Eco Blog - St. George's Berlin

 The world wildlife fund has a petition to save porpoises porpoises, which are increasingly endangered. This petition is in German, but I trust that most readers of this blog and members of St. George's church in Berlin you can read German well enough to follow what it says. Here is the link:  https://mitmachen.wwf.de/meerrechtmeerleben Many thanks to Robyn Maguire for sending it.

 The church of Saint Martin in Davis California has installed solar panels to improve its ecological footprint. When the bishop came to bless them, he had to improvise. According to the Episcopal News Service (16 June 2021): After reading an abridged version of “A Song of Creation” from the Morning Prayer II lessons, Traquair stood on a scissor lift, sprinkled the panels with holy water, and prayed “that they may continue to capture the light of God’s beautiful creation, the thumb that he placed above us, and that its energy may go to help support the life of those that he has placed here in this community, in this country and in this world.”  Solar panels make a lot of sense in a sunny part of the world like California. but they are not the only steps that the parish is taken. It has long had an eco-policy that has led to a number of changes The church began by replacing worn-out items with eco-friendly alternatives, and in 2018, the congregation decided to be more proactive and began

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has a report about soil pollution: " Soil pollution is invisible to the human eye, but it compromises the quality of the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe and puts human and environmental health at risk ." ( SOURCE )  Damian Carrington (2021) of the Guardian expands on this by referring to a December UN report on soil biodiversity:  " Since the Industrial Revolution, about 135bn tonnes of soil has been lost from farmland and, given that it takes thousands of years for soils to form, urgent protection and restoration of the soils that remain is needed, the scientists said "   ( SOURCE ) The risk is that problems of this scale seem beyond the ability of ordinary citizens to help, but they are not. Small things matter, even just protecting the earthworm population can contribute to soil health. It is especially important to be careful about  putting potentially damaging materials from printers or computers