Tuesday 20 March 2007

Green electricity

When wise Christians whose opinions I respect disagree on the wider issue of climate change and that whole caboodle, it creates a bit of a quandry. How then shall we live? Not that it seems all that much clearer for anyone else. Back in February I had hoped to find some answers on this BBC page, but found some of it too technical, some of it too antagonistic and some of it not terribly relevant or focussed. What is a boy to do?

Well, we have been with 'Good Energy' for a long time now, and it's not all that much more expensive than NPower or British Gas or whoever else we might be with. Plus a free bottle of wine for recommending the company to some friends. Are we paying a premium to feel good about ourselves? Possibly. (Nicer) Are we paying a premium to feel that we are minimising the negative consequences of our participation in this society? Possibly. In either case, is it a con? I hope not.

In either case, it's clearly not the most important thing in the world, and important though care for the environment (dominion with integrity) is, it's rather convenient for the world to have 'the environment as a 'big thing' to think about so that it can ignore the more pressing issue of the Divine Kingship of Jesus Christ. Especially as governments once more arrogate to themselves the soteriological functions proper to God Himself. On the one hand, the problem consumes too much time and energy for some people - on the other hand, if there is a solution we can surely find it ourselves, we can surely save ourselves, either government or science will save us...

Is that too cynical?