DEN Enews

January 30.2024

Author

Diocesan Environment Network
January 30, 2024

Pray with us every Monday evening at 7 pm. Email us for the Zoom link.

January 28, 2024 • 4th Week in Ordinary Time

Two hundred thousand Guatemalans were killed between 1960-1996 in a war begun over access to a simple fruit... the banana. Not only has the production of bananas had a huge impact on the people of Guatemala and other Central and South American countries, but it has also negatively impacted the environment in the form of deforestation, soil degradation, erosion, and immense water usage. Consider giving up bananas this week and replacing them with local fruit from your region.

 © The Pastoral Center / PastoralCenter.com. All rights reserved.

Returning to the Garden: An Environmental Lenten Examination

Blane Finnie is a theological student attached to the Cathedral of all Saints this term. He is offering a Lenten book study exploring environmental issues, how they relate to theology and how this involves the church. He has offered similar material in other church communities, and his background in horticulture brings a richness to this subject. Blane has graciously offered this to DEN Participants as well. We are planning to conduct the sessions on Thursday evenings through Lent, but would like to know how many people would like to attend and if Thursdays work. Please contact him by email him at: [email protected]

PWRDF’s Lenten Resource focuses on health and well-being; our own and that of our planet. To subscribe to daily meditiations and other resources: https://pwrdf.org/Lent2024/

 

The Church of England presents a resource called “Watch and Pray: Wisdom and Hope for Lent and Life. https://www.churchofengland.org/faith-calling/what-we-believe/lent-holy-week-and-easter/watch-and-pray-resources-lent-2024

The United Church has a devotional book for sale called Act/Fast: Spiritual Practices for a Climate in Crisis available here: https://ucrdstore.ca/products/act-fast-spiritual-practices-for-a-climate-in-crisis

Give it Up for the Earth Join the Give it up for the Earth! campaign for 2024 by making the following three commitments during the season of Lent:  https://cpj.ca/fortheearth/ Pledge to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. Learn about how ordinary people can put their eco-spirituality into action. Sign an open letter to Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. https://cpj.ca/minister-guilbeault-will-you-give-it-up-for-the-earth/

The Ecology Action Centre is looking for someone to bring their strategic skills, project management expertise, and commitment to sustainability to help shape and implement net zero-grid campaigns in Canada and the Atlantic region. Key responsibilities include research, policy analysis, event planning, volunteer engagement, and project administration. Looking for someone with 2-3 years of research experience, knowledge of energy/environmental policy, strong communication skills, and a motivation for sustainable energy transition.

Bishop Sandra mentioned at a DEN Gathering about two years ago that church parking lots would be an ideal place for EV charging stations. Many are centrally located and this is one way churches can contribute concretely to the climate emergency, to give public witness to the churches’ care for creation, and to reach out to the wider communities we serve. A number of people have been working on this idea and are now ready to engage with interested folks to talk about this possibility at your church and to discuss how incentive programs might apply. A tentative date for a zoom meeting has been set for Monday, February 20 at 6:30 pm. Please reply to Ann Marie Dalton at [email protected] or Mo. Marian Lucas-Jefferies at [email protected]

Hello friends of Green Burial Society of Nova Scotia, We are glad to be hosting our first Green Burial Cafe of 2024 this week on Wednesday January 31st, at 7:00pm AST.

We have the wonderful opportunity to be in conversation with Special Guest Cassandra Yonder. Cassandra is joining us to talk about why people choose Green Burial, and how the products and services that are available may or may not address those choices.  Cassandra is a proud mother and homesteader living in Cape Breton. With a background in Grief and Bereavement, she has been involved with the self named “Community Deathcaring” social movement since 2009 when she started the facebook group and later the online school of the same name. Cassandra believes in the transformational and potentially therapeutic value of reclaiming home based, community centred care of our own dying, dead and bereaved and seeks indigenous leadership in that regard.

Find us on our Google Meet video call link at:
https://meet.google.com/ond-mwti-zjg
Or dial: ‪(CA) +1 647-736-6174 PIN: ‪452 167 355#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/ond-mwti-zjg?pin=4501217959222

With thanks to our Advocacy Editors, Eva Evans and Jesse Hamilton

Have you ever heard of the Darwin Oak in England? This is a 550-year-old, open-grown, ancient oak tree! It is believed that Charles Darwin sat under it or even climbed up this tree to contemplate his future scientific works. 550 years of living history is irreplaceable, and yet it is being sacrificed to make room for a new road plan that could easily be changed with little or no cost. Saving this oak tree is not only historically and culturally significant, but it’s also environmental common sense. It is widely accepted that large-canopy, open-grown trees like the Darwin Oak sequester way more CO2 than thousands of saplings. The proposed felling of numerous veteran trees also goes against the UK’s own National Planning Policy Framework. Thankfully, a community group has been formed to stop this outcome from happening. Almost 100,000 people have signed this petition and they are asking for assistance to keep the momentum going so that the Darwin Oak can keep growing and remain. 

Our forests play a key role in addressing the biodiversity and climate crises. Canada’s forests are facing numerous threats and losses, and those in leadership need to be held accountable and know that people are watching. This petition ranges in issues from logging practices, failing to report cumulative impacts, and the proportion of timber going into short-lived products, such as pulp, paper and biomass.  Further forest issues include the ecosystem impacts of glyphosate spraying, loss of habitat for animals like the boreal woodland caribou, and the decline in capacity of carbon storing. We need our trees. Without a complete account we don’t know what harms are compiling and what the impact really is. Tell Minister Wilkinson there needs to be honest dialogue about forest degradation caused by industrial logging.

The Batang Toru Dam is being built right in the middle of the Tapanuli orangutan’s habitat in Indonesia. This is threatening the survival of the world’s most endangered species of great ape. 2017 was the year scientists stunned the world with the identification of a new species of great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan. Numbering fewer than 800, they are the most endangered species of great ape in the world. They are only found in the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Their fragile ecosystem is under attack. This disastrous dam project was recently bought by Chinese company State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC). This petition is appealing to SDIC’s Scotland-based subsidiary, Red Rock Power, to formally raise the dam project with their parent company and implore them to halt construction before it’s too late. The Tapanuli orangutan can not stop this chain of greed and destruction, but we can speak for them and against the notion that a company has the right to wipe out what belongs to our shared natural world.  

Temu is a rapidly growing global e-commerce platform that is sending an estimated 1.6 million parcels every day. What type of impact is this doing and how does long-distance shopping impact our fragile climate? This answer of Temu’s impact is unknown, since the parent company, PDD Holdings, has yet to disclose its greenhouse gas emissions. This includes from key processes such as transportation of the products. This petition is about compelling Temu to break their silence and reveal the true cost of their operation.

Until 2014, hunger had been declining for a decade, but climate change, conflict, and economic downturns have halted this trend. Between 691 and 783 million people are estimated to have experienced regular hunger in 2022. The World Bank estimates that climate change could force an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, and unchecked climate change could cost us $178 trillion from 2021 - 2070. If you want Canada to play it's part in this effort, please sign this letter to our federal leaders. Engineers Without Borders Canada and Canadian Foodgrains Bank are joining forces on this campaign to bring attention to the important ways science and engineering build resiliency to climate change in food systems, and ultimately, improve people's lives and end hunger

With thanks to Claudia Zinck

Solar Powered Drip Irrigation systems

 Grandma’s last UN course (Gender and Climate Change) told a story about a group of women in Nepal. They are the equivalent of feminists, for that part of the world. 

Gathering water and the care of plants fall to women’s work. In the past, it was labour intensive producing little food. It wasn’t considered important or as important as the men’s work.

Plants need water. Water often meant a couple of hours walk a day. The climate evaporated much of the water used for gardening.

Enter the solar-powered drip irrigation system.

One bucket of water can be sent to long lines of irrigation hoses on a timer perhaps a few hours before daylight. This allows the water to soak into the ground before the sun can evaporate it. Plants grew better. More plants could be grown. Women started selling their excess produce and became a money earner in the family. The ability to improve the family’s finances advanced their status at home and in the village.

So, what is this fantastic solar-powered irrigation system? It is a 10-watt solar panel, a pump, one hose from a container of water to the pump, and a few more hoses going out to the plants. That’s all. Simple is brilliant.

You can buy the system online at a place like Wayfair for $33, Amazon for $50 or Lee Valley for $150. If you are what I call a “tinkerer” you can put one together possibly from things around your workshop. The pump was the only thing I didn’t have.

You need a post or a wall to mount the pump (and maybe the solar panel). The solar panel hooks into the pump to give it electricity. A larger hose goes from your water supply (bucket) to the pump. Another hose comes out of the pump and has a connection to 4-6 other small hoses. These smaller hoses have holes cut into them like a soaker hose. There is a timer on the pump.

The pump is activated and pumps water up from the bucket and then out to the small hoses placed down the row of plants.

It is an automatic watering system, but drip irrigation allows the soil to soak the water slowly with more going to the plants.

You can use anything for your water supply, a bucket or perhaps a barrel. 

Now think one step more if you live in a dry area or have your garden in a back lot or community garden far from a water hose. Make a fog fence that drains into a bucket that fills the irrigation bucket or barrel. One trip a day to that garden to dump water into the pump supply would keep plants growing beautifully.

I love learning about how third-world countries do things. So often they can be adapted here to help our hobby gardens.

 Garden and Craft Together

Once the weather gets warmer and we can reach our sheds, there will not be any time to make yard décor. The planting, weeding, watering, mowing, pruning, raking, etc. will just keep going in a perpetual circle.

Grandma has wanted to have a few, totally tacky, mushroom ornaments for a shady corner of the yard for years. This year I will have them.

I am told to go to a dollar store and buy bowls. I prefer to go to church and yard sales and see if I can buy and re-purpose plastic bowls. Re-use is one of the R’s.

It is suggested that when you cut limbs off your trees, (I have some) you save pieces cut about two to four feet high. Turn the bowls upside down and spray paint a solid colour. Then use a second colour to make splotches on them.

Paint now, in the basement or garage, where it has a bit of heat and the fumes won’t bother anyone. Once warm enough to walk the yard, find the perfect place and put them together. The picture is from hometalk.com

 Another idea I saw was where they used those cocoa liners for hanging baskets. This time they made white dots on the upside-down cocoa liner. The stem was two of the red party cups glued together. (the bottoms glued together) Sorry, no picture

A website called https://www.craftymorning.com/terra-cotta-pot-garden-mushrooms/ uses saucers and terra cotta planters to make mushrooms

 

Something to Eat

Grandma loves to read cookbooks. There always is something new to try. You can take the same ingredients you use daily and turn them into something new. My chemistry teacher used to say, “What goes into the oven comes out of the oven, just in a different form”

This week I found Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies. We have a banana each day for potassium and often have porridge as a cereal so why not a cookie for breakfast? If you have a picky eater who doesn’t like breakfast, this may be the answer.

Completely away from the mushroom theme, do you have a few dead twigs on the side of a tree in your yard? I want to make this.

 

If you have that picky eater or the eater that doesn’t want breakfast, make up a batch of these cookies and they will grab a couple going out the door. Don’t tell them how good they are for them.

 Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

1 large or 2 smaller bananas 

½ cup peanut butter

½ cup honey

1tsp. vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp soda

1 cup dried cranberries

Mix it up. Drop by the spoonful. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

They may like to fall apart until cool. You will find yourself wanting to reach for more than needed.

 

 

b For the cold and homeless

God of compassion,
your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus,
whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable
and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross:
we hold before you those who are homeless and cold
especially in this bitter weather.
Draw near and comfort them in spirit
and bless those who work to provide them
with shelter, food and friendship.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.