Blessed are those who leave no carbon footprints – that has been the public view of the Bishop of London, and he has now lived up to his vow of not indulging in air travel for a year by declaring that he will take the train to Romania to attend a clerical conference.
It was unclear how many of the Church of England delegation would accompany the Rt Rev Richard Chartres on the 36-hour rail trip to Sibiu for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly next month.
The bishop took a “gold” pledge not to fly anywhere for 12 months after pronouncing that flying was potentially a “symptom of sin”.
His next family holiday, he said, would be in Devon. His office, however, had to cancel his attendance at a seminar in northern Norway because it would have been impossible to get there any other way than by air.
If this were a religious-based self-denial, it would be one thing, but this is a social agenda position as best I understand it.
The bishop took a “gold” pledge not to fly anywhere for 12 months after pronouncing that flying was potentially a “symptom of sin”.
I have not read the Bishop’s logic but read other make similar statements. It is based upon questionable to bad science. I last looked at the science papers out there, a few years ago when what they now call carbon footprint was the up and coming idea. My observation then was that the localized NOx was a bigger problem. Even with NOx, it is questionable if it is a worldwide problem. It is clearly a problem in many large cities. Air travel has little effect on localized NOx but you car driven in the effected area does. (Car London ?)
It was unclear how many of the Church of England delegation would accompany the Rt Rev Richard Chartres on the 36-hour rail trip to Sibiu for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly next month.
I would hope that the answer is none. They should not waste resources given to support the mission of the Church on political grandstanding. Paying people to take a train trip does not seem good stewardship.
The whole global warming panic is based upon at best questionable science. There is anecdotal data that there is some general warming. It is anecdotal at best. My grandfather would say, figures do not lie, but liars figure. This is what may well be happening here. The most quoted data are weather observations, but this questionable because of problems with the collection techniques.
It was not so long ago that some people were looking at similar data as worried about cooling. Nothing has likely changed, people are looking a noisy data and making conclusions out of that which at best is an observation. In this type of study, you cannot redo the experiment, so all you can do is wait for more data.
If you grant the very questionable science that there is warning, you are faced with the fact that warming and cooling is part of natural cycles. Do you all remember studying the ice ages in school? Even granting is warming the conclusion that it is man caused is junk-science.
It is becoming clear that junk science has already killed millions. Now it is wasting the resources of the Church of England.
Scott+
Second career clergy, 30+ years as Engineer
Frankly, Father, I could give a damn about global warming. We’re not gonna have a Venus-level feedback system anytime in the foreseeable future, and though I rather miss having real winters, it’s probably because I now live in NW Ohio rather than in Minnesota.
But (a) petroleum is a finite resource; (b) profligacy serves no one; (c) a train is MUCH more fuel-efficient than a jet and (d) it’s not like you are forced to sit on the train with your hands in your lap, staring out the window. The time can be used well.
A little voluntary simplicity never hurt anybody. And I (perhaps because of my PhD in organic chemistry) am not particularly keen on burning up such an excellent chemical feedstock as petroleum.
P.S. Does a train ticket really cost any more than a flight? Would it make you feel better about “wasted resources” if His Grace took a packet of sandwiches rather than using the dining car?
I personally rather preferred train travel, when I lived in Europe.
#3, when my sister lived in France last year she said train tickets cost a good bit more than flying (sometimes 50% more), so much so that she never took the train if flying were an option. Ryanair and its ilk have pushed down air fares a great deal lately. Not sure about the London-Romania route, though.
Thanks, Andrew.
It’s been 18 years for us. The train was “how to get around” in Germany in the ’80s. And when we took a vacation to London, it was cheaper to take the train and the ferry than to fly (besides which, we could take Die Bahn from where we were and go straight to Brussels to catch the ferry; to fly, we’d have had to take Die Bahn to an airport).
The Bishop’s “carbon footprint” is like unto the footprint of
the Yeti —a sign of a non existent phenomenon.
He might achieve more by using his office to attack the abominable pornography industry which has a huge carbon footprint, that not only wastes enormous quantities of energy, but is destroying families everywhere.
NWOhion Anglican, it was the same way when I was in Europe in 1999-2000 as your experiance, though I could see it changing. Nevertheless, I was surprised by my sister’s report.
I still wish Amtrak was even as good as the Italian rail company, much less the German.
From my time in Europe, I noticed almost all the trains I saw were electric. Now, that power has to be generated somewhere, and every plant I saw up and down the Rhine river was either nuclear (France) or coal-fired (everywhere else). I also saw hundreds of 200 ft long work barges filled to the gunwales with coal all over the river, ostensibly they were burning diesel.
So the real question here is, what’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?
Or
Is the good Bishop’s idea of setting a good example going to extend in his life to something beyond a public denial of technology? I don’t know the man, but if air travel is somehow sinful, and a train is not, then the ultimate in Transportation Salvation must be the phone call. Or perhaps email. So why didn’t he just stay home?
Just a thought….mrb
hah. I just wish Amtrak was an OPTION here in North Florida. Especially with my daughter having to be transported back and forth several times a semester between Tallahassee and Pensacola. But even when Amtrak was running, it was never dependable, often being three to six hours off schedule, if not delayed to the next day!
Thank goodness (or g/God) for this. Terrific and eloquent contrast to all those busy-body bishops who fly around the globe all the time enforcing alleged orthodoxy. Includes a certain T Wright, hypocrite extraordinary.
Sadly, I don’t think JS intended to put a smiley there. 🙁
Libraryjim, as a former Jacksonville, FL resident who makes the Atlanta-Jacksonville drive pretty frequently, I hear ya. Amtrak is an “option” for me, but as the route takes you through either DC or New Orleans and costs more than flying, it isn’t much of one.
#11
No, I didn’t. This stuff is serious, very serious. Or hadn’t you heard?
You might check my [url=”http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/4983/#92294″]post #2[/url], JC. Mostly I was referring to your cracks about “alleged orthodoxy” and NT Wright.
Touche, NWOA!
Nevertheless, I maintain my attacks on those who pursue lesser goals and destroy greater ones. I believe in the Bible (not for me a decisive text), it’s called motes and beams .. Here in Durham, UK, NT Wright is marching on an ecological, save-the planet march. The hypocrisy of this bishop astounds me. I do hope you agree.
[i] Slightly edited by elf. [/i]
I’m confused. The article was re +London, not +Durham.
And I don’t at all see how +Durham’s “alleged orthodoxy” is at all inconsistent with “an ecological, save-the-planet” march. It’s my traditional faith that helps make me an (American-style) Labor Democrat and anti-consumerist.
Not sure why the Bish had to cancel Norway. Norwegians have ships, lots of them, that’s what they do. But perhaps he gets seasick or can’t spend the time.
I must admit a great train journey to Romania sounds thrilling. Think the original Orient Express did a similar route to Constantinople, but now it only goes to Venice.
NWOA, I agree.
I’m an orthodox Christian (in belief, not denomination) and I am all for conservation, reduce/reuse/recycle, etc. I’m a great admirer of St. Francis and the Celtic Christians who also practiced caring for the environment before caring for the environment was cool. I don’t see a conflict here at all.
I don’t believe the science is there to support human-caused (anthropogenic) Global Warming, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we shouldn’t be stewards of our Lord’s creation.
Sorry, this sentence should have read:
I don’t believe the science is there to support [i]the theory of[/i] human-caused (anthropogenic) Global Warming [i](I believe the evidence shows it is a natural cycle)[/i], but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we shouldn’t be stewards of our Lord’s creation.
I got in a hurry. 🙁
Peace
Jim Elliott <><
hmm, it still doesn’t sound [i]quite[/i] right. let me rephrase the last sentence as:
I believe we SHOULD be stewards of our Lord’s creation.
How’s that?
Pagent, My parents use the Euro-rail when in Europe. They say they can’t think of a better way to see the area. (They have been robbed twice on the train, however, both times in Germany!)
Peace
Jim Elliott <><
Library Jim – the Germanic tribes always were a wild lot. I love train journeys and you can always meet interesting people from the places you travel through. Often people you would never have the opportunity to talk to except when face to face on a train.
Three cheers for the good Bishop! As to Amtrak’s woes, it was never
adequatly funded. The freight railroads over which it’s trains must
operate are carrying record amount of tonnage. These are levels
greater than during WWII with fewer tracks and rolling stock. Fortun-
atly, some states are stepping in to assist railroads in adding capacity. Maybe we will see a coherant transportation policy
worthy of the name.
I am all for railroads. I think I can sense live steam from five miles out. When I was last on the east coast, I took two trains, to the Grand Central, then the subway to Idlewild airport. It was cheap, and was much better than having family drive me to the airport.
But to pay staff what will likely amount to an addition 2 or more days pay, to avoid air travel makes no sense to me at all. When you are paying people, travel time is an important factor. Also to keep staff away from family for 2 or more days, make even less sense.
Trains have their place, and it could be more. I can see a place for overnight trains if they could cost compete with airfare and a hotel night. If I could take the train and wake up within walking distance of car rental, I would consider this mode of travel. I use trains in lieu of air-travel most times I go between cities north of DC.
As to saving oil, I think oil should only be used in things that move. Others should use coal, water, or nuclear powered. Before anyone asked, I have lived down wind of a nuclear power station and would do so again. I am all for importing sugar from South America to ferment. As to fermenting corn, only when we have enough corn planted not to drive up meat prices.
23+ Scott: I agree with you on fermenting sugar only, instead of corn but for a different reason: Corn fermented into Ethanol has a negative energy budget. That is, it takes more BTU’s of energy to CREATE a gallon of corn-based ethanol that you get back when you BURN it. If there was ever a clearer example of a naked government subsidy than the U.S. ethanol program, I don’t know what it is.
Brazilians, on the other hand, have figured it out. They are creating ethanol from a plant with a much higher energy basis, sugar cane. Cane-based ethanol actually has a neutral or slightly positive energy budget, depending on which fossil fuel you use to process it. The really sad thing is we have huge sugar cane plantations here in the U.S. in Louisiana, Florida, and Hawaii that are switching production to something else (usually soybeans) because international competition in the sugar market has driven down prices so low. NAFTA also contributed to this effect
Now, I’m all for free trade, but just because the corn growers (lead by the likes of Archer Daniels Midland) have more power in D.C. we are all saddled with insane ethanol, instead of sensible ethanol, because that’s the way D.C. is subsidizing it.
It’s a real tragedy.
KTF!…mrb
Mike,
Ethanol from sugar makes more sense than Ethanol from corn. Mexicans are already feeling the pinch in their pockets as that country is diverting more of their maze products (a main staple of the Mexican diet) for fuel research for American dollars.
#25 LJ it’s a great point. Pumping oil, distillates, natural gas out of the ground doesn’t cut into ANYBODY’s food supply. The U.S. Ethanol business is the worst kind of scam, put in place to REWARD farmers for growing the WRONG crops. Now we are all going to learn how effective ADM has been at turning corn into all sorts of useful things, as the price of all these useful things begins to go up because the profits they produce cannot compete with free money from Washington DC. What foolishness.
It would do less damage to the economy if the USDA would just send checks to all the farmers and let them sell their corn as they normally do. Might even be cheaper than developing an energy infrastructure around a flawed product and a flawed concept.
KTF….mrb
To continue my point, I just read in the paper that the prices of milk/dairy products and beef are on the rise due to — surprise! — the cost of corn for feed going up due to supply shortages! So the trend for diverting corn to make/research ‘corn based ethanol’ is impacting all of us at the supermarket.