8.
DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY
General Principles
Global
picture
What we do
affects other people, not just locally but across the world. We
are part of one eco-system, and now part of one global economy.
The people most likely to be badly affected by shortages or
climate change are those who are poor. They do not have the
means to protect themselves or to buy their way out of trouble.
Energy
Our society
depends on electricity. With our climate we need to heat our
buildings. Traditionally we have heated buildings and generated
electricity by burning coal, oil and gas - fossil fuels. But
this process creates carbon dioxide which contributes to the
warming of the atmosphere.
There are
alternatives. There are renewable sources:
·
water power,
using streams, rivers and the tides. This can be done on the
small scale (turbines in rivers, tidal generators by the sea) or
the big scale (hydro-electric dams, tidal barrages, etc.) Tides
are a completely reliable source; rivers less so; streams even
less. But rising sea levels could affect large tidal
installations.
·
wind power.
Wind generators can be large scale wind farms or small turbines
fitted on a house. They are an intermittent source in our
climate, requiring back-up resources, but they are relatively
simple technology.
·
solar power.
There are solar panels which heat water directly and
photo-voltaic (PV) cells which generate electricity from
sunlight. PV cells are used increasingly in many developing
countries as they are easy to install and generate electricity
where it is used - but they do not work at night! Electricity
companies in the UK will now buy surplus electricity from small
generators so that, for example, a village church with PV cells
could possibly sell its electricity for six and half days a week
and then buy some back on Sunday morning when the church is
used.
·
biofuels
include timber, woodchips and oil made from grain, rape, or
sunflowers. Though the fuel creates carbon dioxide as it burns,
when the plants grow they absorb carbon dioxide so they are
effectively carbon neutral. However, a large amount of land is
needed to produce fuel this way. To run an average family car
for a year would require an acre (0.4 hectares) of land.
·
waste
can be burnt or decomposed to create heat which can be used to
generate electricity. As it breaks down organic waste creates
carbon dioxide naturally so no more is created in a generator
than would be given off by natural decomposition. However,
burning releases other chemicals, some of which can be harmful.
There need to be careful controls on emissions.
Nuclear
energy
is not renewable: it uses up uranium. Nuclear power stations
generate very little carbon dioxide, although it is generated in
large quantities in the mining, processing and transportation of
uranium and in the construction of the power stations. The waste
generated is small but it remains dangerous for centuries.
Buildings
The best way
of cutting down on fuel consumption in a building is to reduce
heat loss: with good insulation and cutting out drafts. However
people and buildings also need ventilation!
A range of
building materials is now being developed from renewable
resources or recyclable materials.
Transport
and Travel
Our way of
living involves moving people and goods around. We can reduce
that movement, but we might not want to eliminate it completely.
Many of us have family and friends who live far away, and we
want occasionally to meet other people for work. In terms of the
carbon dioxide generated in a journey travel by plane is the
worst, especially in short haul flights. Cars are also bad.
Trains much more efficient and coaches more efficient still, as
long as they have plenty of passengers. Cycling is very
efficient. Walking more so. But that takes time, and is often
not an option.
Our current
way of life also involves moving goods from one place to
another. Sometimes that is unavoidable if we are to have what we
need, but sometimes there are alternatives. We can buy locally
produced goods or do things differently.
Land use
There is
sometimes a cry that housing development is 'covering the land
with concrete.' However, houses with trees and shrubs in a
garden often have a greater variety of wildlife than farmland.
Topsoil is a
precious commodity. It takes a long time for good soil to be
formed from rock and plant life, and it can easily be destroyed
by chemical pollution or be washed away by water.
Wildlife
and Landscape
There are
probably very few people who want to see more species become
extinct, or even to disappear from our landscape. But there is
not a lot of space and sometimes there is a conflict of
interest. People want electricity but migrating birds need
feeding grounds. People want roads and buildings, quarrying
companies want to earn money by supplying this to people, but
people also want to look at unscarred hills. Sometimes solutions
can be found to suit all parties. Sometimes they cannot. At
other times people need to ask bigger questions about how
important their environment is and what the priorities are.
Food
The concept of
food miles has recently been developed. Look at a pizza and work
out how many miles the ingredients have travelled. Probably
thousands altogether. However, it is a crude measure. Capsicums
flown from East Africa have used a lot of fuel. Black peppers
shipped from India have used very little. But a lot of fuel is
used in transporting food.
As a rough
guide the Christian Ecology Link has recommend that people 'Use
their LOAF' and try to buy food that is locally grown, organic,
animal friendly and fairly traded. This points to four related
issues concerning food, but the issues are not simple and
sometimes one principle is in tension with another.
-
Animals
matter as well as people and should be treated well. The
intense regulation of British food production means that it
is possible to have some confidence about how well animals
reared here have been treated, and symbols such as the
Little Red Tractor are an indicator of this. However, live
animals often suffer long and distressing journeys to
slaughterhouses.
-
Fair
trade
means food producers receiving a reasonable return for their
work. Fairtrade tea, coffee and chocolate are now readily
available in supermarkets. However these same retailers
might not be paying a fair price to British or foreign
farmers for their other food. Those of us who buy food need
to investigate whether the supplier is really concerned
about trading fairly or is just using these products to
create an ethical image which hides unethical practices.
Waste
disposal
For years we
have put our waste in holes in the ground, but we are running
out of holes, into the sea, but it cannot cope with more waste,
or into the air, which pollutes the atmosphere. The solution
seems to be:
-
Reduce
the amount of waste we generate
-
Re-use
what we can
-
Re-cycle
as much as we can of what is left over, and
-
Refuse
unnecessary goods and wrappings.
Simply trying
to re-cycle everything is not a solution as transporting the
waste uses up fuel and generates carbon dioxide.
Buying
One solution
to waste is to buy less. That would be to go against the current
in our society, which is geared to consumption. But an economy
does not need to be so heavily based on manufacturing,
transporting, buying and disposing of goods. We also have a
large service sector. That could get bigger. There are other
ways of doing things, which could emerge gradually as people
live in different ways.
Water
We are now
seeing shortages in some parts of Britain. In some parts of the
world they are serious. Here, as elsewhere, it is partly a
matter of managing the water we have. Much water is wasted:
rainfall that could he harvested in butts or cisterns for later
use; or from leaking water mains. There is scope here for
personal initiative, and commercial and political action.
The Church
As individual
Christians we can change how we live. In our local churches we
can change what we do and how we do things. As individuals and
as local churches we can be involved in our wider communities to
bring about changes in society. We can campaign for different
policies in local and national government. And as an
organisation the diocese can do things differently. The best way
forward is not always obvious, but we cannot stay as we are.
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