How to stop Climate Change – 2. Stand up for the Planet!

Members of LRBC Green Group petition Sir David Amess on behalf of young familiesof the church and local community, to ask him to support Environmental legislation in September 2021

By Sarah Lennard-Brown

This is the second in a series of posts on What we can do as a Church to Stop Climate Change in the run up to COP26 1^st – 12^th November 2021. In the first post I talked about the importance of praying for COP26 and our political leaders. The second thing you can do to stop climate change is to talk to your local Member of Parliament and Town and County Councillors about the importance of tackling climate change.

First a confession. Standing up and bearing witness is something I was not, and am not, comfortable with. I am by nature a quiet, thoughtful person and would rather keep my head down, avoiding any confrontation or disagreement. Even writing this is an act of courage for me. There will be those among you who do not want to hear what I have to say. However, there is a time for everything in its season. There is ‘a time to be silent and a time to speak’, (Ecclesiastes 3 1-8) and now is the time, for all of us, not just to speak but to shout, so our voices can be heard.

The world is in peril, the plants and animals we know, and love, here in Essex and around the world are in danger from rising temperatures. Billions of people around the world are affected now by rising sea levels, unstable weather systems, flooding and fire due to our continued use of fossil fuels. The United Nations has issued a Code Red for Humanity. We must act now. This is important. From a Christian perspective it is about:

Being faithful stewards of Gods beautiful creation
Justice for the world’s most vulnerable communities
And it is about hope for the future, building stronger, fairer, and flourishing communities living within the Earth’s limits. (Why Faith Matters, Green Christian)

Public Witness is something that Christians are very familiar with. Christian Public Witness is rooted in a philosophy of non-violent love of enemy and involves:

Speaking truth to power
Seeking to transform the other person or organisation through loving yet prophetic engagement. (Christian Peacemaker Teams)

monthly Carbon Dioxide readings Mauna Loa Observatory september 2019 — Carbon Dioxide atmospheric levels recorded at Mauna Loa Observatory in September 2019

I was brought up in a scientific household, my father was a Chemistry teacher, and since I was a young child, I have known that climate change was happening, and it was bad. But I had faith that the government and organisations would do the best thing for the climate and all of us. In autumn 2018 I had a sudden realisation that this wasn’t going to happen. I had been following the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii that monitors atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is produced when we burn fossil fuels, things like oil, petroleum, and gas. and in September 2018 it became apparent that carbon dioxide levels were 405 ppm and the world was doing nothing to stop it. The use of fossil fuels continued to grow. The last time atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide were this high was 2 – 3 million years ago in the Pliocene era. When sea levels were on average between 50 and 80 ft higher than now (15 – 24m) so most of the current land was underwater, average temperatures were 2-3 ˚C higher and Arctic temperatures were between 10-20 ˚C hotter (something we have seen happen over the last three summers with temperatures in the Arctic peaking at 32°C (90°F) on 20^th June 2021 at Saskylah in Arctic Siberia.

Members of LRBC Green Group and Eco-Essex showing Sir David Amess around the 2019 Eco Fair

I felt a profound level of mental, physical and spiritual distress as this realisation hit me. It was overwhelming how bad things are and how much we need to do to put things right. I felt I had to do something. I had to speak and be heard, to take action to help save my children, my family and my community from the disaster that was coming like a huge truck down the road. In January 2019 I spoke to Andrew Cowley and he encouraged me to set up the LRBC Green Group. The LRBC Green Group are a fantastic team and have been involved in lots of activities, most of them relating to Christian Public Witness in one form or another including:

Taking part as The Time in Now lobby and Faith march, organised by The Climate Coalition, a group of organisations including the Women’s Institute, WWF, RSPB, Christian Aid, CAFOD and over 90 other organisations.

Inviting our MP Sir David Amess to open the LRBC/Eco-Southend Eco Fair and talk to the stall holders.

Inviting Southend Councillor Carole Mulroney to speak at the Eco Fair and talk to local people about Climate crisis.

Writing to our MP’s and Councillor’s about local and national climate issues. In September representatives of LRBC Green Group took a petition from the children of LRBC and other local families to Sir David Amess to ask him to undertake to support the Ecological and Environmental Emergency Act and the Climate Change Act.

LRBC Green Group met Sir David Amess on the train on the way to lobby him at the Time is Now mass lobby and March in 2019

Speaking to your MP is powerful act. The only way we can reduce our use of fossil fuels is if Members of Parliament make the necessary changes in law and policy. Politicians are worried that the steps they need to take to stop climate change are going to be unpopular. They depend on the support of the people in their constituencies for their jobs in parliament. One of the most important things you can do is write or speak to your MP and tell them you want them to support the changes and legislation needed to stop climate change. You need to empower them to have the courage to stand up for the planet in parliament.

When we met Sir David Amess on the train on our way to The Time is Now march and parliamentary lobby, he was very supportive. But he asked us to continue protesting and lobbying as people needed to hear our message. He said that no one comes to talk to him in his surgeries about climate change and that made him think there wasn’t broad local support for action to stop climate change. We need to change that.

So, I have a challenge for you. Today I would like you to contact your MP – find them here, and your local counsellor – find them here and write to them, or, even better, visit them in their surgeries. And let them know that you want them to take action to stop climate change.

The first Global Community Saturday takes place on October 9th 2021 at 191 Leigh Road, next door to the Phabulous Cafe.

Other things you can do to stand up for the planet, include supporting sustainable activities at church and in the local community including things like:

Global community Saturdays 9^th October 2021 – 191 (Next to the Phabulous Café) 11-2pm
Eco Christmas fair 20^th November 2021 LRBC
write letters,
sign an online petition,
go on a protest march

This week Mauna Loa reported that the CO₂ in the atmosphere was 413.3 ppm. Carbon dioxide levels are continuing to rise as our use of fossil fuels increases relentlessly. We can do this. We need to stop using fossil fuels now and stand up for the planet.

Prayer

Loving God,

Creator of teeming oceans and resounding forests,
Forgive the way we have exploited your creation for our own ends.
Putting profit, greed and status before wellbeing and sustainability.
Give us hope that you are restoring and redeeming amongst us.
We pray that change will come quickly to preserve species.
And we remember those at the forefront of climate change now.
Give us reassurance that no act of ours is too small or insignificant.
And will change hearts, even our own.
Amen.

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