c. Janet Driver All the recent news about the IPCC report has prompted me to show you more photos of my stained glass window on Climate Change. Thinking back now to when it was commissioned a few years ago, it seems amazing how much of what this window predicted has already come true [from the Boxing- Day Tsunami to all the recent wild fires & flooding] and yet we are so slow in responding to this crisis ! A fter all the protests, why is our government so slow ? Why are we still subsidising fossil fuel companies instead of switching to green options? The really good news is that scientists have been beavering away & working on the technologies necessary for us to move forward...we can do this... if only we get going quickly... so what is holding us back??

if you wouldlike to see more on this, please access the web-page format, then scroll down the headings on the right hand side & click on "climate change"...

Friday June 5th : World Environment Day

stained & etched glass ready for window below c. janet driver

climate change window commissioned by the School of Life Sciences, Whitelands College  & made by Janet Driver 1998/9

This year the 45th United Nations World Environment Day is seeking to raise awareness of biodiversity issues worldwide... 

at the same time thousands of people are petitioning the UK government to prioritise green initiatives when it plans to kickstart the economy after the Covid 19 lockdown... 

and this all reminded me of how my research for this climate change window raised my own awareness... 

and just how many of the scenarios we then envisaged “some time in the future” have actually happened much earlier...during the last 20 years...

what can you see in that window ?

...a large part of it foretold the tsunami... & continual problems with flooding...immigration... terrific wild fires so recently in Australia... & far more...

45 years...20 years...    can the next 5 years after this pandemic make all the difference ...?

African Mirage, glass panel c Janet Driver

Earth Day 2020 : 50th Anniversary

earthday.org
‘Every year the Earth Day Network, as organizers of the original Earth Day, selects an environmental priority to engage the global public...’

Are you interested in doing some “citizen science” by joining in at home to check on air pollution or plastics ?        

 then click this link for information  earthchallenge2020.earthday.org

plenty of printable colouring pages on pinterest...

Climate Change

Wasn’t it a former UK PM who gave such an emotional speech at the Paris Climate Change meeting, asking what he / we would say to our children & grandchildren if we failed to act on Climate Change ...?

... and then what happened ?  Subsidies cut for Solar panels & the R Severn tidal project !

what was the point ? several start - up solar panel businesses had to close down...Why nip solar power in the bud just as people were beginning to put precious savings into rooftop solar panels?
And why stop progress on the R. Severn project, when we are an island nation surrounded by potential for tidal power?

Look at our children... 

Listen to them...

Now we have the technology...lets do far more !

I am so thankful for Greta Thunberg and her silent vigils.

I am glad she persuaded our politicians to declare a Climate Emergency.

But what has happened since then ?

Praying through art @ Tate 20th June 2020 ...& in Wivenhoe

Two very different images...   which do you prefer ?

the photo just ‘jumped out at me’ from ‘ pathwaystogod.org ‘

I don’t know who took this photo, but it was advertising a workshop on praying through art at Tate Britain: 20th June 2020... copied from pathwaystogod.org

“Our day at Tate Britain will provide such opportunities to ‘stand and stare’, to allow a painting or sculpture to speak to our deepest selves and, in opening ourselves to the infinite, allow God to speak to us through that process of pondering. Simply by bringing our contemplative awareness of God in all things, and of God speaking to us through our deepest desires and appreciation of beauty, we hope to open ourselves to the touch of the Divine Artist and to realise our own potential as ‘God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it’ (Ephesians 2:10)

No particular knowledge of art is required – just an openness to God’s gifts.” 
Interested ? for details & booking : 
https://www.pathwaystogod.org/courses-events-retreats/praying-art-tate-britain-2

The other image is not attention-grabbing...  more fragile...Its one of a series of acid-etched glass panels which I made a few years ago, based on one of my sketches together with vivid memories of working in East Africa many more years ago...where grasses shimmer in the heat, leaves act as clever camouflage...
trying to give hints of ...well, What is it ?

...and now?... as I spend time looking at the light shining through these fragile painted, stained and etched glass panels... now...?  they speak to me more of climate change...  of the fragile beauty of our planet...
of what is already being destroyed through climate change... and yet of the hope we may be able to do something to save it...if only we act quickly... 

 “ Ngorongoro Mirage”: a series of 3 glass panels : c. janet driver.

for Advent Sunday

Dalit Madonna by Jyoti Sahi

Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art

click link below for details:

http://www.methodist.org.uk/static/artcollection/image37.htm

Advent Sunday...the beginning of a new year,

& this year we turn to the Gospel of Luke ...

 Matthew tells the nativity story from the point of view of Joseph

Luke gives us Mary 

·         Luke is the only one who tells us about the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary,  of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth....& the whole story of Zechariah, Elizabeth & the birth of John the Baptist

             Luke alone writes about the shepherds  the outcasts visiting the manger...and this seems so pertinent these days, with all kinds of poor and vulnerable people suffering through the cuts in UK; people in the poorest areas of the world already suffering the effects of climate change, not to mention the way refugees are now stuck in various bottlenecks across Europe...

              this painting seemed very appropriate for this first week of Advent...  

·

Climate Change

Climate Change Window

designed & made by Janet Driver in the 1990s

It must be nearly seventeen years since I was designing & making this stained glass window commissioned by the School of Life Sciences at Whitelands College, now part of Roehampton University, London.

In the 1990s Climate Change was already firmly on the agenda of the Environmental Studies Courses, and so my design includes visual predictions of increased volcanic activity, displacement of large numbers of people, tsunamis & rising sea-levels, to name just a few of the abstract images.

Even as far back as 1970s I remember discussing possibilities of alternative energy with university students; concerned young people, who realised it wasn't only a matter of curbing lead in fuel emissions, but how vital it is for the future that we move right away from fossil fuels...

... something the Guardian is now re-emphasizing with its 

 "KEEP IT IN THE GROUND" 

CAMPAIGN 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground

We were actively aware of the need for action on climate change at least thirty or forty years ago... how slow we humans are to adapt and take the necessary steps so vitally needed to prevent catastrophe.

Even just in the 15+ years since I made this climate change window, many of these predictions have become alarmingly true:

 first the tsunami that shocked us ten years ago,

& since then earthquakes have devastated Haiti, Japan & now Nepal...
rising sea levels still threaten the Maldives... & floods have become much more frequent worldwide...
...& then last week I heard on the TV News that the current conflict in Syria was sparked off through climate change causing fighting among farming families which escalated...

... a wake up call we dare not ignore!

and if you are still unsure, I came across an excellent book, written by an eminent Climate Scientist,
& highly readable...I mean if you are a non-scientist, like me...
 

In the Eye of the Storm: Sir John Houghton

                            ....we have just a short window of opportunity ...

A Stir Up Sunday Christmas Cake for a nearby church has got me thinking life at the moment is full of a wide mix of ingredients:  wet towels hanging ever wetter on the washing line as the rain sleets down; yesterday's glorious sunshine golden autumnal trees & intriguing craft stalls; lovely silence group; a painting slowly growing layer on layer: deep reds & purples and brilliant orange-red dawn, looking forward to Easter; but in early morning bumper to bumper traffic crawling slowly downhill, dawn sunshine lights up a vista of buildings through the mist & thinking of the Philippines disaster, I suddenly imagined all these buildings flattened & a surge of flood water 5 m above high tide pouring up river, submerging the cars below.. how would we ever cope?  Then I read about the way climate warming has been miscalculated, leaving out temperature rises in the Arctic, leaving decision makers thinking it can be ignored as it seems to be going away .http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exposed-the-myth-of-the-global-warming-pause-8945607.html

Calm after the Storm

It feels quite odd after all that raging wind to see blue skies and feel the warmth of the sun.

Looking through the news pictures of fallen trees & huge waves & hearing of lives suddenly lost, it seems we have been incredibly fortunate not to live just a few miles further north. Even just down the road a small tree snapped in half and several trees were still leaning brokenly onto one another. Everyone has their own story, but I was surprised how critical some comments were of those working away to get trees safely down & restore power lines tangled up in their branches. I do feel for those who had to close down their shops & cafes, and elderly people all waiting for power to be restored, but how can something like this just have a quick fix ?
All these storms around the world in recent years seem to be a real wake up call to tackle climate change. 
I read an interview with Bill McKibben, climate change campaigner : "My worst fear is that human beings wont put up a real fight against climate change. But I hope that we'll fight..." read more at www.churchtimes.co.uk   click on Features / Interviews/...