Five Minutes for Sustainability- Kees Nieuwerth addresses the Annual Meeting 2023
The following is a minimally edited transcript of prepared remarks by Kees at our Annual Meeting regarding our commitment to sustainability in our new Sustainability Policy and beyond. Several people have asked about recorded or written remarks by Friends during Annual Meeting and you may contact Evan directly for questions or submissions.
Evan Welkin invited me to talk five minutes about my passion AND concern: sustainability. An impossible task of course, but I will try. Earlier I contributed a longer version to one of the recent Peace and Service Network consultations, which I am sure Evan would be able to send to you if requested. So for now I will focus on two root causes of the interwoven climate and biodiversity crises which are deeply entrenched in our language/culture and in our beliefs/paradigms.
Language/culture
Already the philosopher Descartes considered humans unique – as they had souls – while ‘the rest of creation is unthinking material’. On the grounds of recent research into, for example, the communication and language of whales or the capacity to sense grief by primates I wholeheartedly disagree!
Moreover: in all our European languages we speak of ‘environment’ which is part of the problem, rather than the solution. As if we humans are at the centre of it all, whereas actually we are only part of a vulnerable ecosystem. A system we are continuing to harm, whereby we will ultimately harm ourselves. Similarly we use language such as ‘natural resources’, ‘raw materials’ and ‘ecosystem services’ as if the whole of creation is only there to serve humankind! To say that humans ARE creation and one and the same, as we heard today falls into the same category. It is still saying that humans are the ‘the crown of creation’ and were given dominion over creation. In my [understanding] we were asked to be good stewards and the image of the ark reminds us that we are to save all.
So I am not only concerned about “your welfare” as human beings – as in the quote from Jeremiah, but of the welfare of all our fellow-creatures also. I was privileged to moderate a working group of the Conference of European Churches on ‘economic and ecological justice and a sustainable future’ which recently published a report. The title is telling enough: ‘Every Part of Creation Matters’ Or like Lynn Finnegan in her brilliant lecture to Ireland Yearly Meeting last year put it so aptly: ‘Each time we lose a species, we lose another way of knowing God’.
Beliefs/paradigms.
At the core of these crises is that we are clinging on to the belief in unlimited growth and GDP. As an ecologist I know unlimited growth is an impossibility. Even the oldest creatures in our world, the large Sequoia trees cannot ‘grow into heaven’ as ultimately they would no longer be able to pup water up to the top of the tree. We should emulate those ecosystems that are highly mature: tropical rain forests and coral reefs. When maturing they produce less and less waste and use energy more and more efficiently – nothing goes waste, they are extremely energy-efficient. Our human systems unfortunately do exactly the opposite: they produce more and more waste and use energy less and less efficiently.
We must therefore move away from ‘growthism’ as Jason Hickel argues in the wonderful book ‘Less is More’ . We need to rediscover that creation is a sacred gift to be treasured. We need to develop an economy of simplicity and sufficiency, a circular one for the welfare of our fellow creatures sand our fellow human beings. After all, we in the northern hemisphere can afford to ‘live simply’, but our neighbours in the southern hemisphere, amongst them many Quaker sisters and brothers, can often only hope to ‘simply live/survive’!
Remember the story of yesterday: a family in northern Kenya left with only one cow.
Throughout the years I have always maintained that working for ecojustice is working for peace. The World Council of Churches therefore quite rightly so defines Just Peace as having four dimensions :
Peace in the Community – in many communities we see mounting tensions though…
Peace in the Market Place/ in the Economy – we are far removed from that….
Peace with Creation – as the number of species going lost and the extinction rate is high
we are far from that also….
Peace among the Nations – wars and armed conflicts, not in the least over scarce
resources…all over…..
Combatting these interlinked crises should not be reduced to merely accounting: CO-2 emissions, number of species threatened by extinction, tonnes of plastic etc. Nor to just mitigation or compensation. It is about transformation. We should not shy away from facing the root cause: ‘growthism’
I was asked to join the Programme Committee preparing for the World Plenary Meeting (WPM) next year in South-Africa. In our discussions of the theme sustainability I discovered that there are hesitations in some Quaker circles – mostly evangelical Friends in the United States – to discuss sustainability. Apparently it is considered ‘political’ rather than ‘spiritual’.
As if Friends throughout our history ever made that distinction! Are we not to speak truth to the powers and principalities of this world?
So let us not shy away from it: it requires transformation of our individual lifestyles AND transformation of our collective economic system – especially in the north.
So far as HOPE is concerned I am hoping that the WPM will
*Re-affirm the Kabarak Call for Peace and Ecojustice
*Encourage QUNO to extend the good work on climate change (do you hear, Lindsey?) and to include economic and ecological justice more explicitly.
When recently Lynn Finnegan asked me what I am GRATEFUL about I answered that I was impressed by the many detailed critical questions raised by QUNO at the last meeting of the International Pane on climate change (IPCC). Great! And what made me even more grateful is that – since they had to leave the meeting earlier – the delegation of indigenous peoples entrusted the Quaker delegation to raise further questions on their behalf.
Kees Nieuwerth
FWCC – EMES Annual Meeting 2023 at Woodbrooke, Birmingham
05-05-2023
