Total Disbelief

Indigenous Peoples

In learning to be joyful in enough, it is commonly recognised that we have much to learn from indigenous peoples, the ancient communities across the globe who have developed a way of life appropriate to the sustainability of their environments.   The NGO IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs) is a helpful resource for learning more about native lifestyles, and the challenges facing those whose traditions are under threat, especially from European colonialism with its rapacious craving for expansion, which has resulted in the genocide of indigenous peoples from the Australian Aborigines, across the Americas and throughout Africa.   This is not a just a matter of history, colonialism continues, often described as neo-colonialism, where there is western dominance over former colonies, in particular those countries where precious resources are to be found.

Oil

The twentieth century might be characterised as the age of oil, a resource that has brought benefits to the colonial powers in the West, but at enormous cost to the environment and to indigenous people.   There is a long history of the peoples of the Amazon, the Arctic, and the Niger delta losing their land and culture to oil extraction, the latest peoples at risk are those of Uganda and Tanzania. The French fossil fuel giant Total, along with the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments and CNOOC, a China-based company, are working together to drill for oil in Uganda’s wildlife home at Murchison Falls National Park, and then to transport the oil along a pipeline from the park to the port of Tanga in Tanzania, on the Indian Ocean coastline.  This puts the livelihoods of the local people, as well as the wildlife of the area at all sorts of risk, not to mention that it is an act of defiance of global agreements to move away from fossil fuels, as we seek to realise the Paris Climate agreement of preventing temperatures rising more than 1.5c.  The online activist  group Avaaz is taking up the cause of opposing the monster pipeline at https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/stop_the_pipeline_en_loc/ 

The Church of England and Parish Buying

In June 2023 the Church of England completed the work of divesting from fossil fuel companies that they had begun in 2021.  They excluded a further 11 oil companies from their investment portfolio, including Total, a move welcomed by many campaigning groups, including Operation Noah.  Divestment is an ethical way of saying ‘Enough’ to those companies who need prompting to comply with net zero.  It was, therefore with some disbelief that I discovered that the Church of England actually encourages parish churches to buy their green energy from Total.  

Like many large organisations, the Church of England has purchasing power, and can negotiate good prices from companies because it can promise them high sales.    The body that organises this for the Church is called Parish Buying, who offer an ‘Energy basket’, that includes 100% green energy from UK-based renewable resources, at a low price.   Sounds great, doesn’t it?  However, further searching around the Parish Buying website reveals that that the company each parish will purchase this energy from is Total Energies Gas & Power, the same company that is developing the monster fossil fuel pipeline through Uganda and Tanzania.   

On the Parish Buying website we find the statement;

The climate emergency is a global crisis. It is also a fundamental injustice for people living in countries who have seen the worst effects of global warming, and whose lives have been forever changed. We need to take bold and urgent action to help our planet now and to preserve it for future generations.  

Parish Buying is sourcing genuine green electricity from  a windfarm in the North Sea through Total, but it’s the same Total who are forever changing the lives of the people of Uganda, as they drill for new fossil fuel in wilderness parks, and then seek to pipe it across East Africa.  Can Parish Buying not do better than this?  Their contract with Total ends in September 2025, and so this is the time to look for a new truly green and ethical energy provider, which would not be difficult to find.    They might also write a letter to Total to let them know why they are making this move.

Might Green Christian start up a petition? Watch this Space.

Margaret Healey-Pollett

November 2024