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Dr Rowan Williams says Climate Crisis a Chance to Become Human Again
People should use the climate change crisis as an opportunity to become human again, setting aside the addictive and self-destructive behaviour that has damaged their souls, the Archbishop of Canterbury said today.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters Dr Rowan Williams,
head of the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican
communion, told an audience at Southwark Cathedral that people had
allowed themselves to become "addicted to fantasies about prosperity
and growth, dreams of wealth without risk and profit without cost".
The consequences of such a lifestyle meant the human soul was "one of the foremost casualties of environmental degradation".
Small changes, such as setting up carbon reduction action groups, would help them reconnect with the world in addition to repairing some of the damage to the planet, because it was too much to expect the state to provide all the solutions.
"Many of the things which have moved us towards ecological disaster have been distortions of who and what we are and their overall effect has been to isolate us from the reality we're part of. Our response to this crisis needs to be, in the most basic sense, a reality check."
Williams added: "We need to keep up pressure on national governments; there are questions only they can answer about the investment of national resources. We need equally to keep up pressure on ourselves and to learn how to work better as civic agents."
In the lecture, sponsored by the Christian environmental group Operation Noah, Williams outlined a Christian response to the climate crisis.
"When we believe in transformation at the local and personal level, we are laying the sure foundations for change at the national and international level.
"If I ask what's the point of my undertaking a modest amount of recycling my rubbish or scaling down my air travel, the answer is not that this will unquestionably save the world within six months, but in the first place it's a step towards liberation from a cycle of behaviour that is keeping me, indeed most of us, in a dangerous state - dangerous, that is, to our human dignity and self-respect."
In a message to heads of state attending the Copenhagen summit, Williams said leaders had to create a "suitably serious plan" for the speedy implementation of protocols on carbon reduction.
"We have had unexpected signs that the east Asian countries are readier than we might have imagined to put pressure on the economies of the US and Europe. The idea that fast-developing economies are totally wedded to environmental indifference because of the urgency of bringing their populations out of poverty no longer seems quite an obvious truth."
Earlier this year Williams said that God was not a "safety net" that would guarantee a happy ending and that human pillaging of the world's resources meant the planet was facing a "whole range of doomsday prospects" that exceeded the results of global warming.
Humanity faced being "choked, drowned or starved" by its own stupidity, he said, and he compared those who challenged the reality of climate change to the courtiers who flattered King Canute, until he proved he could not command the waves by going to the seashore and trying to do so. "Rhetoric, as King Canute demonstrated, does not turn back rising waters," said Williams in a lecture in March.
Tonight's remarks came days after research suggested that Britons had little appetite for shrinking their carbon footprint by reducing the number of flights they took.
The study, from Loughborough University, showed that the vast majority of the public would rather cut energy use at home than go without flying for a year. While 88% of participants in the Propensity to Fly survey said they were willing or very willing to "reduce how much energy I use in my home throughout the year" only 26% said the same when asked if they would "not fly in the next 12 months".
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27 Comments so far
Show AllSorry, Arch. Humanity has passed the tipping point from morality and love to apathy and greed. Nice thought, though.
It certainly seems as though this country has passed into apathy and greed, but that's less clear elsewhere.
...The consequences of such a lifestyle meant the human soul was "one of the foremost casualties of environmental degradation"....
should have read ...
...The consequences of such a lifestyle meant the human soul was "one of the foremost CAUSES of environmental degradation"....
... perhaps one might look to how the church itself (like many, many others) amassed wealth and maintained it's position, historically.
Lots of human and non-human life has suffered terribly in this long march for 'prosperity', driven by greed, fuelled by violence, dressed with lies. Like the fib the good Doctor slips by, almost un-noticed.
Too bad.
It's those subtle foundational lies that make 'good citizens' of us all, in the manner of 'good germans' and 'good americans'....
Climate Change is but one small part of the global change that must emerge.
The Good Doctor must polish his glasses and look again. And be brave. He must know.
What if he genuinely didn't know? WOW!
Kindest regards
Corneilius
do what you love, it's your gift to universe
Congratulations on detecting one of the many foundational lies that get by me every day. Often a little voice in my head says "wait a minute...".
Usually something else distracts me before I can hear it out.
Do not judge humanity by it's poorest examples. You have thereby made them the standard for us all. The law of human evolution is mutual aid, and insofar as we help each other, we have justified our humanity.
Just as we changed the climate, we and our children can un-make the change. To give in to despair is to concede the definition of ourselves and our future to those you hate.
One of the branches of the Forum for Indigenous Rights in Brazil is Conselho Indigenista Missionario - affiliated with the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil.
There are people there who have for decades survived the church bashing, the bashing by powerful agroindustry and extractive interests with a history of hiring murderous gun toting thugs, and just about every form of ugliness practiced in constant support of the indigenous peoples along with many others struggling against precisely the paradigm addressed by Rowan Williams.
Say whatever you like about the church - but keep in mind that there are many who have not just read about the theology of liberation - but LIVE IT on a constant basis.
Try it you might like it.
Thank you Old Goat. I find, increasingly, that there are many Christians who do walk in the footsteps of Christ. As there are many people of other faiths who do the same. They just don't appear on TV because they work and give rather than preach, and any teaching they do is by example.
So, will Williams be harrassed as a terrorist like Chris Kitchen?
Its amazing and unbelievable to me, having to read how the arch bishop Williams, who's whole raison d'être has been to persuade people into accepting a belief which is nihilistically bent, if not deeply hostile towards nature, is now set, through its very destruction, to see peoples' souls healed, so that we may all be human again. What a load of self masturbatory B.S. Considering that modern capitalistic theory, the main purveyor of environmental destruction, has drawn heavily upon christian economic precepts and ideals of what is valuable and what isn't, I cynically take his concern as being but a token one only and nothing short of a sincere apostasy on his part, will convince me otherwise. Indeed, it is his creed that saw fit to destroying whole peoples and cultures, who's existence was already in profound communion and compliment with nature. In a way he is correct however; the christian religious fanatics that annihilated the nature bound indigenous people of the Americas and Africa, were not human.
Good points, Stig, but if those of us who have lived errors err again by altering our mistakes, what would you call learning & how might we go about it?
If stones be criticisms, cast away, but let's recognize and work with interim conditions and arrangements, too.
"Williams, who's whole raison d'être has been to persuade people into accepting a belief which is nihilistically bent"
Considering that modern capitalistic theory, the main purveyor of environmental destruction, has drawn heavily upon christian economic precepts and ideals of what is valuable and what isn't...
Huh??? What odd version of christianity were you taught? Moore addresses this in his movie. All the bishops and priests he interviewed said unequivocally that capitalism is incompatable with christianity.
And neither is democracy, pjd412.
Moore, who's documentaries I greatly enjoy, unfortunately has an abridged appreciation for the extraordinary breadth and detail of christian history, and the intimate relationship and control it maintained over whole societies within its sphere of influence, especially economic. In more recent times, in Canada for instance where I live, its colonization was a meticulously ordered process that granted to the two main churches full control over, not only vast tracts of land, but also the people who lived there as well. This compact, if you will, would seem rather odd to us today, even antithetical to our basic sense of right and wrong and how we perceive western religion, yet only a short while ago this form of acquisition, of property and people, would have been considered quite normal, in fact its desirability was an imperative of Christian teleological doctrine. What wasn't desirable was indigenous economics and agrarian custom, such as the potlatch and the wampum belt, that served as both an informal currency and deed to the land and memory of their ancestors.
Indeed, with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, this pattern of wealth exploitation and creation, in the name of the church back home, would sap the people living there dry of an incredible legacy now lost to time. In the words of the man, who just this past weekend was honored, Christopher Columbus, "They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance.... They would make fine servants.... With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity...go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." This period of time however represents perhaps the zenith of the the christian churches authoritarian hegemony, but not the last of it, as the best and worst would be captured and maintained within the rationale and practice of modern capitalistic economics.
The reason therefore, for Moore's narrow assessment of Christianity, may simply be placed within the unique moment and context of the times in which we all live today, and his own innocent account of a single person, Jesus, who's presence is but a small, albeit important part, of a much more involved story contained within the Bible and the mountain of derived doctrine that would guide the authorities of the church and their actions. Regardless, the evidence is forthcoming for what I have described and can easily be traced back and found with Christianity's emergence in Greece, as it replaced the democratic culture, that was one of the first in history to actually recognize our shared humanity, with a system that in many instances treated its advance as anathema. To quote a contemporary of Columbus in address to this point, the catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas who describes his countrymen being driven by "insatiable greed" — "killing, terrorizing, afflicting, and torturing the native peoples" with "the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty" and how systematic violence was aimed at preventing "Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings." He never once made this claim of his fellow Christian's lack thereof, nor would he when complaining to the Pope about this abhorrent treatment. However, instead of receiving a compassionate and understanding response, he would lose his mission and be ordered to return home.
I'll leave the rest to you, as there is a millenia's worth of examples and admissions for you to discover and which can turn up in the strangest of places, even in the form of jewel encrusted, gold crosses that adorn many of the church alters throughout Europe. Perhaps now you can understand my point of view and why Rev. William's words ring somewhat hollow when he talks about being human.
Stig: "a belief which is nihilistically bent, if not deeply hostile towards nature,"
I recommend you read the Gospels and the (Episcopalian) Book of Common Prayer. Check out the Prayers of the People. There's nothing nihilistic nor hostile toward nature there.
Ah, Rowan Williams wants us all to be "human again" -- by which, to judge by his actions, he means "dismissive of homosexuals."
Sorry, Corvo, but I don't have the reference. By what actions has Dr. Williams, who seems so reasonable here, dismissed homosexuals?
In 2004, the Lambeth Commission on Communion issued a report on the issue of homosexuality in the Anglican Communion, which became known as the Windsor Report. This report took a strong stand against homosexual practice, recommended a moratorium on further consecrations of actively homosexual bishops and blessings of same-sex unions,[11] and called for all involved in Robinson's consecration "to consider in all conscience whether they should withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican Communion".[12
Thank you.
Right on! Perhaps he could look into his own 'soul', if he has one, and cast out the stone residing there.
Nice thought, but hard to follow when basic life-support bolsters for-profit polluters.
Looking to my own actions, I find that almost every social act and almost every social dependency involves some crassly damaging violation of good sense.
I have avoided direct participation in industries whose damage I found obvious, but I find more business more damaging and less useful than I had supposed.
Most frustratingly, the generally interpenetrating character of mutual investment means that almost any purchase supports something I would not.
I don't find partial measures useless. However, the inability to avoid complicity frustrates profoundly, and likely discourages many would-be participants.
In this, centralized networks of information would help. I would love to see centralized information towards these ends:
-- Non-exploitative financing.
-- Open-source and low-cost schooling.
-- DIY green housing
-- Public transport or green transport
-- $$-Neutral Global communications
-- Transparent (probably local) union-directed economies
Most of the inhumanity that I have committed I have done as paid service or to keep myself alive in mid-snafu to figure how how things have become so ingloriously fubar.
This has gone on for a long time, yet I find myself only partially able to convey to others what little I have found in the way of solutions.
Sorry Arch,
That's disingenuous. The Public Transport of people by air is not even 3 percent of transportation carbon pollution. And I'm sure he knows it. The good Arch must not have any stock in airline companies. Instead of attacking public transportation, if he was a credible moral leader he would go after the real polluters: Your private automobile. Your Coal smokestack. Your consumption of products that arrive via a container ship with super dirty "waste oil" engines which may produce more damage than anything else.
Instead of blaming the consumer again, your worship, how about directing some of your condemnation to the makers of policy in government and business?
How about it Arch?
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
In what way is the Archbishop attacking public transportation - urban buses, trolleys, metros? And, since when is air travel considered "public transportation" in any common usage - i.e. day-to-day travel?
The per-passenger carbon emissions from airliners are high and have greater effect due to the altitude that they are emitted. A compact car with two occupants emits less per occupant, a over-the-highway bus emits a eighth of the carbon per person, an electric train, probably a twentieth.
For short flights and/or older aircraft, the comparison is far worse.
And for Europeans, who drive much more fuel efficient cars if they drive at all, curtailing air travel is indeed a way to deeply reduce a persons personal carbon footprint.
Horsefeathers, pjd412.
"Public transport, public transportation, public transit or mass transit comprise all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. While the above terms are generally taken to include rail and bus services, wider definitions might include scheduled airline services, ferries, taxicab services etc. — any system that transports members of the general public. A further restriction that is sometimes applied is that transit should occur in continuously shared vehicles, which would exclude taxis that are not shared-ride taxis" - wikipedia
Not every body has a private Airbus or Boeing sitting in their garage, so it most definitely is public. And if you want to kill the airplane all you're going to accomplish is a worse carbon footprint since your tubes and roadways are going to be grid-locked with millions of idleing blocked cars. And airplanes are NOT where the bulk of the Carbon Footprint is coming from. You assertion that jet contrails at high altitude are somehow worse than fleets of container ships unclean burning waste oil, are not borne out by any accepted research that I am familiar with. A jet engine is similar to a diesel engine in exhaust (except that it only runs for a short while since it's going 500mph.) In fact many can burn a 50 percent mixture of diesel fuel and Jet fuel. Jet-A fuel at 6.7 lbs/gallon is just another form of kerosine.
You could ground every airplane on the planet and it won't result in a noticeable improvement. Most of the Carbon (and green house gases) come from industry including ranching, followed by cars and the final third is due to slash-and-burn farming techniques.
But you're a guy who doesn't believe there are half as many tides on the West Coast of the US as the East Coast. I bet you're an "Intelligent Design" believer too. Am I right?
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
"People should use the climate change crisis as an opportunity to become human again, setting aside the addictive and self-destructive behaviour that has damaged their souls, the Archbishop of Canterbury said today."
Well, where has the Archbishop been throughout all of the west's wars of aggression since 2000, during the 1990's, and over many decades, voir centuries? We've had more than all of these centuries for opportunities to get us to become human again, to correct out destructive and self-destructive behaviour that has damaged the souls of the evil commanders and damaged the minds of soldiers, many, in addition to killing many of them, besides have massacred many millions of innocent peoples and committed major destruction in their countries; all of which is very self-destructive for the countries of the commanders of and drummers for all of this evil.
And we could add all of the extreme hardships on many millions more people due to western countries "elites" and their extreme, sanatic GREED, all of the financial poverty they've created over the past several years and for centuries against peoples around the world.
Oh, shoot, we've had a lot of opportunities to become human and inspired to stop our damn self-destructive and globally destructive ways.
But maybe what the rest of the article makes some reasonable or good sense. Otherwise, the Archbishop needs to get off of his sleeping pills.
Given that the Archbishop failed to specifically mention the million plus Iraqis who have died as a result of the invasion and occupation during a service in commemoration of the *British* (solely) dead, I suspect Dr Williams, for all his good intentions, needs to enquire whether Christianity's definition of "human" is actually humane enough to acknowledge of the sacredness of all life.
There may or may not be appropriate criticism of whay the archbishop said here, but knee-jerk anti-religion comments and irrelavant ad-homeneim attacks against the Archbishop that I'm reading here, no wonder the left is so isolated and losing.
"Isolated and losing" sounds like an adequate enough description of the Anglican Communion, except in certain Third-World countries where its militantly fundamentalist bent seems to have given the Communion a second wind.
"Many of the things which have moved us towards ecological disaster have been distortions of who and what we are and their overall effect has been to isolate us from the reality we're part of. Our response to this crisis needs to be, in the most basic sense, a reality check."
So may we ask, "who and what we are" if not what we have become.
Does anyone know?
toophat for you!