St Alphege's Social Group - Mark Doyle Tells Us About Their Environmental Mandate
When do events in society involve Christians? When they have an impact on the environment according to a group of Catholics at St Alphege's Church in Bath. Their desire to see social justice spurred them on to form the 'St Alphege's Social Justice Group'. The group set up 'Environmental Sessions' last year, including film showings of 'An Inconvenient Truth'. Mark Doyle tells us why the environment is a matter of justice.
(PICTURES: ST ALPHEGE'S,
Mark Doyle Gives A 'Q & A' session, to Editor, Emma.
What inspired you to set up the environmental sessions?
I have been involved in environmental matters for over twenty years. Alongside my work as a consulting engineer, I have read extensively on it and unfortunately, other than some temperate regions where vine growing will increasingly become an option as a thriving business proposition, the peer-reviewed science shows that we are heading one way. My inspiration for setting up the environmental sessions 
comes from too many sources to count, or recount.
Here are a just a few:
In September 2005 the United Nations World Health Organsation reported the annual cost of climate change was a death toll of 150,000 and rising.
In May 2009, the Global Humanitarian Forum whose President was Kofi Annan, introduced a major new report which said climate change was by then responsible for 300,000 deaths a year. It estimated that about a third of a Billion (325 Million) people are seriously affected by climate change.
By 2030, worldwide deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year and affect 660 Million.
I feel we are currently in a period of delusion, that has seen us all but squander two billion years worth of accumulated fossil-fuel reserves in a mere three centuries, with catastrophic consequences for humanity.Author Fred Pearce has an American scientist friend who calculates that if were we alive two thousand years ago, each of our households would require 6,000 slaves to support the equivalent of our modern lifestyles including food production, refrigeration, clothes making, product manufacture, transport, entertainment, and so on. See introduction to Fred Pearce's book: "Confessions of an Eco-Sinner - Travels to where my stuff comes from".
The End of the Line' and 'Hugh's Fish Fight' present great arguments for protecting the environment.
We have not yet decided how many free environmental sessions we will run in the series - we are gauging interest and meeting participants at their needs rather than being prescriptive.
We plan to use St. Alphege's Presbytery to illustrate some energy and water saving ideas, and later to bring in guest speakers from organisations such as Bath Greenpeace and Bath Friends of the Earth.
We ran three sessions in November 2010 and will run more later this year - see Springboard Bath for details.
Our first session was on Wednesday 3 November 2010, 7pm in St. Alphege's new parish hall. Our second session is on Wednesday 17 November 2010, 7pm in the meeting room of St. Alphege's parish hall. There is no formality to the series of sessions - the only formal record we wish to log is a tally of our carbon reduction.
Do you have a passion for protecting the environment? If so, how did this come about? Is this a Christian mandate do you feel?
Yes, I am passionate about my environmental work, but it was not always quite so.
All my adult life I knew my general direction, but my life's cause was not clear to me till 2005. I have a creative, searching, analytical mind and the information I needed to define my cause came about that year. There had been, till 2005, one last nagging doubt in the field of man-made climate change: It was an apparent anomaly in the atmospheric temperature record that suggested an inconsistency with the man-made climate change model. However, in 2005, it was proved that Roy Spencer and John Christy's "cooling atmosphere" data had been mis-read*, and our darkest environmental expectations and concerns were confirmed.
All my adult life I knew my general direction, but my life's cause was not clear to me till 2005. I have a creative, searching, analytical mind and the information I needed to define my cause came about that year. There had been, till 2005, one last nagging doubt in the field of man-made climate change: It was an apparent anomaly in the atmospheric temperature record that suggested an inconsistency with the man-made climate change model. However, in 2005, it was proved that Roy Spencer and John Christy's "cooling atmosphere" data had been mis-read*, and our darkest environmental expectations and concerns were confirmed.
Other sources added to and developed my approach including: 'An Inconvenient Truth' - a landmark film, George Monbiot's book 'Heat' - a masterclass in great journalism, and Vance Packard's 'The Waste Makers' - which expertly spells out the relentless drive for consumption associated with a nation's ability to produce.
My opinion, is that the future of mankind depends on the actions of the people who are alive now. We can take that action. We can wake up. We can make a difference.
If we don't act, there will be grave consequences within our lifetimes, and within the lifetimes of our children. Will we have it said of us by future generations struggling to cope with the worst effects of man-made climate change: 'You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting?'
Is this a Christian mandate? For me, such a link has never been a driver. If I were to think of it, I suppose there is a general mandate: 'Love thy neighbour' for example is not lived out by wanton consumption resulting in environmental catastrophe, flood, famine, disease and death for our remote, poor, vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters. Anyone however, regardless of faith or no faith, could have the same moral outlook. Perhaps there are specific scriptural references that support an environmental agenda but I have never sought them out.
Environmentally, all this is going to take is everything we've got. We need to de-carbonise our economy, we must de-carbonise our lives. Environmental matters have to become mainstream. I call this 'Mainstream Green'. The priority is for us all to understand what is going on and make changes. Time is short. We need to leverage and duplicate our efforts.
One of the simplest, effective changes we can make at home is to use green-tariff electricity. Another is to borrow an energy meter from your library and use what it tells you to reduce your electricity use by up to 15%. Use Magnatech
to reduce hydrocarbon (gas, oil, etc) by typically 6-10% with 10 month payback.
Use VPhase to reduce electricity use by 5%, running costs by 10%, improve appliance and lighting efficiency, and reduce maintenance.
Do you feel that this environment 'project' is a social justice issue?
When 300,000 of the world's poorest and most vulnerable die each year as the result of unchecked, unwitting (or worse, often knowing) unsustainable development, it's a social justice issue.
When a third of a billion people (one in twenty of our world population) are seriously affected by man-made climate change, it's a social justice issue.
When it's predicted to get much worse, it's a social justice issue.
When there is flooding, famine, pestilence, disease,mass migration, and water war, it's a social justice issue.
When our governments can't agree a workable model to slow climate change and avoid it's most catastrophic consequences, it's a social justice issue.
When the Government's (then) Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Sir David King states "A three degree rise in global temperatures (from manmade climate change) is inevitable. This could lead to water shortages for billions (1 to 3 billion) of people" (as reported on BBC Radio news, Good Friday, 14 April 2006), and we know that anything beyond two degrees is widely viewed as disturbingly unacceptable, it's a social justice issue.
Why has the St Alphege's Social Justice Group been created? What do you hope it will achieve?
St Alphege's Social Justice Group is one of our ways of making a real difference (see some of our successes so far, below, for more details). We are called as Christians, as Catholics, to care for each other, especially for those who are vulnerable, sick, weak, marginalised, voiceless.
We are also called to use our talents for the Glory of God, for the good of others, and for the good of ourselves. In doing these things we grow personally, and we grow together in our communities. Those we help live better, richer lives as do we in helping them.
Our environmental approach is three-fold:
Among others, our Social Justice Group work supports Sister Pontiana's community, Gweru, in Zimbabwe, caring for orphans, HIV and TB sufferers.
Our environmental approach is three-fold:
- Reduce environmental impact from our homes and daily lives - through practical action, not just talk.
- Use some of the money saved to help those who are worst affected by man-made climate change.
- Pray for guidance and wisdom in our actions, that they will be worthy of duplication in other parishes and communities
Among others, our Social Justice Group work supports Sister Pontiana's community, Gweru, in Zimbabwe, caring for orphans, HIV and TB sufferers.
- We are achieving, and hope to achieve, small successes that become big 'Ones'.
- One bicycle for a medical worker in a remote region.
- One solar cell charger for charging the mobile phone of a Nun in an orphanage so she can communicate their needs and receive help and support.
- One wind-up/solar lantern for a family to allow life to continue after dark when there is no mains power.
- One person slipping the surly bonds of Earth and touching the Face of God in an acutely beautiful labyrinth experience.
- One family saved from starvation.
- One child given an education.
- One village given a water supply.
- One team working better and better together.
- One elderly, lonely person enjoying a hearty meal and good company.
- One world given more hope.
Tell me about some of your successes so far?
- A Bean Feast - Our simple target was to make enough to fund one bicycle for a health care worker in a developing country. The Bean Feast was our first event on Palm Sunday, 2010 and showed we could work together as a team - it was a good community event in the new parish hall, involved old and young, and raised enough for two bicycles for health care workers.
- A parishioner came to Shelagh Hetreed some time afterwards, said they liked what we were doing and gave money for a third bicycle.
- Lantern Supper - late September 2010 - 25 solar/wind-up lanterns and solar chargers pledged for Gweru, Sister Pontiana's community in Zimbabwe - £700 to Sister Pontiana.
- Labyrinth - June 2010 - terrifically moving comments from many of those who walked the labyrinth in our beautiful 'hidden gem' church designed by Sir Giles
- Gilbert Scott. Raised funds for Sister Pontiana.
- At least five households adopting energy and water conservation measures to reduce environmental impact.
Any plans for the future - future events?
Knickerbocker Glory - Ice-cream barter event to send underwear, clothing, essentials, etc. to Zimbabwe, February 18th 6.00pm until 8.30pm.
Labyrinth - Reflection - Friday 8/4/2011, 16:30-20:00 and Saturday 9/4/2011, 11:00-16:00.
Bean Feast Lunch - Palm Sunday Sunday 17th April