Tearfund has recently issued a ‘Church Climate Change Challenge’, which gives congregations like ours the opportunity to become Climate Change Champions. We can, as a church, agree to make changes to our lifestyles and become more energy-efficient. Our PCC can – on our behalf – enter the Climate Change Challenge.

But WE have to get involved to make this work.
The Don’t be Derek leaflet at the back of church mentions an Individual Response Form that you can complete to see what contribution you can make to reduce global warming. Let’s see if we can get 30 completed and handed back to the PCC. In the first instance, please give them to me. Don’t leave it to someone else to complete!

There’s a full list of church challenges in the leaflet, but Tearfund highlights the following things we can do quite easily now:

1. Use ceramic cups for coffee and tea as much as possible, rather than plastic or paper ones. We produce and use 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago. Let’s try to kick the trend at church.
2. Recycle office paper, printer cartridges and any plastic or paper cups that we use. Three-quarters of our rubbish ends up in landfill, and landfill emits 40 per cent of the UK’s climate-changing methane gas.
3. Remind people to love their poor neighbours around the world by turning off lights, recycling where possible and generally saving energy at church. It’s easy to think that ‘someone else will do it’ in a church community. Being energy-efficient is a shared responsibility. Let’s put stickers on switches as a reminder.

So don’t be Derek, join the Church Climate Challenge now!

For more details, visit www.tearfund.org/derek or speak to Gordon Wilkinson, Tearfund representative for St. John’s

WHY SHOULD we be thinking about energy?

Here are four reasons to start with:

1.     People are using a lot more energy all around the world.
2.     There isn’t much energy supply left.
3.     Lack of energy supply has serious social, economic and political impacts on people throughout the world.
4.     God gave us the responsibility to care for the world he created.

How much more energy are we using now?
Studies for the period from 1965 to 2005 estimated that the energy used worldwide increased by about two and a half percent per year.
Why is the demand increasing?
The simple answer is wealth. Energy is required for economic growth, in farming, manufacturing, transport, health etc., so a country, seeking to expand and improve the standard of living of its people, will increase its demand for energy. The larger the population of the country, the greater the impact, so India and China will make a huge difference to the energy required.
How can we predict energy demand?
With difficulty! However, the two main elements that have a major impact on the increase in global energy demand are:

1. Population growth - estimated to be 1.4% per year, reaching 8 billion by 2020.
2. Population activity (how much energy we use) estimated to increase at 1.5% per year.

A third element that has a major impact on the decrease in demand is energy efficiency, which is estimated to improve at only 1.1% per year.
Combining these three elements gives a predicted increase of at least 1.8% per year, slightly less than it has been.
Well, 1.8% per annum doesn’t sound too bad.
Actually it is very serious. If energy consumption increases at that rate, then in about 40 years it will have doubled worldwide!

So where will the extra energy come from?
Good question! Today, about three-quarters of the energy comes from the three main fossil fuels: oil - 32%, coal - 24%, natural gas - 21%. The remainder comes from biomass (wood, dung etc) - 10%, hydro - 6%, nuclear - 5% and other renewable resources (solar, wind etc) - 2%.
Investment in the construction and technology for the non-fossil fuel sources takes considerable time, so in the immediate future it is the fossil fuels that will have to supply the extra energy. However, that means using up their precious reserves faster than ever, a situation that cannot go on indefinitely.
So what can I do?
The simple answer is USE LESS ENERGY. Why not send your suggestions to the editor for next month’s magazine.
We have decided to have solar panels installed to provide hot water and reduce our gas consumption.

This article has been edited from an article submitted by J. Grainger.

A Precious Substance

After Global Warming and Energy, what’s your next topic?
I thought I would talk about the scarcity of a very precious substance.
Oh, is that gold, diamonds or maybe oil or uranium?
No, it’s much more important than any of them - it’s water
I thought the world had plenty of that?
Yes it has, but very little is available for humans. It has been estimated that 96.5% of all water is in the oceans, and 1% is groundwater that’s too deep or unsuitable to use.
Well, what about the other 2.5%, is that fresh water?
Yes….but two-thirds is locked up in glacial ice and snow!  It’s the amount of rain and snow fall that’s important as that’s the sustainable amount that replenishes the groundwater and rivers that we can access for our use. That’s less than 1% of all the water in the world.
So how much precipitation does the world get?
There’s enough to provide all 6.6 billion of us on average around 6,000 litres per day - if we could catch and store all of it!
Isn’t that enough?
Yes, it is. According to my water meter, I am using about 150 litres per day, but of course the water used for agriculture and industry has to be added to this figure, which probably raises the total in the UK to over 2,000 litres per person per day.
Does agriculture and industry use that much?
It is estimated that to produce 1 kg of corn or wheat takes 1,500 litres of water. So try and imagine how much water has been used to produce each packet of your breakfast cereal!  Worldwide, agriculture uses 70% and industry uses 20% of water, which leaves 10% for domestic use.
So is the problem the variation of rainfall in different regions?
Yes, that’s one of them. Many areas have very low rainfall per person, including Eastern Europe, north and south Africa, the Middle East and India. In all about 2 billion people are affected by water shortages. Other problems include:

Health - without proper treatment of drinking water and waste water, many people have to use polluted water.  This increases child deaths, reduces people’s capacity to work and shortens life expectancy.
Global warming - this is changing the annual pattern of rainfall in various areas.  We are experiencing this in the UK with drier summers and wetter winters resulting in water shortages until storage capacity and a national grid of pipelines can match demand; but that will cost £££s
Social - most of us in the UK have the luxury of a drinking water tap in our own homes, offices, etc., but in parts of Africa, households spend 25% of their time just fetching water.  This has a considerable impact on the time and energy they can spend earning a living.
Political - rivers and lakes often cross national boundaries, creating the potential for conflict over the quantity of water extracted and the pollutants discharged.

So what can I do?
The simple answer is USE LESS WATER. We have a water meter fitted, dual flush loos and seven water barrels installed in the garden to collect rain water and bath/shower water.
J Grainger