away fifty-eight billion disposable cups, billions of plastic bags, 200 billion litres of water bottles, billions of tons of household waste, toxic waste and e-waste. http://www.trashedfilm.com/

Uck. I do think the junk we produce is a spiritual issue. Even though somebody hauls mine away to the landfill (remember in the good ol' days when we called it The Dump) I can look at the end of the driveway and be reminded that I am a conspicuous consumer. The United Church did lead the way by encouraging its members to forego bottled water, long before this was a fashionable cause. We were mocked, but we were right. Maybe we need to develop a Theology of Trash, asking what all that flotsam and jetsam says about the state of our souls.

Would this be a good idea, or am I just trash-talking? Are you any better (worse?) about producing garbage that five years ago? Do you go by that ancient adage Reduce, Re-use, Recycle?

Absolutely Maybe

We heard this week that the Canadian government will absolutely not allow the sale of our natural resource companies to foreign governments with lousy human rights. Except of course for this time, but not again...we think. Canada just approved the multi-billion dollar sale of oil and gas giant Nexen to China’s state-owned CNOOC. This despite the fact that in polls Canadians opposed the deal.

To be fair, some are hailing this as walking a diplomatic "fine line," while others accuse the Prime Minister of stumbling around like a drunk failing a sobriety test. Still others say that tassurances there will be no more approvals sound rather hollow.

In a December 10th piece Andrew Coyne begins:

See, the thing about Solomon is, he never actually cut the baby in half.
Nevertheless, the prime minister’s split decision on foreign takeovers is being praised as Solomonic in some circles.
But then, for some people cutting the baby in half — you can have the head and one of the shoulders, but the rest of it you get only in exceptional circumstances — is always the right decision.
Because, you see, it’s a compromise, and compromise shows maturity, and maturity is the beginning of wisdom, and, well, it’s a compromise.
God forbid he’d decided it on principle.

I'm a sucker for anyone who employs a biblical allusion but this interesting from a faith standpoint. Our United Church General Council opposed the building of a pipeline to the British Columbia coast to siphon Alberta bitumen off to China. But what about selling the whole oily farm?

Any thoughts about the sale of Nexen? Is it all a bit confusing?

Flight Behaviour

I enjoyed reading the novel Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver. You may know this author's name from the remarkable Poisonwood Bible, but she has written other interesting novels and a memoir or journal of sorts called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. The novel is ambitious in that it addresses the troubling subject of climate change. Kingsolver chooses to do so through the life of a poor young mom in rural Tennessee. Millions of monarch butterflies descend upon a wooded area of the family property, displaced from their usual winter roosting grounds in Mexico. The mixed-up butterflies end up making Dellarobbia a religious star in her local congregation, as well as a reluctant media celebrity.

I found this a very readable story of how humans are messing with the patterns of the natural world. The monarchs become tiny, luminous harbingers or prophets of catastrophic change. Because of my twenty year interest in the changes to our environment and the importance of paying attention I'm not sure whether Flight Behaviour will appeal to a wider audience. There are some heavier, more didactic bits, but by and large it is well-told story with plenty of insights into human nature written by a skilled and sure-handed author.

Have you heard about Flight Behaviour? Does it intrigue you, or does the very notion of a novel which speaks to climate change turn you off?

The View Toward Earth

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

We scurry around from Point A to Point B in our daily lives, often barely lifting our heads to appreciate the beauty around us. In our paved-over, high-speed existence we can forget what an extraordinary thing it is to be perched aboard this spinning orb in our particular solar system. A few hundred years ago hardly anyone had a clue about the Earth's shape or rotation, and believing that our planet was in orbit around the star we call the Sun was considered heresy and a sin -- literally. In the Older Testament of our bible it is apparent that authors had no idea that Earth is round.

There are some great new satellite photos from NASA and NOAA in the States which remind us that our existence on this particular planet is one of those everyday miracles which we take for granted. The top one is obviously North America, the middle one the Nile, and the bottom one Australia and Asia.

I'm sure Bethlehem is in one of the many photos taken, the village on Planet Earth where our Christian story began, in that miracle of the incarnation. Take a look at some of the videos and hold on tight! http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1298408--stunning-nighttime-views-of-earth-unveiled-video

The Meek and the Mighty

The meek may inherit the earth, but they will have trouble getting monetary help from the mighty to keep it clean.  Wealthier nations make noise about assisting the poorer ones with funding for technology to fight climate change, but they are shifty about how this will actually happen. So, while we get better at reducing greenhouse gases, they tend to get worse as they become more industrialized, often producing our consumer goods.

Here is an excerpt from a New York Times report on the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Qatar -- you know, the one nearly everyone in the media is ignoring.

At Climate Talks, a Struggle Over Aid for Poorer Nation John Broder

 DOHA, Qatar — The United Nations climate conference here has settled into its typical doldrums, with most major questions unresolved as a Friday evening deadline for concluding the talks approaches. One of the thorniest issues is money, which has often bedeviled these affairs. 

Since the process for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began about 20 years ago, countries have been split into two often-warring camps: the small number of wealthy nations that provide money to help deal with the effects of global warming, and the much larger group of poorer states that receive it.

 

There is a reason churches and religious organizations have sent delegates to these events. There are issued of justice and equality which they, along with other NGO's, are willing to air (pun intended) while diplomats fiddle. It's unfortunate that we have so little clout and so little money to even get people there anymore.

 

Thoughts?

St. Francis Pledge

You probably know about St. Francis of Assisi, the deeply spiritual, slightly crazy mystic of the thirteenth century. I'm not trying to be disrepectful here, because most religious mystics march to a different drummer --God.

Francis lived a life of radical simplicity, giving away his wealth to live alongside the poor. He also loved Creation and honoured all living things. The legends of his relationships with birds and animals abound, and he is credited with creating the first Living Nativity. I like this painting by Bailey Jack. Pope John Paul II named Francis as the patron saint of the environment. Not bad for someone who lived 800 years ago.

I just learned that there is a St. Francis Pledge, which is a commitment one can make as a faithful  and practical expression of Creation Care. The five commitments are:

PRAY and reflect on the duty to care for God's Creation and protect the poor and vulnerable.

LEARN about and educate others on the causes and moral dimensions of climate change.

ASSESS how we -- as individuals and in our families, parishes and other affiliations -- contribute to climate change by our own energy use, consumption, waste, etc.

ACT to change our choices and behaviors to reduce the ways we contribute to climate change.

ADVOCATE for Catholic principles and priorities in climate change discussions and decisions, especially as they impact those who are poor and vulnerable.

While this is obviously an initiative of the Roman Catholic church, if we substitute the word Christian for Catholic, or "small c" catholic, meaning universal, these are wonderful principles to which we can adhere as Protestants.

Do they work for you?

The Green Patriarch

Everything that lives and breathes is sacred and beautiful in the eyes of God. The whole world is a sacrament. The entire created cosmos is a burning bush of God’s uncreated energies. And humankind stands as a priest before the altar of creation, as microcosm and mediator. Such is the true nature of things; or, as an Orthodox hymn describes it, “the truth of things,” if only we have the eyes of faith to see it. 

  Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I

In the busyness of recent days I have ignored this Groundling Blog, even though I have been aware of a number of important subjects and events. An article a couple of days ago in the New York Times offers a description of the environmental focus of the patriarch of the world-wide Orthodox communion. You may not have heard of the Orthodox church but 300 million Christians are part of this expression of the faith. This means that Patriarch Bartholomew I has considerable influence. Okay, this 72-year-old cleric doesn't look like any stereotype of an eco-warrior we can conjure up, but he has considered how Christians  might "live with respect in Creation" for many years and continues to provide tremendous leadership in this regard. http://www.patriarchate.org/environment His passion has earned him the moniker The Green Patriarch.
 
Bartholomew organizes conferences featuring speakers such as Jane Goodall who teased him that the beards of some of the elder primates she works with look a lot like his, a comment that he took in good humour. He has encouraged Orthodox congregations to install solar panels on their church buildings.

The Times notes that " in September, Bartholomew published a strongly worded encyclical calling on all Orthodox Christians to repent “for our sinfulness” in not doing enough to protect the planet. Biodiversity, “the work of divine wisdom,” was not granted to humanity to abuse it, he wrote; human dominion over the earth does not mean the right to greedily acquire and destroy its resources. He singled out “the powerful of this world,” saying they need a new mind-set to stop destroying the planet for profit or short-term interest."

I am encouraged to hear about leaders such as Patriarch Bartholomew. How about you?

Oyster-tecture

This is God's wondrous world
and to my listening ears,
all nature sings and round me rings
the music of the spheres...

This is a verse from one of my favourite hymns, slightly altered from the version of my childhood, but still upholding the beauty of Creation with the capital "C." This said, Christians can also appreciate the practicality of the natural world in the intricate web of the small "c" created order.

Some of you may have seen the news piece a couple of nights ago about plans to avoid the catastrophic effects of another storm such as Sandy. This 1600 kilometre wide weather event devastated the US northeast and humbled New York City. There seems to be general agreement that subsequent storms are a matter of  "when" rather than "if."

There is talk of multi-billion dollar storm barriers, but there is also discussion of natural solutions. One of the people interviewed named Kate Orff discussed what she called Oyster-tecture, the use of planned oyster beds to lessen the impact of waves and storm surges. These oyster beds also absorb pollutants http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/feb/03/1 I find all of this fascinating, and hopeful.

Another pointed out that over time all the marshes which once surrounded a developing NYC and its boroughs were filled in and paved over. Marshes also help mitigate the force of storms and are much cheaper to re-establish than building sea walls and storm barriers. And there was also discussion of planned retreat from sections of vulnerable seashore which should be buffering dunes rather than beach houses.

We aren't as inclined to hymns and songs about fierce weather events as part of Creation, or creation, but they are a reality as well. If we are humble enough we might learn from the earth and the sky and sea about what is best for us.

Thoughts?

Qatar and the U.N. Conference

Could you find the nation of Qatar on a map? I couldn't either, but I was aware that if was a Persian Gulf state. Qatar is geographically small with a population of a couple of million. It is also immensely wealthy thanks to oil and gas. Qatar is the top producer of greenhouse gases of any nation by a "country kilometre." The nation also has the highest per capita income at $90,000. 

This week the capital, Doha, is host to a United Nations conference on climate change and I have no idea whether there is any faith community presence.  The United Church has sent representatives to other conferences to meet with other NGO's but we are poor as a church mouse these days, so it is unlikely that we have anyone there.

The governments of Canada and Alberta have sent representatives but we don't have much credibility because we already abandoned the Kyoto treaty. What we know is that the world is getting hotter and efforts to combat climate change are feeble.

Are you following the conference? Is there much point?

Holy Raging Prophets!

During the public consultations about the incinerator in Clarington I fulminated a fair amount through this blog. I encouraged our folk to attend those meetings and a number did. They got involved, including Dr. Deb Jefferson, who became an outspoken representative from the medical community. From my standpoint our efforts were faith in action, a desire for whole earth justice.

Sadly, the concerns expressed and facts presented fell on deaf ears and the project was approved. Even though we heard that Covanta, the company chosen to build and maintain the incinerator, had a lousy environmental record, it was chosen. Many of us were frustrated that later the newly elected mayor and council did little to resist this decision (sorry Adrian.)

Did any of you see that Covanta is in trouble in British Columbia for dumping 1800 tonnes of toxic ash near a rural community? Toxic ash. Joe and Jill Public in Clarington didn't seem to get it that incinerators produce toxic ash and that it has to go somewhere. And somewhere is somewhere. Near homes perhaps and atop water tables. Nowhere doesn't exist.

Apparently Mayor Foster and council have sent a letter to Covanta expressing awareness and concern,which is good, but the company can't be "fired" now. We will just wait for our turn.

Where is a decent raging prophet when we need one? I suppose we didn't listen to the ones we had.

What are your thoughts about this?

Food Trumps Gravel!

Here is a good news environmental story for a change. A quarry was to be opened in an area just north of Orangeville Ontario and it appeared to be a "done deal." The land was purchased, municipal approval was all but granted, beaucoup bucks were to be made.

The problem? This is prime farmland -- 2500 acres worth -- and people knew it. They were also concerned that the water table could be compromised by such a massive quarry. So, they organized and protested and did all kinds of creative things to get the project stopped. Two events, Foodstock then Soupstock were held, one last year in the area of the proposed quarry and the other in Toronto the Smoggy  just recently. Leading chefs got behind these events, thousands were fed, and lots of people were educated about what was unfolding. The Toronto Star tells us:

The company behind the proposal for a massive quarry in Melancthon Township has withdrawn its application to build what would have been one of the largest quarries in North America.

The Highland Companies announced that it will also cease efforts to restore a rail corridor through Dufferin County, and that Highland president John Lowndes has resigned.
“While we believe that the quarry would have brought significant economic benefit to Melancthon Township and served Ontario’s well-documented need for aggregate, we acknowledge that the application does not have sufficient support from the community and government to justify proceeding with the approval process,” said John Scherer of the Highland Companies in a statement released today.

Some critics of the protest movement claim this is NIMBYism of the worst kind. I see it as a realization that feeding people trumps gravel pits and the resultant profits. Highland will continue to farm this land. Good choice.

Our bible upholds the importance of agriculture as a gift of God for the benefit of everyone. Jesus used agricultural imagery in many of his parables and aphorisms. Somehow we have lost touch with the necessity of producing food for our existence. As those of us who live close to the Oak Ridges Moraine know, aggregate quarries are a dime a dozen. Prime farmland is hard to find.

Soupstock October 2012

Have any of you followed this story? Are you heartened to hear about the decision?

Busy

On Monday I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a walk at Second Marsh in Oshawa. As many of you know, this wetland sits between one of the busiest sections of one the busiest highways in North America, the 401, and Lake Ontario. It is behind the headquarters of General Motors and Minacs. A busy area to be sure, but a gem which is home to a great variety of wildlife. There are still goldeneye, mallard, northern shoveller, and bufflehead ducks around. There were many blue herons, and, as you can see, beavers. Talk about busy. There were seven working away in the light of day, a sure sign of late Fall. The urgency meant they were willing to swim quite close to where I was standing, hauling winter food to a large cache just off shore.

It is remarkable that so much wildlife thrives so close to a major highway and urban area. Monday an owl swept through the woods as I walked back to my car. I have seen coyotes, white-tail deer, mink, and otters (once.) In the right migratory seasons eagles, osprey, egrets, and many other birds make an appearance. The latest threat to this sanctuary will be the ethanol plant scheduled to be built just to the west. Do civic officials not have a brain? The noise level is already alarmingly high.

Do you have a favourite local spot to enjoy the beauty of creation? Is getting outside "soul food" for you? As urban pressure in Durham mounts, do we need to do more to protect these little "arks" of wild and wet?

Dust Bowl

Last night I watched a documentary on PBS about the Dust Bowl of the Dirty Thirties. Most of us have only a vague notion of what those two terms mean, or at least my knowledge was sketchy. I discovered that at the turn of the 20th century hundreds of thousands of acres of American prairie were ploughed for the first time to produce wheat. These Western states included Texas, Oklahama, Kansas, and Colorado -- all with relatively low rainfall. The plough opened land which had previously been covered with drought-resistant grasses which held limited moisture.

For a number of years there was enough rain to produce bumper crops and lure thousands of homesteaders. Then two catastrophies, the Great Depression, and drought, conspired to crush the prosperity and dreams of the settlers.As prices for wheat fell, more tracts of lands were ploughed and exposed to increase output.

Then huge windstorms stirred up mountain ranges of dust and sand which turned noonday into darkness. Animals died of asphyxiation and children died of dust pneumonia. The static electricity in the air meant that touching an ungrounded automobile could knock a person flat on his back. Families huddled in their kitchens with their heads wrapped in wettened flour bags to protect them from the particulate which forced its way through every nook and cranny. And crops failed.

This apocalyptic nightmare persisted for years and not surprisingly people began to wonder whether this was God's judgement. Scripture was quoted on the front pages of newspapers and those afflicted prayed for rain and forgiveness. But it was a human-induced environmental catastrophy, the worst in American history.The Bread Basket of the US was effectively obliterated.

I watched and wondered how this fading story applies to what we are doing today. Climate change probably brought about last summer's drought and this autumn's disastrous storm. Will we blame God, or will we accept responsiblity and change our ways?

Did any of you watch this documentary? Do you know much about the Dust Bowl? What are your thoughts about today?

Nutty

Holy sabre-toothed squirrel! A mom in Toronto has created a stir by asking her child's school to cut down it's four oak trees to comply with its stated goal to be a "nut free zone." No matter that there has never been a recorded death-by-acorn. Or that it is difficult to crack into an acorn in the first place,  and they are quite bitter to the taste. Or that acorns are not on any list of tree nuts causing anaphylactic shock. This anxious mother wants the trees gone. It seems to be a case of parental anxiety taken to the extreme. We all appreciate now that some children have extreme reactions to certain nuts, and other foods for that matter. But where has this come from?

The reaction online has been immense, and overwhelmingly against this strange request. One online commenter offers:

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair; and
- Maybe it was my fault..

I would add that this parent has lost her Earth Sense, an awareness that outside the bubble of hyper-vigilance this is a good world of trees and grass and streams -- all sources of both danger and wonder.

It was important for us as parents to introduce our three children to the beauty of the natural world, the world we believe God has created. We canoed together into back country where raging thunderstorms had us all scared, and we scrambled along the edge of hills where there were precipitous drops. Our son came home one day as a boy with multiple wasp stings incurred while playing with buddies in the woods. There were always risks, usually minor, weighed out against the value of learning to be active in nature. I thank God that all of them enjoy being outside as adults.

What was your reaction to this story -- you must have heard it by now? Are we losing our ability to appreciate the natural world as we create a different "reality." Should we feel some compassion for the anxious mom, or should she be banned from the "nut-free zone?"

Click and enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FihSyAikRY

Wakeup Call

I have been neglecting this Groundling blog lately despite having lots of subjects to address. It is a matter of time in busy days, and Lion Lamb keeps me hopping. Still, these environmental concerns are important.

Have you seen the photos of sharks in the New York subway following Superstorm Sandy? Okay, they were photo-shopped in, but the flooding and devastation are no joke. Most of us have been watching the painfully slow recovery for those severely affected by Sandy. Thousands are waiting for electricity to be restored after two weeks but many have no homes to which they can return. 

Here was a storm that had been downgraded first from a hurricane and then from a tropical storm. It lasted about a day. Yet millions were affected, billions in damage was done, and tens of thousands are still in limbo. If people have to line up for food in New York and New Jersey, what is it like in poorer nations to the south?

I don't like characterizing climate change as the coming apocalypse, a secular substitution for the dire claims of doom and gloom theologians. But the wealthiest nation in human history is having a lot of trouble responding to the effects of a one-day storm. When will we get it?

This Fall I went through Creation Time wracked by self-doubt about the value of raising the issues of Creation Care. Unfortunately I was convinced of the importance of doing so by what happened in the Caribbean and up the Eastern Seaboard. I want to be hopeful and honest at the same time, and to be creative in continuing to address the issues.

Has Sandy been a wakeup call for you, or were you already alert? Did the devastation call you to action, or increase your sense of helplessness? Does God want us to lead the way in the church?

Tom Tomson and the Group of Seven

I am keenly aware that Groundling could become a "gloom and doom" blog following the worst examples of environmental depradation. Yet we live in a world of exceptional beauty and diversity. Canada is blessed in this regard.

On Saturday we crawled through heavy 401 traffic on our way to Kleinberg and the McMichael art gallery. We were there on one of the first days of the new exhibit of work by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. This exhibit was assembled for shows in Britain, Norway, and the Netherlands. http://www.mcmichael.com/

These shows were greeted by raves from art critics and line-ups for admission. The works are landscape paintings which showcase the Canadian wilderness, gathered from major and minor galleries and private collections. Some of the oil sketches alongside the major paintings which resulted from them haven't been together since the artists worked on them nearly a century ago. They may never be together again.

A.Y. Jackson

At the time Thomson and the Group (there were actually ten artists in the Seven!) were dismissed as frauds by some European trained critics. It is wonderful that they are now recognized for their evocative work.

We were deeply moved by this exhibition, a lovely surprised given we have seen many of the paintings before in various locations. We were aware that the artists saw their trips into the wilderness as a deeply spiritual enterprise. We were proud to be Canadians and to have travelledby canoe into the back country which inspired many of the paintings. We need to cherish and protect our home and native land for ourselves and generations to come.

After we visited the gallery we walked down into the Humber River valley which is beautiful in itself. The McMichael location is one of the most impressive I have visited.

Franklin Carmichael

I encourage you to visit this exhibit. Do you think you will? Do you know much about Tomson and the Group of Seven to Ten? Do you savour the wild beauty of this country?

Changing Tide?

This will be a quick follow-up to some of my recent musings about climate change. A few days ago in the midst of superstorm Sandy I tweeted out a question asking whether this could "make or break" the campaign for president. As it turns out, Chris Christie the governor of New Jersey, who is both a staunch Republican and a vocal critic of the president,  heaped praise on Obama for his response to the disaster.

Then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed Obama because he believes that the president is the best equipped and inclined candidate to address climate change. The devastation  of Sandy have convinced Bloomberg that climate change is real and has the potential to cripple the economy.

Thank God. Literally, thank God that people seem to be waking up to the potential of human-altered climate. These accolades and endorsements may not change the course of the election but some are paying attention to the changes in the world around us.

Comments?

The View from Lazy Point

I am reading an acclaimed book called The View From Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina. One description of the book says "In this intertwined story, Carl Safina shows us that nature and human dignity require each other. The View from Lazy Point follows the arc of the seasons from Safina’s home waters of eastern Long Island to far horizons of the globe, from the Arctic to Antarctica and across the tropics."

This is quite a good synopsis of a very worthwhile book. Safina, an environmentalist,  lives in a reclaimed cottage on Lazy Point, a spit of land near Long Island. While it is a place of remarkable wildlife, it is close to millions of people and the pressure of huge numbers of human neighbours is evident to Safina.

I considered the fate of Lazy Point as I picked up the book to read on the evening Superstorm Sandy crashed into that area. This storm humbled humanity as it tossed aside all preparedness and swept the sea inland in a devastating onslaught. Are the buildings of Lazy Point gone, including Safina's refuge? Does the point itself still exist? We're told that the shoreline has been altered in many locations along that shore.

I muse about climate change regularly and our response as Christians. We know from scripture the danger of hubris, a false pride in our human abilities which can lead to a fall. I do wonder if the severity of this storm is more than an "act of nature" or "act of God." We could inadvertently be the culprits with our unnatural choices. Needless to say, while there is scientific speculation to "connect the dots" between climate change and Sandy, there isn't a definitive outlook and probably can't be.

What are your thoughts about Sandy? Has this weather event and others like it affected your opinions about climate change?

Making a Little Flap

 

God sees the little sparrow fall,
It meets His tender view;
If God so loves the little birds,
I know He loves me, too.
Refrain

He loves me, too, He loves me, too,
I know He loves me, too;
Because He loves the little things,
I know He loves me, too.

 

You might think that a feature article in the New York Times this past weekend about Toronto would be a feather in Canada's cap but not so. The article was about the deaths of anywhere between a million and nine million -- yes, nine million -- birds each year because of collisions with the office and condo towers of the downtown. Toronto is unique in North America in the number of glass-clad buildings, which leads to a much higher number of these fatal collisions. They say there is no such thing as bad publicity but I'm not thrilled that Toronto is Murder City when it comes to birds. Often we read about the problem of outdoor cats when it comes to killing birds. Apparently we humans are much more destructive -- what's new?

Volunteers for FLAP --Fatal Light Awareness Program -- do sweeps around buildings to both count and identify birds and one found 500 in one morning. http://www.flap.org/ The retrievers of dead birds are also rescuers of the injured, which are also abundant.

The weird thing is the article gives the death count from a pick-up downtown on October 8th of this year, my birthday. The same day my daughter Jocelyn gave me a little booklet from FLAP with beautiful illustrations of birds -- all dead. I hasten to add that it was not her only gift to me, but she know how important these issues are for me.

Organizations such as FLAP encourage architects to consider how these urban architectural giants affect the web of creation. And they ask building owners and their tenants to simply dim or shut off lights at night to reduce the carnage. It's not a lot to ask, really.
But of course there are so many "not a lot to ask's" for humans in wealthy countries to consider, but we are slow to respond. Perhaps we just don't trust that our actions will make a difference. As a Christian I keep telling myself that my actions and those of the people I join with in the Christian community do make a difference. We can all make our little flaps and hope to get airborne.

Did you know about the problem in Toronto or the work of FLAP? Can we make a difference?

Frankenstorm

Hurricane Sandy ripped through Cuba and the Caribbean at the end of the week and at the time this blog was written it was moving up the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Meteorologists are warning that it has the potential to be the worst storm in a century with more than 60 million people affected. And then it will move into Atlantic Canada to wreak havoc. It could cause billions of dollars in damage.

Maybe the dire warnings of a Frankenstorm will go unrealized. Let's pray this is the case. Or maybe the post mortem of the storm will be another reminder that global weather patterns are changing. It's not as though there haven't been fierce Autumn storms in the past. Once again I remind you that I was born at the tail end of Hurricane Hazel back in 1954. It's crazy that the photo of a car in Havana from a couple of days ago could have been taken in the 1950's!

We left Halifax just before Hurricane Juan smashed into Nova Scotia, although our daughter Jocelyn was still there. That storm caught battle hardened Bluenosers by surprise because of its ferocity. And that's the thing. Now storms are less predictable and more violent, and the climate experts say this will increase. The challenge is that these are weather events, but we are still trying to figure out if they signal climate change.

We are being warned that these are Acts of Humanity rather than Acts of God and we better get used to them if weather events become climate patterns.If so, a scary Halloween will take on a whole new meaning.

Are you spooked?

Community of the Son and the Sun

The St. Paul's community of the Son may soon be the community of the sun as well. In May our board voted to pursue a solar panel project on the south-facing roof of our Christian Education wing. The Ontaro government is buying solar energy from those who will install the panels at a guaranteed rate over the course of twenty years. The rate is such that our estimated income is more than double the initial cost of installing the panels.

Where does that "up front " money come from? Oshawa Presbytery Church Extension Council has agreed to loan us the money (about $50,000) and we will repay the council from the revenues from the government.

Many home owners, farmers, and churches have taken advantage of the this program and are pleased with the choice to participate. Cambridge St. United congregation in Lindsay is one of those churches and their minister, the Rev. Paul Reed, also has a solar installation on his home, something he began fifteen years ago.  The photo above is of the installation on Cambridge St. Paul will join us at our board on November 14th at 7:00 pm to talk about his experience both personally and as the pastor of a participating congregation. Everyone in the congregation is welcome.

Many thanks to vice-chair Ryan and chair Harold for their work on our behalf. If all goes at planned, we will be the first UCC congregation in our presbytery to proceed. We do have a couple more hoops to jump through though.

What do you think about churches getting involved in alternative energy projects? Do you think this is a good idea for St. Paul's?

Convicted

Help me out with this one. Seven scientists in Italy have just been convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of more than 300 people after they inaccurately predicted a 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy.

The defendants were accused of giving "inexact, incomplete, and contradictory" information about whether tremors would develop into what proved to be a killer earthquake. After the first tremors many people left their homes and slept outside. On the basis of the reassurances by the scientists they moved back indoors and many perished. The prosecutors accused the scientists of "monumental negligence" and eventually they were convicted.

Don't you wonder why politicians aren't brought up on charges for ignoring the warnings about climate change? If the overwhelming evidenced is that human-made climate change is disrupting the planet, who is held accountable? And who want to hear bad news.

As a preacher I wonder whether I should bother to say anything about climate issues from the pulpit even though I believe we have a responsibility to care for the planet because God is the Creator and we have a unique role in creation. But who wants to come to church to hear gloomy news?

Will those in positions of responsibility ever be charged with "monumental negligence?" I can't believe that those convicted Italian seismologists wished anyone harm or willfully ignored the signs. Yet that's what we are doing with our assault on the Earth.

Have I got it all wrong? Should there be some sort of planetary court for abusers? Just wondering.

Close to Home

During 2012 I attended conferences in Victoria, British Columbia and the wilds of Wyoming, thanks to the Schammerhorn Fund. Ruth and I also had vacations in Cuba and the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (a lot of islands this year!) The scenery was varied and spectacular at times.

But this evening we had a lovely walk not far from Bowmanville at the Samuel Wilmot Trail which was as enjoyable as anything we did during the rest of the year. There is a small pocket of old growth woods running along the edge of the creek and with the Autumn leaves and the failing light it was lovely.

Ruth was the first to hear the low "who, who, who" of an owl, but try as we might we could not locate it above us. Then we heard a much higher pitched raptor-like screeching. Eventually we spotted two young owls high in a maple, obviously in conversation with a parent.

We don't normally associate the beauty of creation with a walk in hearing distance of the 401 and just down the road from home. Yet we both felt that the day the Creator gave us was that much more fulfilled as a result of the walk and the wildlife we encountered.

Any observations about your moments of appreciaton close to home?