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                ECO-MINISTRY

The following leaflet  is from: http://druidry.org/obod/intro/eco.html.

Druid Spirituality isn’t just about improving your own life — it’s about making a difference to the world too — it’s about becoming environmentally responsible.

Imagine how the world would be, if each of us, individually, was ecologically responsible - if each of us made sure we didn't pollute the rivers with the detergents we used, didn't cause trees to be cut down for toilet tissue or writing paper, didn't damage the ozone layer by using certain aerosols, or damage the air we breathe by using so much petrol.

It would be a very different world from the one we see around us today - in which our environment is subjected to continual degradation because of our individual and collective refusal to take responsibility.

But it's hard for us to take responsibility when the problems seem so massive - we tend to feel that it is governments and industry that must make the changes: we feel like tiny insignificant parts of the whole.But if enough parts of the whole take responsibility, the whole changes - as we now know scientifically with the 'hundredth monkey' phenomenon, in which it has been shown that changes in consciousness in small numbers of people can affect the consciousness of whole groups. For this reason the Campaign works to change consciousness.

In addition to this phenomenon, more and more people are realising that they can affect industry and governments by making choices about what they purchase, and by uniting with others who feel the same way. The most graphic example of this is the way that consumers and pressure groups in the UK and Europe have succeeded in dramatically altering the introduction of genetically modified foods and causing its major proponent — the giant multinational Monsanto - to radically change its activities. This proves that we — as consumers — do have power, and that we should wield it consciously, and with a sense of responsibility which says: "I am determined to do as little damage to the environment as possible."

Having decided to take responsibility, the next step is to find out how best we can do this in tangible, practical ways. Since the Campaign was launched in February 1988 there has been an explosion of interest in ecological responsibility and the following books provide detailed information on changes we can make to our way of living:

The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice
from the Union of Concerned Scientists
by Michael Brower, Three Rivers Press 1999

Paper or plastic? Cloth or disposable? Regular or organic? Every day, environmentally conscious consumers are faced with the overwhelming catch-22 of a capitalist society - reconciling the harm we do by consuming, while still providing ourselves and our families with the goods and services we need. It's enough to make a city dweller crazy. Fret no more! The Union of Concerned Scientists has put together a well-researched and eminently practical guide to the decisions that matter. The authors hope that the book will help you set priorities, stop worrying about insignificant things, and understand the real environmental impacts of household decisions. For instance, you may be surprised to learn that buying and eating meat and poultry is much more harmful to the environment than the packaging the meat is wrapped in, even if it's Styrofoam. This guide takes on both sides of the consumer-impact argument, goring sacred cows of the environmentalist movement (like the strident emphasis on recycling) and the industrialist perspective (like the relentless message to buy more, more, more). If you're confused and overwhelmed by all the environmental decision-making in the modern world, you'll find new inspiration in this book. - Therese Littleton.

The Green Home Handbook
Published by Friends of the Earth 1996
Shows you how to make your home greener, room by room, with practical advice on everything from water heaters to DIY. And as well as helping you create a safer, healthier, greener home, it will save you money.

The Green Office Action Plan
Published by Friends of the Earth 1996
This comprehensive, easy-to-use guide gives you all the information you need to make your office more environmentally friendly. Covering everything from paper to photocopiers, it shows you how to reduce waste, recycle - and save money.

Take the Heat off the Planet!
How You Can Really Help Stop Climate Change
Friends of the Earth 1993
The world is threatened with dangerous climate change, largely due to carbon dioxide produced by the massive fossil fuel use of industrialised countries like Britain. This practical guide provides a clear explanation of the problem and gives easy instructions for achieving significant savings in energy use and fuel bills at home.

Don't Throw it All Away!
Friends of the Earth 1998
This beautifully illustrated new edition of Friends of the Earth's popular guide to waste reduction and recycling examines the 'throwaway society'. It looks at what we throw away, the environmental problems caused by creating so much rubbish, and the potential for reuse and recycling. It contains suggestions on how individuals can help. A well balanced, practical and above all, positive guide to recycling at home.

Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are
by Robert M. Lilienfeld, William L. Rathje (Fawcett 1998)
The authors make the case, after serious study -including Rathje's archeological analysis of landfills over the years as the director of the Garbage Project - that recycling, while not a bad thing, has limits and will not truly solve the problems of waste production and resource depletion unless other patterns of consumption and use are changed. The key, in so many words, is to use less stuff to begin with! A concerted effort to reduce consumption coupled with the creative reuse of materials are truly the only long-term solutions. Readers are given a wide range of simple activities that will help reduce the use of raw materials and resources, Although they give an extensive list of practical suggestions, perhaps the authors' main service is to encourage a way of thinking about resources that translates into significant lifestyle choices with a consciousness of resource use, thereby permitting the reader to devise his or her own simple techniques and strategies to use less, waste less, reuse materials, and conserve raw materials and energy in their own creative ways. This is a very practical book filled with tips and techniques, but it is also a very hopeful book, showing people how to work in a daily way to conserve resources and help the environment. - Mark A. Hetts

A permanent exhibition of green living well worth visiting is at The Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Powys Wales SY20 9AZ Tel. 0654 2400. It shows all types of alternative technology in action - including wind and solar driven systems, organic gardening, and new types of housing- all with a bookstore, health food restaurant and adventure playground. They also organise weekend residential courses.

If you haven’t already done so, put this aspect of Druid spirituality into practice now by becoming environmentally responsible as an individual: recycle as much as you can (glass, cans, newspapers, and sometimes plastics, can all easily be recycled at local recycling centres in car-parks, council tips, etc. Some areas arrange weekly collections from your house.) And see if you can switch household cleaning and paper products to more environmentally friendly ones.

If you want to get actively involved in environmental work, join a local conservation group. It’s a great way to make friends too! In the UK contact BTCV (British Trust For Conservation Volunteers )36 St Mary's Street, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 0EU Phone 01491 8397 656 email info@btcv.org.uk

Recycling and buying environmentally-friendly products is a start — but only a start. We need to protect our environment by consuming less and driving less. Our society is based upon massive over-consumption, and it is this over-consumption that is driving the ‘machinery’ (cars and factories) that is ravaging the earth. By following Druidry, by focussing our lives on opening ourselves to the power and beauty of Nature and Spirit, rather than on consuming more products, we not only reduce some of the damage being done to the earth, but we also free up enormous amounts of time, energy and money. If you’re in the USA contact The Center for a New American Dream, and ask them for a copy of Yearning For Balance which is filled with ways you can make this shift away from a consumer-oriented lifestyle. The Center is at 6930 Carroll Ave, Suite 900, Takoma Park MD 20912 email newdream@newdream.org or see their website http://www.newdream.orgConsuming less sounds straightforward, but it requires a radical shift in awareness. Have a look at the following books: The Joy of Not Working by Ernie J. Zelinski, Ten Speed Press, 1997, Un-Jobbing by Michael Fogler, Free Choice Press, 1997, How to Live Green, Cheap & Happy by Randi Hacker, Stackpole Books, 1994, Simplify Your Life with Kids by Elaine St. James, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1997.

Shifting our awareness away from trying to make ourselves happy by consuming ‘products’, to becoming contented and at peace with ourselves and the world, without having to ‘get’ anything, lies at the foundation of the practical application of Druid philosophy in the world today.

A bit of history about the Campaign

Having launched the Campaign in February 1988, we began gathering information about environmentally-friendly products. We discovered that there were hundreds of them - over-priced and often difficult to locate. We started a project to initiate the development of shops that would sell these goods, and which would spread across the country as health food stores did ten years ago. We researched the products, and in conjunction with a director of Greenpeace and a colleague from the European Business School produced a 34 page report which was circulated to all the major financial institutions, selected corporations and key figures in the business world. We held a number of meetings with such figures, including one in Amsterdam with the Bodyshop and the director of Holland's largest supermarket chain. We also spoke with publishers and exhibition organisers about projects to promote the idea of ecological responsibility.

We didn't achieve our original objective - which was the setting up of a chain of retail shops that would actively help people become ecologically responsible. But what has occurred since that time is far more important.

The concept of individual ecological responsibility has become more and more current, and as environmental degradation intensifies, both the consumer and the retailer are becoming aware of their responsibility. We don't think that any one group is responsible for the increase in this awareness - the media, Ark, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and we hope - in a small way — this Campaign, have all played their part.

The Order’s Campaign for Individual Ecological Responsibility focuses at the level of consciousness change - from which flow practical applications. The Campaign aims to change the idea that we are powerless, and to encourage the taking of individual responsibility. Once we act with personal responsibility, we can turn to the world of industry and commerce - and work to promote the idea of Corporate Ecological Responsibility, and to governments and nations to promote the idea of Global Ecological Responsibility.

In lovely harmony the wood has put on its green mantle, and summer is on its throne, playing its string-music; the willow, whose harp hung silent when it was withered in winter, now gives forth its melody — Hush! Listen! The world is alive.

Thomas Evans

THE ORDER OF BARDS OVATES & DRUIDS
PO Box 1333 Lewes E.Sussex BN7 1DX England
Tel/fax 01273 419129 email office@druidry.org
Website: http://druidry.org
This leaflet may be photocopied and distributed freely
© The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids 2000
81099B1
 

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