The big problem of global warming is that it is not a problem for me, not in my lifetime. The very opposite, in fact: warmer summers, pleasant spring and autumn days, and best of all, no bitterly cold winters. (I remember 1963 with a shiver)
Furthermore I can enjoy climate change because here in our neighbourhood there is little likelihood of a catastrophic flood, a hurricane or a forest fire, just the occasional winter storm.
But that is, of course, me being entirely selfish. There are other residents of our planet who face catastrophe, even this day. So when we talk of climate change, we also need to talk about justice, especially the protection of the weak and those vulnerable to shifts in climate.
So this Tuesday Jacqui and I took the 159 bus to the Duchy Arms in Kennington, just south of Lambeth Palace. (I assume it’s Archbishop Justin’s local). The purpose was to attend a meeting there organised by our ordained daughter in her capacity as vicar of St Mary’s Eco church, North Lambeth (AKA St Mary-in-the-wilderness).
Somehow she had acquired two top speakers to her Eco Chamber, a led discussion on climate change and justice. The two, as we shall see, go hand-in-hand. Our second speaker was Abigail, from Citizens UK, a young woman passionate for justice: she spoke movingly on the need for us to care for those enduring exile, often as a result of climate change.
However, in this blog I shall be majoring on the opening speaker, epidemiologist Pauline, an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She knew her stuff, well enough to explain complex issues for us to understand.
Her original speciality, she told us, was as an epidemiologist, investigating the source of outbreaks of disease. This led her to the observation that such epidemics would often be the consequence of global warming, especially in coastal regions and in areas devastated by drought. So she decided to move her discipline to the study of climate change.
What I found surprising is that Pauline was relatively positive – there is still time, she believes, to fix the problem of global warming. So often we are presented with a defeatist viewpoint.
It’s a huge subject, of course, and so Pauline decided to focus her presentation on food - what we eat and how we produce it. It seems that food is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gases.
Two of her examples caught my attention: pork and grapes.
Cereal grown in Argentina, she informed us, is shipped to China to be fed to pigs. These pigs are then transported, I assume after slaughter, to the Middle East where they are processed into pork and pork products before being returned to China. The transport costs must be huge, especially in terms of greenhouse gases.
Then, grapes. Grapes are grown for our supermarkets in Cape Province, South Africa even though there is a serious water shortage devastating the subsistence farmers. We benefit at their expense.
It just can’t be right. Clearly we need our food to be grown locally and to be consumed in season. It’s a matter of justice. And as Abigail, our other speaker, outlined, the resultant climate change often triggers the mass movement of people with all its associated problems.
However, it’s one thing to identify the problem, it’s something else to do something about it. Here Pauline identified three possible responses: eat less meat, reduce dairy consumption and buy locally. Ten years ago it seemed that the only people who took this seriously were white, high income couples with no children. Today it’s the same: high income, no children but more representative ethnic mix.
Here, the challenge is how to encourage low income families to adopt a more sustainable diet. The fact is that the less well-off you are, the more likely you are to be prey to food which is unhealthy both to our bodies and to our environment.
We need a practical response and here Pauline introduced us to the National Food Strategy, a considered response from those working in agriculture and food manufacture with medics and academics alongside NGOs. Their aim is to help disadvantaged children as well as promoting environmental and animal welfare standards. Again, justice meets environment
As it happened last Sunday I found myself preaching on food. The lectionary epistle was Paul’s letter to the Romans. Here the apostle takes hold of a hot potato, whether his readers could eat meat which as a matter of course had been offered as sacrifice to pagan gods. Some Christians did because such gods do not exist; others didn’t as a point of principle.
Either way, writes Paul, “whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” (Romans 14:6).
But then he makes his central argument: “For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.” (v7). This is fundamental: there is simply no room for selfishness in the Christian life. That global warming is no problem for me does not mean that I can opt out. We’re all in it together and it is for me to do my bit. God expects no less.