The Green Church Awards, launched today by the Church Times. The awards will be awarded in the summer and there are different categories of awards as follows (award – sponsor):

• 1. Action with the community – Conservation Foundation
• 2. Biodiversity – A Rocha UK
• 3. Campaigning to cut the carbon – Operation Noah/Christian Ecology Link
• 4. Celebrating creation – Eco-congregation
• 5. Changing Lifestyles – Tearfund/ A Rocha’s Living Lightly 24:1
• 6. Energy saving in church buildings – Shrinking the Footprint/Marches Energy Agency
• 7. International action – Christian Aid
• 8. Young people – Christian Aid
• 9. Overall award: Best of the best – Church Times

Very timely, given today’s headlines (BBC: 1, 2, 3)

Also:
Compensate poor countries before it’s too late says Christian Aid

[Apologies that I'm not writing or drawing more today. I'm feeling under pressure and things aren't going that well.]

Posted by Dave at 2:34 pm on February 2, 2007 and filed under Church, Environment.

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This is the cutting from Monday’s Metro newspaper featuring the Oxford Street Christmas Lights campaign of a few weeks back. Many thanks to Jack the Lass for scanning and sending it. I do have a scan of the entire page (of which this is just a small corner) but haven’t posted it as I am trying to save my bandwidth. If anyone really wants to read the whole thing send me an e-mail.

Posted by Dave at 8:42 am on December 6, 2006 and filed under Environment, One-man campaigns.

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All being well our Oxford Street Christmas Lights campaign along with this cartoon will shortly feature in the ‘Metro‘ newspaper, available in London and (I think) other urban areas of the UK.

I don’t know whether it will be today or some other day – all I have had is an e-mail (last night) asking for permission to use the image and saying they will mention the campaign. If anyone can look in a copy of Metro today or in the next few days then I would be very appreciative.

I did not ever get a response from the Oxford Street Authorities.

Posted by Dave at 11:06 am on November 30, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Environment, One-man campaigns.

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Posted by Dave at 12:50 pm on October 31, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Environment.

4 Comments

Posted by Dave at 8:00 am on July 22, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Environment.

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I am coming to the conclusion that Essex is the least ‘green’ place I have ever lived. Take recycling for instance. As I look out of my window on bin day I can see more houses which have put no recycling out than those that have. In fact I can see 11 wheely bins (normal rubbish) and 2 black boxes (Glass, cans and newspapers). Admittedly if you wander down the road to the bungalows occupied largely by pensioners the situation is better, but the commuting classes care not a jot. The evidence on the ground is borne out by the statistics, where Rochford Borough Council comes No 366 out of 393 authorities in England. That’s worse than the situation in Bristol which Paul wrote about yesterday.

Then there’s cycling. I generally feel too unsafe to cycle locally as the design of the roads from a cyclists perspective are so apalling. (And I am not, I should add, a novice cyclist. I used to race bicycles for the UK’s top sporting university and have the yellow and purple lycra to prove it.) Take Maddie_C’s town, town X. They built it with cycle paths around most of the new housing estates 15 or 20 years ago. A good thing you might think. Not really, because now 20 years later:

1. The surfaces on most of the cycle routes are now appalling and unmaintained
2. Because there are cycle paths most of the speed limits are 40 or 50 mph on the roads that actually go anywhere (as opposed to the ones within the housing estates), and cars typically go 10mph above the speed limit
3. Most drivers have never seen a cyclist and drive accordingly

I went for a cycle ride earlier in the week and had to turn around after a mile and come home again because I reached a large dual cariageway road at which point the cycle paths all stop and there is no way to cross unless you ride on the road which at rush hour would mean probable death.

I’ve no time to say more as I have to complete a huge amount of work today, but it seems almost as if the only thing to do if you are a green-minded person living in Essex is to move somewhere else.

Posted by Dave at 9:31 am on June 29, 2006 and filed under Environment, Essex Life, Slightly grumpy.

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The Mad (Make a difference) show which was to have been held in London next week was on my ‘to blog’ list. It was to have been “the UK’s largest ethical lifestyle show, showcasing the best of fairtrade products, ethical services and sustainable & organic lifestyles”. Alas it has now been cancelled and the organising company wound up.

It is with great regret that we have to announce that the conference and exhibition scheduled to be held at Earls Court has now been cancelled. Whilst considerable expenditure has been made in marketing the event, the take up of tickets and sponsorship has rendered the event totally unviable. Accordingly we have taken professional advice and have been advised that we should take steps to liquidate the company.

Very sad. The event was to have hosted a green bloggers panel and lots more besides.

I only heard about the event a week or two ago, by which time it sounds as if they had more or less decided not to run it, but I am sorry for not blogging about it as soon as I heard about it. See other blogs on the subject here.

Posted by Dave at 12:47 pm on May 27, 2006 and filed under Environment.

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So says Tim Worstall. Also a previous post ‘Recycling Rubbish‘.

As I see it the flaw in Tim’s argument is that he measures everything in economic terms. Call me old fashioned, but perhaps there are some things in life that cannot be measured by their monetary value.

Posted by Dave at 11:45 am on May 18, 2006 and filed under Environment, Links: bloggers.

3 Comments

I’ve just remembered that it is a year since I launched CartoonChurch.com.

Thanks to everyone who has surfed, subscribed, comented and helped. In particular it has just occurred to me that I have not thanked the people who have helped me prepare for and run my Christian Resources stall this year. In particular Maddie_C, who single-handedly packaged my new greetings cards (I tried to explain that progress would have been swifter had she used both hands, but she insisted). Also my Mum who is coming to help me today so that I can wander hither and thither and make conversation, sign lucrative contracts, that sort of thing.

Posted by Dave at 8:00 am on May 11, 2006 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Cartoons, Environment.

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This one has been posted at We Blog Cartoons and can be freely re-used on blogs.

Of course, the reality of the situation is one that makes me sad.

Take this post on Exigency In Specie about ‘Christianity, Christians and the Environment‘:

…the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a flight to Greece for a family holiday is equivalent to all the carbon dioxide produced by all the car journeys the average family undertakes in a year.

…the amount of carbon dioxide produced to air freight 1kg of perishable fruit and veg to the UK is 6kg – whilst transporting 1kg of UK produced produce is 0.002kg.

See also:
Guardian Unlimited Travel | News | Oops, we helped ruin the planet
It’s your responsibility before God on climate, says Williams – Britain – Times Online

Please try to buy vegetables that are made in your own country rather than on the other side of the world. If you are going to Europe please use the Eurostar rather than the plane if you can. I cannot blame you for wanting to go and see other parts of our wonderful world but please do not do it overly often.

Update: Archbishop Rowan talks about global warming as reported in the Times link above.

Posted by Dave at 10:01 am on March 30, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Environment.

3 Comments

Fishsoup, whose blog a heartbreaking work of staggering tiredness is one of our Wiblogs, has given up supermarket shopping for Lent.

Last night I had sardines on dry bread with manky beansprouts, this can’t go on.

Talking of supermarkets, there was a programme last week about the way that they are making a profit from Fairtrade products rather than passing on the extra we pay to the people who deserve it. See Exigency In Specie – How Fair is Fair Trade? for some analysis.

See also: my other supermarket-related posts. Although, come to think of it, a lot of them are unrelated to anything.

Update: Serena is taking action on the Fairtrade issue.

Posted by Dave at 12:49 pm on March 16, 2006 and filed under Environment, Fair Trade.

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A London Christian radio station is to promote itself by driving around in a taxi with its radio tuned in for passengers to hear gospel classics and Christian lifestyle shows. This has rightly caused a kerfuffle amongst environmental campaigners, but it’s the safety aspects that worry me:

A Christian has been selected to drive the cab, offer literature and attempt to answer questions on Christianity

Call me old-fashioned, but I think a driver should concentrate upon one thing at a time. At least it sounds like he has passed his navigation test:

I’ve got calls from … people who have found the station by riding in it.

I get a taxi on the way home from the station sometimes, but either way you don’t want a driver who is going to get lost.

[PS. Message to Google visitors: I'd like it to be known that, despite the title of this post I do not currently have any cars available to take you for an early flight from Stansted. Thank you.]

Posted by Dave at 1:37 pm on March 8, 2006 and filed under Environment, Utter nonsense.

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