The Drumderg wind farm from the Alyth Hill. Photo: Shandchem/flickr CC
Quaker testimonies and the challenge of climate change
As Yearly Meeting Gathering discusses the ways we can change our lives to sustain the world we live in, Tom Greeves describes a visit by the Living Witness Project to his Area Meeting
Global warming is one of several very critical interacting issues facing us, including the extinction of species, the loss of biodiversity, diminishing resources (both non-renewable and renewable), pollution from waste and emissions due to over population, excessive consumption and the lack of responsibility of us humans. But if the global family of humankind can work together to overcome this dire situation, it could lead to a better and more peaceful life for us all. The Living Witness team have been visiting Meetings around the country to help Friends think through ‘The Spiritual Roots of our 10:10 Commitment’. Central England Area Meeting was visited by the team and a number of aspects were covered. The one that I found particularly helpful was on the links between our Quaker testimonies and the challenges facing humanity as a result of our careless emission of greenhouse gases. These are leading us towards a global warming, which could have very serious impacts on all life on our planet Earth.
Turning to our testimonies to peace, equality, simplicity and truth, there are many links between them and also many links to our environment and the sustainability of life on earth.
The peace testimony
Shortages of resources and damage to the environment, due both to excessive consumption and to climate change, will inevitably lead to conflicts. Back in the days when humans lived a nomadic life, when they moved from place to place to follow the sources of food as the seasons changed, the effects of climate change – for instance, the end of the ice age – were probably less difficult to cope with than they are today when we have converted land for agriculture and built towns and cities. Population growth also leaves no space for people to move to when displaced by drought, floods and sea level rise, the latter being particularly relevant as a majority of our major cities are also sea ports.
Working together to minimise these potentially disastrous events and helping each other to adapt to the changes we fail to avoid is the very stuff of peacemaking, an area where Quakers have great experience. Our peacemaking skills are needed right now to encourage people to understand what needs to be done and to get them to work together.
Simplicity
To achieve simplicity is, paradoxically, a complex process. Our present Western culture and the economic principles that maintain it are based on encouraging economic growth and hence consumption. An excellent research project in the late 1960s led to the publication of a book called Limits to Growth in 1972 ,which set out very clearly where our economic system and lifestyle was leading us (there have been three follow-up publications by members of the original team since then). It concluded that the course we were on was unsustainable and thirty-eight years later they are being proved right. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has done good work looking at how our economic system could be radically changed so as to lead towards sustainability (see The Great Transition published by NEF in June 2010) and it is good to see consideration being given to this difficult but vital issue by Friends.
Our testimony to simplicity is an important concept in moving towards a sustainable lifestyle and needs to be given prominence in our efforts.
Equality
Our testimony to equality is closely linked to all of the above issues. Recent research has shown that greater equality leads to a happier existence and also diminishes conflict. Equality needs to work in terms of raising the standards of the poor and eliminating slavery as well as getting the rich to live more responsible and simple lives, sharing their wealth with others through charities. Combining equality with simplicity makes a sustainable lifestyle more achievable by reducing the demands on global resources and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Truth
I think that for early Friends the word truth was used to refer to Friends’ experience of the Divine, which led them to assert the reality of the Spirit. But the word also encompassed the importance of facing up to reality and of not distorting a situation for perceived gain or to avoid difficult issues. In the situation humanity now finds itself, I think truth refers to facing up to the reality of the threats outlined above and to act to the best of our ability to counter them.
The impact of climate change is probably the most urgent issue, hence our Area Meeting’s pledge to the 10:10 commitment. Without a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions we will be faced with sea level rise driving people to migrate in an already overpopulated world. We will also see other impacts of climate change such as drought and floods, as indeed we are already seeing, with consequential food shortages. This means changing our lifestyles to minimise energy use, for example, food and transport, improving the insulation of our homes and places of work and the efficiency of the equipment we use, and informing ourselves of the carbon footprint (embedded energy) of the things we purchase.
Alongside that is the urgent need to protect the planet’s biodiversity, without which the natural resources on which we depend will dramatically reduce. This means moving towards becoming vegetarians and becoming better informed about where our food comes from and how it is produced, for example, local and organic, and selecting things accordingly as well as growing your own if possible. There are also a good many other items that need similar selection and in general we need to apply the principles of reuse and recycling.
The question of the global overpopulation is a truth that seems to be denied by significant sections of the population and seems to be avoided by most politicians. This is another important issue where we need to ‘speak truth to power’ and seek a sensible family planning policy.
Happy sustainability
All of the above sounds pretty dire and many people find it difficult to face up to and to accept what we need to do. But if it can be seen as the family of humankind working together and as a route to a happier and more peaceful life, then it may be seen as more attractive and more worthy of the necessary effort to achieve. This would seem to be a key aspect of how we need to go forward. In all these issues we do, of course, need to seek the leadings of the Spirit to guide us in our actions – ‘God has no hands but ours’.
