an essay by TDN Member “Greybeard”.
Quotes from the Forward to The Druid Network’s Constitution below demonstrate why the environment is so important to us:
Druidry is based on the reverential, sacred and honourable relationship between the people and the land.
Druidic practice seeks too to understand the patterns of nature outside humanity, within our environment, honouring the powers of nature as wholly sacred. All life is deemed to be unconditionally sacred, bearing its own intrinsic validity and purpose.
…most Druidic sacrifice is expressed through work that benefits the wider community and the planet as a whole, such as environmental volunteering, ethical consumerism…
from TDN Constitution
A deep spiritual connection with the land, sea and sky – that is to say our environment – is one that honours the world around us and seeks to minimise or stop any damage to the environment. We cannot revere and honour the land, sea or sky while unthinkingly hurting or polluting them!
We must remember too that as well as having an impact on the environment; we are part of the environment rather than separate from it. There is no real separation between people and the land, other than in our own semantics. When we pollute or damage the environment we are polluting or damaging ourselves as well, but we are part of the environment and our actions will have an impact which we must try to minimise.
As the third quote above suggests, we view protecting the environment as a part of our Druidic work. Our work can be both passive, i.e. minimising our impacts through buying goods and services ethically and in the most ecological way possible, and active such as campaigning against fracking.
You may find examples of how to reduce our impact on the environment in the web links section “ethical consumerism” and on the same page the “speaking out!” section gives examples of active campaigning
Our ecological impact is often described as our footprint. Humans as a whole are currently using resources and polluting the environment at a rate that is around 50% greater than the planet can sustain. The WWF reports that we currently need a further half a planet but if you live in the UK, US or Australia your footprint may be far higher. For example if everyone in the world lived like an average person from the USA then we would need 4 planets to support us and 2.5 planets if we lived like the average person from the UK. You can estimate your footprint here.
While we may have a small impact as individuals our collective impacts are having devastating impact in the planet with many scientists now talking about this period in history being the ‘Sixth Great Extinction’ and asking whether humans will survive it.
Energy
We need energy to live, whether it is the personal energy we get from food or the energy we use for heating our homes but the energy we use has an impact on our environment.
Climate change is acknowledged as the greatest threat to humanity and the environment. Globally, 2014 was the hottest year on record until 2015 broke that record and at the time of writing (2016) is on course to break it again. Our use of fossil fuels lies at the heart of the problem so switching to renewable energy and reducing the amount of energy we use is essential and urgent. The huge amount of meat consumed also contributes to climate change through methane so reducing our intake of meat helps.
Resources
If we are aware of our landscape and the effects we have on it, how do we manage our ‘needs’? Those lovely crystals on the shelf… were they better off left in the hill? But life without trinkets is so dull… isn’t it? So what to do? Do we really ‘need’ the latest iPhone when it comes out? Do we ‘need’ a new wardrobe each year?
Can we reuse things? Find enjoyment in different things such as music and art? Just take what we really need?
Food
Our deep connection with the land cannot be better expressed that through the ritual of growing food. For those of us lucky enough to have a garden, allotment or even a window box the experience and connection with the earth builds us spiritually, makes us more healthy and reduces our impact on the environment.
Recycling
And when we have to get rid of ‘stuff’ we should remember that it might be useful to others. You will find some historical articles along with more current advice surrounding the issues
- Recycling Plastic
- Some Key ideas around Recycling.
- Mopping up our WEEE
- Wormeries
- Composting
- Tetra Pack recycling
Waste
What we throw away or burn pollutes the land, sea and sky so we must keep it to a minimum. Most humans are treating the environment as a sewer or midden.
Our air is polluted by the cars that we drive. One in 8 deaths in the world is due to air pollution, including around 50,000 deaths each year in the UK! Electric vehicles are beginning to a dress the local pollution but what other issues are raised by battery manufacture?
Our seas have become a soup of plastic, both bags and microbeads.
Our land is a network of landfill waste and litter.
It doesn’t have to be like this.