Climate change and fear.

There are some excellent campaigners, in environmental issues. Unfortunately there are others who have discovered climate change as yet another cause, another excuse to don a hair shirt and demand that the human race returns to some mythical rural idyll that never existed.

Don't get me wrong, climate change is a very serious problem and a great threat to very many humans. If we do nothing then millions will die as will, also, the concepts of peace, security and development. My problem is with two groups, the first, those who blame technology and demand that we give everything up returning to a self supporting, growing your own society.

Any way, don't through out technology. We do need to reign in our wastefulness and to do so quickly but renewable technology could help to transform this planet in a very positive and acceptable way. Coal, oil and gas will run out one day, whatever we do.

The second group consists of those who insist that the only way to make change is by trying to convince us all that we are doomed. Change everything by tomorrow or there will be no day after tomorrow! But enough of a rant for one evening, I will leave my bête noire for another day.

A large proportion of our species lives within cities and there are fairly obvious difficulties in being self supporting on the 13th floor of a tower block. I can just imagine the absolutely enthusiastic welcome that will be given by the affluent protesters against every form of wind turbine to us city folk when we invade their rural retreats! Technology wasn't the cause; technology didn't push out the carbon dioxide, it was done by us human beings, acting in ignorance ...... and greed. It's all about how we use technology and about acceptance of a simple mathematical concept, the nature of the finite.

Dickens made a useful comment in David Copperfield:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

That well describes our use of technology and of the Earth's resources. Of course we need to reign in the demand for more and more short lived consumer products but, in technology, lies part of the solution. Carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by limiting the wasteful use of energy and other resources BUT, at the same time, we should be heavily investing in renewables. Ultimately, that is all the energy that we will be able to harvest.

Amidst all of the doom and gloom there is a real renaissance in so many areas of scientific knowledge and development. A good few years back I subscribed to a whole bunch of scientific development email lists and added to these with some Google Alerts. Were there now time to read and follow back to source every bit of news that is now coming in. Follow back to source? Yes, of course, scientific understanding doesn't appear on very many journos CVs and some newspaper reports of science are both laughably and woefully inadequate, at the same time.

However, there is a lot of very good and very exciting research being carried out from ever smaller solar cells to bigger wind turbines. And, whilst we are considering wind turbines, I have been a fan of Henning Mankell's books for several years. Mankell created the character, Kurt Wallender, a police Inspector in the town of Ystad, just outside Malmo, in Sweden. The Beeb has carried both a TV series, in English, and a film series, in Swedish and subtitled in English, both filmed in the province of Skane, Sweden.

Wait for it!! There is a connection and, whilst mad, I'm not entirely so - yet. Most of the programmes carry a lot of outdoor filming and have, apparently, increased UK visitors to Sweden. If you haven't watched one, do so soon, you can stream or download from the BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

Look carefully and, amidst the beautiful scenery, the mayhem and murder, you will see a large number of wind turbines, dotted everywhere throughout this area of southern Sweden. Strange that this hasn't caused tourist numbers to fall, isn't it? The interesting point is that you have to make an effort to 'see' the turbines even when action is limited and the cameras are giving views.

2010 begins

A New Year, another new year in a large and growing number that I would prefer to forget! But it's a new chance, too, a chance to make change. At least, that's what I hope. The next 12 months will tell. Now follows a short piece about the Church of England. It's about networking and making change within the environment, not theology and not missionary work, so don't worry. Please read on, you may be surprised and it may suggest, to you, ways in which you can use other networks to achieve change.

Last Sunday I travelled to Tower Hill, to my church, St Olave's in Hart Street. What has this got to do with the price of beans? Well, last spring the Rector drew my attention to a small memorial, one among many for the church is nearly a thousand years old. This one commemorated the fact that one William Turner had lived his last years in Crutched Friars and was buried in our churchyard.

The significance lies in the fact that Turner was a Reformation priest, a physician, botanist and ornithologist who published the first herbal - an illustrated 3 volume work on English plants - in the English language. He also published the first printed book on birds and he died in 1568.

Now, 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and Turner's work seemed to be an invitation for a project to engage the Church of England in a little practical and positive environmental work. There are an awful lot of Anglican churches with churchyards so here, perhaps, is a chance to get a bit of cooperation going and to engage with congregations and to use these little islands of space to encourage biodiversity.

Much of this is very simple; creating an area of wilderness, a space where grasses and wild flowers are allowed to grow to maturity, for example. Many churchyards are maintained by local authorities so it's not just churches but LAs that get some useful education. Beyond wilderness there is a simple requirement that a bit less maintenance gets done; leaves should be left to lie. Then come the exciting bits: bird and bat boxes, bird feeders and, at least as significant as all the rest, bee hives.

The last bit requires rather more thought and preparation but I've found a great deal of support from bee keepers, Natural England, the City of London and the good people of St Olave's.

At the same time, we are planning to reorder our small churchyard so that we incorporate a number of herbs. This will commemorate William Turner and provide a sensory element for blind people. Then out into the rest of the City, then into London Diocese and finally out around the country.

Will it work? I don't know, not until I have tried, that is. I'm promised not to bore you with Anglican theology but I will simply mention that the Anglican Communion, several years ago, adopted 'five marks of mission' and the fifth is caring for Creation - the environment, in other words. That gives a useful starting point to engage with the around 900,000 people who attend churches within the C of E, in the UK.

That could be a lot of bird boxes and bee hives, and bird feeders, particularly in an inner city setting, will encourage birds where local forage is low. Small changes but they will aggregate and, I hope, will lead to the next phase which will be about developing a network of environmental activists across the C of E. Then the lesson of aggregating small positive change can be used to engage with climate change and with a panoply of the other constituents of living sustainably.

There's still a bit of planning to complete and money to raise but it's looking good! Every Sunday I'm asked when the beehive will arrive and the entire congregation seem to want to be involved.

So, with a following wind, the sails will, I hope, soon fill and 2010 could be the beginning of a journey of change. Climate change is a looming danger - but so is loss of species, particularly the honey bee - in our Sceptered Isle.

p.s Note the sailing symbolism: soon I will post a short piece about the development of a group to protect the tidal Thames. Watch this space!!