To Michael Bourke, ret Bishop of Wolverhampton

 Thanks so much for sending me your helpful talk that I have now read and, re-read.  It reflects some of my own thoughts and has increased my understanding.  Thank you.

I particularly liked,

"the Presence of One whose world it is, who is here before us
and we are her guests. We know that nature can be cruel and
inhospitable, and yet, as today’s environmental movement
testifies – despite everything (the second part of my title!) –
the natural world is not just a blind mechanism or a material
resource for us to exploit. It mediates a presence and a
sense of wonder."

AND,

"We are not the lords of the universe.  Reverence, humility and trust are required of us in the macro-ecology of which we are part."

Yes, indeed.  We are part of nature and subject to the laws of nature.  But we think we are a cut above nature.  Such is our hubris and eventual undoing.

"The fool has said in his heart, there is no God."  Psalm 14 v 1

The problem I have is that even the wisest of the wise who are most devoted to the Lord God, are, like the rest of us, living infinitely on a finite planet and unnaturally on a natural planet.  That is extremely dangerous and foolish.  Unfortunately, we are now well and truly locked into this behaviour.  Utterly dependant on, addicted to, oil and gas that without them, means I think, we cannot even eat or drink!  We are well and truly trapped into using finite fossil fuels for virtually everything!  Yet, both must be in short supply before the end of the century.

In addition, as we merrily burn them up and live it up, we have been told for 150 years, that making carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels warms the planet.  Eunice Foote, in 1856, was the first and is the mother of climate science.  The IPCC has confirmed this in every report since 1988.  However, still no effective action to reverse the rot and we carry on regardless, with our fingers crossed behind our backs.

As a result, it looks likely that we humans will have a much shorter track record than the dinosaurs that God seems to have created the earth for and not for foolish humans.  I hope I'm wrong!

A poisoned chalice.  The gods have played a cruel trick on us.  A one-off geological inheritance that was never meant to be exploited with such gay abandon.  It was the apple on the tree that we were never meant to take, let alone partake of as we have done, for 300 years.  But we can hardly blame our ancestors, can we?  I expect, we would each have done exactly the same.  Perhaps, a serious flaw in our human nature! 

Very many thanks, again for such an erudite essay to promote thought!  I have put it in my 'Religious thoughts' folder to refer back.

Have a wonderful Christmas and new year.