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Summary

The environment emerges as an international issueby Mairon G. Bastos Lima

Climate change and its refugees by Isold Davidsdottir

EYCE’sCampaign to Promote Ecological Justice by Campaign Coordination Team

Lead article

Lobbying for youth and sustainable development at the United Nations by Felix Beck

Theological approaches

The Importance of Ecology from an Orthodox point of view. Initiatives in this Directionby Emanuela Larentzakis

“But we can try to keep the suffering as low as possible” - A. Schweitzer thoughts on Lifeby Philipp Ruess

Best practice

Style-bags – an exhibition and interactive activity of Protestant youth in Mainz, Germany by Uli Sander

Greedy banker, climate saviour or environmental rowdyby Veit Laser

The CLIMSAVE projectby Vera Kockler

Editorialby Alina Marinescu, Ro-mania & Vera Kockler, Gemany, members of the Campaign Coordi-nation Team and chief editors of this issue.

Dear reader!

Will 2012 make history? After the COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, the international climate nego-tiations meeting that failed to produce an agreement on climate change, a high number of journalists, specialists, lobbyists, politicians or ordinary indi-viduals tried to answer this question. The meetings and negotiations that are announced for this year promise to be interesting. Since the Kyoto Pro-tocol will expire soon it is not news that the international leaders have to take a step forward and conclude their discussions with a decision. Thus the foreseen Rio+20 event for 2012 will bring issues like water conservation, sustainable food production, forest protection, renewable energies etc… to the negotiations table. The huge variety of issues in the stakes and the more than sensitive situation of the international agreements managed to put considerable pressure on ongo-ing environmental politics, however, events like the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima can play an important role. We should not forget that this natural disaster exerted an influence on the civic “eco” conscience and the voting intention during the last regional elec-tions in Germany. We are referring to this case not only because we think the voting score is an element that can convince more than one leader to re-think the framework for cutting emis-sions during the negotiations but also because it underlines the importance of civic participation and the individ-ual responsibility towards nature. The year 2011 is an important year

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for EYCE as the new three-years Cam-paign to Promote Ecological Justice has been launched in March. A project that was expected with enthusiasm by the member organizations as it offers young Christians since it offered us the opportunity to express concerns re-garding environmental changes as well as to explore this subject from differ-ent points of view, including politics, theology, economics, and philosophy. In addition, the Campaign is a space to exchange best-practice examples and to develop new ideas for the work regard-ing ecological justice. One element of the campaign is our magazine: “Green Attitude”, of which you are reading the first issue. The Campaign Coordination Team, with the help of our volunteer journalists, is responsible for preparing and editing the publication twice a year. Given that “ecological justice” is a wide field that allows different approaches, we planned to focus this first issue on political and theological perspectives in the field of ecological justice. In this sense, we are presenting a collection of articles and reflections which try to an-swer questions like: How does the en-vironment emerge as an international issue? How are young people represent-ed during negotiations on sustainable development? What are the themes of the foreseen international negotiations? What are consequences of the econom-ic crisis for the environment? And what is our responsibility towards nature and towards the future? Special highlights of this issue are the reports of young ac-tivists and their participation in ecolo-gy-oriented projects, the review of “Life after People”, a movie which dares us to ask “How would the world look with-out us, people?”, and some comics that will introduce our favourite eco cartoon character, Raphaela.We sincerely hope you will enjoy read-ing our magazine and also follow us in the future. Do not forget: we are very interested in receiving your comments and new ideas at: campaign@eyce.org.

Raphaela’s Corner Water by Isold Davidsdottir

Eco-active It’s time to act for universal environmental rights!by Charlotte Lerat

Ecological justice? No, thank you.by Pawel Piotr Pustelnik

II Convention of VolunteeringYoung Volunteers Stand Up!!

Art & Environment The Crown of Creation?by Kristine Jansone

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The environment has always been an important matter, since ancient times and in different cultures all over the world. Clean water sup-ply has always been key for any society, the same can be said for agriculture and food production. Even for-est protection goes a long way back, in Europe at least to the Middle Ages, when kings wanted to secure their hunting grounds – as the Robin Hood story would tell you. However, it was not until the 1960s that the en-vironment became a serious matter of international af-fairs. For sure, reflections of how industrial development affects nature started before that – as expressed by many thinkers, scientists, and even fantasy writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien with his criti-cism of industrialization through the deforestation of “Middle Earth”. It was also a criticism of how Europe’s – and the ac-tual Earth’s – lands were being degrad-ed in the development process. So, in the 1960s a long-standing debate was initiated on how development can take place along with a protection of the environment.But the environment does not recog-nize political borders. Industrial pol-lution from one country may lead to water contamination or acid rain in another. Europe, with its intense in-dustrial activity and large number of small neighbouring countries, was a prime example of that. Thus, in 1972 Sweden hosted the first international conference on the subject, the United

Nations Conference on the Human Environment, which was a turning point in the politics of the environ-ment for Europe and the world. At that time, both the European Community and the United Nations started creat-ing their main environmental-related institutions and agencies. Through the 1970s and 1980s it be-came increasingly clearer that the pat-terns of development were leading to a further degradation of the earth and compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other words, development was unsustainable, meaning that at some point it would collapse and human-

ity would fail to sustain itself. This led in 1987 to the concept of sustain-able development, widely adopted since then: de-velopment that meets our own needs without com-promising those of future generations.Also, in the 1980s the hole in the ozone layer was identified and climate change started to become visible and recognized as an issue. The world would therefore gather again in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro for what became called The Earth Summit, or the United Nations Con-ference on Environment and Development, a land-mark of the environmen-tal movement, with more than 170 countries partic-ipating – including more than 100 heads of state. International agreements from that event are still

the basis of much of the environmen-tal politics today. Notably, that is when countries agreed to a Climate Change Convention and a Biodiversity Conven-tion, which have set international rules on how to deal collectively with the problems of climate change and of bio-diversity loss. Since then, the environ-ment has become a hot political issue, and regular meetings have been hosted to discuss the agreements of those con-ventions (the COP meetings – confer-ences of the parties). In addition, other issues such as water conservation, sus-tainable food production, forest pro-tection, renewable energies and others receive increasing attention. A next

The environment emerges as an international issueby Mairon G. Bastos Lima

EYCE

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big event is foreseen for 2012, Rio+20, where all these issues will come togeth-er again at the negotiation table.However, there is still much contention in the international politics of the en-vironment. Although agreements have been achieved in issues such as biodi-versity conservation, environmental degradation continues to take place, species still disappear 100 times faster than they naturally would, and there is a sense that much more needs to be done. The situation is even more worri-some in the climate change issue, where countries have avoided taking respon-sibility in fear that their economies may become less competitive as a result of tough environmental policies. Reduc-ing emissions of greenhouse gases often requires expenses with more advanced cleaner technologies, restrictions on profitable sectors of the economy, and therefore hard issues for politicians to face. At the international level this has translated into a stalemate, where many countries refuse to take action if the others don’t make commitments too. Meanwhile, many other relevant issues such as forest conservation and sus-tainable land-use still lack an adequate framework for effective joint action, and degradation continues apace. Can we wait?

The Author

Mairon G. Bastos Lima, Brazilian, has lived in the Netherlands since 2008. He is a PhD

candidate at the Institute for Envi-ronmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, and a member of the Campaign Coordination Team.

Climate changes caused by human beings are a human rights issue just as much as an environmental one. According to the calculations of the United Nations, the emission of car-bon dioxide must be decreased by 60% - 80% in order to prevent climate change with grave consequences. The Kyoto Protocol is the only interna-tional agreement on the emission of greenhouse gases. In it the industrial nations commit themselves to make their emission of greenhouse gases 5% less than it was in 1990. The rich in-dustrial countries are responsible for the majority of the emission of green-house gases but the consequences are most harmful for the poorer nations. We, the people of the northern hemi-sphere, have built our welfare systems on polluting industries. This pollu-tion, from which we benefited, is now preventing the people of the Global South from establishing a compara-ble welfare system. When a neighboor damages the premises of the people next door he is liable for compen-sation. I believe that the industrial countries owe the developing coun-tries a compensation for the harmful effects that global warming has had in the same manner. Global warming causes deserts to grow larger and land, from which farmers and nomads draw their livelihood, dries up and withers. In addition, sea levels rise and ac-cess to drinking water is impeded, which in turn increases the spreading of diseases. This harmful effect hits the nations the hardest which are the poorest to begin with and therefore ill equipped to respond to this danger. The only choice many of these peo-ple have, is either abandoning their homelands or facing starvation. We can therefore surely talk about climate

Climate Change and its refugeesby Isold Davidsdottir

refugees, whose number is increasing constantly.

The Author

Isold Davidsdottir, Iceland, is a mem-ber of the Campaign Coordination Team

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Background

The environment is one of the most, if not THE most, chal-lenging concern for contem-porary society. It includes not only the obvious "green think-ing", but also issues concerning land use, water, food, pollution and waste, migration and a lot more. Very few young people are aware of the links between environment and issues like social justice, lack of educa-tion, poverty and armed con-flicts. Therefore, the Campaign to Promote Ecological Justice is based on a broad approach and seeks to explore those links. Dur-ing the three years, the campaign will focus on the different political and theological perspectives, the promo-tion of an ecologically responsible way of thinking and living, the links between ecological justice and wealth and poverty, as well as the question of how the lack of natural resources trig-ger armed conflicts and violence.

It is the responsibility of each indi-vidual, especially the young people, who will be the ones to shape the world of tomorrow, to raise aware-ness on environmental issues among other actors in the society and to fight for justice. Often institutions, as well as individuals dismiss the urgency of responsibility – leaving it for “later” or for “others”. In Christianity, and other Abrahamic traditions, humans are given dominion of the earth – but this dominion requires responsibility and ethical living and does not give a li-cense for the exploitation of the earth. Instead – this responsibility requires protection and care.

Focus

During an official event on March, 28th 2011 the “Campaign to Promote Ecological Justice” was launched. The campaign aims at raising awareness on ecological issues from global and diverse perspectives among young Europeans, as well as at implement-ing practical changes and ecologically responsible solutions within the work of youth organisations and lives of young people. With the outcomes of the campaign we plan to contribute to the work of other actors in Europe and beyond, who work in the field of eco-logical justice. In order to achieve the aim, the follow-ing objectives have been identified: 1) to raise awareness of ecological is-sues in Europe and beyond; 2) to study and analyse the develop-ments from the conferences in Kyoto and Copenhagen; 3) to explore the relation between ecology, economy and politics, includ-ing reviewing ecology issues as basis for numerous conflicts; 4) to empower the organisations and/

or individuals to tackle issues connected to ecological justice; 5) to enable the organisations and indi-viduals to lobby for a greener Europe; 6) to provide practical advice and tips for ecologically responsible lifestyles; 7) to develop a policy paper on eco-logical justice to be presented at EYCE's General Meeting in 2013, which would entail implementing results of the Cam-paign as an integral part of the running of the Council.

Throughout the three years of the cam-paign it is planned to focus on three different aspects linked to ecological justice:- 2011: approaching the issue from the-ological and political perspectives; - 2012: tackling the theme of ecology and justice and exploring the relation between ecology, economy and politics and - 2013: sustainability.

Elements

The Campaign Coordination Team - a group of young volunteers coming from

EYCE's Campaign to Promote Ecological Justiceby Campaign Coordination Team of EYCE’s Campaign to Promote Ecological Justice

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different social, cultural, denomina-tional and geographical backgrounds - are responsible for planning and im-plementing the activities of the cam-paign. The team is supported by a full time volunteer based in EYCE's office in Brussels and two members of EYCE's Executive Committee. In order to pro-vide a variety of thematic input and hu-man resources a Pool of Interested Peo-ple has been created for the campaign, where people from EYCE's network, its member and partner organisations belong to. You want to join that Pool? Write us an e-mail at campaign@eyce.org! In each year of the campaign an inter-national seminar or training course and a dissemination visit will take place. Therefore, EYCE chose and will choose countries, where the issues of ecologi-cal justice are important to address. The seminars/training courses will be also a place for practical implementation of the ideas of the campaign – reducing the CO2 emissions as much as possi-ble, monitoring the consumption of re-sources, managing the waste and equip-ping the participants with the necessary tools for advocating for a greener Eu-rope.The first thematic event of the cam-paign will take place from 3rd - 10th July 2011 in Kiev, Ukraine. With this training course EYCE seeks to increase the understanding of global ecological justice issues and enhance ecological responsibility among various actors in society through the active contribu-tion of young people. Directly prior to the event in Kiev, EYCE will organise a visit to local or regional projects and initiatives in order to exchange experi-ences, materials and network. This visit is foreseen to take place in Ukraine and Belarus from 29th June - 1st July 2011. The main aim of those activities will be to motivate the local partners to take concrete action in their own context, as well as to empower and educate young

people in various contexts to promote ecological justice. For 2012 it is planned to implement the training course in Russia and the dissemination visit in Portugal.

During the three years of the cam-paign an on-line magazine on eco-logical justice, information leaflets, EYCE's homepage and the Campaign's Facebook page will provide both ba-sic, as well as specific information on the themes addressed. There were also T-shirts, Cotton bags and bracelets produced in 2011. For 2012 pins and bookmarks are planned. As far as pos-sible all materials are taking into ac-count sustainability, fair trade and fair working conditions to implement the ideas of the campaign in practice and to promote the ideas of fair labour and fair trade.

There are a lot of things to do and we all together, and everyone for him/herself can contribute.

Are you interested in the campaign? See EYCE's homepage: www.eyce.org or visit and like us on Facebook: “EYCE’s Campaign to Promote Eco-logical Justice”

You're interested in joining the Pool of Interested People? You would like to write articles for the magazine? You have any other idea or project you think we should know about? Or you simply have a question? Write to cam-paign@eyce.org or general.secretary@eyce.org.

The Author

Campaign Coordination Team,

Contact: Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe, Rue Brogniez 44, 1070 Brussels, Belgium www.eyce.org, T: +32 2 5106171 M: campaign@eyce.org or general.secretary@eyce.org

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In 1992, the world’s leaders met in Rio and set a milestone addressing global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity and desertifica-tion. Mainly known as Earth Summit, this conference initially put sustain-able development on the global agenda. As one of its outcomes, the UN Commission for Sustainable De-velopment (CSD) was established. In June 2012 and twenty years after Earth Summit, states will gather again in Rio to renew the political com-mitment to sustainable development on a global level and to revise the UN working structures. However, the 19th session of CSD recently failed. What we can now anticipate from Rio+20 and why action by civil society, especially by youth, is now urgently needed.

The idea behind setting up CSD was to create an instrument to ensure the follow-up of decisions made at the Earth Summit. It is part of the UN

Economic and Social Council, which is assigned to the General Assembly. Up to now, the thematic work of the Commission was organised in two-year cycles dealing with specified top-ics. Like decisions made by other UN bodies, CSD resolutions are not legally binding member states, but are un-derstood as “agreed language” that is serving in other contexts and shall be taken into account by governments.In its 18th and 19th session, CSD dealt with transport, chemicals, waste man-agement, mining… quite a bunch of topics! In the last year’s “review ses-sion”, implementation obstacles and challenges were identified. This time in the “review session”, measures to speed up implementation and mobi-lise action should be agreed on.

Youth representation at CSD

Sustainable development is develop-ment that meets the present needs of societies, without compromising the

ability of future generations to meet their own needs. When speaking of “fu-ture generations” we are, in fact, refer-ring to the current generation of chil-dren and youth.But children and youth are not only particularly affected by decisions made (or not made) today, but can also con-tribute to today’s negotiations and decision-making processes on sustain-ability. Therefore the “Major Group of Children and Youth” was strongly ad-vocating for the interests and concerns of young people.Youth representatives at CSD come from various backgrounds: most are NGO activists; some attend as individu-als, fewer countries send official youth delegates. All share the same interest in making the voice of youth at CSD heard and promoting strong commitments to sustainable development.

Lobbying for interests of chil-dren and youth

We actively lobbied, for instance, for a commitment to eradicate all forms of child labour in mining and for mini-mising the risks that chemicals put on the health of children. In negotiations on transport, we pointed out the impor-tant role that transport has not only for economical matters, but also for provid-ing access to education. We also advo-cated for a clear language about the fact that increasing production and usage of biofuels can negatively influence food production or even compete with food security.Next to the topics named above, CSD-19 also negotiated a “10 Year Frame-work of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns”. Despite of its sturdy name, this frame-

Youth representation & advocacy at negotiations on Sustainable Development

Lobbying for youth and sustainable development at the United Nations

by Felix Beck

UN - Photos by Felix Beck

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work promised to become a powerful tool for taking steps towards more sus-tainable economies and societies. How-ever, certain states rather wanted to have an “empty shell” containing a lot of options, but no real commitments. We demanded not only for more binding language, but also for a concrete list of programmes and financial dedications.

Unexpected failure

Leaving the UN compound after two exciting and exhausting weeks of ne-gotiations including many night ses-sions, we were quite proud of what we believed we achieved: several textual amendments put forward by us were adopted and we were able to achieve a strong language in many points, e.g. the child labour issue. However, we were wrong: CSD-19 turned into a complete failure in just one night. There was considerable con-sensus on every single item on the table by the last official day of negotiations. However, in final negotiating sessions, no consensus could be reached amongst the states on certain points. CSD out-comes are decided on a consensus prin-ciple, which is very democratic, but also making negotiations more difficult, as disagreeing parties cannot just be out-voted.We experienced challenging discus-

sions about opposing understand-ings of sustainability and differing ideas of responsibilities, as well as hard discussions on specific word-ings. It was clear to us that certain points remained controversial un-til the end – but none of us youth representatives expected a complete failure, neither did any of the delega-tions we spoke to in the final days.

What happened?

What makes the fiasco hard to un-derstand (and even harder to ex-plain) is the fact that countries did not honour their own words. In all points that were controversial, lan-guage from their earlier decisions was proposed. Despite the fact that agreeing on language that had al-ready been agreed on earlier is not a real step forward, it is still better than doing no step at all. It seems that, inter alia, commit-ments to technology transfer, new and additional resources, and the principle of common but differenti-ated responsibilities (of developed and developing countries) re-ap-peared as contentious points in the final negotiations.One of the most controversial points was the status of people under for-eign occupation. It is questionable

why this issue is discussed in nego-tiations on sustainable development. However, the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict has been brought into nearly every UN negotiation for several years now, may it be thematically suitable or not. Of course, one can say that sustainable development is an urgent issue related to this conflict – but it should not hin-der agreements made with a global perspective. Undoubtedly, a peaceful solution in Israel and Palestine is ur-gently needed, but is CSD the right platform to negotiate about it?For some reason, a restatement of “agreed language” on this, as well as on other issues, seemed impossible. This shows how unsustainable CSD itself is working and that it needs to be re-formed or replaced by a more efficient and effective body.

Rio is coming up!

The upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development, dubbed Rio+20, will provide an unique chance to revise working structures on sus-tainable development and global gov-ernance. A new forum with a stronger mandate needs to be established, as the present Commission does not seem to have appropriate support of several governments. One favourable idea is creating a Unit-

ed Nations Environmental Organisa-UN - Photos by Felix Beck

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tion (UNEO). Equipped with the sta-tus of a specialised agency (like World Health Organization, World Bank or UNESCO), it could become a central and powerful platform for address-ing the major challenges that we face regarding climate, environment and sustainable development. Another proposal (on a more political level) is establishing a Council direct-ly assigned to the General Assembly. However, whatever structural changes will be the outcome of Rio+20, simply changing names or creating new or-ganisations will not guarantee better results, stronger commitments or a more effective work in general. What is needed is far more accountability in national governments.This is where civil society, particu-larly youth, need to engage, follow up and hold governments accountable to what they agree.

Role of civil society

Nearly 20,000 people from churches, environmental, youth-led and many other organisations attended the 1992 Earth Summit. Over the past 20 years, civil society has played a significant role in strengthening and encouraging sustainable development. Ambitious goals will only be set and achieved by involving all kinds of stakeholders.In the light of several major confer-ences on UN level failing in the recent past, action is now even more neces-sary. People need to get explained what is going to happen (or not hap-pen) in Rio and why working on such structural and abstract questions is vital for making significant progress in keeping this planet a habitable and liveable one.On the other hand, pressure must be put on governments to not only de-cide on name changes and new bodies without any impact. Only civil society – especially youth – can generate this

pressure. Youth needs to be involved and engaged not only in the actual Rio+20 conference next year, but in particular in the preparations and de-cision-making processes undertaken beforehand. Ensuring participation of youth from global south

In recent meetings, youth representa-tives coming from the Global South have been missing dramatically. While young people from North America and Europe are contributing in an understanding of advocating for all youth on earth, they are lacking the specific perspectives of youth coming from developing countries. Therefore, empowering more young people from the Global South is one of the challenges that we’ll be facing in regards to Rio+20. Once again, prom-ises and confessions are not enough. For instance, the German govern-ment has been funding two African youth delegates to CSD for several years – an example that other indus-trialised states could follow easily (and with rather minor budgetary commit-ments), in order to achieve stronger participation of young people from all over the world.

Getting involved

There are various chances to get in-volved into the Rio process, apart from attending the actual conference. Online contribution greatly appreciat-ed: The Major Group of Children and Youth is holding consultation pro-cesses open to everyone, both form-ing positions and developing policy papers delivered to decision-makers in UN contexts. In fact, young peo-ple can even participate online during the conference online: Statements and interventions are developed with the help of online collaboration tools.

But also residential meetings, seminars and workshops on sustainable develop-ment, environmental issues and climate challenges are a great opportunity to en-gage. They are organized all over Europe on local, national and international lev-els by youth-led organisations. Their impact on the overall process must not be under-estimated! So, if you can’t find one, why not organise one yourself?

• www.youthcaucus.net• European Youth Forum: www.youthforum.org• 12 minute online question naire for youth and Rio+20: http://bit.ly/Rio20Qen• Twitter: #UNCSD and #MGCY

The Author

Felix Beck (felix.beck@agljv.de) is one of two official German youth delegates to CSD-

19 and Rio+20, mandated by the German Federal Youth Council (DBJR) and supported by the Ger-man government. Felix has a background in EYCE’s member organisation AEJ and served in EYCE office as an intern between September 2009 and July 2010

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The Divine Creation and its understanding in the Ortho-dox Church

Christos anesti! Christ is risen! From the Feast of Easter until the Lord’s As-cension to the Heavens, the Orthodox Christians greet each other in this way, with the message of Resurrection. And it is the Resurrection of Christ, in which the witness of the Orthodox Church concerning peace and ecology is rooted in. This means that responsibility for the Divine Creation is one of the funda-mental elements of the Orthodox faith, a God-given duty and mandate. It is a necessary presupposition for a harmo-nious co-existence with each and every element of creation and the entirety of the natural world in general 1. The term “Divine Creation” does not only include the natural environment, the waters, the mountains and the flora, but also the animals and the human be-ings. According to the Church’s sote-riological doctrine, the whole creation awaits its salvation as much as human beings do 2. A beautiful depiction of exactly this issue can be seen on an icon in the monastery of Saint Nikolaos Anapaf-sas (Meteora, Greece): It shows Adam and all the animals of the earth in front of him, waiting for Adam to give them their names 3. The moment we name somebody or something, we take the responsibil-

ity for their well-being. Parents give names to their chil-dren and are responsible for them; s c i e n t i s t s give names to their in-v e n t i o n s and discov-eries and have the re-sponsibility for their use in everyday life 4. The ecologi-cal crisis is, first of all, a crisis of ethos, of the way human beings ob-serve and understand the world. As a last consequence, this crisis disturbs the relation of human beings to God. The respect for God dictates respect for His creation which He donated to us, as well as respect for the conditions of life regarding our fellow human be-ings. When human beings deny ac-cepting nature as creation, they fail to recognize the ontological foundation of the world, the Triune God. A decay of the social network follows as an in-evitable consequence. The respect of

The Importance of Ecology from an Orthodox point of view. Initiatives in this direction

the Other is lost; the Other is no longer rec-ognized as a being cre-ated in the image and likeness of God. On the cosmological level, this anthropological crisis finds its expres-sion in the ecological problem. The ecologi-cal balance is ignored out of hedonistic ego-centrism and greed. Nature is no longer un-derstood as divine cre-ation and donation, but as something human-kind owns without any restrictions, as a seem-ingly unlimited spring of consumerist goods. Natural catastrophes, like the eruption of the

volcanoes in Iceland last year and also this year, or other serious catastro-phes like the one of the nuclear plant in Fukushima some months ago, make it obvious that humankind cannot rule over nature and dominate its laws.The Orthodox Church presents an al-ternative understanding of the relation of the human being with the world. Since Christians recognize every be-ing as a creation of God, they develop an attitude towards the creation which is called “Eucharistic” in the orthodox tradition. In a Eucharistic framework,

1 Cf. His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Message for the Day of the Protection of the Environment, September 01, 2010 (www.patriarchate.org/environment). 2 Cf. Grigorios Larentzakis, “Bewahrung der Schöpfung – Aufgabe aller Christen Europas”, Ökumenisches Forum 25 (2002) 156 (translated from German). 3 Cf. Gen. 2:19-20. 4 Cf. Dorin Oancea, “Die Verantwortung des Menschen für die Schöpfung Gottes”, Ökumenisches Forum 25 (2002) 165 (translated from German). 5 Gen. 1:26. 6 Cf. 1 Cor. 13:12. 7 Cf. Rom. 8:18-24.

by Emanuela Larentzakis

His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the OAC

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the relation between human beings and God is not expressed as a relation of a Lord towards his slave, but as a relation of a parent to His child, with the divine grace shining brightly upon human beings. This grace will escha-tologically be completed when seeing God “face to face” 5, in other words, in the atmosphere of perfect love which “puts fear aside” 7. As a Creation of God, the whole world is a sacrament, is “the ultimate sign of the commun-ion that we share”8. Giving up the ego-centric and possessive understanding of the Creation in favour of a rela-tional and Eucharistic approach of the world, leads the Orthodox Church to condemn the disrespect of the natural environment as a heavy sin. His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, states: “(…), there are no two ways of looking at either the world or God. There can be no double vision or worldview: one religious and the other profane; one spiritual and the other secular. In our worldview and understanding, there can be no distinction between concern for hu-man welfare and concern for ecologi-cal preservation.” 9

Activities of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the “Green” Patriarch Bartholomew

The ecological initiatives of the Ecu-menical Patriarchate, which are in-spired by the ethos of our saints, can-not be summarized in the restricted framework of this presentation. Let me, however, point out a few.

The Ecumenical Patri-arch Dimitrios I. (1972-1991) had a profound interest in the protection of the Creation. As a con-sequence, he proposed to dedicate the 1st of Sep-tember, the beginning of the Ecclesiastical-Liturgi-cal Year, to the Creation, to the environment, a proposal which the Holy Synod adopted. A spe-cial service was written and every year on this day, a plethora of activities are held by the Orthodox Churches all over the world.The current Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew, not only continued the efforts in this direc-tion, but initiated a series of high-level activities concerning the protection of the natural environment. Starting in 1995, he convened international, interdisciplinary and interfaith on-board symposia in those regions of the world endangered the most. This se-ries of high-level conferences on “Re-ligion, Science and the Environment” explored the impact of our way of life and consumption on our planet’s ma-jor bodies of water and have met in the Aegean and Black Seas, in the Adriatic and Baltic Seas, along the Danube and Amazon Rivers, on the Arctic and on the Mississippi River 10. For his strong efforts in this direction, His All Holi-ness was presented with the Hollister Award by the Temple of Understand-ing in New York in 2010. Others who received the award were Prince El

8 John Chryssavgis, “The World as Sacrament: Insights into an Orthodox Worldview”, Pacifica 10 (1997) 1-24, [cited in ranz Theissl, „Das Diesseits als Geheimnis?” Ökumenisches Forum 25 (2002), 175-181 (translated from German)] and also Charta Oecumenica, Straßburg 2001. His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “Religion and the Environment: The Link Between Survival and Salvation”, October 21, 2010 (www.patriarchate.org/environment).9 Cf. His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “Religion and the Environment: The Link Between Survival and Salvation”, October 21, 2010 (www.patriarchate.org/environment and also www.rsesymposia.org). 10 Cf. His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “Religion and the Environment: The Link Between Sur vival and Salvation”, October 21, 2010 (www.patriarchate.org/environment and also www.rsesymposia.org). 11 Cf. Grigorios Larentzakis, “Bewahrung der Schöpfung – Aufgabe aller Christen Europas”, Ökumenisches Forum 25 (2002) 156f (translated from German) and also Charta Oecumenica, Straßburg 2001.12 Cf. www.oac.gr

Hassan bin Talal, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prof. Karen Armstrong. His All Holiness, out of obvious reasons, is also called the “green” Patriarch. This title was coined in the media in 1996 and formalized by Al Gore, then Vice President of the United States, in 1997.As the problems regarding the environ-ment are not regional, but global ones, the actions and reactions of people have to be global ones, too. Therefore, also the Churches must work together and co-operate with other bodies in politics, economy and science11.

The Orthodox Academy of Crete and its work for the en-vironment

The Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC)12 , a Foundation under the spir-itual protection of the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate, was founded in 1965, follow-ing the example of the Academies in Germany. These came into being after WW II(,) as places for peace work and dialogue, working on an ecumenical

Orthodox Academy of Crete

13

basis and organizing conferences and seminars. Until today, more than 2.000 of these have taken place at the OAC. Overall, about 30% of the entire work is related to sciences that mark the fu-ture of humankind in a decisive way and connect the fields of science, faith and life.Peace and reconciliation, the first aims of the Academies´ work, are the prereq-uisites for work regarding the protec-tion of the environment, too. In 1990, the OAC founded a separate depart-ment called Institute for Theology and Ecology (IThE). Among the Institute´s tasks is to intensify the ecological dia-logue between theologians, economists,

technologists and others. Peace al-ways has to do with justice, and jus-tice is related to the overcoming of poverty. At the First European Ecumenical Assembly in Basel, 1989, the follow-ing was stated: “More and more, we are confronted with interdependent problems, which put the survival of human beings in danger and cause a global crisis. These problems can be summarized under the terms peace, justice and environment. There is a growing understanding that they are inter-reliant and need to be solved urgently. (…) What we fear as a cri-sis will become a real catastrophe for

13 Frieden in Gerechtigkeit. Dokumente der Europäischen Ökumenischen Versammlung, ed. by the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences , Zürich 1989, 48f. (translated from German). 14 His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “Religion and the Environment: The Link Between Survival and Salvation”, October 21, 2010 (www.patriarchate.org/environment).15 L. Andrianos / K. Kenanidis / A. Papaderos (ed.), ECOTHEE. Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics, Proceed-ings, Kolympari, Crete, Greece, Orthodox Academy of Crete, June 2-6, 2008, Orthodox Academy of Crete, Chania 2009.16 L. Andrianos / J. W. Sneep / K. Kenanidis (ed.), Conservation and Sustainable Use of Wild Plant Diversity, Proceedings, Kolympari, Crete, Greece, Orthodox Academy of Crete, May 4-8, 2010, Orthodox Academy of Crete, Chania 2011.

our children and grandchil-dren.” 13 Therefore, economy and ecology are interdepend-ent, and it is an absolute ne-cessity that experts in these fields will be able to co-op-erate in the future on a more honest basis, putting aside the thought of mere profit. This thought is also expressed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew: “Scientists es-timate that those most hurt by global warming in years to come will be those who can least afford it. Therefore, the ecological problem of pollu-tion is invariably connected to the social problem of pov-erty; and so all ecological activity is ultimately meas-ured and properly judged by its impact upon people, and especially its effect upon the poor.” 14

Examples for the co-operation of the above mentioned experts are the in-ternational conference on Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics organized by and held at the OAC in 2008 (ECOTHEE-08)15 , the confer-ence on the Conservation and Sustain-able Use of Wild Plant Diversity (CSU-WPD) 16 in 2010 as well as the second international conference on Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics that will be held at the OAC from 1-6 June 2011 (ECOTHEE-11).In 2008, the Herbarium J.Zaffran was opened on the grounds of the OAC 12. This is a museum for Cretan herbs and

Herbarium J. Zaffran - Crete

14

The Author

Mag. phil. Emanuela Larentzakis is scien-tific staff member of the Orthodox Acad-emy of Crete and

member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches

plants, hosting a collection of more than 8.000 Cretan plants specimens. A great number of endemic plants are part of this huge collection compiled and donated by French botanist Prof. Jacques Zaffran, but also a number of unfortunately already extinct plants. Thus, this museum is important re-garding the study of Cretan plants for experts and works as a supporting tool for the information and education of local people. The adjacent Botanical Garden, opened in 2010, is a beautiful addi-tion to the archive of dried plants: Live plants, planted to a great extent by children visiting with their school-classes.

Conclusion

Let us hope that humankind will realize the ear-nestness of the situation and act and react as re-quired.I would like to close with two ci-tations of HAH the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartho-lomew, which, written on differ-ent occasions, can be seen as belong-

ing together, and are a very good sum-mary of everything said above:“To mistreat the natural environment is to sin against humanity, against all living things, and against our creator God. All of us - individuals, institu-tions, and industries alike - bear re-sponsibility; all of us are accountable for ignoring the global consequences of environmental exploitation.” “It is not too late to respond – as a peo-ple and as a planet. We could steer the earth toward our children’s future. Yet we can no longer afford to wait; we can no longer afford not to act. People of faith must assume leadership in this effort; citizens of the world must clear-ly express their opinion; and political leaders must act accordingly. Dead-lines can no longer be postponed; in-decision and inaction are not options.

We are optimistic about turning the tide; quite simply because we are opti-mistic about humanity’s potential. Let us not simply respond in principle; let us respond in practice. Let us listen to one another; let us work together; let us offer the earth an opportunity to heal so that it will continue to nurture us.”

15

If we think about life, it is depressing. On each and every day thousands of hu-mans and millions of ani-mals die. Only a handful by natural causes, the rest is exploited or slaughtered for our benefits. They suf-fered for us to live comfort-ably, to enjoy a steak or be able to afford the latest in consumer electronics.Now, I suppose, a couple of readers might object, be-cause they are vegetarians or even vegans. Or some opt for fair-trade and or-ganic products and have been using their ancient handsets for generations instead of buying a new one every other year. But the good conscience gets caliginous when we continue our thoughts: What about the bugs killed by pesticides? Do plants not have a right to live as well? What about the environmental costs of trans-portation? We can even go deeper and ask ourselves, if we have the right to kill bacteria threatening our health or if it is okay to walk through grass, breaking hundreds of blades of grass and killing dozens of smaller insects. Everywhere is life, but all that we can cause is death and decay. In the end, even the most

1 As the housewife who has scrubbed the floor sees to it that the door is shut, so that the dog does not come in and undo all her work with his muddy paws, so religious and philosophical thinkers have gone to some pains to see that no animals enter and upset their system of ethics.“ A. Schweitzer: The Philosophy of Civilization.

“But we can try to keep the suffering as low as possible” A. Schweitzer thoughts on Life.

motivated person must resign and come to the conclusion that it is im-possible to live a life free of guilt – isn’t it?

Albert Schweitzer, a German theolo-gian, organist, (cultural-) philosopher and physician who lived in the early 20th century was among the first phi-losophers who included all living be-

ings in a philosophy. His philosophy did not centre around the “thinking hu-man”, who can achieve knowledge via “Cogito ergo sum” (Descartes), has a moral ability (Kant) or just his general usefulness (Utilitarism). Not what we are or what we know, what we are capable of or what our contribution to the world is, is important. But that we and others are, is the only justifica-tion we need. With this thought, Schweitzer even superseded all other theo-logical thoughts. Before him, humans, as imago dei, were seen as superior, with the right to subdue and dominate the earth (Gen 1,28a) in the most literal sense possible.

Even if we are capable of explaining how the world works and to utilise this knowledge (e.g. the laws of physics) we might never now why we are here. We cannot figure out what the meaning of life is, we cannot see what God is and we can try as hard as we want, we will never achieve any-thing more than somebody trying to plough the ocean. In short: It feels like we come from nothing and will go into

by Philip Ruess

Albert Shweitzer

16

nothing.According to Schweitzer, the only thing we can be sure of is the “will-to-live”. In us and in each being is the will to live, an inner force urging us to go on. We cannot figure out, what our purpose in this world is, but we know that we, and all other beings are and want to be. This is true for humans, animals, insects, bacteria and plants, basically every living being. The cen-tral statement of his most famous book “Reverence for Life” is: “I am life which wills to live, and I ex-2 Schweitzer was a vegetarian, but he still served meat when having guests, because their answer to this question differed.

ist in the midst of life which wills to live”

But now we run into a prob-lem: For us to live we must destroy other life, we must eat, we must fight illness, we must neglect the will to live of another being.For Schweitzer, the only consequence of these con-tradicting wills is, to live in positive resignation. Just as “love thy neighbour” is followed by “as thyself ” we cannot put another life be-fore ours. But we can try to keep the suffering as low as possible.

“Very little of the great cru-elty shown by men can re-ally be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes

from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when in-humanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.”We cannot help destroying another life, but we should not do it thought-less. Schweitzer here calls upon the indi-vidual to ask itself if it is really nec-

The Author

Philipp Ruess, Ger-many, is a student of theology, member of the Campaign Coor-dination Team

essary to deny another being’s right to live. This is something which cannot be forced by a government, another person or a principle. The individual needs to ask this question and answer the ques-tion for him-/ herself. It is necessary to eat, but is it necessary to eat factory-produced meat? 2 It is necessary to have clothing and heating, but is it necessary to produce this cloth in sweatshops and destroy the environment by exploiting it?In this sense:Respect another’s will-to-live as you do your own will-to-live.

Sources: A. Schweitzer: The Philosophy of Civilization & The Ethics of Rever-ence for Life.

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During the 5th Jugendkirchentag of the Church of Hessen and Nassau (a regional gathering of Protestant youth with workshops, concerts, lectures etc., see: www.good-days.de), the Protestant Youth of the city of Mainz prepared a project for the theme park “Creation”, which is called “Style-Bags Instead of Plastic Bags” (“Style-Bags statt Plastik-tüten”). Main part of the project is an eight part exhibition, which shows the massive ecological damages caused by production and inappropriate disposal of plastic waste, taking the example of plastic bags. Different parts of the ex-hibition inform about the history and production process of plastic bags, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pa-cific Ocean or concrete courses of ac-tion to avoid plastic bags. Furthermore, the exhibition provides information on ecological damages caused by inap-propriate disposal and a map showing countries which have banned the pro-duction and use of plastic bags. During a quiz on how long certain products need to decompose, e.g. paper tissues, chewing gums, cigarettes, plastic bags, etc., the young people can test their knowledge.

A small group of four young volun-teers together with the youth officer re-searched the background information, structured them, developed a concept and arranged the display. For the activity during the Jugendkirch-entag, 500 fair traded and ecologically friendly produced cotton bags were printed with the slogan „Plastic bags dissolve only after 400 years – cotton is wearable/bearable for everyone. Prot-estant Youth in Mainz“ (in German you use the same word for both mean-ings).The young people could design the blank side themselves, by using

stamps, templates, and cloth colours. Afterwards they could take THEIR bag with them. All participants were very enthusiastic about the exhibition and the creative activity and you could see a lot of young people using their colourful and creative style-bags dur-ing Jugendkirchentag.

Ecologically friendly Protes-tant Youth...

The integrity of creation is a crucial part of the Protestant youth work, therefore it was an easy choice to choose a project related to the eve-ryday life of young people and offer-ing a potential for positive change for this major youth event. A concrete example should show how changes in our everyday life can contribute to harm our environment less. Nearly every day, young people are offered plastic bags in shops and supermar-

Style-bags – an exhibition and interactive activity of Protestant youth in Mainz, Germany

kets, which they mostly use only one time. If one walks attentively through Mainz or other cities, you will discover the huge number of plastic bags “dis-posed” at the roadside or in parks. The issue of plastic waste concerns us on the one hand locally in Mainz, but on the other hand it is also relevant on a global scale. A large amount of plastic waste is still disposed inappropriately and therefore harming the environ-ment e.g. in the oceans. Through con-stantly avoiding the use of plastic bags and simultaneously using consequent-ly cotton bags or baskets for shopping, everyone can contribute valuably to the protection of our environment.

Plastic bags decompose only after 400 years...

“Today, more than 260 million tons of synthetic material are produced and consumed worldwide. Their produc-

by Uli Sander

Evangelische Jugend Mainz

18

tion, with a growth rate of 5% aver-age, represents the biggest application area of mineral oil beyond the energy and transportation sector.” (Plastik Planet, Freiburg 2010, p. 179) “ More than 600 billion plastic bags are pro-duced worldwide per year, excluding the thin bags used for packing fruits and vegetables. To produce polyeth-ylene bags, the correct denomination for plastic bags, a huge amount of the precious resource mineral oil is need-ed. Consumers usually use plastic bags only 2-3 times before throwing them away. They are available in such

a high number, that consumers often don't even think about taking a used bag or a basket for shopping. Plastic bags are that imperishable, they need more than 400 years to decompose. In Germany they are mostly burned in incineration plants, whereof toxic slags remain as residues.

Worldwide, plastic waste is still not disposed ecologically friendly. For decades humans also use the oceans as rubbish dumps. Plastic waste harms the natural ecological balance of the oceans the most. The United Nations

Environment Programme (UNEP) re-ported recently, that on the average 18.000 pieces of plastic are found on each square kilometre of ocean. How-ever, these are only 15 percent of the trash disposed in the oceans. More than 70 percent sinks on the ground and around 15 percent are washed ashore the coasts, i.e. we see only the tip of the iceberg. Plastic is nearly indecompos-able in the sea. It decays very slowly over decades, sometimes centuries, and emits little by little small pieces and toxic substances to the environment. More than 1 million seabirds, 100.000 sea mammals and turtles die every year, confusing e.g. plastic bags with food. A lot of seabirds only live on what they find on the water surface. Apparently, also the red screw caps of a well known soft-drink company are very appealing to the birds. “The animals aren’t able to differentiate between plastic waste and

real food and bring it to their offspring. These eat it, the waste perforates their abdominal wall” and they die. (Plastik Planet, Freiburg 2010, p. 65).Plastic waste disintegrates to smaller and smaller pieces in the water through the forces of nature, but still, these very small pieces are not biodegrad-able. Contrary to organic chemicals they cannot be transformed to bio-mass. One of the consequences is the so called Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean between Califor-nia and Hawaii, which weighs around

1 There is a difference between biodegradable plastics and bioplastics. Bioplastics are produced from different materials, but not from mineral oil. That means, some of them are biodegradable but not all! Different biodegradable plastics also need different conditions to degrade.

Jugendkirchentag Mainz 2010

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three million tons. Driven by wind and current this huge floating waste dump turns as a whirl on the ocean. Its size is comparable to Central Europe and for every measured kilogramme of plank-ton six kilogramme of plastic can be found. (Plastic Planet, Freiburg 2010, p. 59ff.) Thilo Maak, oceanic expert for Greenpeace, gives a very drastic and impressive description of the dramatic situation in his online-diary of the 27th October 2006. After his expedition to the whirl he noted: “With a group of 20 people we were not able to clean a part of the shore of 500 metres length in

2 For more information see: http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-environment/commission-aims-slash-plastic-bag-use-news-504939 or http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/580&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

four hours even approximately. In the constantly growing rubbish heap we found: fishing nets, buoys, fish traps, golf balls, lighters, plastic bottles, screw caps, toothbrushes, helmets of construction workers, canisters, plas-tic cans, fuses, bins, polystyrene boxes, cable drums, umbrella handles, plastic dishes, plastic strings, plastic lids, sin-gle-use shavers, jewel-cases for CDs, dishwashing brushes, … – and believe me, I could go on further and further.”

Our aims...

We like to impart especially to young people that they themselves can give a concrete contribution to the pro-tection of the environment by going shopping with their self-designed style-bags instead of plastic bags. Furthermore, we want to encourage young people to carry on and to pro-mote this stance by refusing, friendly but consequently, offered plastic bags in stores and supermarkets. Ideally, they also explain their reasons when refusing and raise awareness by their behaviour. Companies should per-spectively stop giving away or selling not biodegradable plastic bags. Lots of supermarkets already sell biodegrad-able bags, which have degrade quicker. Nevertheless, there are no scientific researches yet, which would proof that biodegradable plastics are in fact more eco-friendly and sustainable. (cf. Plastic Planet, Freiburg 2010, p. 180 ff.) All parts of our society need to be informed about the consequences of excessive production and use of plastic bags. The interactive designing project of style-bags, which have a high identi-fication factor, should encourage espe-cially young people to stress the envi-ronment less by using these style-bags for future shopping tours. The project focuses on setting a positive example in our throwaway society. It could be very easy to avoid plastic waste and to act with more consideration towards the resource mineral oil. Basically, a

Jugendkirchentag Mainz 2010

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change in the consumers’ thinking has to be started. Plastic bags are not necessary for shopping, as groceries, clothing, etc. can be transported also in reusable and ecologically faultless bags.

Forbidden plastic bags... In many countries of the world plas-tic bags are already forbidden, e.g. in India, China, Australia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ireland or Spain. In the small pacific state of Palau travellers who are caught carrying a plastic bag have to pay one Dollar. The authorities of Zanzibar, a partly autonomic state on the Tanzanian territory, are even more consequent. Whoever brings a plastic bag into the area or distributes it has to pay up to 1,500 Euros fine. In Ger-many, regularly several environmental associations demand an interdiction of plastic bags, but this is currently politically not achievable.The European Commission is consid-ering a tax or a ban on plastic bags as it seeks the public’s views on how to reduce their use and fight pollution. A public consultation is open till 31st August 2011: http://ec.europa.eu/en-vironment/consultations/plasticbags_en.htm.2

“STYLE-BAGS“ win 1,000 Euros...

The Protestant Youth of Mainz par-ticipated in January 2011 with their project “Style-bags instead of plastic bags” in a national competition under the motto “Ideas-Initiative-Future” of the DM-drugstore chain and the Ger-man UNESCO-Commission (www.ideen-initiative-zukunft.de). Out of 5,000 contributions a jury chose

amongst others the Style-Bag project from Mainz to give a presentation in a DM store. During one day, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., we showed our exhibition, distributed bags and had hundreds of conversations with clients on avoiding plastic bags. The interest and affirmation we got was awesome and intergenerational. Afterwards, the clients could vote for our project. In this voting our project won with more than 700 votes over two other projects. The Protestant Youth was very pleased about winning the first prize of 1,000 Euros. This money will be invested in continuing the project and in the pro-duction of new cotton bags.

Perspectives...

The exhibition including the creative activity should continue to be pre-sented particularly to young people as often as possible, e.g. during Ju-gendkirchentagen, general assemblies of Protestant Youth organisations, synod meetings, confirmation class camps, and all sorts of youth gather-ings. We inform youth groups, youth federations and church institutions about our project and invite them to use the exhibition and to do the crea-tive activity in their own environment. The above mentioned price allows us to print 500 more cotton bags for fu-ture activities. We hope that the peo-ple confronted with the “Style bags in-stead of plastic bags” project will more and more often use shopping bags or style bags for their shopping to avoid plastic bags and to deal more sensible and attentive with limited ecological resources.

The Author

Uli Sander Youth officer and General Secretary of the Protestant Youth in Mainz, Certified

social pedagogue and mediator,

Contact:

Dipl. Sozialpädagoge, MediatorEvangelische Jugend MainzKaiserstraße 3755116 Mainzuli@ev-jugend.de

Translation: Vera Kockler

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The greedy banker, climate saviour or environmental rowdy – what is concerning the world and you?

The 5th aej-symposium for develop-ment politics was held in Eisenach, Germany. Climate chaos, the misery of the dis-placed, the financial crisis – it is enough! These words summarize the 5th aej-symposium for development politics which was held from the 18th to the 20th of February 2011 in Eisenach.Inspired by the high-quality presenta-tion of Christian Jacob, editor of the German newspaper taz, and the input given by Kristina Rehbein from the initiative erlassjahr.de, the 23 confer-ence participants asked about the con-sequences of global challenges for the protestant child and youth work. The conference focused on the issues of world-wide refugee movements and the impact of the financial crisis on devel-oping countries. The contributions of the experts illustrated once more that something must be done to stop the misery of the displaced outside the Eu-ropean borders and the dramatic conse-quences of the banking disaster on the

poorest people in the world. But what has to be done specifically? Which are the possibilities for the protestant youth? Which instrument is suitable to attract young people to the vision of justice, peace and responsibil-ity for creation? These questions were deepened by the participants in three workshops where they developed spe-cific ideas for the development politics of the aej. The workgroup for sustain-able development will take up these suggestions in order to make them specific. Transparent communication and close cooperation with “Brot für die Welt” (Bread for the World), the “Evange-lischer Entwicklungsdienst” (Church Development Service) and other net-works, including the EYCE campaign to promote ecological belongs to it just as the working on appropriate forms for education help in develop-ing countries, based on the questions of young people.With this in mind, one of the main

by Veit Laser

The Author

Dr. Veit Laser is an Officer for devel-opment related education

Contact:

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Evange-lischen Jugendin Deutschland e. V. (aej)Otto-Brenner-Straße 9, 30159 Hannover

Telephone: 0511 1215-165Fax: 0511 1215-265E-Mail: vl@aej-online.deInternet: www.evangelische-jugend.de

concerns of the symposium has been achieved. The symposium has turned into an exchange platform used by multipliers of the protestant youth who long for sustainable development and who want to change things in the sense of the symposium slogan.

Photo by Pawel Pustelnik

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The CLIMSAVE project

As we all know, im-pacts of climate change do not only affect one sector or the other, for exam-ple the forest but not the coasts, urban de-velopment but not biodiversity, water resources but not agriculture. Various links exist between all these sectors, none is independent of the other.

From 10th - 12th May 2011, I took part in a very interesting workshop for the CLIMSAVE project. In total, there will be three workshops taking place and in the end the so-called In-tegrated Assessment Platform will be launched. The participants came from various sectors and backgrounds, from governments and authorities, professionals, civil society and the field of science.

“CLIMSAVE is a pan-European pro-ject that is developing a user-friendly, interactive web-based tool that will allow stakeholders to assess climate change impacts and vulnerabilities for a range of sectors. (…) The link-ing of models for the different sectors will enable stakeholders to see how their interactions could affect Euro-pean landscape change. The tool will also enable stakeholders to explore adaptation strategies for reducing cli-mate change vulnerability, discovering where, when and under what circum-stances such actions may help.” The project focuses on adaptation, not on mitigation. As positive results of miti-gation would only become effective after 25 years from now, the initiators

of the project see the need in developing the adaptation ca-pacities towards the changing climate. The project’s inte-grated assessment approach aims at en-abling stakeholders to explore and un-derstand the interac-

tions between differ-ent sectors. Until now,

most stakeholders rather have only knowledge about the vulnerability of the environment to climate change of their own area. Climsave wants to contribute to the development of a well adapted Europe by building the capacity of decision-makers.

In the frame of the CLIMSAVE pro-jects two different sets of workshops will be run: One on the European lev-el, where I took part in and one on a regional level, which focuses on Scot-land. These workshops aim at linking the scientific part of the projects with the reality of the stakeholders. Dur-ing the first workshop we discussed certainties and uncertainties in the social, economic, governmental, en-vironmental, etc. sectors. Then, we took some of them and put always two together on a graph, e.g eco-nomic development and solutions by innovations to the depletion of natu-ral resources. Doing so, four possible scenarios became visible: 1) gradual economic development and function-ing innovations, 2) regular economic development and not functioning in-novations, 3) roller-coaster economic development and functioning innova-tions and 4) roller-coaster economic development and not functioning in-

novations. As next step, the group split into four subgroups, of which each one had to draft a storyline for their scenar-io, telling what will happen until 2050. During the last session of the workshop we had to do quantifiable statements on different parameters and how they will change until 2050 in our scenario. The parameters covered all sectors of life, for example the size of households, oil price, development of social structures, economic growth, etc.The outcomes of the workshops will now be integrated in the already exist-ing draft of the assessment platform to further develop it. During the next workshop it will be tested and developed further from our position as stakehold-ers. I’m looking forward to contribute to the work with the perspective of young people and to meet again with the other participants – a whole bunch of inter-esting people.

For more information see: www.climsave.eu

by Vera Kockler

The Author

Vera KocklerEYCE office intern for the Campaign to Promote Eco-logical Justice and

and participant in the stakeholder workshops of the Climsave project

Climsave Official Logo

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It’s time to act for universal environmental rights!

The figures speak for themselves. The award winning author of “The Coming population crash: and our Planet’s sur-prising future”, Fred Pierce, writes “the 500 million wealthiest people (7% of the world population) are responsible for 50% of the gas emissions that pro-duce global warming, while the poorest 50% (3.400 million of people) are re-sponsible for only 7% of the emissions”. One would expect the natural reaction to statistics such as this to consist of a sense of shame at this obvious envi-ronmental injustice. Surprisingly, this seems not to be the case. Many people express indifference, but the aftermath of the Fukushima catastrophe may rep-resent a climate in which attitudes on this issue may shift.

We owe an ecological debt

Europe and more heavily industrialised countries have an historical responsi-bility for man-made climate change. Environmental injustice is already an important issue but its significance in-creases in the context of its relationship with social injustice. Global warming and the devastation of nature affect eve-ryone. Climate change does not respect national boundaries, but it is only the richest countries, which have enough resources to protect themselves against and mitigate the effects of the manifes-tations of climate change. The richest countries can build modern housing, have good quality drinking water, ac-cess to a globalised food supply and have safe workplace conditions. On the contrary, the poorest regions do not have any means of protection and cannot dedicate the huge resources required as they must dedicate their resources to more pressing concerns such as poverty, education, security and

healthcare. Worse, these affected re-gions suffer the consequences of a phenomenon that has largely been created by the richest re-gions. Indeed, we owe an ecological debt. As Kofi An-nan, former Gen-eral Secretary of the UN and Presi-dent of the Global H u m a n i t a r i a n Forum said in Oc-tober 2009, “cli-mate change is the greatest humani-tarian challenge facing mankind today. And it is a challenge that has a grave injustice at its heart. It is the major developed economies of the world which con-tribute to the overwhelming majority of global greenhouse emissions. But it is the poorer and least developed na-tions that are hit hardest by its impact”.

Our duty now consists in raising awareness and boosting support to the vulnerable populations affected by this environmental injustice. Con-cretely, this injustice has two forms. A condition of environmental injustice exists when there is an unequal prox-imity to dangerous environments due to the sitting of polluting industrial plants or dumps as well as when there is an unequal proximity to dangerous sites on account of disparities in clean-

up and removal programs. Indeed, the modern fight against environmental injustice started in 1982 when resi-dents and civil-rights activists of War-ren County in North Carolina, an area mainly composed of Afro-Americans and poor citizens, organised to block a proposed land-fill in their area. Climate change is not an hypotheti-cal phenomenon viewable only in col-lections of data and new policy ini-tiatives. The effects of climate change are real and are already altering peo-ple’s way of life in some communities. Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE) highlighted some examples of the changes imposed by climate change

by Charlotte Lerat

by Isold Davidsdottir

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in a special European Business Sum-mit edition of the “European Noise” published on the 18th of May, 2011. The environmental NGO gives the fol-lowing example, recorded in the An-dean foothills of Bolivia; “hotter, drier weather has affected their harvest with yields falling significantly. Pests and diseases have become a prob-lem for farmers and local people also complain that they get more coughs and colds. Farming is simply becom-ing unviable in this remote rural area, an elderly farmer explains.” In Guate-mala, local communities are enduring stronger and more frequent storms which result in severe damage and create economic instability. In Peru, “the Pastoruri glacier in the Cordillera Blanca shrank by a fifth between 2001 and 2005” and may soon disappear. In the Himalaya, a similar phenomenon is causing floods and again damaging housings and creating insecurity. But, as FOEE underlines, “the big fear is that in the future there will be no melt water to feed the rivers, which supply water to the villages below”. Worse still, in Kiribati, some inhabitants have already been driven to leaving their homes to relocate to Fiji. Europe must act as a leader on environmental justice for a sustainable and inclusive world

This unequal distribution of dangers among different social groups should be a source of shame but it is unfor-tunately still largely ignored even if the relationship between environmen-tal injustice and social injustice has been repeatedly underlined by many researchers. Everyone should have

the right to live in a healthy en-v ironment , with access to enough environmen-tal resources for a healthy life. Increas-ingly, this is not the case. What is even more appall-ing is the fact that some organisations such as Busi-ness Europe oppose European climate change initiatives on the basis that it hinders European competitiveness on the global market. Fillip de Bull, direc-tor general of the organisation, said in a press release for the European Busi-ness Summit that his organisation had “decided to reject climate action com-pletely”. Are growth and competitive-ness really more important that the future of our planet? Thankfully, the European Commission does not plan to change its strategy even if it seems that more could be done to promote environmental justice. The 2011 Ener-gy Efficiency Plan indicates that at the current rate of progress the targeted 20% reduction in emissions will not be reached by 2020 but the Roadmap for moving to a low carbon economy in 2050 is clearly more ambitious and aims at reducing domestic emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050. Moreover, in-vesting in low-carbon economy could create many job opportunities and leading to cleaner, more efficient tech-nology and a position of global leader-ship for Europe in what is sure to be

a growth market. This would be both a sustainable and far-sighted strategy.

Unfortunately, the Copenhagen inter-national climate negotiations failed and the agreements made in Cancun limit the average global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius which is clearly not enough if you consider that for Africa this will represent a rise of 3 degree Cel-sius and consequently a drop in agricul-ture yields of 20%. It means that food which is desperately needed to feed a growing population will lack. This prob-lem will be compounded by the second expected consequence for Africa: sea level rise accompanied by flooding and land loss. Environmental justice is the opportunity for Europe to demonstrate its leadership. Young citizens, NGOs and civil society also have a part to play and can pressure the governments to act on this issue. There are many ways to re-act. Hopefully, the climate talks in Dur-ban in December 2011 will bring some progress on this issue.It is time to launch a debate on that is-sue and to act against environmental

Photo by Pawel P. Pulstelnik

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The Author

Charlotte Lerat, French living in Belgium

We talk about sustainable develop-ment. Sometimes it seems that we preach sustainable development, but do we really know what are we talk-ing about and where the brightly de-scribed policies lead? Are we carbon crusaders or carbon ignorants? The famous Kyoto Protocol says that in order to redistribute financial flows and make the efforts in mitigating emissions effective we need to use so called ‘flexible mechanisms’. This means that some of the emissions can be traded. Traded? Yes, sold and bought. Secondly, countries can im-plement various programs that will ensure cost-effectiveness of the miti-gation. Once again, if you are not an expert or your environmental aware-ness is limited to daily actions you may think that it is all about high poli-tics. But actually, it is not. Some of the poverty-stricken coun-tries are excluded from the projects, because they are too poor and there-fore ‘performance’ would be not high enough to cover the costs. Ironic, isn’t it? The Clean Development

Mechanism (see: Sutter, Parreno 2007) was envis-aged in a way to make the trading smooth and easy. But it seems that the policy makers forgot about the justice that should be promoted. The redistribution is something more than just sending your carbon foot-print somewhere.

The mechanisms are more sensitive to reaching a given environmental goal at a lower cost, not at a better social impact. In this way, extremely poor African countries are being given aid through various programs, but they are excluded from mechanisms that could teach them how to tackle a looming carbon addiction. It is said that it is better to be given a fishing rod than fish, but what the developed countries do is definitely reverse to the saying.

Europe is very proud of reducing the emissions. We are doing as good (or as bad), as we used to in 1990, but taking a look at China for example causes per-plexity. The net embodied carbon im-ports have increased from 400m tones in 1990 to 1.6 billion tones in 2008 (The Economist: website). This means that we emit less, but we send a lot abroad. Or just import products from there not to produce them domesti-cally. If we take into consideration the fact, that there is one atmosphere for the whole earth, it shows how silly we are. It looks better in the statistics, but the climate change will continue.

Ecological justice? No, thank you. by Pawel Piotr Pustelnik

injustice. Congratulations to EYCE for having the courage and the ambition to take up the challenge!

Photo by Pawel P.Pustelnik

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Where is the morality of this kind of behaviour? What is at stake? The pres-tigious first place among those, who theoretically emit less, but in real, they just sell more? What became very popular recently

are the applications, which can be used to measure your carbon foot-print. You can do it via iPhone, many green NGO’s offer the tests and even some airlines. Simply, the program asks a couple of questions ranging

from ‘How often do you fly?’; ‘Do you recycle?’ to posing some fascinating questions related to your dietary habits. After a mundane process similar to a confession (believe it or not, but it’s not possible to be super-sustainable all the time) you end up with a sum-up saying that you produce too much. It is abso-lutely true, that we became carbon sin-ners, but the purification rite is not as easy as stopping using the stand-by op-tion. The detox is to be started system-atically through a deeper engagement in the understanding of the processes that shape our climate landscape.

We lack a coordinated response to the problem of climate injustice. If you take into consideration the countries that are endangered by the rising level of the oceans, the unfairness of the situation is just striking. For example, the emis-sions of Bangladesh compared with any European country disappear. Though, the situation there is severe and the country cannot afford extremely expen-sive solutions. Telling the truth: short-lasting solutions. The inequality of the faults and the consequences to be faced is stunning. A similar situation is touch-ing the Tuvalu Island that is more likely to remain just a fancy Internet domain .tv than a country. The examples may be multiplied endlessly, but there is no point in self-torturing ourselves just because of the awareness of the situa-tion. However, it is not easy to say if we need bottom-up processes or perhaps we should focus more on systemic solu-tions. The youth arriving to the COP’s, eating raw vegetables and crying for justice do not persuade politicians. They rather evoke in them some kind of sym-pathy and the feeling, that the activists do not have much to say as they speak with capital letters, but the message is

Photo by Pawel P.Pustelnik

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limited to a simple ‘We want justice!’. This is not the fashion. It might be that the response to the inequality is in our hands. The youth needs to be taken into consideration in the decision-making process, but before that the awareness of the environment-related problems calls for being increased. Only if well-aware and prepared we can start educating the environmental

The II Convention on Volunteering “Young Volunteers Stand Up” will take place in Brussels from 7th - 11th September 2011. It is being organised by the European Youth Forum (YFJ) with the support and significant con-tributions from its member organisa-tions, including EYCE.

2011 is an important year for volun-teers being the European Year of Vol-unteering, the International Year of Volunteering + 10 and the EU-China Year of Youth. The Convention will be the contribution of the YFJ to high-light the importance of volunteers. It is planned to be a large scale event with a high visibility and intense par-ticipation of young people.

The convention will consist of several parts: a stakeholders conference on Volunteering (2 days), the Volunteer-

ing Village (2 days), the YO! Fest, and the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the European Youth Forum. Furthermore, it will be a flag-ship event of the EU-China Year of Youth. A delegation of young volunteers from China will take part in vari-ous events during the Con-vention. Additionally, joint workshops and the III Chi-na-Europe Symposium on Youth-Work-Development will take place.

The Stakeholders Confer-ence during the first two days of the Convention will aim at ensuring that the voices of young volunteers are heard,

as well as approaching the stakeholders in the field of

volunteering. The main tasks of the conference will be the discussion on the “YFJ Charter on the rights of Vol-unteers” and the development of a declaration on the rights of volunteers. Joint recommendations to ensure the legacy of the year towards all stake-holders will be developed. EYCE, promoting the importance of the voluntary work and active civil participation of young people will aim at taking part in the stakeholders con-ference to contribute with its knowl-edge and experience.

The Volunteering Village, open to eve-rybody on the 9th and 10th of Sep-tember, will be the place for extensive contributions of the member organisa-tions of YFJ in the active promotion of volunteering, as well as the place for interesting activities and fun!In front of the European Parliament

Pawel Piotr Pustelnik is a 23-year-old stu-dent of the Inter-national Master

Studies in Global Environmental Governance at the Free Univer-sity, Amsterdam. He is working for the World Student Christian Federation as the Editor-in-Chief of Mozaik and as an editor for the Foreign Affairs Portal.

The Author

by Isold Davidsdottir

II Convention of VolunteeringYoung Volunteers Stand Up!!

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I just had a walk in a forest nearby. Forests always fill me with awe and wonder about creation. The silent magnitude of the beech trees, the om-nipresent green light, the perfection in tiny flowers and bugs, the perfect improvisations of birds’ songs. It is mesmerizing! Yet, in the forests here in Belgium one can always feel the presence of human beings, sometimes distant and not disturbing, sometimes inescapable. Always neatly combed hiking routes, signposts and an un-ceasing roar of motorways somewhere in the background...

How would the world look without us, without people?

The production of the History Chan-

nel “Life after People” (première (o)in 2008) touches upon this question in a very direct, realistic and thought-chal-lenging way! The documentary plays with (a) the notion that suddenly all the people have disappeared from earth. There is no explanation or reason giv-en for this unexpected disappearance. There are no catastrophes or plagues at work, simply there are no more hu-mans. Yet, the narrator raises a thought by mentioning that we are the first gen-eration that could by deliberate actions cause our own doom.

The History channel has created a fasci-nating scenario of what would happen, when we are gone. A group of scien-tists, such as physicists, civil engineers, chemists, biologists, architects and metallurgists developed a (the) simula-tion (on) showing what would happen to cities, constructions and cars in the course of time, as well as look into how the plants and animals will reclaim their territories. What happens?At the end of the first day after the dis-appearance of people most of the earth is covered in darkness, the human made infrastructures have largely disappeared in as little as 5 years, in 100 years nearly all traces of people (is) are gone. What happens after 10 000 years?

All the changes and developments pre-sented in the documentary give an ex-citing overview of what forces of nature are at work to influence the human constructions and vice versa - it shows clearly and sometimes painfully, what is and has been the impact of our actions to the environment, for example oceans or life and habits of grizzly bears. The film is mostly focusing on (the) places and objects in the USA, still it is not dis-turbing and gives a good overview on

The Crown of Creation?by Kristīne Jansone

Life After People (History Channel) - DVD Cover

youth organisations will present themselves and their work at inter-active stands and during workshops they will organise. EYCE will take part in the Volunteering Village with sev-eral activities in the framework of the Campaign to Promote Ecological Jus-tice, promoting the value of volunteer-ing in addressing the issues of climate change, fair trade, waste management and other issues. EYCE has planned both - opportunities for heated de-bates, such a simulation on interna-tional climate negotiations, as well as practical and fun activities, such as a fashion show and a paper making workshop.Also, the evening programme of the Convention is planned to be inten-sive, active and entertaining. The YO! Fest is planned for the evenings of 8th and 9th of September, the EU-China music dialogue on the evening of the 9th of September, debates, exhibitions, screenings and a lot more to explore!

If you will be in Brussels around that time, you are warmly welcome to visit the Volunteering Village and to take part in the workshops, the YO! Fest and the anniversary celebration! We are specially looking forward to see you in the EYCE tent!

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the processes at work.

One of the very striking notions of the documen-tary is the binary op-position nature-human beings, which is present in the visual and tex-tual presentation of the film. Nature is portrayed as something hostile, strange and something that needs to be tamed. The environment does outrageous things, when left untamed, the (E)earth is experiencing the on-slaught of nature(,) and there is a constant strug-gle between the natural forces and the legacy of humanity. In a certain aspect, the pride about human achievements, no matter how fragile (it) they might turn out (to be), is manifested greatly through this documen-tary.

Looking from the bibli-cal perspective, or rather my understanding of it, the notion that people are part of the creation is cru-cial. There is no division and no strug-gle. Also, there is no place for pride and superiority. As a part of creation, we are called to care about it and protect it. Starting from a tree in our backyard to a fellow-human being in a different continent. ( can you really say that there is no struggle? I would say that there is not the opposition between humans & nature, as they are part of it (as you mention). Nevertheless, life is a con-stant struggle and to live, human beings

The Crown of Creation?by Kristīne Jansone

and other creatures are destroying other life.

P.S. Also, as a person working within the field of education in a certain as-pect, I was missing a little moral in this documentary. It was ( )exciting and providing knowledge and interesting facts, but it did not mention what hap-pens to waste we leave behind. How long does it last after we are gone? 5 or 10 000 years?

The film is available for free watching

Photo by Vera Kockler

Kristine Jansone is the EYCE General Secre-tary

The Author

on-line on http://topdocumentary-films.com/life-after-people/

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Raphaela’s cornerGlobal warming by Isold Davidsdottir

Planned Activities: 8th - 10th of September 2011 EYCE at the II Youth Convention on Volunteering Brussels, Belgium

17th - 23th of October 2011 EYCE's 38th General Meeting Höchst im Odenwald, Germany

4th - 11th of December 2011 Secularism and Religions: Working Together for a Common Europe. An interreligious study session @ European Youth Centre Budapest, Hungary

19th - 22nd of January 2012 Learn. Engage. Lead. Training for Young Leaders in Non-formal Peer Education

19th - 25th of March 2012

Human Rights for Everyone? Right!!! A training Course for Young Christians to Overcome Racism and Discrimination Against Ethnic Minorities

“ “A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something sepa-rated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison forus, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our cir-cle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein, 1950