Have You Driven an EV Lately?

Were you aware that the first motor vehicles were electric and that Thomas Edison began work on a long-lasting battery in the 19th century to power them? He eventually gave up the project to pursue other inventions and by early in the 20th century some guy named Henry Ford was figuring out how to produce mass-market cars with internal combustion engines.

Electric car timeline:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/electric-car-timeline.html

In the 1960's the US Congress passed a bill recommending electric vehicles in order to reduce pollution, but it didn't gain much traction, so to speak. In the 1990's General Motors produced an electric vehicle called the EV1 which buyers loved. Mysteriously, GM bought them all back and destroyed them, leaving environmentalists wondering which interests brought pressure on what was then the largest vehicle producer in the world to kill this car. Ironic, considering that GM has declared that autonomous and electric vehicles are the future, even as the corporation was shutting down plants for traditional vehicles in Canada and the US.



As a Christian who feels that climate change is the greatest threat to the integrity of God's web of Creation I'm ready to drive an alternative vehicle although they aren't yet affordable enough for this pensioner. I saw an article recently which suggests that if drivers can wait three to five years there will be a massive shift in availability of EV's and I'm looking forward to this.

Here in Belleville there is now a Tesla super-charging station on the main commercial road and recently we saw two car-carrier transport trucks barreling down the 401 with Teslas aboard. It's happening folks, although there is still mindless resistance. In the southern US pick-up drivers have been blocking these super-charger stations and yelling profanities at Tesla drivers. Will the stupidity ever end?

Can you see yourself behind the wheel of a electric vehicle? Is driving one a moral or ethical issue?

The Wild Remedy & the Spiritual Life

Winter has not been much fun in Southern Ontario this year, but we doggedly head outdoors on a regular basis. We've tramped around the trails of provincial parks and conservation areas as well as several "off the beaten path" spots we enjoy. While we sigh at the gloom of the past couple of months (is it now against the law for the sun to shine?) we always feel better for getting outside. For both of us this is more than exercise or dealing with cabin fever. It is an important part of our spiritual practice and emotional health.

I'm waiting for the release in North America of a book recently published in Great Britain called The Wild Remedy.  The author is Emma Mitchell who describes herself this way:

I’m an ex-biologist, naturalist, workshop-teacher, designer-maker, illustrator, mum, baker, gardener and keeper of guinea pigs. I share my nature diaries and the things I make on Instagram.


There is increasing scientific evidence that both crafting and contact with nature can boost mood and help to fend off depression by altering the levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine in our brains. I’ve found that making  during winter can help to fend off the grey feelings that can creep in at the very end and very beginning of the year and this led me to write my book, Making Winter.



I'll admit that I roll my eyes a bit as Brits describe Winter. Some of the folk I follow on Twitter, including Mitchell, are already speaking excitedly of signs of the first flowers of Spring -- pulleeze! Still Mitchell is on the right track in inviting us into creativity, observation, and gratitude in a time when SAD and a general malaise can set in.

We'll continue to spend time outside using the general principle that there is no " bad weather, just bad gear." We'll trust that the Creator brought all the seasons into being and that this is a "wild remedy".

Celtic Creation

 

Crows on a Vancouver Island Beach

 

Blessed are you, O God of justice

Blessed are you, O God of beauty

Blessed are you, O God of gentleness

Blessed are you, O God of wild unbridled winds.

We find you in all things.

We find you in every creature.

We find in the depths of our ever-living souls.

Praise be to you.

 

John Philip Newell, Celtic Treasure: Daily Scriptures and Prayer

 

My Lion Lamb blog today is a reflection on Celtic spirituality in the Christian tradition and my upcoming study/discussion series at Trenton United Church, beginning January 9th.  I mention the importance of the "green martyrs," the Celtic hermits and mystics of an earlier time who attempted to live in harmony with the natural world as an expression of Creation. There are improbable legends which involve otters and salmon and birds which nonetheless nudge us to consider how we respect the ecosystems of which we are part.

 

 

We will spend time speaking about some of these figures and how we might apply their witness to our lives and care for a groaning Creation (Romans 8:23.)

 

I've included a couple of prayers and blessings here, one in the Celtic spirit, by J. Philip Newell, and another traditional blessing I used often in worship through the years, particularly during Creation Time in the seasons of the liturgical year of the Church. Here, too, is the link to Lion Lamb.

 

https://lionlamb-bowmanville.blogspot.com/2019/01/celtic-christianity-for-2019.html

 

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

Sun and moon pour their healing light on you

Deep peace of Christ, the light of the world to you.

 



Belief in Climate Change in 2019

 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down
with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life,
and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.
For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 
 Be alert at all times,
praying that you may have the strength
 to escape all these things that will take place,
and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Luke 21:34-36

Many of us have lived through the decades with the annual images of an old codger representing the end of a calendar year and a diaper clad baby ushering in the new year. Sometimes the child is alongside an hourglass which represents the passage of time.

The cartoon above includes the rather chilling image of the Grim Reaper with a scythe stating "Climate Change." The child toddles toward the hourglass which has the inscription "12 Years." This refers to the IPCC report of the Fall of 2018 which warns humanity that we have about a dozen years to get our collective shit together on the global menace of climate change. This report and the recent American counterpart draw the same sobering scientific conclusions.

Of course Emperor Trump immediately dismissed these findings because he has a "scientific mind" and therefore...I really don't know how to finish this sentence...

Even those of us who "believe" in climate change are reluctant to alter our habits which contribute to it, especially those of us who live in affluent countries. We are addicted to fossil fuels, whether we want to admit it or not. We may express our exasperation about fundamentalist Christians who dismiss climate change yet we don't really want to "walk the walk" ourselves.

In the end this is not a matter of belief, as climate scientist and Christian Katharine Hayhoe reminds us. The scientific evidence is not a religion, she points out, and denying climate change isn't relevant any more than not believing in gravity will save us if we walk off a cliff.

I feel that I need to prayerfully ask in every day of 2019 what difference I can make as a grandparent, citizen, Christian in addressing what really is the biggest issue of our time.

Listen to Dr. Hayhoe here:

https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it?language=en

Those Clever Swiss!

Not long ago we were visited by a friend from Switzerland, his first time in Canada. As he awaited his return flight he texted us from the airport. He was bewildered by the menu at Swiss Chalet, which contained nothing that was even vaguely Swiss! Where do we begin in "splainin?"

Yesterday we decided that it was "any chalet in a storm" after a busy two weeks with family. As the server brought our water I noticed that there were no plastic straws brought automatically, which we always politely refuse. When I inquired about this she told us that they are only provided on request now, and that they are transitioning to paper. We reviewed our table settings and realized that there was no single-use plastic and next to no disposable items, which was good for a semi-fast food experience. The same can't be said for their take-out which we've agreed we won't do anymore.

While my dearly departed mother was in her last hours in November we slipped out for a quick meal at MacDonald's, which I've been boycotting because they won't put coffee in a refillable thermal mug. Since we were eating there I asked that my orange juice not have a plastic lid, only to be told by the cashier and then the manager they couldn't do for "safety reasons." I calmly challenged the friendly manager on this rather silly company policy (I didn't use those words) given growing concerns about plastic waste. Someone nearby piped up and said this was a good point and he admitted that a container of juice wasn't the same as a cup of hot coffee -- don't get me started!

I figure that every day I need to figure out how to create less consumer waste, knowing what ends up in our lakes and oceans and just about everywhere else. We know that the recycling bin is not the answer, even though it may assuage our guilt. As a global citizen and a creation-care Christian it is a matter of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, with the first two coming first in practice.

A Voyage of Discovery

HMS Beagle

"There is grandeur in this view of life ...
from so simple a beginning,
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been,
and are being, evolved."

Charles Darwin

In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950),
my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed
 that there is no conflict between evolution
and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation,
provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points.

Pope John Paul II 1996

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the departure in 1831 of the HMS Beagle on an epic voyage with Charles Darwin aboard. Darwin spent two months in Devonport, England, waiting for the weather to improve so that the Beagle could begin its journey to South America. Darwin later wrote that those two months were "The most miserable which I ever spent." I've visited this harbour but wasn't aware that it was the site for the beginning of such a world-changing voyage.



Darwin's daughter, Annie, died shortly after her 10th birthday;
he was too overcome with grief to attend her funeral.

You may be aware that Darwin's Christian faith evaporated after the death of a daughter, although his wife Emma remained devout throughout her lifetime. Darwin may have held back on publishing his controversial theory of evolution for twenty years because he didn't want to offend Emma, whom he loved greatly.

While some fundamentalist Christians are adamant about a six-day Creation, the majority of Christians now choose to accept evolution even as they affirm God as Creator. I'm one of them and it is certainly part of the United Church ethos.  It interesting that the first Roman Catholic statement about this reconciliation was made in 1950. Here is a portion of the Song of Faith "creed" of the United Church of Canada.

God is creative and self-giving,
   generously moving
   in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.
Our first response to God’s providence is gratitude.
We sing thanksgiving.

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.

A Song of Faith United Church of Canada

 

 

Father Christmas &...the Beavers?

 Pauline Baynes

Beavers are part of the Christmas story, right? They are if you've read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the classic Narnia children's book by C S Lewis. You might recall that on their way to Aslan, the Lion Christ figure of the series of novels, Mr and Mrs Beaver shelter the Pevensy children in their lodge. Then they venture out together and encounter Father Christmas. He gives presents to all, and his appearance is a sign that the witch's control over Narnia is slipping. The Beavers and the children arrive safely at Aslan's camp near the Stone Table, as the Witch's magic weakens further and the snow gradually melts.

When I read these books as a child and young adult and then with my children it didn't occur to me that beavers were anything but a fanciful element in Lewis' Narnia, a parallel world to 1950's Britain. Beavers were native to England and Scotland but wiped out by the 16th century.

In recent years beavers have been reintroduced to both countries because they are important animals for creating and maintaining wetlands which are home to a variety of bird, animal, and insect species. In Scotland they are a protected species but not everyone is happy to have them around because they are "destructive," which in some people's eyes is cutting down trees and flooding land. In the United Kingdom, as with Canada, it is establishing the right balance between this species and ours. When we lived in Northern Ontario the collapse of beaver dams led to road flooding and train track collapse on occasion. Yet there is great value to ecosystems in having beavers around.

Beavers teetered on extinction in Canada as well, almost extirpated by a frenzied fur trade that supplied --you guessed it -- England. I'm pleased to say that we've seen several in recent weeks on our rambles.

So, forget the "ox and ass" of Christmas Nativity legend (no animals are mentioned in the gospels) and think Father Christmas and the Beaver family.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/21/scotland-must-commit-to-helping-beavers-make-a-comeback?CMP=share_btn_fb

https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/our-positions-and-casework/our-positions/species/beaver-reintroduction-in-the-uk/