July brings sunny weather, picnics, and ice creams in Christchurch Meadows, and maybe even a summer holiday. But that is not all.
July is also Plastic-Free month and this gives us an opportunity to care for the planet which provides those glorious days in the park.
As people of faith, we believe that something important about God’s beauty and craftsmanship is seen in the complex and awe-inspiring natural world, and that caring about ecology is an important part of living a faithful life.
We don’t always do this perfectly, but seeing the impacts of climate change on the poorest people around the world and on biodiversity is inspiring us to go back to our sacred texts and read the Bible again for what our faith might tell us about living on a planet that collectively we have broken.
The campaigning organisation Surfers Against Sewage reports that every year 12 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean, of which a staggering 9.5 million tonnes comes from land-based sources of plastic and 1.75 tonnes thrown into the sea by fishing and shipping businesses.
To grasp the enormity of the problem, try to imagine 51 trillion minuscule fragments of plastic floating in the deep blue, collectively weighing the equivalent of 1,345 adult blue whales.
This is a relatively new problem, but as Christians we return to our ancient story of God’s creation of the world where God declares the Earth to be good, and remember the teachings in the Bible to protect the land and care for the most vulnerable people.
This gives us hope and inspiration when a problem, like the problem of plastic pollution, feels overwhelming.
Thankfully there is a lot we can do to face up to plastic pollution without needing lots of time or money.
The plastic-free July website, plasticfreejuly.org, offers loads of tips and advice to get started.
They include from simple life changes like refusing single-use disposable plastics if we don’t need them, or making shopping swaps like moving from liquid to solid soaps or buying paper decorations for birthday parties instead of plastic, as well as using our voice to advocate for changes to local and government policies to protect the future of this precious planet we all call home.
Siobhan Antoniou, Student Minister at St Andrew’s United Reformed Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Reading
