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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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
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?
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?
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?
