As some of you may be aware, I have just returned from a holiday in the United Kingdom. Holidays are a good chance to refresh and recharge. Travelling to another country gives us the chance to reflect on life in our own place, especially when we are confronted by the differences between home and our holiday destination.
London is a great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. Towards the end of our holiday, I was longing for the fresh air and rural vistas that we enjoy on a daily basis without thinking about them. Kangaroo Valley fog is damp and clean, it leaves the lungs feeling fresh and the skin invigorated. London fog is clammy and feels oily, it clings to you and leaves you feeling grimy.
Perhaps because the environment in London is more affected by urbanisation and the accompanying increased levels of pollution, there was a marked level of environmental awareness that is not as noticeable in Australia. Sitting down to a meal in a restaurant or pub the menu would often display, alongside the calorific content and allergen information, the carbon footprint of each dish. This could be as simple as rating a dish’s carbon footprint as low, medium or high but would often include a specific value for the carbon impact of the dish expressed as kilograms CO2 emitted in supplying a dish.
Throughout the UK there is an increased level of the use of electric vehicles and more environmentally friendly forms of public transport. Even the ubiquitous and iconic London Taxis are becoming increasingly all electric. Many buses are purely electric or EV hybrids. Bikes of every kind are everywhere, mostly ridden (unwisely in my opinion) without helmets.
The United Kingdom and Australia, despite many cultural similarities, are very different places. “Just down the road in the UK largely means at the end of the street or within walking distance. In Australia it can mean a journey of almost any length. What works for the Brits in reducing their environmental impact may not work in Australia. But I think we can take a leaf out of their book when it comes to being proactive in our environmental concerns.
Sadly, the church has often been seen to be reluctant to engage with our environmental responsibility. On occasion the Bible is used as a justification to exploit the earth. A misunderstanding of the Bible and its description of humanity’s role in being stewards over creation has led some to advocate the position that God gave us the earth to do what we want with it.
A better understanding of the Bible’s view of our responsibility to the environment is to consider the impact of the words of King David in Psalm 24: –
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths. (NLT)
As much as we may like to consider that the Earth is to do with as we please, the Bible’s view is that we are responsible to God for how we live in the world he made.
One of the nice things about holidays is coming home. Flying across the outback you get a glimpse of “the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended” to quote A.B. Patterson. Driving into the valley, I am always amazed at how beautiful the place we call home is. Being environmentally aware, caring for our world ensures that future generations not only will be able to enjoy the wonder of creation as we have but also, we will have been stewards rather than exploiters of the world God has given us to live in.
Yours in Christ
Andrew
