Eco Blog - St. George's Berlin

 Recent weather catastrophes have made the arguments for addressing the climate crisis more urgent. As the Guardian editorial on 25 July 2021 commented : "Reminders that our planet is wilting under the impact of human-driven climate change have been hard to avoid this month." ( SOURCE )  The problem is clearly political as well as an economic, as the Guardian editorial goes on to say: "This terrifying prospect has come about because politicians and business leaders have failed, for several decades, to appreciate the risks involved in massively interfering with the make-up of our atmosphere and to instigate measures to limit the damage."  The institutional resistance  to ecologic change appears to be deeply embedded in services that seem normally to be highly trustworthy.  For example, on Saturday 24 July 2021 the Guardian reported: "A former police officer who is now a prominent climate crisis campaigner has accused the ...

 It is almost as if a biblical prophet predicting the catastrophes. War and famine have not yet made it to the list, but they may not be far behind. What we have at present are clear signs of an ecological catastrophe of biblical scale that includes killing heat and deadly floods, combined with COVID19 as a form of pestilence. Ironically COVID has helped by reducing travel and restricting meetings. Nine months ago on 15 September 2020 the Guardian had an article by Art Cullen called: "Drought, plague, fire: the apocalypse feels nigh. Yet we have tools to stop it." ( SOURCE ) Last Friday (16 July 2021) Jonathan Watts wrote an article called: "Climate scientists shocked by scale of floods in Germany: Deluge raises fears human-caused disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predicted." ( SOURCE )  As the biblical prophets knew all too well, human memory is remarkably short, and as soon as the immediate problem is gone, people wish to...

  Extreme heat has been in the headlines in areas that typically do not suffer from heat, including northern parts of  British Columbia in Canada, and Washington state in the US. The Guardian reports: " More than 31 million people across the US west and south-west are bracing for a brutal heatwave that could bring triple-digit temperatures this weekend, with authorities warning that records could be broken in many regions of California and Nevada." ( SOURCE ) The problem is serious:  "More than 5 million people die each year globally because of excessively hot or cold conditions, a 20-year study has found – and heat-related deaths are on the rise." ( SOURCE ) One of the possible causes of this extreme heat could be changes in the jet stream: "Experts at the Potsdam Institute and elsewhere believe the rapid heating in the Arctic and decline of sea ice is making the jet stream wiggle in large, meandering patterns, so-called Rossby resonance waves, trappi...

 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 ...

  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 ...

 The World Wife Fund for Nature is a 50 year old organisation committed to preserving nature. At present they are gathering signatures in Germany for their climate pledge. Only German citizens may sign, but both the petition and the site are nonetheless worth looking at.  Here is the LINK . Many thanks to Robyn Maguire for bringing this to our attention.