According to yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's most influential catholic, Archibiship George Pell, in a speech to US Catholic business leaders, said Western democracy was ... suffering a crisis of confidence as evidenced by the decline in fertility rates and that:
"Pagan emptiness" and Western fears of the uncontrollable forces of nature had contributed to "hysteric and extreme claims" about global warming.
"In the past, pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions."
Hey Davey your Swedish is very good!! Unfortunately I don't have a website but this wetland project is north of Stockholm, in the middle of Sweden , where I live. It is in the middle of an old landscape that used to be roamed by the Vikings, there are many runestones here, about 1100 year old.
Interesting to hear about the fires and the birds and insects, I have never recognized that in Sweden, probably because I have only been near very small fires.
The wetland project is in Angarnsjöängen, which means " the Angarn lake wetlands". I found some pictures from Angarn, unfortunately they are not very good. The gull you saw in Sweden could have been a herring gull!
http://www.naturproduktion-bh.se/05/05-12/vallen/angarn3.html
Keep up the good work!
Tusen Tack Ann. Do you have a web site? At Goteborg University I remember a very big Arctic Gull (?) used to tap on the window for a biscuit. One of your friends? Today I burned off some leaf litter and dead grass near my house at Roleystone. It was a very mild fire, flames only 20cm high, and the magpies loved it. They stood around the flames in a half circle, warbling, and snatching up the fleeing spiders and beetles. I have seen a similar association between fire and birds in Africa. There the Maribou Storks stand in a line waiting for something tasty to run out of the grass, and other birds swoop about in the smoke to catch insects. Do Swedish birds like mild fires? Maybe Archbishop Pell could tell us something about St. Francis of Assisi and his sermon to the birds, linking it to the fires of hell and Global Warming. Could be a novel theological angle there.
Ian K,
Since Peter Cullen was made an environmentalist of the year, and Ian Lowe an emertitus professor at various Australian Universities, and now me (or should it be I) an atheist have started quoting the ultra-conservative George Pell ... one could perhaps be forgiven for believing we might all now be damned.
But slothful, never been accused of that before!
Who do you suggest we should all read to achieve salvation?
Hey Davey,
I checked out the website, you're doing a very good job ! I think it is very important to support local environmental groups and not just big NGOs. We have a wetland project where I live , a nature reserve for mostly migrating Arctic birds.
My short answer to your Pell snippet is: right man, right country, right audience.
Going into more detail: are our fears and emptiness pagan? Maybe, it seems hard to find a true Christian these days, especially in the established churches. However I don’t think I would put the hollowness of the contemporary West down to our following the false god of environmentalism. I would put contemporary emptiness, low birth rate, etc., down to the pressures of modern living, which is dominated by that great, unexamined religious dogma, the belief in the free (selfish, competitive, dog-eat-dog) market which we must placate at every turn as if our economic health can be equated to spiritual health (religious leaders of the past would not have been afraid of naming its name, Mammon I think it was). Not that I think that the free market is a bad thing but these days it seems THE ONLY THING and the followers of those other minor religions such as environmentalism are be crushed beneath its juggernaut as it rolls on towards economic nirvana.
IMHO, in times gone by religious leaders would have been more concerned with matters such as corporate morality (perhaps perorating on the moral peril faced by businessmen of the AWB ilk) rather than pontificating upon those who were concerned about the fate of the little furry animals and how warm it will be next summer. It is strange, that, but perhaps I am dreaming of an Arcadian past where the village pastor shared such views and I am discounting the history of a clerical hierarchy that always tended to pander to the big end of town with whom they mixed.
Is the extent of your contribution, Jennifer, going to be quoting a pot-boiling author, whose scientific bloopers have given me many laughs in the past (although I admit that he can spin a rattling good yarn). He now seems to have become a little tin god in some circles, whom I presume formerly never bothered to read his works. I think that you are guilty of SLOTH of the worst kind and the good archbishop will have a penance for you.
Some archbishops are enough to drive anybody to paganism.
While environmental care is undoubtedly a good thing, I too, Anna, have noticed that there are some 'environmentalists' who are boring, or even sinister.
I am old enough to remember the hippy movement of the 1960s. It was started by some gentle and loving, if a bit impractical, people. Love and understanding, who could argue with that? However, it soon was infiltrated by some nasty characters, who adopted the dress, walked the walk, and talked the talk, man. Free love turned into sexual exploitation, impregnation and abandonment, venereal disease, and even rape. Passive resistance turned into violent attacks on police - "let's barbecue some pork". Smoking pot turned into a nastier scenario of drug dealing, and the threats, greed and violence that go with that.
While there are plenty of good and gentle people in the environmental movement, I suspect that a few are there to exploit, seek media attention (sometimes by lies, half-truths, or exaggerations), smugly adopt the moral high ground, collect money, stage noisy demonstrations with megaphones and drums, etc.
Totalitarian group-think is encouraged by slogans, and massive emailing. I have noticed some very strange personalities - remember Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
Both politics and nationalism have been described as the last refuge of a scoundrel. We might add environmentalism to the list. Some strident environmentalists have a history of failure in other careers. This is the real danger for environmentalism - corruption from within, by attracting dubious characters, who will work their way up the ladder to power.
We have a very small local bushcare group (search on 'roleybushcare'), and I am involved. If it ever became eco-fascist (highly unlikely) I would quit. In the mean time, I will try to inject some simple truth into the debate.