Letters - 09 January 2015
From climate change to membership
Climate change
In response to Stevie Krayer (21 November 2014), I agree that we should not despair about mitigation. What is needed is to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible and also to look at safe ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The soil has a large carbon-sequestering capacity, and there are ideas about ways to utilise this by agricultural practices which are natural – ways of grazing herds and ways of producing and burying biochar from waste vegetation.
Given good will, the ingenuity of the human race could have a good go at managing both of these – whether in time or not cannot be known for sure, but it is too soon for a definite ‘no’, I think. Our faith supports us in giving of our best and hoping for a good outcome. What we have to fear is complicity in a climate tragedy which results from not giving of our best.
We need each other, and we already believe in the values of cooperation and sharing. This new problem, unlike any we have faced before, calls us to truthfulness and generosity. There is no time for guilt or blame. Grandparents can see www.campaigncc.org/grandparents, for Grandparents Climate Action, an idea brought to the UK from Norway. It is just one of many organisations now springing up and beginning to make a difference.
All this is very relevant to this year’s election when we can confront candidates with the urgency of the issue. We can let them know that ignoring does not win our vote.
Jeanne Warren
Quakers and peace in the South Atlantic
Soon after the Falklands war a group of concerned British citizens set up the South Atlantic Council (SAC) to promote communications and understanding between the British, the Argentines and the Falkland Islanders. One of the founding members was Margaret Burkett, a Friend who had worked in the Islands.
In the 1980s, the SAC provided a rare channel for political contacts between Britain and Argentina. A grant from Quaker trusts helped to pay for a research fellow, Alaine Low, based at City University, London, and made possible an exchange of visits between parliamentarians from Britain and Argentina. Marigold Best (who then worked for Quaker Peace and Service) provided valuable help with the London visit.
A series of occasional papers to promote alternative ways of thinking about the future was launched and we
know that they were influential. Significant rapproche-ment took place under Carlos Menem, Argentinian president (1989-99), and mechanisms were established for cooperation, notably on fishing and oil exploration.
In recent years, under the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner presidencies, these advances have given way to political confrontation and an end to cooperation. The SAC continues to work for a change in approach after elections in both Britain and Argentina in 2015.
We have not had direct Quaker involvement in our deliberations for some years. Does any Friend have a concern for peace in the South Atlantic and some experience to contribute to the Council’s work? If so, we would welcome hearing from them.
Robin Wallis, honorary secretary
South Atlantic Council, sac.honsec@gmail.com
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