BeFriending Creation
BeFriending Creation
BeFriending Creation. Newsletter of Quaker Earthcare Witness. ISSN 1050-0332. Published bi-monthly.
We publish BeFriending Creation to promote Quaker Earthcare Witness goals, stimulate discussion and action, share insights, practical ideas, and news of our actions, and encourage among Friends a sense of community and spiritual connection with all Creation. Opinions expressed are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect those of QEW, or of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The editor is responsible for unsigned items.
Submission deadlines are February 7, April 7, June 7, August 7, October 7, and December 7.
Contents of BeFriending Creation copyright ©2007 QEW, except as noted. Permission to reprint BeFriending Creation material must be requested in advance from the editor.
"Membership" in QEW is open to all who demonstrate commitment to support QEW's goals and who support QEW's work at the Monthly or Yearly Meeting levels, or through other Friends organizations. FCUN is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation; contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
QEW Vision and Witness
WE ARE CALLED to live in right relationship with all Creation, recognizing that the entire world is interconnected and is a manifestation of God.
WE WORK to integrated into the beliefs and practices of the Religious Society of Friends the Truth that God's creation is to be respected, protected, and held in reverence in its own right and the Truth that human aspirations for peace and justice depend upon restoring the earth's ecological integrity.
WE PROMOTE these Truths by being patterns and examples, by communicating our message, and by providing spiritual and material support to those engaged in the compelling task of transforming our relationship with the earth.
QEW Clerk: Barbara Williamson, 2710 E. Leigh St., Richmond, VA 23223. Phone: 804/643-0461; e-mail: barbaraawmson@juno.com.
Address subscription and membership correspondence to: QEW General Secretary Ruah Swennerfelt, 173-B N. Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401-1607. Phone: 802/658-0308; e-mail: ruah@QuakerEarthcare.org
Address editorial correspondence to: BFC Editor: Louis Cox, 173-B N. Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401-1607. Phone: 802/658-0308; e-mail: louis@QuakerEarthcare.org.
- QEW staff report: Getting around in Sustainable Sweden.
- Clerk's message: Eco-justice and our Testimony of Equality.
- QEW fall Annual Meeting & Gathering: Awaken to a sense of place in the desert Southwest.
- Why monetary reform is needed to solve today's social and ecological problems.
- QEW Steering Committee has intense, productive session in Chicago.
- Marshall Massey called to complete interrupted pilgrimage.
- Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight calls us to a new vision of living on Earth.
- Remembering Paul Weber, 1921-2006—He helped keep QEW's light flickering.
- Magnificent Healing, a new CD from Earth Mama.
- IYM Environmental Concerns Committee unveils plan to increase YM involvement.
Getting around in`sustainable Sweden'
George Fox urged us to be "patterns and examples." But to know how to do this, we sometimes need to seek out others who are already good examples.
When we apply this to ecologically sustainable living, who else in the world can we North Americans, with our huge ecological footprints, take some lessons from?
QEW supporter William Alexander has written passionately and persuasively about Kerala, India, which, in contrast to much of the "developing" world, enjoys a surprisingly high quality of life and low environmental impact, even while its per-capita income is low. But Keralans are different enough culturally that North Americans are not likely to see them as models for dealing with their own sustainability problems.
But what about Sweden?
We recently returned from a two-week visit to Sweden, where some of Ruah's relatives live. We were "blown away" by how this technologically advanced Scandanavian country of nine million people about the size of the northeastern U.S. could be so far ahead of us on many measures.
As "European-Americans"ourselves, we could easily identify with the Swedish example when it involves a people with whom we share many historic roots and cultural norms (not to mention much of the same DNA!).*
Confirming what we could see for ourselves is the 2005 report of the global Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) <http://www.yale.edu/esi/>, which we learned about when we got home. It ranks 146 countries according to such things as pollution levels, air and water quality, energy use, biodiversity, population control, and environmental regulations. The top six ESI countries currently are Finland, Norway, Uruguay, Sweden, Iceland, and Canada. Sadly, the United States ranks 46th (just ahead of Belarus).
According to the report, Sweden stands out in terms of strong governmental commitment to the environment, in contrast to the U.S., whose elected and unelected leaders are hard at work turning back the clock on the country's hard-won environmental protection programs and social safety nets.
Right now Sweden gets about a fourth of its energy from renewable sourcesprimarily hydroelectric, biomass, and wind. The government is budgeting more than $100 million a year for renewable energy research & development as it pursues a dead-serious goal of becoming "oil-free" and energy-self-sufficient by 2020. Since the disastrous meltdown at Russia's Chernobyl facility in the 1980s, it has been phasing out its nuclear power plants. Contrast this to the U.S., which has no agenda for dealing with its addiction to oil or its disproportionate greenhouse gas emissions.
Interestingly, this ranking of countries seems to have flip-flopped over the last half-century. We can read in history books about the millions of aggrieved Scandanavian emigrants who found North America to be truly a land of hope and opportunity. But since the end of World War II, the U.S. has taken a very different path to human, economic, and urban development. We've promoted the accumulation of financial capital while draining our social capital and natural capital. We've traded once-thriving public transit systems for suburban sprawl. Our physical and community health have been undermined by an automobile-oriented, TV-drugged existence. Due to these short-sighted choices, we have not only lost our edge but we have seriously compromised our children's and grandchildren's future.
The contrast that struck us the most was Sweden's world-class transportation system. Cars have a place, but the majority of Swedes get around on clean, quiet, energy-efficient rapid public transit. The fact that most trains are electric-powered and that many city buses run on natural gas helps to explain the excellent air quality in most cities. And because Sweden isn't plagued with urban sprawl, the buses and trains can provide better service. This increases ridership and keeps fares affordable.
On one inter-city bus trip, we were pleased to find a clean, spacious restroom with hot and cold running water and a flush toilet, unlike the grimy Greyhound buses in the U.S. There weren't any signs or announcements telling us not to smoke or use alcoholic beverages, not to bother others with loud talking or music, and to please use the provided trash containers. —It was assumed that everyone knew how to behave appropriately on a bus. And everyone did!
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* We aren't ignoring other cultural and ethnic sectors of the U.S. who have less reason to identify with northern Europe. —That's just a topic for another kind of article.
