Context
Water represents the washing away of impurities and all kinds of filth, yet as we have all been horrified to learn, the oceans themselves and the life in them is being choked by plastic. The final episode of Blue Planet II stunned the whole country, and woke us up to the danger. With the new year, China has banned the import of our plastic waste. We have to develop means of disposing of or recycling our own waste. The challenge is to do this responsibly rather than hoping some other country with less strict laws may be bribed to take our rubbish. There are campaigns to stop the use of PET bottles by Coca Cola and other manufacturers of fizzy drinks. Britain has made a start on reducing the amount of plastic rubbish going into the sea by banning the use of micro beads in cosmetics and cleaning products. But much more needs to be done as even washing synthetic garments puts dangerous plastics into the marine food chain. Should we be using this in our washing machines?
Another urgent issue is the need for clean air in our cities, and we’ve known since 2015 that so-called ‘clean’ diesel engines cause most of the problems. While they produce less greenhouse gases (C02 in the quantities involved here is not dangerous to health), they give off vast quantities of nitrous oxides and fine particles which are harmful to lungs. Huge numbers of premature deaths in our cities are caused by pollution. In an echo of the fact that John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod for his views on the king’s scandalous lifestyle, campaigners in London actually welcome being arrested in order to bring the scandal of dirty air to public notice. They say, ‘Without being too grand, the idea is to replicate what Martin Luther King did to the civil rights revolution’.
And whilst the oceans are warming, polar ice is reducing, and storms are increasing, President Trump is no help.
Reflection
Those who went out to hear John the Baptist went with a huge sense of expectation. At the beginning of a new year we need a similar sense of expectation that we can make things better, and repent of what has been wrong. Mark 1.5 conveys the scale of what was happening. People may well have said ‘We didn’t know’ when they heard his preaching. The answers John the Baptist gave to the question of how to repent were simple practical ones. Luke 3.10-14 gives examples: sharing coats and food, soldiers making do with their pay, and tax collectors not making excessive demands. Similarly, there are practical things we can do. There was a time when we didn’t know, for example, that smoking, or lead in petrol, or propellants used in aerosols were dangerous. But we did learn, and people across the world are changing. The modifications now required across the planet are far more wide reaching than anything that has gone before. Governments want to act, but are afraid of immediate changes which might prove unpopular. Some people will deny the need for change or dismiss the ways in which we are polluting our oceans and our atmosphere. In order to enable governments to act more quickly, we have to change and to say so.
Pollution is killing us, and killing the life of the oceans. When we realise that this is a life and death matter we have the responsibility to make it an issue in which new life can thrive. The world’s cities, in the 19th century, were saved by public health campaigns, clean water, proper sewage systems and the like. Britain had clean air acts in the 20th century to reduce the dangers from industrial smog and coal burning. The challenge is now to widen the scope of our environmental concern to the invisible pollutants in the atmosphere, and the unseen waste accumulating in the oceans. It is a time to wake up and repent of all the ways in which we are harming nature and neighbour.
Prayer
After each bidding
Open our eyes, Lord,
to the goodness of all you have made.
Lord, when you made the earth,
you saw it was very good.
You filled the earth with light,
but we have been blind to our misuse of your creation.
You made the darkness for rest,
but we have used it to hide our wrongdoing.
The rivers have washed away our rubbish,
but we have allowed it to collect in the oceans.
We have longed for products that are indestructible,
but they destroy the life of the oceans.
We have wanted cheap energy for industry, for transport and to heat our homes,
but we have ignored the cost to our health.
Turn our hearts, Lord, that we may repent
and restore the purity of our air and our oceans.
Amen.
Questions
- The campaigners about air pollution in London say, ‘Without being too grand, the idea is to replicate what Martin Luther King did to the civil rights revolution’. Is the issue that serious, and if so, how could we address it?
- How can we reduce our reliance on single use plastics?
All-age activity
Cars in towns and cities produce much of the pollution.
- What ideas have you for reducing your own car use?
Young people
Towns monitor air pollution and figures are available on line.
- How polluted is the air where you live?
- What are the places to avoid?
By not walking in such places we protect ourselves, and by not driving there, we protect others.
- Do you really need plastic bottles of fizzy drinks or water? Is there an alternative?
The Revd Dr. Tom Ambrose is a retired priest at the parish of the Ascension, Cambridge.
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