Peak Oil & New Urbanism

These three documentaries on Peak Oil have interested me:

The Power of Community (2006, trailer, Wiki). This looks at the economic crisis in Cuba following the break-up of the Soviet Union, which significantly reduced Cuba’s access to cheap oil. The way food production, transportation, education and other sectors adapted is telling. Cuba is said to be a test case for global peak oil. I appreciated the focus on local food production/permaculture.

A Crude Awakening (2006, trailer, Wiki). General description of Peak Oil and the potential ramifications of passing the peak.

The End of Suburbia (2004, trailer, Wiki). I like the first two films better, but this one made more obvious the reason people are pushing for fracking today–dwindling natural gas accessible via traditional approaches of extraction. All three films demonstrate why there is pressure to build the XL pipeline. One thing I appreciated about this film was its consideration of new urbanism (Wiki), though they admit it could be too little too late. A documentary I value on new urbanism is A Convenient Truth (Curitiba, Brazil, 2006, trailer, IMDB).

I have not watched the 2007 follow-up, Escape from Suburbia, which received mixed reviews (pro, con, Netflix).

>Vegetarian/Vegan Info

A friend shared these resources:

Videos Vegan Myths Song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc8TrchWeO0 Cows with Guns – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5s5qGg01nE The Meatrix – http://www.themeatrix.com/ Books Animal Theology (Andrew Linzey) Creatures of the Same God (Andrew Linzey) Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer) – http://www.eatinganimals.com/ Eating and Believing (David Grummet and Rachel Muers) The Friends We Keep (Laura Hobgood-Oster) Making a Killing (Bob Torres) – http://www.akpress.org/2007/items/makingakillingakpress The Sexual Politics of Meat (Carol J. Adams) – http://www.caroljadams.com/spom.html On God and Dogs (Stephen Webb) – http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/PhilosophyofReligion/?view=usa&ci=9780195152296 Vegan Freak (Bob Torres and Jenna Torres) – http://veganfreak.com/

Thanks, Nekeisha.

MORE FOOD FILMS

>US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

Last night I attended an event about the US-Colombia FTA. The speaker from Witness for Peace showed how “free” trade isn’t fair trade, but mainly benefits the corporations and leadership in each country. He discussed what has been learned from NAFTA’s effects on jobs in the US and disruptions to workers and farmers in Latin America.

More from Witness for Peace (the presenter last night works for them; he’s presented at AMBS in the past) and ICPJ:

• http://www.witnessforpeace.org/downloads/Witness%20for%20Peace%20Fact%20Sheet_FTA%20with%20Colombia_2011.pdf
• http://www.witnessforpeace.org/section.php?id=99
• http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=1126
• http://ajws.org/emergencies/documents/hunger_campaign/0511_religious_organizations.pdf [religious groups opposing this]
• http://www.icpj.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Colombia-FTA-facts.pdf
• http://www.icpj.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Colombia-FTA-resources.pdf

>The Lord’s Supper in Community

In Neither Poverty Nor Riches Craig Blomberg addresses the controversy surrounding the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. He begins by describing the social context.

The well-to-do who did not have to work long hours at manual labour could arrive for the Christian gathering early, bring excess food and drink, and consume too much of both. The poorer members, arriving later with fewer provisions, were unable to enjoy an equal share of what was intended to be a communal meal or ‘love feast.’ (p. 183)

A few pages later, he returns to the Lord’s Supper.

When one understands the sociological factors at work behind the Corinthians’ abuse of the Lord’s Supper, well-known verses in Chapter 11 appear quite different….The Corinthians who eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord ‘in an unworthy manner’ (1 Cor. 11:27) are not those who are particularly aware of their sinfulness or who feel unworthy to partake….Those who should refrain from the bread and wine lest they profane the eucharist are…those who are actually eating and drinking in an unworthy fashion. And verse 21 explicitly recounts what that unworthy fashion involves: ‘each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.’ (p. 187)

Next Blomberg connects the teaching with our context.

Obviously, few if any contemporary worship services have this exact problem with the Lord’s table. But once one understands that the gluttony and drunkenness described take place during a large communal meal at the expense of the needy Christians in their midst, then ‘eating and drinking unworthily’ applies in our modern culture to any who continue glibly to partake of the Lord’s Supper, yet who have no track-record in their own lives of giving from their surplus possessions to the poor. The question of who should and should not take the Lords Supper in any given church could be revolutionized if we began to obey Paul’s words and apply them as they were intended in their original context. (pp. 187-188)

Finally, he concludes the section by stating:

Those who eat and drink without concern for the needs of the poorer members do not recognize the nature of the church–a refuge for refugees, in which all must care for one another. (p. 188)

>Wednesday Potpourri

>These articles and posts have caught my attention this week:

• FBI recovers 48 juveniles in prostitution raid (23 Feb ’09, CNN.com)
• Stimulus: Can it feed the hungry? (24 Feb ’09, CNNMoney.com)
• Guantanamo detainees treated humanely, Pentagon report says (24 Feb ’09, CNN.com)
• Eating Alongside the Poor for Lent (16 Feb ’09, Urbana.org, Least of These blog)
• Good News and Bad News (27 Jan ’09, Urbana.org, WhirledView blog)
• Your Body as a Billboard (20 Feb ’09, Skyejethani.com)
• Japan’s Hidden Christians (24 Feb ’09, Skyejethani.com)

>The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs)

>I cannot encourage you enough to read The End of Poverty. Just do it. Promise yourself that you’ll find a way.

The first few chapters relate Sachs’s own evolution as a development economist and advocate—a process that leads him from Harvard University to countries around the world and eventually to Columbia University where he helped found The Earth Institute. We follow him along the journey of gaining insights into the roles that geography, population growth, and disease play in the poverty trap.

The subsequent chapters describe the needs of the poor, the misconceptions most of us have regarding what is being done and what the real problems are, and finally the way forward.

Sachs quantifies, maps, deconstructs, and personalizes the problems. Thankfully, he does not end there. He also quantifies the needed response, demonstrates the possibilities we have over the next couple of decades, and offers policy advice on increasing capacity and accountability.

For less technical, but more spiritual analyses of the same topics, see Walking with the Poor (Bryant Myers), Red Letters (Tom Davis) and Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Ron Sider).

>ISSUE: Food

>
This edition of Sojourners is focusing on food. Here are four of the main articles:

All We Hunger For by Julie Polter. Good food is much more than a matter of taste.

Grub for Body and Soul by Molly Marsh. An interview with food activists Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry.

Shopping for Justice by Bethany Spicher Schonberg. My journey with Super Giant.

‘Give Us This Day’ by Cathy C. Campbell. Simple – and radical – wisdom from the Lord’s Prayer.