What’s wrong with the picture?
Chris Smith sees something wrong with British Quakers' position on climate change
The General Meeting for Scotland met for a residential weekend against a background of severe flooding across the UK and in a hydro-carbon dominated city: Aberdeen. Our hosts kicked the event off as we arrived on Friday night, 20 November, with a showing of the Franny Armstrong documentary The Age of Stupid. The film is an entertaining appeal to end complacency about climate change. This screening was to prove ironic.
In the body of the Meeting, Margaret Peacock, Meetings for Suffering representative, delivered the news: Quakers are not going to sign up for the 10:10 Campaign on Climate Change ahead of Copenhagen. This campaign seeks to gather high profile supporters to strengthen the resolve of politicians when they meet.
On Friday night after the movie, my teenage daughter turned to me. ‘The problem is, you spend your carbon footprint driving to meet people, to watch a movie about reducing your carbon footprint. You spend more of your carbon footprint discussing it. And nothing happens.’ Ouch.
As Margaret patiently explained to me after her report, many Friends felt unable to join 10:10 for a variety of reasons. Some felt the request happened too quickly. Surprising, because climate change and Copenhagen haven’t just appeared. Within Aberdeen, reaction varied. Friends pointed out that 10:10 was just ‘gesture politics’ and others thought Quakers were already doing far beyond the aims of the campaign; it would send the wrong message to join it. One Friend looked me in the eye and said she was ‘embarrassed’ by this decision.
Now here is the irony; support material to promote the 10:10 campaign is from The Age of Stupid film. But the headline is: Tottenham Hotspur Football Club can sign up to reduce their carbon emissions but the Society of Friends can’t. Something is wrong with that picture.
