EarthQuaker Issue 102
I went to the Earthcare gathering hoping to find Friends who shared my concern for the big climate picture. As one example, I have founded StopEacop.scot, which brings together a small group of Quakers from across Scotland to try to stop a damaging fossil fuel project in East Africa. In the course of this work, we investigated the investment policy of Lothian Pensions. I was shocked to find that although this company boast of their green credentials, they have millions of pounds worth of investments in TotalSE, the company behind EACOP. I am working on an email to my MP about the Pensions Bill currently passing through Parliament. I want him to call for the elimination of fossil fuel investments by pension companies in the UK. I believe that such companies have been let down by their actuaries and fail in their fiduciary duty.
Earlier this year, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, along with Exeter University, published the Planetary Solvency report. This tells us that actuaries have no financial models that take account of climate tipping points. This means, for example, that the ice caps could melt, and the actuarial models would still say that the economy will be growing. This kind of nonsense must be called out. Did the Earthcare gathering tell me that Quakers will do this?
Sadly, I thought the answer was “no”. While there is real concern and knowledge, most of the voices in the room struck me as very inward looking. It was me, my food, my home, my money, and then my meeting house and our money. These are all important concerns and show Quakers being “patterns and examples”. All the same, I wondered if it is a sign of how isolated many Quakers feel in their own meeting, in holding a concern for sustainability.
In Scotland I feel blessed that we have a parliamentary engagement group. Many climate campaigning groups have come together with Quakers to press our MSPs on climate issues.
In the wake of COP30 I hope that Quaker campaigners across the UK will find ways to be better connected and engage with the wider issues.
A report on COP30 published in The Conversation, paints a stark picture.
Exceed 1.5°C and not only do extreme climate events, like droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves grow in number and severity, impacting billions of people, we also approach tipping points for large Earth regulating systems like the Amazon rainforest and the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. Tropical coral reef systems, livelihood for over 200 million people, are unlikely to cope with overshoot.
This translates to existential risks for billions of people. Not far in the future, but within the next few years for extreme events, and within decades for tipping points.
The children were a source of joy in the Gathering, but we were struck by one young person who said: “climate change is the normal that I grew up with”. Now we know that there will be no new normal.
Janet Saunders
Central Edinburgh Meeting
South East Scotland Area Meeting