June 2014 Lab: God’s World: Our Responsibility

Week 3: Beyond the Back Yard- Our Global Community

Beyond the Backyard: Our Global CommunityIntroduction/Overview

•  What does the term “global community” mean, and how do I impact it?

• Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Our grocery stores are filled with produce and products from around the world; the internet allows us to literally see the rest of the world. Our consumption of cheap goods has driven the demand for sweat shops and factories that produce and distribute stuff we don’t need. Let’s take the case of a simple t-shirt. NPR’s Planet Money recently sought to get at this notion of a global community behind the products we buy by undertaking a t-shirt project. They commissioned a set of t-shirts to be made, and then followed the process from start to finish, investigating the lives of the people who made those shirts. So what’s in a t-shirt? Well, an entire world.

Beyond the Backyard: Our Global CommunityIntroduction/Overview

• Sadly, though, far too many of the people who make up that world behind Planet Money’s t-shirt live lives of utter destitution, in no small part so that we can buy $7 shirts at Wal-Mart. Take Jasmine, for example.

• The truth is we’re addicted to consumption and greed.• Capitalism = consumerism; the driving force behind our

economy is spending, much of it by the middle class and even the poor. In fact, our economy is dependent on this spending. If it didn’t continue, the economy would likely collapse, which is a strong indicator that our way of life is unsustainable.

Beyond the Backyard: Our Global CommunityIntroduction/Overview

• There has been a long standing message in America, that buying brings happiness. This is evident all around us. You can’t turn on the TV, computer, or radio, without being assaulted by advertisements that tell you your life will be better if you buy ________. We are constantly being told what will and will not bring us happiness.

• I am prone to this myself, so much so, that I find myself reaching for magazines, my phone, my TV remote when I’m bored! I’m so bored, that I need to distract myself with the next purchase I might like to make. We need to remind each other that our hope is in Jesus.

Beyond the Backyard: Our Global CommunityIntroduction/Overview

• FACTS• Approximately 20% of the population in developed nations consume 86% of

the world’s goods• In 2008, the U.S. population, which accounts for approx. 5% of world pop.,

consumed 24% of the world’s energy• The United States of America is the largest and most important economy in

the world. In 2012, the US economy was responsible for 18.87 percent of the world’s total GDP (PPP) or US$15.684 trillion. (GDP=gross domestic product The market value of the officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year. Per capita, it can be used as an indicator of a country’s material standard of living.

• Estimated that 4-6 hectares (1 hectare = approx. 2.5 acres) of lands are needed to maintain the consumption level of the avg person from an industrialized country, but only 1.7 hectares of ecologically productive land was available for each person.

• These statistics point to an uncomfortable fact. Developed countries overconsume, and the poor in developing countries pay the price with lower standards of living and increasing environmental damage (Source: Social Justice Handbook).

Beyond the Backyard: Our Global CommunityIntroduction/Overview

• Impact on our Global neighbors• Why is this important?• What does the bible say, and does Jesus care? Matthew 25:

31-46, James 2:1-10

Beyond the Backyard: Our Global CommunityIntroduction/Overview

• What can I do? • Pay close attention to your consumption pattern! • Choose a specific amount of time to limit your

consumption• www.simpleliving.org• Watch Affluenza (PBS)• Talk to others about your budget, purchases you are

considering, what you could share with your neighbors. Be accountable to others! Think about what happens to the product you are buying after you are finished using it.

Relevant Current topics- Climate Change• Climate change affects many things- vegetation, the amount of

water available, survival of animals (including humans). It affects the poor in greater proportion! According the Evangelical Environmental Network, climate change affects the ability to produce agriculturally, and this will directly affect the poor first.

• Call to Action on Climate Change (Evangelical Climate Change Initiative) Claims• Human induced climate change is real• The consequences of climate change will be significant, and will hit the poor the

hardest• Christian moral convictions demand our response to the climate change problem• The need to act now is URGENT

• www.christiansandclimatechange.org• Climate change leads to droughts, famine, floods, and these affect the poor (

remember hurricane Katrina?)• Greenhouse effect of factory farming: animal agriculture is a leading cause of

climate change and air pollution; land, soil, water degradation, and biodiversity loss

Relevant Current topics- GMO’s

• GMO’s: Genetically modified organisms• Seeds that are genetically engineered to be resistant to

pesticides/herbicide; these seeds are patented, and the companies who own the patent rights control the crops, the farmers, and the future of food (See Food, Inc)

• GMO’s have not been proven safe for consumption• Major companies involved: Monsanto, Dupont• # countries that require labeling of gmo’s or ban them

altogether: 64!• www.nongmoproject.org, http://factsaboutgmos.org/

• What can you do? • Purchase less processed foods, look for Non GMO label, buy

organic when possible• March against Monsanto• Documentaries: GMO OMG and Food, Inc.

Relevant Current topics- The Coming World Water Crisis

• The Global Water Crisis• In 2007, one billion people lacked access to safe drinking

water, one of the fundamental sources of life. We cannot survive without it!• 12% of the world’s population uses 85% of the world’s

water. • One third of the world’s populations (2 billion people) uses

20L water per day. In the US, the average person uses 600L water PER DAY!• Urban development affects the water cycle (rain water

landing on pavement, etc)

Relevant Current topics- The Coming World Water Crisis

• More Water Facts:• More than 400 million Africans now live in water-scarce

countries• Unless we change our ways, two-thirds of the world’s

population will face water scarcity by 2025• Compared to today, five times as much land is likely to be

under “extreme drought” by 2050• By 2030, nearly half of the world’s population – the

majority living in underdeveloped countries – will be living in areas of high water stress• The percentage of the Earth’s land area stricken by

serious drought more than doubled between the 1970s and 2005

Relevant Current topics- The Coming World Water Crisis

• U.S. Water Facts:• 18 States are currently facing droughts, according to the U.S.

Drought Monitor• 40 percent of all U.S. water withdrawals are for export• Unless measures are taken, California will demand three times

more groundwater than can be supplied over the next 100 years• Florida‚ rapid use of groundwater has created thousands of

sinkholes that devour anything, houses, cars and shopping malls, unfortunate enough to be built on top of them

• The Western U.S. is facing its warmest decades in over 500 years• In 2007, Lake Superior, the world‚ largest freshwater lake,

dropped to its lowest levels in 80 years and the water has receded more than 15 meters from the shoreline

• Lake Mead, the vast reservoir of the Colorado River, has a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021

Relevant Current topics- The Coming World Water Crisis

• What can we do?? • Reduce your water intake by taking shorter showers,

installing an efficient showerhead, install a rainwater tank (a great option in Ohio-it can be used to connect to your toilet, garden hose, etc)• Participate in/support ministries like Living Water-

www.water.cc (drilling wells, supporting the water deprived)• Documentaries• Blue Gold• Tapped• Flow

Creation Care: Revisiting the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

The 3 R’s: Reduce• In 2008, the average amount of waste generated by each

person in America per day was 4.5 pounds. 1.1 pounds of that was recycled, and .4 pounds, including yard waste, was sent to composting. In total, 24.3% of waste was recycled, 8.9% was composted, and 66.8% was sent to a landfill or incinerated. This is problematic because of the documented impact of landfills on the earth’s atmosphere and on drinking water. In some parts of the world, though, for a variety of reasons people actually live on landfills.

Creation Care: Revisiting the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

The 3 R’s: Reduce• Sometimes people live on landfills because they’re so poor that they build

their lives around scavenging landfills for things like human hair and plastic bags. “In the New Delhi 70-acre Ghazipur landfill alone there are an estimated 350,000 scavengers, or ‘rag pickers’. Living in filth, people spend their days sorting the endless trash into towering mountains, searching for items they can sell. Plastic bags go for 5¢ a pound, and human hair fetches $18 a pound.”

Creation Care: Revisiting the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

The 3 R’s: Reduce• So what can we do?

• Reduce Our Purchases• Ask yourself if you really need the item in your hand before

you purchase• Ask if the item could be borrowed• Consider thrift stores!

• Reduce Our Waste• Consider the packaging involved in a product before you buy it• Is it recyclable? • Made from recycled materials? • Is there unnecessary packaging to make the product more

desirable? • Consider buying in bulk, purchasing items in glass or

aluminum packaging vs plastic, and #’s 1 and 2 plastics vs 3,4,5,6, and 7 (1 and 2 are the most commonly accepted).

Creation Care: Revisiting the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

The 3 R’s: Reuse• Hopefully it’s clear that our consumption patterns in the U.S. make

a huge negative impact on the world, which is why “Reduce” is the first of the “3 R’s.” We have to cut back on how much energy and other resources we use and how much waste we create.

• What we (think) we can’t reduce, though, we can at least reuse or recycle. • THRIFT STORES like the Salvation Army and Village Discount are

great resources for this. Yes, you might be buying a t-shirt that was originally made by someone like Jasmine, but at least by doing so secondhand you’re not creating new demand for one.

• Saving glass jars for smoothies, oatmeal, storing bulk purchased grains, beans,

• Repurpose old clothes for cleaning rags• Really, just think before you toss!

Creation Care: Revisiting the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

The 3 R’s: Recycle• Stark county-curbside recycling• Summit county• Sometimes, in the worst places of human misery, literally

on the trash heap of our demand for more and more stuff, surprising grace can be found.

Creation Care: Revisiting the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

As we close out this section on revisiting the 3 R’s, let’s talk about plastic bags. They’re important because really all 3 apply. We need to reduce our use of them and reuse/recycle the rest. Here are some waste and recycling facts about plastic bags from www.cleanair.org:

• Every year, Americans use approximately 102.1 billion plastic bags, creating (literal) tons of landfill waste. 

• Plastic bags do not biodegrade. Light breaks them down into smaller and smaller particles that contaminate the soil and water and are expensive and difficult to remove.

• Less than 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled each year. Recycling one ton of plastic bags costs $4,000. The recycled product can be sold for $32.6

• When the small particles from photodegraded plastic bags get into the water, they are ingested by filter feeding marine animals. Biotoxins like PCBs that are in the particles are then passed up the food chain, including up to humans.

A Call to Action• Ways to reduce our Carbon footprints: 40% of the average

American’s carbon footprint relates to direct energy use. The other 60% is indirect (things we buy!)• Buy locally, buy less• Reduce, reuse, recycle• Drive less, buy a bike, consolidate shopping trips• Vegetarian diet• Don’t waste food, compost (food in landfills produces methane)

• How can my food choices impact my global neighbor? • Vegetarian diet-reduces resources (takes 16 lbs of grain to produce 1

lb of beef!) 37% of the world’s harvested grain is fed to animals raised for slaughter, and in the US, it’s 66%!), large CAFO’s (concentrated animal feeding operations) are main contributors to pollution/global warming-methane and nitrous oxide emissions and animal waste (see documentaries Food inc, American meat, Our Daily Bread)

A Call to Action• Community Supported Agriculture• www.localharvest.org• Reduces the pollution involved in getting food to large chain

grocery stores (gas for trucks)

• Gardening• Fair trade shopping• How/why to save water• Creative gifting-thrift store gifts, Heifer Int’l, MCC,

Kiva, giving gift of time/babysitting• Get involved in your local food bank• Pray, read books with a group, come up with a plan

of action!

A Call to Action• Resources for learning more• Documentaries: Food, Inc., No Impact Man, Tapped; Flow;

Blue Gold; An Inconvenient truth; Gasland; Human Footprint; trashed; a place at the table, GMO OMG• Books: Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Ron Sider); Seven

(Jen Hatmaker); Enough (Will Samson), The Social Justice Handbook (Mae Elise Cannon), Living More with Less (Doris Janzen Longacre), Everyday Justice (Julie Clawson), The Upside-Down Kingdom (Don Kraybill)• Organizations• Mennonite Central Committee• Heifer International

• Sustainable Works• Books• Documentaries