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From despondency to action and hope

 Dr Richard Milne, parishioner, speaks in the 2019 Season of creation and explores how we can not be frozen by despondency but take action in a hopeful way 
Dr Richard Milne

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From despondency to action and hope

Transcript
Tena koutou Tena koutou Tena koe, katoa Marina. I think Helen and Kate for inviting me to speak to you today and I hope you can hang in there. Not walk out part way through. It will not be scientific. I assure you We could talk about creation as the Big Bang, but I should leave that to Professor Brian Cox and the astrophysicists. we could talk about creation as the evolution of the species and I shall leave that to Richard Dawkins and the other biologists, or we could Marvel at all the creatures of the land and the Sea and the sky. And I shall leave that to David Attenborough. So instead, I'm going to share a personal story. Some people are fortunate enough to have an epiphany. Dr. Google defines Epiphany as a moment of sudden and great Revelation or realization. I've had just two epiphanies in my life. The first one was when I was born during a snowstorm and I discovered what a magical world, it was but I don't remember that one very well. The second one was in 2005, that's about 14 years ago. I was starting to read scientific studies about environmental issues. When I suddenly realized there was a black cloud on the horizon, that would change everything. Scientists were calling at global warming, which means an increase in the surface temperature of the globe. The predict the consequences of this were frankly alarming, I realized that. I could no longer assume that I would live out my life in relative comfort. And my children and grandchildren would suffer terribly and might not even survive to my age. If the scientists were right, I'd have to change my expectations and my comfortable lifestyle. Very personally, I remember very well. After this Epiphany followed despondency, I couldn't see the way ahead. And it felt like a heavy burden. Furthermore, hardly anybody was talking about it. So I felt quite alone. The Swedish school girl greater than Berg. Who's been mentioned several times from the pulpit had a similar experience when she was just 15 years old. She became aware of climate change caused by global warming and she realized that this was incredibly important, but nobody seemed to care. The leaders in her society and Sweden were not even talking about it. Then she became depressed, she stopped talking and even stop eating for a while. After this Epiphany came despondency and action. Greater skip school, three weeks and sat down outside the Swedish Parliament to protest government in action on climate change. Then other people joined her. And then the politicians started to listen. On March 15 this year, an estimated 1.4 million students and 112 countries throughout the world. Joined her, call to protest government in action on climate change. Creator has become a world leader at 15 years, 16 years old now, influencing even the United Nations. I must say some of the United Nations delegates, refuse to listen to her. So, one determined person can make a difference. The students will be striking again next month and they have invited us all to join them. I hope some of you do. It's a very interesting experience. Closer to home way back in August 2006 13, years ago. A group of us ran a workshop in the Cathedral on climate change with support from the dean and the world society. We had five expert speakers in the morning and practical sessions in the afternoon. It was well attended, although not everybody was up with the play. I met one person who came along to hear about weather forecasting. I think she was disappointed. The next year, a group of anglicans came together and form the dusts, and climate change Action Group. Our mission was to help anglicans to reduce their carbon emissions and order to help to slow down climate change. Not prevent it. A few weeks later the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, published a technical report called a are for this collated, a great deal of scientific evidence on climate change made our case that much more credible. since that time, our Anglican group has given educational workshops on climate change throughout the diocese, We have persuaded the three tikanga Church of are tiro in New Zealand to divest from fossil fuels, and to offset its carbon emissions from clergy travel. We provided energy audits of church buildings, We have worked intensively with in one rural Parish to encourage sustainable, living practices. And July we made submissions to the environmental select committee on the zero-carbon bill. This is just a very small start and there's far more that needs to be done. So we had Epiphany and despondency and some action. But what about hope? Is there really any hope that we can avoid climate catastrophe or have we locked it in how we left it too late for our children and grandchildren and ourselves. Well, yes or no. I see a number of hopeful signs, and I want to focus on the good ones today. First of all, the world is waking up at last. Thousands of the world's scientists who studied the land, the oceans and the atmosphere have made it very clear that we have a climate crisis and we're heading towards catastrophe. If we don't take drastic action right now, There can be no doubt that we humans have caused this by burning coal oil, and gas and cutting down the forests. That store carbon and you probably know huge amount of deforestation is happening in Brazil and Indonesia right now. Secondly, many secular groups of sprung up, determined the spear governments into action in New Zealand. We have just to name a few Generations. 0 young people who initiated the zero-carbon. Bill we have 350, coal action, forest, and bird the green party Greenpeace Extinction, Rebellion youth for climate and so on. These are mostly young people. Not all mostly. On Thursday and influential group of doctors and other health professionals stood outside Parliament to support their submission on the Zero carbon bill. Here in Auckland, a professor of population. Health has been speaking at International conferences on the impact of climate change on health. And a quiet way has been influencing the world but what about politics and business is anybody listening? Yes, there were about 1,500 submissions to the select environment committee on the zero-carbon bill. The has of course, been some understandable. Pushback from the agricultural sector and the fossil fuel and automobile Industries. But it has cross-party support. I'm fairly confident that it will go into legislation in one form or another. We already have incentives for public transport for more efficient vehicles and there's a growing interest in plant-based diets and a corresponding changes in agriculture, the world is changing very rapidly abroad and starting to change in New Zealand. Auckland, Council and others have declared a climate emergency. some major institutions are trying to function more sustainably and many of them have divested from fossil fuels, But what about the church? Do we care enough about our world and our future and those of our children and grandchildren to take action one of our mission statements has care of creation and another one of social justice, I've mentioned our Auckland group and Wellington diocese, our young woman has been appointed by the bishop to work on climate Justice. She has the energy and the passion that are required Throughout the country. There was an IT communicable network of Christian Church is learning from each other. This includes Anglican Catholic, Baptist Salvation, Army and many others. General Synod is planning to appoint a climate, commissioner for the church with a focus on tikanga. Pacifica, Because that is where the impact of climate change is being felt right now, in the Pacific. After church next Sunday, we shall be having a practical Workshop right here at Saint Matthews on the actions. We can take personally, to reduce our carbon footprint and live. More sustainably will be informal and interactive. Hope some of you can come So there is some hope but it's not wishful. Thinking it comes about through a commitment and action. We don't have to despair as some young people are. We don't have to carry the whole burden ourselves, but we have work to do. So what can we do in practice? The scientists tell us. We must put the world on a war footing in order to prevent climate catastrophe. It's not too late but we must take this very seriously right now. Sorry for Christians. The starting point is that good old-fashioned word repentance. It doesn't mean sitting around getting gloomy. Repentance is about changing our Behavior. The most important thing we can do is to reduce our consumption. As Quakers, say live simply so That Others May simply live. The others are our children and our grandchildren. In our workplaces and our places of leisure and our homes and churches. We can influence others by our words and actions. Professor James Renwick a well-known established laborious. New Zealand climate scientist says that we must talk about it. If it's swept under the carpet, nobody does anything. Of course, we'll have more credibility if we've started to make changes in our own lives. We can support many of the secular groups that are working to change government policy. Prepare to be surprised and uplifted by the thousands of young people in our nation who are working to preserve their future. They need and they welcome our support. If we show that support they will take us more seriously. The local and Regional level, we can get informed and vote for the candidates with policies that support our environment. We have a great opportunity next month with the local body elections. At a national level, we need to stop or oil and gas. Exploration, immediately Phase out. The burning of coal for electricity generation and drying milk powder. Stop Dairy, conversions. Reduce the intensity of beef and dairy farming. Plant far more trees to absorb carbon and much much more. We City people need to reduce our air travel. Do we really need to travel to Europe? Reconsider our local transport and our retail shopping habits. Reconsider our food, our use of energy, our waste disposal and our use of water. We shall be addressing some of these issues after church. Next Sunday come if you have the courage. We must also act collectively. Research tells us that transformational energy, transformational change comes about when networked individuals work together. As Christians, we are already members of a community of people of Goodwill. We don't need to create a new community. We are not alone and as willful remind us in half an hour, the spirit of God is alive on the land. So from Epiphany to despondency to action to Hope. And finally, to leadership here is my challenge today. Could we at Saint Matthews lead at the Auckland diocese and sustainable living practices? Could we become known as the green Church on the edge? Are we ready to change our personal and Community behaviors? And five years from now. Could we be known as the church that faced up to the existential challenges of our time? We could be known as kaitiaki, custodians of the land and the oceans and the atmosphere. It's up to us. I'm going to