This month for New Forest Forest
Church, rather than a video, we felt that it would be nice to all go out in our
local area at 4 o’clock on Sunday May 10th, when we would usually be gathering,
so that we are all out at the same time, even if we aren’t together, and as we
walk to contemplate how the current lockdown is affecting the planet and the
natural environment.
As you walk slowly and quietly and
absorb the natural environment near you and the Divine presence within it,
contemplate what impact your life has on the planet, and what the current
situation shows us about the affect Western culture is having on the earth.
Below is some information to help your thoughts. Perhaps you
could find out more information.
Following your time out contemplating, why not come back
here and write your thoughts and comments so that we can share together in our
experiences?
While the world grapples with the
coronavirus pandemic, the slowdown in human activity is having some unexpected,
but positive impact on our planet. To combat the rapidly spreading virus
countries have put a lockdown resulting in limited travel and industrial
activity.
Across the globe wildlife and
plant life and aqua-life has been reported as increasing in its health and
activity. Limiting travel has led to a reduction in vehicle emissions and
cutting the amount of industrial activity has led to a drop in the number of
harmful particles put in the air and water.
According to Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at the
Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland, the restrictions
contributed to a 25 percent drop in China's carbon dioxide emissions over four
weeks beginning in late January, compared to the same time last year.
Myllyvirta's analysis also
found that industrial operations were reduced by 15 percent to 40 percent in
some sectors and that coal consumption at power plants fell by 36 percent.
In San Francisco, which is under
shelter-in-place orders to control the spread of the coronavirus, the
average concentration of fine particulate matter — tiny particles in the air
that are dangerous because they can be breathed deeply into the lungs — over five
days was almost 40 percent lower than the previous year; in New York City,
there was a 28 percent drop over the same period of time, and the
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue saw a 32 percent decrease.
Researchers who study the Earth’s
movement are reporting a drop in seismic noise — the hum of vibrations in the
planet’s crust — that could be the result of transport networks and other human
activities being shut down. Data from a seismometer at the Royal
Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, show that measures to curb the
spread of COVID-19 in Brussels caused human-induced seismic noise to fall by
about one-third.
Watch this video to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxy5sBe2o5k
Having returned from a wonderfully windy walk in the Forest I have to say that, like many of us, my mind tends to linger in the types of things we were to contemplate today - how my life affects the earth; how western culture disturbs and destroys the planet. So it didn't feel particularly inspirational. However, I watched the video again just before going out and one thing from it stuck in my mind. The statement that more people in China have been saved from air pollution based death than have died from the virus.
ReplyDeleteMy contemplation was - if this is so, then why don't the world governments respond with the same passion to save these lives as they have done to save lives from COVID-19? And what can I do/change in tbe way I live to help save these lives, like I have changed the way I live currently to stop the spread of Coronavirus?
I have loved this Spring more than any since my youth. Covid19 spurred me to treat this last Spring as if it was my last - in case it was. But adding beauty to pragmatism was the fresh, untrammelled sky free of contrails and the green, jewelled verges uncut, unsprayed and humming with insects.
ReplyDeleteI took my walk this morning. Laddie agreed to sit still by me, not sniffing for pheasants, in exchange for dog treats. It meant I could write, untroubled by pheasant empathies.
This is the resulting rumination...
RUMINATION
In the company of birch
I sit, silent,
listening.
The grey wind softly sighs
through canopies
of freshly minted leaves.
Whether its a sigh of wonder,
pleasure or nostalgic longing
for the long lost woods of memories,
I cannot say.
But what I say is this.
The bracken, elegant, uncurls;
spreads its fractal fronds towards the sun.
The insects creep, or crawl or run,
or stitch the air with humming wing.
The hidden voices of the forest sing,
fine treble on the wind's soft bass and
silent counterpoint of Earth.
My soul sings too,
a wordless song I seem to know
from long before my birth.
I love your poem, Alistair. Mike and I walked the streets of Poole and through the park last Sunday, as the wind blew stronger than it had done for a while. I thought about the struggle I have with the wind, it being my least favourite weather, and wondered about that. Wind disturbs, it ruffles, it changes the position of things.That day we were awaiting an announcement from the government about the potential lifting of some of the lockdown arrangements, and the wind represented change, which I realised for me was unwelcome. There is certainly a sense that we have rediscovered something in lockdown, reconnected with that 'wordless song' as you describe it, Alistair. And I was aware that change seemed to threaten that. However, hope lies in a sense that we are learning new skills, new ways of connecting, that can be carried with us into the new normal, on the wind which ushers in the next season.
ReplyDelete