Poster from the 'Keep America Beautiful' campaign (1971)

Okay, so I’m mixing my Indians (Malaysian/Sri Lankan Tamils, actually) with that title, but you get the point.

The Wampanoag tribe of Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts have applied for their land’s status as a Traditional Cultural Property on the National Register of Historic Places in a last ditch bid to stop a wind farm being built on it. They claim, among other things, that it would obstruct their view of the sun during rituals and obstruct access to ancestral burial grounds. Don’t these developers know anything?! The late Teddy Kennedy, who’s family “compound” overlooks the site, was also opposed to the development.

The only opposition from non-industry environmental groups mentioned in the article sounds pretty weak

Barbara Hill of Clean Power Now, an advocacy group that supports Cape Wind, said the entire offshore wind industry would suffer if Simon decides more review of the tribal claim is needed.

“If there is going to be an allowance to this type of viewshed issue, as far as the eyes can see, what are we going to build?” she said.

Maybe no-one wants to be seen as oppressing the Indians?

AP ‘Tribe: Wind farm would harm sacred rituals‘, msnbc.com (2/11/09)

Adapted from a photo by Remy Steinegger

Justice Michael Burton ruled that Tim Nicholson’s belief in climate change is akin to a religious belief, and can thus file for unfair dismissal on that ground.

While Nicholson sees this as a victory for his cause, I’m still surprised more people aren’t complaining ‘it’s scientific fact, not religious belief’. Justice Burton last year ruled on whether An Inconvenient Truth should be shown in schools, finding it “political and partisan” (and thus, presumably, ruled against its showing).

One particularly interesting outcome of this trial was the criteria the judge established to decide what constituted a religious or philosophical belief. Apparently he cribbed heavily from Bertrand Russel’s History of Western Society (1945), and the five essential points were:

• The belief must be genuinely held.
• It must be a belief and not an opinion or view based on the present state of information available.
• It must be a belief as to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life.
• It must attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance.
• It must be worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not conflict with the fundamental rights of others.

Although these were the criteria to consider it a philosophical belief covered under the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations act, we shouldn’t really be too flippant about its equation with religious belief.

Humanism was given as an example meeting the criteria, while belief in a political party or the supreme nature of Jedi knights, from the Star Wars movies, were offered as ones that do not.

Karen McVeigh ‘Judge rules activist’s beliefs on climate change akin to religion‘, The Guardian (3/11/09)

UPDATE: The first piece I’ve seen criticising the equation of belief in anthropogenic global warming with religion. Still, no-one has really pointed out since McVeigh’s article that the judge considered it a philosophical rather than religious belief (though a belief all the same).

Andrew Brown ‘We’re doomed without a green religion‘, The Guardian (6/11/09)

… and another. This guy cites a few similar opinions, although everyone seems to be overlooking the religion/philosophy distinction. Is this something McVeigh made up? I really need to see the text of the ruling.

‘Going green isn’t a “human right”‘, National Post (9/11/09)

Adapted from a photo by Remy Steinegger

An English property developer has challenged his sacking as unlawful, and claims his belief in global warming is a religious belief they are illegally discriminating against. Tim Nicholson, former head of “sustainability” at Grainger PLC, claims he was fired because “his views on the environment are so strong that they led to clashes with other senior staff”, and a judge has agreed to hear the case at an employment tribunal.

I’m not sure if the religious argument was Nicholson’s idea or his barrister’s, but it seems odd that a global warming believer would want to describe their commitment to the idea as religious belief rather than scientific fact. Perhaps more perversely it is left to opposing counsel John Bowers QC, barrister to a company whose chief executive “once flew a member of staff to Ireland to deliver his Blackberry that he had left in London”, to claim that belief in climate change is scientific, and not philosophical:

A philosophical belief must be one based on a philosophy of life, not a scientific belief, not a political belief or opinion, not a lifestyle choice, not an environmental belief and not an assertion of disputed facts.

George Gaynor ‘Climate change beliefs “like religion”‘, Oxford Mail (8/10/09)

Following our earlier story on Mubarak’s culling of Egypt’s pigs, primarily owned by Coptic Orthodox Christians, recent reports show that the streets of Cairo are filled with uncollected rubbish. This is due to the fact that Zabbaleen, Coptic Christians who go door to door collecting rubbish, used to feed the organic scraps to the pigs they kep, which they would eventually slaughter and eat when fattened.

The Zabbaleen occupy the Muqattam district, also known to the locals as Manshiyyat Naser (‘Garbage City’), an area of cemeteries and home to St Sama’an’s Church. Also known as the ‘Cave Cathedral’,  St Sama’an’s is the apaprently largest church in the Middle East with seating for 20,000. I noticed at the time that the Zabbaleen were complaining they would be deprived of their livelihood by the culling, but I didn’t notice they also pointed out that no-one would collect the rubbish when the pigs were gone. Perhaps the government thought the international contractors they’ve engaged to collect garbage would be able to cover it, but Cairenes are used to having garbage collected from their door, not the street, and the Zabbaleen are apparently piling the rubbish they collect next to public bins that can’t be picked up quickly enough.

Michael Slackman ‘A Little Late, Egypt Discovers the Flaw in Killing All Its Pigs‘, The New York Times (19/9/09)

Image from Hossam all line at Flickr.com

Technological integration into worship is always a fascinating topic. I am not just referring to the phenomenon of worshippers commenting on communion via Twitter or Facebook, but the more supposedly mundane aspects such as audio-visual design of the space, and engineering for efficient systems of moving people. Jennifer Hattam at TreeHugger reported recently on the deployment of stuff green in mosques around the world. The article, title ‘Enlightened Mosques Switch to Energy-Saving Lights’ (enlightened – get it? Get it? Yeah, it took me a few goes too) highlighted some examples of environmental engineering that looked to make mosques greener.

Finding ways to make one’s mosque energy efficient makes sense on a number of levels; cheaper electricity bills for one, less strain on environmental resources for another, and let us not forget the politic street cred’ that comes from participating in a growing global socio-cultural hegemony that is infused with moralistic monologues and eschatological imminence (and immanence?). The dual meaning in the TreeHugger title seemed a bit too obvious to me.

What I really liked were some of the cool ideas that were being used: underfloor heating, dual-layered walls for cooling and rain-water harvesting, use of natural light. All good stuff, but it makes me wonder how halal such things are, and how that designation is gained in the light of technological innovation. Maybe that could be a future venture for TreeHugger? In any case, the jumps to other stories from the article make for interesting reading.

Jennifer Hattam, ‘Enlightened Mosques Switch to Energy-Saving Lights’, TreeHugger (05/09/09)