As the Floodwaters Rise

 
    
 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,
 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you 
and your descendants after you,
and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals,
 and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.  
 I establish my covenant with you, 
that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, 
and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 

Genesis 9:8-11


 The HBO series Treme ran from 2010 and 2013 but we're only catching up with it now. Here is a succinct description pf the series:

The series takes its name from Treme, a neighborhood of New Orleans. It begins three months after Hurricane Katrina as the residents, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians, and other New Orleanians, try to rebuild their lives, their homes, and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane.

Treme is a well acted ensemble piece and insightful into the unique character of New Orleans.It becomes apparent that the city will never be the same in the aftermath of that devastating storm. I discovered on my own that the population was roughly half a million at the time of Katrina but has shrunk to just under 400,000. Officials were reluctant to rebuild or reopen many of the poorer, flood-prone, and predominantly Black neighbourhoods, so residents have been permanently displaced.  The show suggests that government aid and insurance payments were excruciatingly slow, and that opportunists made a lot of money from the grief of storm victims. 

 

Photographs by Michel Varisco. Since 1955, 98 percent of Isle de Jean Charles,
 home of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe, has washed away.

Because Treme is focussed on a particular area of New Orleans it doesn't explore the bigger picture of devastation in Lousiana's coastal areas, which continues to this day. The latest issue of the excellent Orion magazine features a Native community on Isle de Jean Charles, an island which was self-sufficient a century ago but whose territory has shrunk by 98% due to erosion, flooding, and poisoning by encroaching salt water. Climate change, oil company canals, and botched government efforts have conspired to eradicate this community.  A few residents persist but there are plans to relocate everyone inland even though their livelihood had been from the water for generations. The haunting film Beasts of the Southern Wild was filmed here. 

 

Kashechewan

I thought about First Nations communities in Northern Ontario as I read the Orion article. Places such as Kashechewan experience destructive flooding year after year, and residents are evacuated. Yet little is done to address the situation. We hear far more about what is happening in Southern Ontario or other provinces. As with Louisiana, marginalized people don't really count.

The truth is that climate change is becoming the "new abnormal" for all of us. As I've said before, the story of  the ark in Genesis may include a promise that God will never inundate the Earth again, but there is no assurance that we humans won't do this to ourselves: "we have met the enemy and he/she  is us."

Terracide and Mending Creation

 

 The evangelical magazine Christianity Today has been going back through its editorials and essays to consider what it got wrong and right through the decades. There is an admission that they often got it wrong on issues of civil rights. I gave up on CT in the 80s, despite wanting to stay connected because of evangelical roots. I felt that they had missed the boat on gender equality and gay rights (still do). They also seemed to have a suspicion of theology which honoured Creation because it might be pantheistic. I was heartened, though, to see an editorial from April 23, 1971, almost exactly a year after the first Earth Day.

As the current team describes that editorial, after arguing biblically that “to fail to respect life and all other environmental resources is to demean creation and to violate biblical principles of stewardship,” it concludes with a bracing word:

The task is staggering. We are talking here of terracide, the stupid, senseless murder of the earth, man’s killing himself by killing the environment on which he depends for physical life. Were Christians of today to take on the challenge of persuading men to change, they would be performing the greatest work in the Church’s history.

 This was actually prophetic, other than the male language, and nearly 50 years later the term "terracide" is more fitting and to the heart of our ecological crisis than it was then. I wish I could read the entire editorial and the Christianity and the Environmental Crisis articles that went with it. 

The phrase "to fail to respect life" made me think of the United Church's addition to the New Creed of 1968, adding the words "to live with respect in Creation" as an affirmation of our human role as faithful stewards of the Earth. 

I appreciate CTs courage in looking to the past with a degree of humility. I also applaud those who took what was a bold stance in addressing the "terracide" and the great work of Creation care.

Phocas People, Phocas!

St. Phocas

Years ago I learned that St. Fiacre, a saint I'd never heard of, was the patron of gardeners and hemorrhoid sufferers. Interesting combination, wouldn't you say? Thanks to a monetary gift marking my 25th anniversary of ordained ministry I purchased a garden statue of St. Fiacre. He appears rather grumpy, but hemorrhoids will do that to a person. Every year I shelter him away for the Winter and dutifully wrestle him back in place in the Spring, which I did recently.

I hadn't realized that there are several saints of gardening, including the 4th century St. Phocas, pictured above. Catholic Online tells the story of St. Phocas, who died in a purge of Christians by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. It also waxes effusive about the benefits of gardening:

...nor does any other part of the universe 
rival the innocent charms which a garden presents to all our senses, 
by the fragrancy of its flowers, by the riches of its produce, 
and the sweetness and variety of its fruits; 
by the melodious concert of its musicians, 
by the worlds of wonders which every stem, leaf, and fibre 
exhibit to the contemplation of the inquisitive philosopher, 
and by that beauty and variegated lustre of colours 
which clothe the numberless tribes of its smallest inhabitants, 
and adorn its shining landscapes...

Hey, Jesus liked flowers and he spent some of his final hours in a garden, so the more the merrier when it comes to garden-variety saints. And to the reader who might suggest that clergy know who to shovel it, don't! 

                                                     My own, private St. Fiacre

Doug Ford is not a Tree-hugger...or Planter

 

I'm experiencing serious BGS today, both in my Lion Lamb and Groundling blogs. I expressed Blog Grumpiness Syndrome in my musing about religious anti-vaxxers in my Lion Lamb blog. Now it is my strong annoyance at the Ontario governments stupid decision to end a program to plant 50 million trees to help mitigate climate change. 

Of course Premier Ford doesn't really believe in climate change, nor does he want his "slash and burn" government to do anything to address it. The argument for ending this initiative is that forestry companies plant millions of trees every year, which is true, so why bother spending taxpayers' dollars on reforestation? Those companies plant monoculture plantations, mostly in Northern Ontario, with the goal of cutting them again as soon as profitable. The trees are essentially crops, and look like them. 


Tree Plantation in Thailand


The government program has planted more than 27 million trees, many in Southern Ontario where forest cover has diminished to as low as 5% in some areas, when 40% is needed for forest sustainability.  have been planted across Ontario through the program, which saved landowners up to 90 per cent of the costs of large-scale tree planting. 

Rob Keen, CEO of Forests Ontario,says that the program was started as a carbon sequestration program, Keen said, but planting that many trees also helps clean the air and water, protect shorelines and reduce erosion. The budget is under $5 million a year and the majority of the funding goes to planting partners, such as conservation groups, stewardship groups and First Nations, who worked with landowners to get trees planted.

A recent assessment published in Nature magazine says that monoculture planting can actually reduce biodiversity rather than increase it, something which those of us who walk through plantation trees have realized. And tree crops, quickly harvested, aren't anywhere as effective as carefully restored, diverse forests in sequestering carbon.  

I'm so frustrated that I've been singing "If a tree falls on Doug Ford, will anybody care?,"  (apologies to Bruce Cockburn) which is not very Christian on my part, I'll admit. As non-violent Christians we should all be indignant about this assault on the lungs of the Earth...take a deep breath David...

 

Wendell Berry on World-Making

 


 I am a great admirer of farmer/philosopher/theologian Wendell Berry. His novels and essays are gems and his calls for simplicity and sense of place are inspiring. Here is a paragraph from The Daily Dig online reflection for today


Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Wendell Berry

 
The Bible leaves no doubt at all about the sanctity of the act of worldmaking, or of the world that was made, or of creaturely or bodily life in this world. We are holy creatures living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy.

Some people know this, and some do not. Nobody, of course, knows it all the time. 
But what keeps it from being far better known than it is?
 Why is it apparently unknown to millions of professed students of the Bible?
 How can modern Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?

Source: The Art of the Commonplace

Earth Day and Creation Care

 

Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery,

   of living things, diverse and interdependent,

   of complex patterns of growth and evolution,

   of subatomic particles and cosmic swirls,

we sing of God the Creator,

the Maker and Source of all that is.

Each part of creation reveals unique aspects of God the Creator,

   who is both in creation and beyond it.

All parts of creation, animate and inanimate, are related.

All creation is good.

We sing of the Creator,

   who made humans to live and move

   and have their being in God.

In and with God,

   we can direct our lives toward right relationship

   with each other and with God.

We can discover our place as one strand in the web of life.

We can grow in wisdom and compassion.

We can recognize all people as kin.

We can accept our mortality and finitude, not as a curse,

   but as a challenge to make our lives and choices matter.

from A Song of Faith United Church Statement of Faith 

The United Church of Canada has made the connection between caring for the planet and honouring the Creator for more than forty years. This has included activism in various forms, and in developing a sense of wonder and praise within services of worship. We are encouraged to observe both Earth Sunday and Creation Time in the Fall as part of the liturgical calendar. I can say that I took up this important challenge through most of my ministry, leading study groups and worship services and congregational hikes, all of which were an attempt to "live with respect in Creation" (A New Creed.) 




Creation Time Banner

This year Earth Sunday would have been Easter Sunday, so it was a challenge for congregations to focus on Creation when Resurrection was the big deal. Still, we can do so personally on this Easter Monday and all through the year. 

Check out some of the Earth-honouring initiatives of the United Church on the website. Happy Earth Day!

https://www.united-church.ca/tags/environment

Easter and the Healing Power of the Gardener

 

 Mosaic of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the Resurrection Chapel, Washington National Cathedral

There was a lovely piece by Oliver Sacks in the New York Times this past week, published posthumously of course, given that this giant of the psychological world died several years ago. The title is The Healing Power of Gardens and in it Sacks offers that "In 40 years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens."  He mentions that during travel around the world he always sought out botanical gardens and that 50 years of living in New York City was made palatable by visiting parks and gardens. 

It's a good reminder this Easter morning as we'll hear that Jesus died rise from the dead in a laboratory but in a garden and that the mourning Mary Magdalene mistook him for the gardener. Some Christians are wary of associating the Resurrection with the rebirth of Springtime, but I'm not one of them. Christ is the First-born of Creation and First-born of Resurrection.

Canadians long for Spring after a long Winter and each crocus and snowdrop reminds us of life. Jesus, the Gardener of our Souls meets us in our sorrow and tears and lifts us to life once again. 




 New York Botanical Garden

Bee Hopeful!

 

 I have written about honey bees as a Christian symbol of resurrection in the past, and actually drew upon my own experience as an amateur beekeeper (long ago) to preach about this one Easter morning. Hey, keeping fresh as an Easter preacher requires ingenuity. Bees have also been associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus -- Notre Dame.

 

I was pleased to see that the three bee hives atop Notre Dame Cathedral (above) survived the devastating fire this past week. Bees don't have lungs, so they can't asphyxiate on smoke, although any beekeeper will tell you that smoke is a tool to make these feisty little critters docile. If I recall correctly, these bees are a strain called Buckfast, developed at the abbey of the same name in Britain, which I have visited.

This is a nice little "resurrection" story for this Easter. Read more from a piece in the Montreal Gazette

PARIS — Hunkered down in their hives and drunk on smoke, Notre Dame’s smallest official residents — some 180,000 bees — somehow managed to survive the inferno that consumed the cathedral’s ancient wooden roof.
Confounding officials who thought they had perished, the bees clung to life, protecting their queen.
“It’s a big day. I am so relieved. I saw satellite photos that showed the three hives didn’t burn,” Notre Dame beekeeper Nicolas Geant told The Associated Press on Friday.
“Instead of killing them, the CO2 (from smoke) makes them drunk, puts them to sleep,” he explained.
Geant has overseen the bees since 2013, when three hives were installed on the roof of the stone sacristy that joins the south end of the monument. The move was part of a Paris-wide initiative to boost declining bee numbers. Hives were also introduced above Paris’ gilded Opera.


 

Francis and Greta on Good Friday

 

On this Good Friday Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen climate change activist was in Rome speaking to a crowd of 25,000 gathered in the Piazza del Popolo as part of the "Fridays for Future" movement. As might be expected, Pope Francis was also visible today as he led a solemn "Way of the Cross" procession and worship at St. Peter's Basilica with tens of thousands on hand.

We might think these two events in Rome were competing, yet Greta and Francis met a couple days ago with the pontiff encouraging the young activist to continue her important work.There are other world leaders who've told "striking" students they should get back to school.  Pope Francis has made care for Creation a focus of his pontificate and his Laudato Si encyclical addresses climate change. 

While this is a day to commemorate the crucifixion, they were not at crossed purposes in their desire to mend a broken world. 

The Cathedral and the Oak Trees

 
 Wooden Roof Structure of Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was badly damaged by fire earlier this week and already a billion dollars has been pledged for repair and reconstruction. No doubt the criticisms of funding bricks and mortar when there are so many humanitarian crises around the world will ramp up, yet this is a reminder that some structures are sentinels for culture and religion which capture the imagination of people everywhere.

We are learning a lot about Notre Dame, it's history and construction, which might not have interested us under other circumstances. Did any of us know that the collapsed spire was a Jean-come-lately addition from the 19th century which some experts considered an abomination? 

And the roof which was all but destroyed? It burned so quickly because it was of timber-frame construction which couldn't be fire-proofed. This frame was built in the 13th century of beams from 13,000 massive oaks, which led to it being nicknamed "The Forest." It's hard to imagine that such a forest once existed with trees of such girth and height that they could provide these beams. One expert says that trees of that size no longer exist in France today, so other materials will be needed for the reconstruction. 

If such a forest of oaks still existed in France, would citizens support it's destruction for the rebuilding of a roof, even for a cathedral? Would they perceive this forest as a cathedral in and of itself, a sacred grove which deserved to flourish?

 

We know that in the ancient Celtic Christian tradition worship took place outside, before church buildings were erected. When they were built it was often adjacent to oak trees which were considered holy. Here in Canada, on Vancouver Island,  there is a stand of giant Douglas firs which is nicknamed Cathedral Grove. Walking amidst them created for me that sense of awe and wonder which I felt during visits to Notre Dame Cathedral. 

Today I lament the demise of an oak forest 800 years ago. And I am grateful for the cathedrals of the wild which still exist, in all their holiness. 

Trees, the Tree of Life, and the Pulitzer

 

Last November I wrote about being deeply affected by the novel The Overstory by Richard Powers. I was able to read this rich and complex work of fiction, a love letter to trees, while vacationing in a secluded spot on the south shore of Nova Scotia. There are nine brilliantly interwoven stories of humans but the giants of the novel are trees, in their great variety and majesty. As Barbara Kingsolver, another fine novelist, puts it in a New York Times review "These characters who have held us rapt for 150 pages turn out to be the shrubby understory, for which we couldn’t yet see the forest. Standing overhead with outstretched limbs are the real protagonists. Trees will bring these small lives together into large acts of war, love, loyalty and betrayal..."

In an interview with Amy Brady for the Chicago Review of Books a year ago Powers speaks of how trees and a particular tree changed the trajectory of his life while out for a walk when teaching at Stanford:

 ... one day, I came across a single tree that had, for whatever reason, escaped the loggers. It was the width of a house, the length of a football field, and as old as Jesus or Caesar. Compared to the trees that had so impressed me, it was like Jupiter is to the Earth.
I began to imagine what they must have looked like, those forests that would not return for centuries, if ever. It seemed to me that we had been at war for a long time, trees and people, and I wondered if it might be possible for things ever to go any other way. Within a few months, I quit my job at Stanford and devoted myself full time to writing The Overstory.

 At that time I blogged about The Overstory it was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, which it did not win, but yesterday it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Hurray!
When I offered my thoughts last Fall I made reference to the "Tree of Life" imagery in scripture" in a number of places. Since then I have been part of a group of United Church clergy who will offer services in Algonquin Park this summer with a "cathedral of the trees" theme through the weeks, a reference to the pines which are everywhere in the park.

Here is the link to my November 3, 2018 Groundling blog, for what it's worth. 

https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-tree-of-life-overstory.html

 

Climate Change on Trial in Ontario

 

Today the province of Ontario is in court with the federal government of Canada to contest the imposition of a carbon tax. The provincial government is arguing that is unconstitutional for the feds to impose a tax. The federal government is saying that climate change is a national issue and that it's a right and responsibility to make polluters pay for the carbon they emit, 

The Ontario government  may want to downplay the fact that the feds are only doing this in provinces which refuse to do so themselves. Ontario did have a "cap and trade" carbon reduction strategy in place under the provincial Liberals but that program was kiboshed when the Conservatives were elected. The cap and trade program was in conjunction with the state of California and the province of Quebec, and despite the alarmist bluster of the current government it was successful in reducing carbon emissions and the economy was ticking along nicely. In fact, in most jurisdictions where there is some form of carbon tax it is working reasonably well. 

The current government in Ontario has no plan to reduce carbon emissions which contribute to climate change. It has made vague promises with no strategy which can be taken seriously. In truth, the government plans to use taxpayers dollars (my dollars) to create a media campaign of misinformation. In a puerile move it plans to put misleading stickers on gas pumps and fine operators up to $10,000 for not displaying them.

My temptation is to be furious and swear far more than is reasonable. While there is short-term satisfaction in this strategy I can do much more.

 I do plan to register my protest should the stickers become mandatory at gas stations, and I may have my Sharpie ready to commit acts of righteous vandalism.

I am going to pray as well, because this is one of the most significant spiritual issues of our time, and for generations to come. The phrase "deliver us from evil" comes to mind, and I will also pray that the people of this province will speak out against the destructive path of this government. I will do so for my grandchildren and all who will one day ask why we cared for little for their wellbeing and that of the planet. 


 

Gas Pump Sticker

Swan Song Happy Ending

 

Trumpeter swans at Junction Creek in Sudbury, Ontario photo Don Johnston

There was a lengthy New York Times article this week about Ontario's success in reintroducing trumpeter swans, a once-plentiful species which was wiped out in eastern North America by the end of the 19th century. Trumpeter swans are North America’s largest species of waterfowl with a wingspan of 2 metres, or more, and and weighing 8-13 kilograms. Efforts to reintroduce them have gone well, and according to the Times article there are more than 1,000 trumpeters in Ontario that headed north last month, many to raise their next brood. It is a lovely success story which we had the opportunity to witness up-close in the 1990s. 

Ruth and I were walking in a Sudbury area conservation area one day when a kayak trailed by young trumpeter swans came along the shore of the lake. It turned out that they were part of the Migratory Bird Research Group, led by Wayne Bezner Kerr. These cygnets were hatched and trained to follow an ultralight plane.

We would go to see the team at work and discovered in conversation that Wayne's wife Rachel (I hope I recall her name correctly!), often immersed in the cold waters of the lake for hours at a time, was pregnant. We invited them to our home for a hot meal one evening and our three children, 11 to 16, were fascinated by their work. We eventually had a potluck at the church where a sizeable group showed up to hear about the project.
 
In December of that year,1998,  the project achieved its goals when a small flock of trumpeters took off near Sudbury and migrated with the ultralight, flying 1300 kilometres (800 miles)  south to the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana. 


Years later we would see trumpeter swans at Second Marsh along Lake Ontario and wondered whether they were heading north to the Sudbury area, although other destinations were more likely. 

Life in the church can take some unexpected turns, and we're delighted that this "swan song" had a happy ending.  





 Fielding Park, near Sudbury 2017

To the Moon on a Wednesday Afternoon

 

Yesterday we zipped up to Toronto to take advantage of free admission into the Aga Khan Museum on Wednesday evenings. We were keen to take in the exhibit The Moon: A Voyage Through Time, which was designed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing and moon walk in 1969. 

As the brochure indicates (above), the exhibit takes us through the wonder, beauty, and knowledge of the moon in the Islamic tradition. As with Judaism, Muslim festivals and holy days are often tied to the phases of the moon. The Islamic practice of praying five times a day comes from a vision of the Prophet Mohammad who ascended at night-time into the heavens. 

 

We were also impressed by the significant advancements in astronomy by Muslim observers. As with Judaism and Christianity, a sense of awe and wonder in surveying the night skies led to scientific observation and discovery. 

Of course, this year the Jewish Passover begins on April 19th, the evening of the full moon. This is Good Friday for Christians and Easter is always on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring equinox.

I would certainly recommend a trip to the Aga Khan for both this exhibit and the general collection. This museum is a tranquil jewel, a place of beauty and revelation about the history and contributions of Islam. It is an important antidote to creeping suspicion and anti-Islamic sentiment in North America. 

Oh yes, the Israelis landed a spacecraft on the moon today! 




  Moon sculpture Aga Khan Museum

The Critters in British Churches

 
 Green Man Exeter Cathedral 
 
I came across a delightful article written by a British "church-crawler", although an unconventional one. Author Richard Mabey enjoys rummaging around in old British country churches in search of carvings of creatures, real and fantastical. While there are dragons and mythical Green Men there are also the birds and animals of the local fens and forests of the time, a natural landscape which no longer exists in much of Britain. Those who gathered to worship the Creator on Sunday's lived alongside these domestic and wild creatures during the rest of the week and represented them in the decoration of their churches. Even angels had wings which were more akin to the local birds of the air than otherworldly beings. As Mabey describes his jaunts:

...on damp Sunday afternoons we often venture out, searching for the green language. All Saints, Dickleburgh is something of an ark. Lions and wildmen protect the angels on the octagonal font. Instead of a gallery of saints, the rood screen has a cast of figures that seems to have come out of Aesop’s Fables: a rabbit caught by its hind legs, a fox with a goose in its jaws. 

Out to the west, along what is still known as the “shoreline” of the Fens, the great wool churches are full of local wildlife. On the bench ends and choir stalls at Mildenhall there is a bestiary of what was then England’s largest and wildest wetland. There are fishes, beavers, stags racing through the reeds and herons stabbing eels. 



 Eucharist and Spiritual Nourishment, 1987.
 St. Andrew's Cathedral Victoria BC artist Charles Elliott

Evocative. Sadly, we haven't done anything like this is Canadian churches, despite being a country which has been and still is rich in wildlife. The exceptions are in churches which have honoured Native tradition and art, but those are few and far between. Our forbearers were more likely to emulate European design or were Protestant enough to forego decoration altogether.

Church buildings are closing in droves these days, so commissioning artwork which honours the Creator and creatures is unlikely to become a movement. Thank God that there is still evidence of the co-existence of humans and other species from another time in Britain.

God's Light Show

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 

 Gird up your loins like a man,
    I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding. 

 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone

  when the morning stars sang together
    and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

Job 38:1-7

There is a lot being written about rediscovering a sense of awe and wonder these days, and one of the best ways to do so it by getting out into nature, aka Creation. And looking up into the night sky can offer a window into wonder- providing that there is something to see. Our urban nightscapes are often robbed of definition by an overabundance of artificial light and many children are growing up without ever having seen the Milky Way. 

This is International Dark Sky Week and the emphasis is on light pollution and how we can address it. I will do best to not contribute to light pollution. I will also recall the times when I've been uplifted by views of the Milky Way, and meteor showers, and the Northern Lights. And I'll celebrate that "the heavens declare the glory of God" from Psalm 19.
 
 

A Call for Natural Climate Solutions

 
My personal experience is that forests and water mean life. Wherever there are trees and streams and marshes creatures thrive, including humans. I'm happy to say that this is what God intends for the Earth which God created and as a eco-bible-thumper I can provide plenty of scripture passages to support this.

On Wednesday environmental journalist George Monbiot and a group of concerned people from different walks of life published an open letter calling for governments to prioritize solutions devised by nature to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There are several notable Canadians who co-signed the letter, including Margaret Atwood, and Naomi Klein. I was glad to see that at least one religious leader was on the list, former archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. This is a spiritual issue, as well as an ecological one. Here is the letter:

The world faces two existential crises, developing with terrifying speed: climate breakdown and ecological breakdown. Neither is being addressed with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from spiralling into collapse. We are writing to champion a thrilling but neglected approach to averting climate chaos while defending the living world: natural climate solutions. This means drawing carbon dioxide out of the air by protecting and restoring ecosystems.

By defending, restoring and re-establishing forests, peatlands, mangroves, salt marshes, natural seabeds and other crucial ecosystems, large amounts of carbon can be removed from the air and stored. At the same time, the protection and restoration of these ecosystems can help minimise a sixth great extinction, while enhancing local people’s resilience against climate disaster. Defending the living world and defending the climate are, in many cases, one and the same. This potential has so far been largely overlooked.

We call on governments to support natural climate solutions with an urgent programme of research, funding and political commitment. It is essential that they work with the guidance and free, prior and informed consent of indigenous people and other local communities.

 This approach should not be used as a substitute for the rapid and comprehensive decarbonisation of industrial economies. A committed and well-funded programme to address all the causes of climate chaos, including natural climate solutions, could help us hold the heating of the planet below 1.5C. We ask that they are deployed with the urgency these crises demand.

Greta Thunberg Activist
Margaret Atwood Author
Michael Mann Distinguished professor of atmospheric science
Naomi Klein Author and campaigner
Mohamed Nasheed Former president, the Maldives
Rowan Williams former Archbishop of Canterbury
Dia Mirza Actor and UN environment goodwill ambassador
Brian Eno Musician and artist
Philip Pullman Author
Bill McKibben Author and campaigner
Simon Lewis Professor of global change science
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Presenter and author
Charlotte Wheeler Forest restoration scientist
David Suzuki Scientist and author
Anohni Musician and artist
Asha de Vos Marine biologist
Yeb Saño Activist
Bittu Sahgal Founder, Sanctuary Nature Foundation
John Sauven Executive director, Greenpeace UK
Craig Bennett CEO, Friends of the Earth
Ruth Davis Deputy director of global programmes, RSPB
Rebecca Wrigley Chief executive, Rewilding Britain
George Monbiot Journalist