St David v. the Oil Lobby Goliath

There’s something of a backlash under way against recent momentum to find ecologically sustainable ways of living. Don’t be fooled by fake news, warns Creation Care Officer Marcus Zipperlen

I’ve reflected before in these pages how some push-back comes from within Christianity where those inordinately focussed on ‘end-times’ claim we need not worry about this earth because it’s soon to be scorched by God and ‘right thinking’ Christians rescued.

But more serious push-back comes from politics and business. In politics some are seeking to label caring for creation as a pastime of the urban elite and a pet subject of the chattering classes with money and liberty to worry about such niceties. The characterisation doesn’t quite fit us out here in West Wales.

From the oil industry there’s a lot of money sponsoring misinformation about the value of renewable energy or electric vehicles. Social media is strewn with sponsored images subsequently shared by regular users, with messages ranging from the misleading like “wind turbines kill more birds than power stations” to outright balmy claims like “solar farms create rainstorms and typhoons”, a complete reversal of the truth where, of course, it’s the burning of fossil fuels that exacerbates these weather events.

A less overtly divisive and more reasonably sounding critique of us as a nation taking steps to limit our greenhouse gas emissions comes from those who say: “Why should we spend so much money on low carbon technologies when we are such a small emitter of greenhouse gases compared with China or the USA?.”

Well, on purely economic grounds we need to be investing now in the technology of tomorrow otherwise we’ll be well and truly left behind. But as Christians we should smell a rat when people ask: “Why should I change if they’re not going to?” We wouldn’t have much of a church if the disciples had refused to answer Jesus’ call unless all other fishermen did as well. When God calls you don’t make excuses, you try and follow, even if falteringly.

The God who loves and delights in Creation calls on us to do likewise, and saying we don’t want to because not everyone else is, isn’t quite going to cut it. Don’t fall prey to spurious arguments for maintaining the status quo, keep the faith and do the little things for God and creation, as St David taught. The Kingdom of God grows from a mustard seed, after all.