I am to academia what an oxyacetylene welder is to a repairer of Swiss watches.

So I read the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent talk about the environment with delight because it was so easy to understand that I did not need a theological dictionary as I read it.

One phrase leapt out of the page for me “The ultimate tragedy is that a material world capable of being a manifestation in human hands of divine love is left to itself, as humanity is gradually choked, drowned or starved by its own stupidity”.

The human race has the amazing talent of burying its collective head in the sand and the environmental catastrophe we face is like the banking crisis, only worse. By 2030world population is expected to hit 8.3 billion, causing a 50 percent increase in the global demand for food and energy and a 30 percent increase in the demand for fresh drinking water—a resource that is already in short supply for about a third of the world’s people.

This though is thought of by many as a problem for the distant future, to be ignored along with future long periods of drought, short periods of flooding, ever higher summer temperatures as the years pass and all accompanied by food scarcity with crop failures and cattle unable to cope. Actually, if you are in Australia, especially Sidney, reading these words they more than just ring a bell, they are daily facts.

Scientist Martin Cope of the state-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization said that rising summer temperatures due to global warming, drier weather and smog from transport and bushfires will make Australia's lifestyle capital a health hazard.

Most at risk will be the increasing number of elderly from heat stress and anyone with asthma or heart complaints, he said. By 2060 is was expected that "We are looking at a 20 percent increase in the number of days above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) ... You can be looking at a 100 percent increase of the small number of extreme temperature days," he said, referring to temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius.

Australian computer modeling predictions suggest that if global emissions continue unabated, then rainfall will decrease in the southern states and increasing further north. As if to demonstrate that, Queensland, in the North, is currently experiencing widespread flooding after rainfall of historic proportions while in the Southern Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in a century, which has stretched for more than seven years in some areas and has forced restrictions on water use in the country's big cities.

A government-commissioned report on climate change last year warned that exceptionally hot years, which used to occur once every 22 years, would occur in years to come every one or two years, making drought a permanent part of the Australian environment. The present drought has hit farmers so badly that one commits suicide every four days.

Water is actually more valuable than oil, ask a farmer in any of the drought stricken areas of the world and not just Australia and Africa, but in California and the surrounding states, parts of Spain, China, Malta, The Amazon in Brazil, Mexico, The Middle East, and the list goes on. Australia and the others are in crisis now, who is to be next?

The Archbishop of Canterbury Said in his talk, “We need ways of redefining business excellence in terms of sustainability and deliberate encouragement of low-carbon technologies”. Quite right ABC and we need them now, because if the well runs dry then even the woman at the well in John 4 won’t be able to help. In the fight against Climate Chaos we are our brothers and sisters keeper.

And the picture? That’s Australia.

WE can reverse our ways and change the future, it does not have to be like this

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world.
I realise this may be a shock but
‘happiness comes from within’
is a lie, and
‘money will make me happy’
so in thirty years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life.
my employers will know that
I have got my priorities straight because
work
Is more important than
family.
I tell you this
once upon a time
families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era.
This is a quick fix society.
experts tell me
thirty years from now I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of my divorce.
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making.
In the future environmental destruction will be the norm.
no longer can it be said that
my peers and I care about this earth.
It will be evident that
my generation is apathetic and lethargic.
It is foolish to presume that
there is hope.

there is hope.
It is foolish to presume that
my generation is apathetic and lethargic.
It will be evident that
my peers and I care about this earth.
no longer can it be said that
in the future environmental destruction will be the norm.
I will live in a country of my own making.
I do not concede that
thirty years from now I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of my divorce.
experts tell me
This is a quick fix society.
but this will not be true in my era.
families stayed together
once upon a time
I tell you this
family.
Is more important than
work
I have got my priorities straight because
my employers will know that
they are not the most important thing in my life.
so in thirty years I will tell my children
‘money will make me happy’
is a lie, and
‘happiness comes from within’
I realise this may be a shock but
I can change the world.
and I refuse to believe that
I am part of a lost generation


See what happens when you choose to reverse it?

And his headmaster said 'society needed to be protected against him', how wrong can a man be?

Roger Hosking's Mum walked out on the family when he was 5 years old. He became angry and aggressive and was sent to a special school at the age of ten and when he was fifteen the headmaster wrote to his Father saying “Society needs to be protected against people like Roger”.

Later in life Roger became a Christian and came to the conclusion that Jesus spent little time in the synagogue but lots with those on societies margins and as Roger had firsthand experience of how it felt to be rejected, despised and on the margins he and his wife Beryl decided to help those who had been through the same types of experiences, and set up Highfields Happy Hens in Etwall, Derbyshire.

“I never wanted to be a farmer”, Roger said, “I just wanted to look after young people and this seemed to be the best way. Angry hands became gentle hands collecting eggs, the youngsters learnt to count, read, write, handle money and customers. In short they learned to respect themselves and became able to become positive members of society.”

Roger and Beryl are also proud of the fact that of the hundreds of teenagers who have attended the farm over the years, not one, according to the youth offending service, has reoffended. And Roger has no doubt that most of the youngsters go on to better things. "The majority enrol in further education or find full-time employment. We know this because so many return to thank us. We also receive positive feedback from their former teachers. The Highfields experience is a like chain reaction – we have thousands of chickens producing thousands of eggs each and every day. Those eggs need to be collected, counted, packed and delivered. Even the most damaged young person can find a place where they can fit in and feel useful, and our staff has the time to talk to them in an atmosphere of love and healing".

Every week during the school year, young people help the Hosking’s on their farm. All are struggling in mainstream education, are the victims of bullying or else have a difficult home life. The aim is to teach these teenagers new skills to boost their self-esteem and give them a sense of achievement and direction.

Speaking of the youngsters Roger said one of them was particularly disgusting, “He was snotty, dirty, his language was the pits (despite our efforts), he could neither read write or count but he could collect eggs and one day he asked if he could do it on his own. I explained that he couldn’t as he needed to count and record the eggs – “well then teach me” he said. In 3 weeks he could count accurately up to 5000 and later learnt to keep the records, he became clean and pleasant.”

“Recently we had a lovely young girl with us, she has been tagged but we could not understand how she had got into trouble (we never ask, this is a new life) before she left us she banged a nail in our cross (they have a Christian Cross on the farm) and later wrote to us, the letter closed with ‘Thank you all so much for welcoming me in the way that you did when others would never have given me a chance’. It was so simple and has happened so many times”.

"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? Job 12:7-9

As Roger and Beryl have shown, creation heals, but now needs healing from the damage inflicted upon it by greed and ignorance if it to be able to continue its healing work.

So what is to be the fate of the worlds poor?

In Bangladesh, a million people a year are displaced by loss of land along rivers. Rising river and sea levels and more frequent tropical storms are facts of life in many Third World countries.

Prince Charles and his wife are presently in Latin American, promoting energy efficiency and measures to combat climate change, and he summed up the future that so many will face if actions are not taken to carry out these actions. He said "If we do nothing, the consequences for every person on this earth will be severe and unprecedented, with vast numbers of environmental refugees, social instability and decimated economies -- far worse than anything which we are seeing today. How can we begin to address poverty if we haven't first ensured our planet is actually inhabitable?"

As if to underline this, at Co2penhagen, climate scientists said on Monday, that the U.N.'s climate change panel may be severely underestimating the sea-level rise caused by global warming, and called for swift cuts in greenhouse emissions. Professor Stefan Rahmstorf reported that "The sea-level rise may well exceed one meter (3.28 feet) by 2100 if we continue on our path of increasing emissions. Even for a low emission scenario, the best estimate is about one meter." "It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Key findings of the report include:
• 75-250 million people across Africa could face water shortages by 2020
• Crop yields could increase by 20% in East and Southeast Asia, but decrease by up to 30% in Central and South Asia
• Agriculture fed by rainfall could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020
• 20-30% of all plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction if temperatures rise between 1.5-2.5C
• Glaciers and snow cover expected to decline, reducing water availability in countries supplied by melt water

The scientific work reviewed by IPCC scientists includes more than 29,000 pieces of data on observed changes in physical and biological aspects of the natural world. Eighty-nine percent of these, it believes, are consistent with a warming world. But is it just the Third World that would suffer with a 1 meter sea level rise? No, because more than 70 percent of the world's population lives on coastal plains and 11 of the world's 15 largest cities are on the coast or estuaries.

If sea levels rise a meter, the streets of Miami could end up underwater while New Orleans could become part of the Gulf of Mexico. The Thames Barrier would, when faced with a North Sea tidal surge such as occurred in 1953 combined with higher sea levels, be unlikely to cope with the event and much of Holland, where 1,800 people drowned in the 1953 event would be flooded, as would much of Norfolk on Englands East Coast.

But that is not immediate; the flooding due to climate change is already reaping havoc in the Third World now, and their future? That is actually in our hands. How we behave, what we purchase, all our actions, from turning off lights to reduce our carbon emissions to giving to charities that help them, will affect them right now, and us in the future.

Matthew 34-40. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

The worrying sections of the above I have not included are verses 41-46... Do you have the courage to read them?

Monday 16th addition.
After I wrote the above, on Wednesday 11th, SCIENCE DAILY published on Monday 16th an article entitled "Sea Level Rise Due To Global Warming Poses Threat To New York City".

You may never read anything as important as this...

and it was written by John Seymour John died in 2004 and is much missed, but this world is enriched by his life's work and his prophetic words.:

"THE AGE OF PLUNDER is nearly at an end. The Age of Healing is ready to be born and whether it arrives or not depends upon two people: you and me.

The Age of Plunder was the natural successor to the so-called Age of Reason: the Age in which humankind decided that it knew better than God. For 200 years now the greedy and ruthless have been plundering the planet but their time will soon be up. The whole thing is going to come crashing down.

It could not have gone on much longer anyway - because soon there will be nothing left to plunder. The forests have almost gone from the Earth, the fish of the sea are all but exhausted, the air surrounding us and the waters of the Earth will soon be able to take no more poisonous wastes and, most serious of all, the soil is going. For we soil organisms this could be terminal. As long as the oil reserves last agribusiness will be able to produce the agrichemicals needed to keep some sort of production of vitiated food going from the eroded soil, but the oil deposits - that Pandora's Box of evil things - will soon be exhausted and then the final account, long deferred, will come up for payment. The bailiffs who present it will have strange names, like Famine, Pestilence and War.

But, thank God, maybe the old Earth will not have to wait for this to happen. The whole great edifice of international trade and finance - the whole mighty plunder-machine - is quite likely to burst like a balloon that has grown too big. The whole thing is becoming unsustainable: it has grown too huge to manage.

OWING TO THE incorrigible tendency towards cannibalism by the huge industrial corporations - the tendency of the bigger ones to swallow up the smaller ones - these molochs are becoming too large for humans to control or the planet to support. Ten years ago no economist would have predicted the complete collapse of the mighty Soviet machine that had engulfed half the Earth. International capitalism will follow.

It is in the nature of a limited company that it can have no responsibility either to the environment around it or to the people who work for it. It is no use blaming the directors - if they do anything that might reduce profits for the shareholders they will quickly be replaced. And the shareholders not only have no liability for debts incurred by the company - but they take no responsibility for the world of nature around them. If the directors can secure bigger profits by dumping poisons into the nearest river - they have to do this. If they do not, they will very quickly be replaced. If they can make more profit by halving the work force - they will have to do so or again they will be replaced. If both shareholders and directors suffer from that most uncapitalist thing - a conscience - to the extent that it interferes with profits - that company will be swallowed up by another giant that has no such inconvenient scruples.

One of the most dramatic effects of the Age of Plunder has been to drive most of the world' s population into vast conurbations. These huge assemblies of uprooted people, called cities, are not only ugly but also dangerous. The billions who live in them can only be kept alive by an enormous system of transport which brings water, food, power, fuel and all the necessities of life, often great distances. Any breakdown in the supply of all this would be disastrous. And the great plundering molochs of companies which run it all get fewer and fewer, and bigger and bigger, and more and more people find themselves out of work, not needed, redundant and disempowered.

AND MEANWHILE THE tiny scattering of people left on the land, which is the only source of true wealth, have been forced by their paucity of numbers to resort to more and more destructive methods of producing the huge amount of food needed to sustain these billions. They have been forced to ignore the laws of husbandry, which could have retained the fertility of the soil as long as the world lasted, and farm instead with chemicals and huge machines. The soil is becoming poisoned and eroded. The only beneficiaries of this have been the huge chemical companies but they will destroy themselves in the end because they are killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.

If we open our eyes, we will realize that all this is bound to come crashing down in the end. Then, in the ashes of the Age of Plunder, a new age could arise. The real New Age: the Age of Healing!

We will set about it, just you and me, to heal the ravaged Earth. If we do not - if we fail - then there will not be an Age of Healing: there will be an Age of Chaos and it will not be nice. And we do not have to wait for the end of the Age of Plunder to start the work. We must start now. And how can we - just the two of us, you and me, who are so few and disempowered - start this great work by ourselves?

Firstly, say to yourself, and I promise I will do the same, the following resolution: "I am only one. I can only do what one can do. But what one can do I will do!" Then consider what you can do.

Refuse to work for the plunderers. Refuse to buy their shoddy goods. Give up the ambition of living like a Texan millionaire. Boycott the Lottery, not because you think you won' t win it, but because you don't want to win it! Refuse to shop in the plunderers' " supermarkets" . Work, always, for a decentralist economy. Support local traders and producers - try to get what you need from as near your home as you can. Take part in your local politics - boycott the politics of the huge scale, the remote and far-away. The current non-violent defiance of the law by people protesting against the export of live animals from Britain is a fine example of citizen-power.

Work for an economy in which land and property are fairly shared out among the people so that " everybody has enough and nobody has too much" . We must withhold our work, our custom, and our investment from plundering industry. This may cause us "financial hardship" : then we must endure " financial hardship" .

Road transport is the most destructive thing of all. If you live in a city, you do not need a car. (When you go to the country you can hire one - it' s much cheaper than owning.) If you live in the country, you may need one - use it as little as possible. Boycott most goods brought from far away. Take some trouble to find locally produced goods and buy them. Heavy road transport is enormously polluting. Oppose new road building. Building new roads never relieves traffic congestion - it simply generates more traffic. The only way of solving the traffic problem is to have less traffic.

If you possibly can, do not work for huge organizations. If we withhold our labour from them, they will wither away. (Do not be afraid that this will lose " jobs" . It will create more jobs - a multitude of small firms create more " jobs" than a few big ones). Support local cultural activities. Boycott mass " culture" coming from countries far away. Encourage, support, and initiate, local credit and finance organizations. Buy, if you cannot grow, organically produced food. Thus you will help destroy the polluting chemical industry - and you will be healthier. Boycott, absolutely consistently, all products that have involved cruelty to animals. Support the local and the small-scale. I will do the same as I ask you to do.

The tiny amount you and I can do is hardly likely to bring the huge worldwide moloch of plundering industry down? Well, if you and I don' t do it, it will not be done, and the Age of Plunder will terminate in the Age of Chaos.

We have to do it - just the two of us - just you and me. There is no " them" - there is nobody else. Just you and me.

On our infirm shoulders we must take up this heavy burden now - the task of restoring the health, the wholeness, the beauty and the integrity of our planet. We must start the Age of Healing now! Tomorrow will be too late".