Greta and the Convention on Climate Change

Yesterday 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg was in New York City for a FridaysforFuture protest outside the UN headquarters which involved thousands of teens. It was actually week 54 of her strike against climate change inaction which she began on her own and has grown to a global movement. Apparently a senior official emerged to spontaneously invite Greta and two others in for a meeting where he was  "very supportive." On Friday afternoon, Thunberg and two young activists were spontaneously invited inside the UN for a meeting with a senior leader, described as “very supportive”.

Thunberg arrived in New York to considerable fanfare after sailing across the Atlantic in a supposedly carbon neutral vessel. She has travelled all over Europe in the past year, speaking truth to power at various conferences and gatherings, and she avoids air travel because of its contribution to greenhouse gases.



I see Greta as a prophetic figure, although many adults, a lot of them aging white males like me, hate her. They demean her as naive and criticize her background as a child of an actor and opera singer (huh?) and tell her she should go back to school. One media idiot joked that the world would be better off if her sailing vessel sank, and another, a white woman, crowed that she was booking her family on a long-haul vacation flight.It's interesting that they scoff at her immaturity even though she seems preternaturally mature while they are childish. 

What is really fascinating is that some Christians dismiss this movement as a false religion. They are often the same people who refuse to engage in conversation about the scientific evidence about climate change because of strange notions that it isn't Christian to care about the world which God, the Creator, made and sustains. 

Thunberg will participate in the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September, and continuing in November, when world leaders will gather in Chile for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “This has to be a tipping point and I think, I hope it will be, because it must. I, and many people with me, are going to try to do everything we can to make sure that world leaders have all eyes on them during these conferences so that they cannot continue to ignore this.” 

It has been a year since Greta Thunberg attended school and we have to wonder how long she can continue in what must be an exhausting role and spotlight. Again, I thank God for the way in which she has challenged world leaders, many of whom are listening. 

Gas Pumps & Civil Disobedience?

The Ford government will require all gas pumps in the province to display the sticker on the left. The Green Party of Ontario produced the sticker on the right, and is inviting gas stations to post it.

Today gas stations across the province are required to have misleading government propaganda on their private property. The Regressive Conservatives are forcing owners to place stickers on gas pumps which are essentially lying about the federal carbon tax and saying nothing about the rebates which come with it. Needless to say, these stickers offer nothing about the net benefit of the cap and trade program which the Conservatives scrapped, nor the cost to taxpayers of their silly court challenge to the carbon tax. 

There is another legal challenge underway because these stickers violate the civil liberties of private citizens for a political purpose. To make things worse the Ford thugs and threatening owners who don't post the stickers with ridiculous fines. 

At the heart of this is the reality of a climate emergency which the government is not only ignoring, it's exacerbating it with these tactics. 



I like that the Green Party of Ontario has created alternative stickers which are a corrective to the misinformation. I'm also wondering about the longstanding Christian tradition of civil disobedience, where the unjust policies and practices of governments are resisted in unconventional ways, including sit-ins and marches.

I would suggest that some will resort to a "the Sharpie is mightier that the sticker" approach, say marking "bogus!' across the propaganda. I'm not recommending this, but we can all find ways to register displeasure about the violation of God's good Earth. 

A New Urban Heaven & New Earth

Rouge National Urban Park

I see a new heaven.
I see a new earth
as the old one will pass away,
where the fountain of life flows
and without price goes
to all people who abide in the land.

There, there on the banks of a river bright and free,
yielding her fruit, firm in her root,
the Tree of Life will be.  R

Voices United 713

I've observed often enough that the bible begins and ends in a garden, although in the book of Revelation it is an urban garden with a pristine river and diverse trees. This vision challenges the "pie in the sky when we die" notion of the fulfillment of time when Christ returns. We have the opportunity as Christians to participate in Christ's reign as a present possibility for all Creation, as well as a future promise.

Knowing and affirming this, it's always good news when we hear of initiatives to protect and rehabilitate and expand urban parks and green spaces. A few days ago a group of partners including the federal government expanded the land of the Rouge National Urban Park at the east end of Canada's largest city, Toronto. 



Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was on hand to announce a new new education and welcome centre, as well as the additional hectares. A CP24 reports McKenna saying :

“A big thank you goes to the Toronto Zoo and the TRCA (Toronto Region Conservation Authority) for transferring this land so we can build a welcome centre that educates Canadians young and old about how amazing this park is,” McKenna said. “This park is on public transit and it is within an hour of seven million Ontarians. That is incredible because some of our parks are really far away. This park provides a gateway so that people can get a taste of nature, get out of their houses, get away from their phones and just enjoy what is so beautiful.”

Rouge National Urban Park spans an area that covers 80-square kilometres and includes parts of Toronto, Markham, Pickering and the Township of Uxbridge.

McKenna said that the park is an “extraordinary, incredible place” that is home to 1,700 species of plants and animals, including 23 that are currently deemed to be at risk. 

I like that a free shuttle to the park is available for those who don't have vehicles, sponsored by TD Bank and MEC. It's important that visiting parks isn't an experience for a privileged few. 

Roots, Rocks, No Running!

Teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God, to see;
let your world of beauty capture me.
Praise to you be given, love for you be lived,
life be celebrated, joy you give.

Voices United 299

We were camping on the weekend, a paddle-in to a lovely spot at Depot Lakes north of Kingston. There were nine members of our family, including seven adults and our two grandlads, four and six. Despite fourteen watchful grown-up eyes there were a few tumbles and tears, especially for the four-year-old. After 24 hours he had adjusted to the uneven terrain and walked around saying, "roots, rocks, no running!" Actually, it came out as an adorable "woots, wocks, no wunning." 

We could all delight in the sound of wind in pines and the lapping of water on the shore. We swam often. The six-year-old learned to fish, and was successful, much to his astonishment. We compared notes in the morning about the voices of loons, and owls, and whip-poor-wills in the wee hours. We were also visited by masked marauders, in the form of hungry raccoons who were, fortunately, thwarted by our security measures. 



Our son, Isaac, prepared a brief Sunday morning reflection using the story in John's gospel about Jesus preparing a  shore lunch by Galilee following first a meagre, then hugely successful fishing foray by the disciples. It was a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, the Christ, who had called them years before. 

While this was lovely, the "cosmic" moment of wonder in Creation came one clear night when Isaac beckoned us to the water's edge to see the Milky Way. We attempted to identify constellations and planets in this dark sky setting. As a garnish, fireflies came close by to augment the spectacular view. That we were doing this with two of our adult children was very meaningful.

With all the dismal news about environmental degradation it was good to be part of the wonder in Creation experienced by our grandchildren and to be child-like in our own experience. It helped that we had four days of perfect end-of-summer weather!

Celebrating Land of our Ancestors

There is so much lousy environment news that it is easy to get discouraged, especially for me writing this Groundling blog. I was happy to hear of yet another area protected by the Canadian federal government this week. This massive park (926,376 square kilometres), is called Thaidene Nene, or Land of Our Ancestors, and as the name suggests this will be a partnership with Lutselk'e Dene and the area will be co-managed. 



Apparently it is a region of considerable natural beauty where hunting and fishing will still take place while it is protected from mining and other development. 

Indigenous peoples are often willing to speak of the land as a gift from their ancestors and the Creator. We can learn from their example and celebrate what has happened in protecting this pristine area. 

https://cabinradio.ca/20050/news/environment/thaidene-nene-signing-land-of-the-ancestors-gains-life-at-last/

Is Climate Change a Shame?

Modern Family

Five years ago there was a very funny exchange between Mitchell, the environmental lawyer character on the comedy series Modern Family and a holier and greener-than-thou neighbour. They engage in a tense back-and-forth about their environmental efforts and each time the neighbour finds Mitchell wanting. Later in the episode (see the clip below) the hyper-vigilant and self-righteous guy admits to Mitchell that he has no friends. Little wonder.
https://ew.com/article/2014/01/14/modern-family-sneak-peek-jesse-eisenberg/

It is a challenge to be concerned about the well-being of the planet and not enter shaming and criticism of others. Am I less than impressed that several of my own neighbours have sprinkler systems which are often running in the midst of a rainstorm? Oh yeah. Am I smug that we are the only household with a clothesline on our court? I try not to think that way.

Earlier this week CBC's The Current radio program interviewed Katharine Hayhoe, one of my environmental heroes. She is a Canadian climate scientist teaching in Texas and has become a relentlessly honest and positive spokesperson about the realities and threats we face without concerted action to address the climate crisis. The interview which includes two other climate scientists is really worthwhile.
https://podcast-a.akamaihd.net/mp3/podcasts/current-SUB832NI-20190819.mp3

Hayhoe is also a Christian and she takes fire from all directions aimed at her by supposed brothers and sisters in Christ. There are plenty on the religious right in the United States who deny climate change out of a bizarre notion that it is anti-Christian to admit that it could be real. But she has also faced sanctimony from those who are on the left and figure she isn't doing enough, personally.

Hayhoe recalls being told by a fellow climate activist that "every time you turn on your car, you're sinning." "My visceral reaction to somebody saying that to me was: 'Oh, so when I take my child to the doctor, you're saying I'm sinning? When I go to work to support my family, I'm sinning?'" She told guest host Matt Galloway "that shaming made me want to just go out and find a Hummer and drive circles around that person." Hayhoe emphasized that the "most important thing to do is to begin that conversation with what we most agree about, rather than what we most disagree about."

In many respects Christianity is "caught" rather than "taught", even though education in faith, as with everything else, is important. We would do well to set the best possible example in our daily lives and resist the temptation to be sanctimonious or judgmental or shaming with others. Now, how do I apply this to the Ford government in Ontario? Nah, can't do it...

https://ew.com/article/2014/01/14/modern-family-sneak-peek-jesse-eisenberg/

Christ on a Bike Revisited

We are a couple of seniors who live with one motor vehicle and do our best to cycle not only for recreation but also for day to day appointments and activities. Whether we are going to the farmers market or doctors appointments or to the library we are just as likely to cycle as drive, when possible. I two-wheeled it to Service Ontario recently to procure the new license sticker for our four-wheeler.

We do this because we don't really need two vehicles and because we know that it is better to keep cars off the road both in terms of traffic and what comes out the tailpipe (the vehicle tailpipe!) It always easy in this town because of a sketchy cycling infrastructure. Some of the ballyhooed, photo-op bike lanes are already barely legible and the cleaning upkeep is not impressive. There is a bewildering patchwork of bike lanes and little evidence of a plan. Recently I had to dodge around a temporary city sign planted in a bike lane, then a city truck in the same lane with no one near it.

It's strange because we see more and more people cycling, many of them seniors as well. Supposedly we geezers will spark population growth in Belleville over the next few years, so why not make the city more attractive to those who want to hop on a bike and go, along with those who might choose cycling as the transportation for commuting?



Bike Garage Utrecht, Netherlands

I was impressed by an article on a new bicycle parking garage in Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands which offered its first bike lane in 1885 -- you read that correctly 1885. It is three floors of gleaming double-decker racks with space for 12,500 bikes, from cargo bikes that hold a family to public transport bikes for rent. The plan is to integrate bike parking with the public transit system to get people out of cars with excellent connections and convenience. 

I know, Canada is a much larger country than either Denmark and the Netherlands where cycling infrastructure seems to be a priority. But a major city such as Toronto has been dithering and downsizing a bike parking area at Nathan Phillips Square for years even though the capacity is less than 200. Why are we so reluctant to make alternative forms of transportation a priority? 

Maybe I need to get a couple of Christ on a Bicycle tee-shirts and turn this into a religious crusade. As with most communities in Canada, I always need Jesus as my wing man when out for a ride. 

The Heat is on with Elections Canada

This Fall I will vote in the federal election according to my ecological conscience. As a Christian, a Canadian, and as a global citizen who trusts that God brought the planet and all its creatures into being. I will make my decision based on the best strategy to address what I have come to view as a climate crisis. I can readily see that the Conservative party has no such strategy with measurable outcomes. The current Liberal government talks a green streak about the environment but is so tied to old-style politics that it bought an aging pipeline to appease Alberta (that hasn't worked) and is promising another. You figure it out from there as to where I'll go with my vote. 

I was shaking my head yesterday at the news that Elections Canada declared that groups which raise climate change as an issue during the campaign could be considered partisan. Here is how this is described in the Globe and Mail:

An Elections Canada official warned groups in a training session earlier this summer that because Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, has expressed doubts about the legitimacy of climate change, any group that promotes it as real or an emergency could be considered partisan, said Tim Gray, executive director of the advocacy group Environmental Defence. 



Maxime Bernier demonstrating he doesn't have a clue about Climate Change

The Canada Elections Act dictates that advertising by third parties, like environment groups, can be considered partisan if it promotes or disputes an issue raised by any party or candidate during the campaign period, even without mentioning that party or candidate by name. If the ad campaign on that issue costs at least $500, the third party has to register as such with Elections Canada.

If a party disputes an issue? Should a political party be formed that argues that the Earth is flat, does that mean those of us who are "round Earth conspirators" (that's what the Flat Earth Society calls us) does that mean no one could contest their erroneous premise? 

There is now a data base of 2,500 climate scientists, world-wide, who support anthropogenic climate change through their research. Are organizations which heed their warnings to be silenced by some earnest bureaucrat from Elections Canada? 

Diane Saxe, former environmental commissioner of Ontario, said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning that Elections Canada should clarify its position immediately. "The warning is already creating confusion and silencing environmental groups. It's absolutely outrageous. It's wrong in law, it's harmful to this election and it's dangerous to public trust." 

I pray that this gets sorted out in a hurry. 

Cautious Optimism, Recycled

I have been impressed that for years some European nations, particularly Germany, have laws requiring manufacturers and retailers to take back packaging from products after they have been sold. This responsibility encourages those who sell products to consider how much packaging is necessary, and there is considerable benefit to keeping the stuff our stuff is wrapped in out of landfills and recycling plants. In North America municipal recycling programs are overloaded and some jurisdictions in Canada have tried to ship garbage to distant countries, only to have it "returned to sender."

I am cautiously optimistic about the announcement here in Ontario about a plan to make product manufacturers and retailers responsible for the province’s Blue Box program, a move the Progressive Conservative government says would help reduce waste and save municipalities millions of dollars each year. Environment Minister Jeff Yurek said Thursday the transition will happen in phases starting in 2023 and be completed two years later.The program will encourage industry to change how it packages products to cut down on waste and would harmonize the 240 existing Blue Box programs, which each have their own lists of accepted materials.

As a Christian who attempts to be environmentally responsible this sounds good, although I have to admit that the current government is guilty until proven innocent in my eyes, simply because virtually every initiative it has undertaken has a goal of reducing the deficit rather than as part of a comprehensive plan for sensible governance. Mr. Ford is determined to cut and download and privatize his way through his mandate and this could be more of the same. Add to that the hope many of us have that his government will have been voted out of power by 2023. How is that for damning something with faint praise!



Corn, husked and packaged in plastic 

It is important for provincial governments to do everything possible to develop practical legislation to reduce the mountains of trash we produce, often without thinking. The federal initiative regarding single use plastics is also a step in the right direction. And every day, in every way we as individuals must take care of Creation through our choices of products. It's not enough to put out the blue boxes every week and hope for the best. 



Protestors Outside the Canadian Embassy in Manila, Philippines

The Garden Legacy of Woodstock

Woodstock 1969

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden...

Woodstock Joni Mitchell

I was in my mid-teens when the Woodstock music festival took place over several days on a farmer's field in New York State. I vaguely remember being slightly scandalized by what we were hearing about what happened there -- sex, drugs and rock n roll -- even though I was a huge rock fan and had long hair that my old man hated. Fifty years later we watched the PBS documentary about an event which attracted more young people (400,000) than the population of Iceland despite an eye-opening lack of organization or infrastructure. This largely peace-loving throng hung out in the rain and mud to listen to some amazing bands, including some such as Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash which weren't really established in the public eye until Woodstock. We're ancient enough that we eventually heard CS &Y at Maple Leaf Gardens. 




Woodstock Album Cover Shot (this couple is still together!)

We decided that the farmer whose land was used, Max Yasgur, was a saint, and the residents of nearby communities were amazingly generous. One reminisced that the bible encourages Christians to "welcome the stranger." so they did. Where did that America go? 

The quintessential Woodstock song was written by someone who wasn't there, Canadian Joni Mitchell. Her song speaks of stardust, and getting back to the land and the garden, which is a modestly biblical image. It speaks of simplicity, and wonder, and a sense of the world around us. It's strange, don't you think, that this hippy, anti-establishment generation, myself included, ended up what may be the most affluent and planet-destroying crowd in the history of the planet. We Baby Boomers "sold out to the man" without being aware of our entitlement, and now the Earth is paying the price.

Perhaps the 50th anniversary of Woodstock can be more than nostalgia. We really do need to humbly return to the Garden of the Creator in ways which will ensure the well-being of all creatures half a century from now. 

Listen to CSN&Y Woodstock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWNTqbLFFE

Joni Mitchell Woodstock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRjQCvfcXn0




The Yasgurs

Liquid Gold as a Gift of Creation

The law of the Lord is perfect,
    reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
    making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
    enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is pure,
    enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
    and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
    and drippings of the honeycomb.

Psalm 19:7-10

I'll admit that I never saw the film Easy Rider, which starred a young Peter Fonda, who also produced it. The movie was low-budget but a huge hit and introduced us to Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and some guy named Jack Nicholson. Fonda didn't receive the acclaim that his father Henry did, nor that of his sister Jane, but he did well through the years. 

I was thinking of another, much later, Peter Fonda film called Ulee's Gold. Made in 1997 it is about a 50-something Viet Nam war vet and widower named Ulee Jackson who is a bee-keeper (honey is the gold in the title). It is a thoughtful story about both the solitary life, loneliness, and family, with a bit of suspense thrown in. We liked it a lot. 

It seems fitting that the day after Fonda died it is International Honeybee Day, not to be confused with International Bee Day which is earlier in the year. Of course you already knew that. I enjoyed my relatively brief stint as a beekeeper with a member of one of my congregations eons ago. We were fairly successful back in the days before a wicked range of pesticides decimated pollinators across North America. Without pollinators so many of the crops we demand on would fail, and only recently have countries awakened to the imperative of protecting these flying wonders. 



I read recently that flowers have a slightly negative charge compared to the air around them. Bees have a positive charge because of the friction of flying. When they land on a flower the pollen of the flower is attracted to the bees and, voila, it gets transferred to the next flower. The truly remarkable thing is that both flowers and bees know this, and they amp up their respective charges as the interaction takes place. Wondrous, don't you think? 
https://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172611866/honey-its-electric-bees-sense-charge-on-flowers

Give a thought and perhaps a prayer for honeybees and all other pollinators today, as an essential aspect of the glorious web of Creation. And make sure you buy local honey!



An excellent documentary about bees

Greenland's Ecological Grief

Greenland melting 

Solastalgia  is a neologism that describes a form of mental or existential distress caused by environmental change. In many cases this is in reference to global climate change, but more localized events such as volcanic eruptions, drought or destructive mining techniques can cause solastalgia as well.

Northern regions are warming at two to three times the rate of the rest of the planet. Permafrost and glaciers are melting because of record temperatures, some species are in dramatic decline, and there are wildfires in areas which have never experienced them before. Scientists say that earlier this month  Greenland's ice sheet experienced its biggest melt of the summer on Thursday, losing 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean -- equivalent to 4.4 million Olympic swimming pools.

This has a profound psychological and physical effect on the humans who live there as well, whether they are the residents of Canada, or Russia, or Greenland -- climate change doesn't respect borders. According to Courtney Howard, the board president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, who lives and works in the Arctic, the intersection between the climate emergency and mental and physical health will become one of the world’s major issues.



Eastern Greenland Children 

A recent national study in Greenland found that the climate crisis is causing unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety for people who are struggling to reconcile the traumatic impact of global heating with their traditional way of life.

The  survey examined the human impact of the climate emergency and shows that more than 90% of islanders interviewed fully accept that the climate crisis is happenimg, with a further 76% claiming to have personally experienced global heating in their daily lives, from coping with dangerous sea ice journeys to having sled dogs euthanized for economic reasons tied to shorter winters.

This has been described as "ecological grief" and "solastalgia" (defined above.) This is also a spiritual crisis, as many Indigenous cultures connect the rhythms and balances of the land with their awareness of the Creator. They are bearing the brunt of our disconnection with creation, the natural world, and as I've offered recently, we need to listen to them again with humility. 

“The weather, which we had learned and predicted for centuries, had become uggianaqtuq—a Nunavut term for behaving unexpectedly, or in an unfamiliar way. Our sea ice, which had allowed for safe travel for our hunters and provided a strong habitat for our marine mammals, was, and still is, deteriorating. I described what we had already so carefully documented in the petition: the human fatalities that had been caused by thinning ice, the animals that may face extinction, the crumbling coastlines, the communities that were having to relocate—in other words, the many ways that our rights to life, health, property and a means of subsistence were being violated by a dramatically changing climate.” 

The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet

― Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Wake up? See! Listen!

 Let anyone with ears listen!

Matthew 11:15 (NRSV)

It is only months to the next federal election in Canada. Many of us, including lots of Christians, are fed up with the indecisiveness of traditional political parties intent on getting elected or re-elected without developing clear measurable plans to address the climate crisis. Wake up! See! Listen! 

The Presidential Salmon?

We all know that an early symbol of the Christian faith was the fish, a visual symbol of the acronym ICHTHUS. I=Jesus, Ch=Christ, Th=Theou (God's), U=Uios (Son), S=Soter (Saviour). I've never heard anyone suggest which fish this might be, although the disciples Jesus called from the shore of the lake called Genesaret, or Galillee, might have been hauling up tilapia. 

They weren't salmon, a marvelous species which thrived in their millions on both the east and west coasts of North America for millennia. When I was but a lad in the 1950's it was common to eat tinned wild salmon, which were still caught in abundance, although I don't recall our family eating a poached or broiled salmon. 



Today most salmon stocks are in crisis and wild Atlantic salmon are hard to find.. When we moved to Newfoundland after ordination there were folk in my congregations who still netted salmon to eat, although this fishery was in free-fall. I actually went fly fishing on the Gander River with a fisheries officer from one of the five churches. While this river has been legendary for its salmon, I was not part of that legend. I may have known a salmon poacher or two back then, although I must maintain the privacy of the confessional. 



All of this came to mind when I saw a New Yorker article about the "presidential salmon", a tradition started more than a century ago by a fly-fisherman from Maine. He decided to give the first salmon caught in the Spring to the president, who at that time was William Taft. The last presidential salmon was presented in 1992, after a century of assault on the rivers of the east coast of the United States. Turning those rivers into open sewers and conduits for industrial waste, along with over-fishing and building dams, destroyed the stocks. 

Salmon are an indicator species: in a fracturing ecosystem, they’re among the first to die off. States across New England have spent the past half century trying to bring back the fish. They’ve dismantled dams, stocked fry, and instituted fishing regulations. Connecticut alone spent eight and a half million dollars over the past thirty-two years on restoring salmon, largely without success. The last significant wild population left in the continental United States is in Maine. (There are still scattered populations across North America—mostly in Canada.) 

Today Newfoundland and Labrador claim 60% of the Atlantic Salmon rivers of North America (about 200) with catch and release being the rule for much of the season. While these fish are a treasure in Creation they are certainly under threat. As "people of the fish" we can encourage every effort to protect salmon, and the cod, and all the species of the seas. 

Active Hope in the Climate Emergency

The United Church Observer, the denomination's award-winning magazine no longer exists with its traditional name. It is "reborn" as Broadview, for better or worse. I've appreciated the subjects this magazine has addressed through the decades and the willingness to venture into controversial discussions of the "where angels fear to tread" variety. 

In the most recent issue there is an article by the excellent journalist and author Alanna Mitchell, who is a United Church member. She writes about the Friday Climate Strikes around the planet, the rallies by young people, the majority from Generation Z, who want to grab the attention of leaders so that they will address the climate emergency -- now. While 16-year-old Swede, Greta Thunberg, is the high profile face of this movement,  Mitchell looks at all this through the eyes of an Ontario university student Aliénor Rougeot, who has become a climate activist. 

Rougeot’s objective is strikingly commonsensical. It’s not anarchy or bloody revolution or a new world order. Instead, she and her generation want to persuade government leaders to meet with them. And then, to not just listen to their demands, but also take those demands deadly seriously. In other words, the aim is to use the power of youth to shift the responsibility for fixing the climate crisis back onto the policy-makers who have not just the ability, but the duty, to do it. 



Toronto rally, May 2019

There have been a number of critics of Thunberg and the student protestors, claiming that they are hysterical and misinformed, and fomenting hopelessness. Mitchell speaks of the "active hope" of these determined young people, an unwillingness to let a generation which will not live through the grim outcome of irresponsible actions continue on a disastrous course. 

I do wish that the article had touched on our Christian hope in the face of the desecration of Creation as well -- this is a magazine for a community of faith, after all -- but it well worth reading. 

https://broadview.org/youth-climate-crisis/

Green Sanctuary in the City

Cherry Blossoms in High Park, Toronto

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, 
bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 
through the middle of the street of the city. 
On either side of the river is the tree of life^* 
with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; 
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22: 1-2

Our younger daughter, Emily, lives in Toronto, a concrete jungle in many respects. We are impressed, though, that she finds places of green sanctuary in different nooks and crannies of the city, around where she works right downtown, and in her neighbourhood a little to the west. Her apartment is actually not far from High Park, one of Toronto's gems, but she sends us photos from lunch breaks in small parks and gardens maintained by the city.



The Bentway, Toronto

As Toronto soars upward with condo buildings and other highrises there is a challenge to create sufficient green space to nourish the souls of residents. One of the newer parks is the Bentway which is underneath one of TO's busiest expressways and becomes an ice-skating oval in winter. 



There is a proposal for an elevated park, not unlike the High Line in New York City. It would be hugely expensive ($2 billion) to construct and the benefits difficult to measure when so much infrastructure work is necessary . Still, we are coming to realize that in a world that is becoming increasingly urbanized we don't function well without time amidst trees and flowers. 

I just found out that a Forest Bathing trail system is being developed in Markham where people can connect with nature in a contemplative way, on the model of the extensive parks in Japan which are actually part of the national health program. https://parkpeople.ca/2018/09/26/shinrin-yoku-markhams-new-forest-bathing-trail/

Pew Research just published a piece on urban parks which interviews several coordinators in major US cities. One of them Nette Compton, observes:

The role of the urban park continues to evolve, both in the performance of functional services, and our expectations for what purpose it can serve. As our nation and world become increasingly urban, we must rely more heavily on parks to provide us with many resources: open space and access to nature, recreation opportunities, environmental functions like storm water retention and cooling, beauty, and inspiration.

https://www.pewcenterarts.org/post/urban-parks-and-civic-life-insights-leaders-pa-horticultural-society-trust-public-land-high



Point Pleasant Park, Halifax

These parks are often oases from the din of cities as well, and establishing them as quiet places is becoming a priority as well. When we lived in the heart of Halifax we were blessed to live a short walk from Point Pleasant Park and went there often. 

I've noted before that the bible begins in a wilderness garden and end in an urban garden. Books generally begin with the best and end with the best, so those of us who are people of faith should pay attention, don't you think? 





The High Line, New York City

Indigenous Peoples and Care for Creation

Yesterday was International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. According to the United Nations website:

There are an estimated 370 million indigenous people in the world, living across 90 countries. They make up less than 5 per cent of the world's population, but account for 15 per cent of the poorest. They speak an overwhelming majority of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 different cultures.

Indigenous peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Despite their cultural differences, indigenous peoples from around the world share common problems related to the protection of their rights as distinct peoples.

It seems important to me that we are all aware of this, and I would add that we must become more aware of Indigenous spirituality, particularly those aspects which honour and steward the Earth. We are awakening to the grim truth that the Imperialist destruction of Indigenous cultures has not only deeply affected generations of those who lived on the land before Europeans arrived, our literal and figurative poisonous ways has meant the desecration of the environment which is necessary to sustain us. Often Indigenous practices were associated with paganism rather than received as wisdom which respected both Creator and Creation.



Flag designed by Kwakwaka'wakw artist Curtis Wilson.

When Moderator Bob Smith apologized to Native Peoples on behalf of the United Church of Canada in 1986 he began by saying: 

Long before my people journeyed to this land your people were here, and you received from your Elders an understanding of creation and of the Mystery that surrounds us all that was deep, and rich, and to be treasured. We did not hear you when you shared your vision. 

In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ we were closed to the value of your spirituality. We confused Western ways and culture with the depth and breadth and length and height of the gospel of Christ. We imposed our civilization as a condition of accepting the gospel.

Here in Canada we should welcome land settlements which include co-management of unceded lands and encourage recruiting Indigenous people to work in patrolling and protecting the North. In Ontario there is an agreement in principle for that sort of co-management with the Algonquins which includes a huge area, including Algonquin Park. 

 As Christians we can accept that humility is a virtue and learn from those who have always understood the wealth of the planet as far more than what could be extracted for the benefit of a few.