Once again son Isaac tipped me through a tweet to an interesting article, this one about the intersection of faith and science in an unusual way. A former Celtic monastic community called Conmacnoise carefully recorded weather over more than a millennium, which is now of benefit to those studying climate change. Take a read:
Researchers have been able to trace
the impact of volcanic eruptions on the climate over a 1200 year period by
assessing ancient Irish texts. The international team compared entries in these medieval annals with ice
core data indicating volcanic eruptions. Of 38 volcanic events, 37 were associated with directly observed cold weather
extremes recorded in the chronicles. At monastic centres across the island, scribes recorded significant events
such as feast days, obituaries and descriptions of extreme cold and heat. These chronicles are generally known as the Irish Annals and in this report,
scientists and historians have looked at 40,000 entries in the texts dating from
AD 431 to 1649.
There is a great deal in the Celtic Christian tradition which is earth-honouring, a joyful recognition of God the Creator. Here though is evidence of early scientific observation within a faith community which is actually corroborated by modern science. Cool. Or at least cool, then warm, then cool...
It strikes me that we have largely disconnected ourselves from observing the world around us, both in our daily trudging about, and in our faith communities. We might grumble about the rain, or crow about a few sunny days, but we now live most of our lives inside our vehicles and our climate-controlled homes. I wonder if it would make a difference to the way we respond to the urgent issues of climate if we became keen observers once again. Simple things like rain gauges and outdoor thermometers and marking weather on a calendar might be part of that reawakening.
What do think about the monks of Conmacnoise? Have you ever been involved in scientific observation, even on a small scale? Does it intrigue you?
It is a beautiful place to visit. Anywhere in Ireland is!!
ReplyDeleteWe have the World Wild Life Federation people come every year to our place, they do studies on the river and the woods. We also take part in bird watch studies with the Canadian Wild Life Federation. Also Sir Sanford Flemming college send groups out here to do field and stream studies.
I envy you Laurie, both for your travels and for your lovely location!
ReplyDeletehaven't been doing much traveling this spring! Breaking my elbows in early March has stopped most travel, I still can not drive!. Did get to England for family visit for one week at Easter. So I have been looking out our windows at the birds, they do keep me entertained. thanks for your blogs.
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