Shiver or swelter? Why Edinburgh beats Sydney

When we first announced we were moving to Edinburgh back in 2008, by far the most common reaction was some variant of "you'll be cold!". As someone who detests Sydney summers, I found this a slightly odd thing to say. I much prefer 5ºC than 35ºC. Having now lived here for almost four years, through four winters, I can confidently say that Edinburgh's climate is superior to Sydney's. While both have (more or less) nine months of reasonably pleasant weather, Edinburgh has three months of cold and dark (and actually, the dark is worse than the cold - perhaps a topic for another post) while Sydney has three months of hot and humid. It is much, much easier (and generally more pleasant) to keep oneself warm than to cool down. Mulled wine, extra layers or some physical activity are more attractive than heat lethargy, shade-hopping and the impossible task of finding an appropriate clothing compromise between sweat and sunburn.

And now, a Washington Post article has found a medical expert who agrees: freezing to death is considerably less painful than heat sickness.

“You start having severe muscle cramps,” explained Michael Kerr, an emergency doctor at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney. “Then, severe abdominal cramps. Nausea and vomiting start. Your muscles break down. Mental confusion. Maybe renal failure. Heat coma. Then, death.”

Freezing to death, this is preferable.

“Dying in the cold is very painless,” said Kerr, an experienced outdoorsman who likes camping in Montana and northern Idaho. “When you are out in the cold, you start getting confused, disoriented. You literally go to sleep.”

I rest my case.

Worship of a pedestrian god: seven reasons to ditch the car

Perhaps the most memorable phrase in the quirky maritime novel The Life of Pi is when the eponymous narrator observes that Christians worship "a pedestrian god". Jesus, God amongst us, lived his entire life within the ambit of distances capable of perambulation, travelling at speeds commensurate with his gait, and never learned how to reverse park. Of course, with cars not being invented for another nineteen hundred years, it would be odd to draw a preference for pedestrianism from Jesus' example, yet he nonetheless demonstrates that a blessed and god-honouring human life can be lived on two feet (and perhaps the occasional donkey or boat). Humans are made from the dust (even the word human is etymologically related to humus, i.e. soil, a pun that also works in Hebrew), and part of humility (another related word) is to stay in touch with the ground. Perhaps if our habitual mode of transport makes us forget that we are bipedal, we may be tempted to arrogant flights of fancy concerning our fitting location.

We have become accustomed to the convenience and ease of traversing great distances with relatively little effort or cost in a tonne of steel moving with as much momentum as a speeding bullet (and capable of similar damage upon impact with a body of flesh). This hyper-mobility affects our perceptions of distance, our assumptions about location and our expectations of what is and ought to be possible. We generally deem it of little import that we live many days walk from our place of employment and feel no strangeness at the great distances travelled by the food on our plate prior to its final brief journey down our oesophagus.

Cars make us feel powerful; it is no accident that certain versions of masculinity in our culture have idolised these machines. Car ownership becomes status symbol, rite of passage and - in a contemporary landscape designed for drivers - right of passage, since there often is no other practical way to get between locations. This power to pick a destination and arrive at great speed is a powerful symbol of autonomy, of individual freedom. And so the odd thing about those who are so proud to declare that they stand on their own two feet is that these days they so rarely do so. Individualism has for the last few decades found perhaps its most powerful symbol in the private automobile (hidden from view are the myriad social relations embodied in our complex system of mechanised transport).

Like most of those around me, I got my license when I was sixteen, which means I've been a driver for longer than not. Yet I have never owned a car. Over the years, I've had various cars on loan for a couple of days or a couple of months (in one case, a couple of years). But since getting married, we have chosen to live in walkable urban areas with decent public transport. We currently live 193 steps from my workplace and within a couple of hundred metres of dozens of bus routes.

My adult life has almost exclusively been lived in an urban context. Outside of well-designed (which often means pre-20thC) urban spaces, the tyranny of the automobile is woven into the fabric of most suburban and rural life.

I am not saying that all cars are evil or that there is no place for advanced technology in travel. Nor is the combustion of fossil fuels in itself wrong. But with the level of car use in our society, we are like twenty-drink drunks about to pass out in the gutter trying to defend the goodness of alcohol. Wholesale rejection of useful technologies is not currently our temptation. And there is plenty of room for smarter and more responsible use of the technology we already have.

Since I promised in the title, let me conclude this slightly aimless reflective ramble with seven reasons to ditch your car (or at least consider using it less):

1. Doing so in many cases will save money. For instance, see this account of living without a car in Edinburgh, which has a great deal of resonance for us; it is one of the many reasons we love this city. Cars bring expenses at every point: purchase, petrol, insurance, registration, parking. Of course there are costs associated with other kinds of transport, but have you tried doing the sums? Both our apartments in Sydney had a secure parking space that we were able to rent out, which came in handy. If you are someone who begrudges the taxwoman her pound of flesh, then carlessness will also mean you can avoid a range of taxes, fees and tolls.

2. Leaving footprints cuts your carbon footprint. For many people, a car represents a significant slice of your carbon pie. Not just the petrol exploding in the engine and sending out its fumes, but the embodied emissions released during construction. The various metals and plastics and other materials that comprise a car take a lot of energy. For more efficient cars, this can be up to half the overall carbon emissions associated with the vehicle (and so, it is often better from a carbon perspective to run an old bomb into the ground rather than continually upgrading to slightly more efficient models).

3. Becoming less reliant on a car is good preparation for peak oil. Not driving saves a little petrol, delaying (very slightly) the peak and, more importantly, doing so is a good way of weaning yourself off relying on cheap petrol, which won't be around forever. Such behaviour also sends a message to politicians and policy makers that walkable public spaces and good public transport are desirable and desired. Poor town planning has a lot to answer for as we have invested trillions and trillions in infrastructure based on cheap petrol. But the good news is that it can also make a very significant contribution to a better world. Well-designed walkable urban spaces are safer, cleaner, more enjoyable and can foster stronger communities.

4. Walking is considerably healthier than sitting on your backside pumping the accelerator, even when you factor in the extra calories you burn during road rage. I discussed this at greater length back here in relation to this fascinating little book.

5. More drivers means more cars means less appealing footpaths and a greater perception of danger to pedestrians. Driving can thus become a self-perpetuating cycle where walking (or riding a bicycle) becomes less desirable the fewer pedestrians (or cyclists) there are. Choosing to break this cycle will make it that little bit easier for others.

6. Walking is wearing on the sole, but good for the soul. It slows us down a little, and makes us less ambitious about how much we try to get done. There is more opportunity to smell the roses, or sit on doorsteps, which is what our daughter currently loves doing while we're out walking. It is not that she is tired; she just likes to stop and take in the view. While walking, there is more chance of interacting with those who share your space, more opportunities to notice your environment (which can be dangerous if done too enthusiastically while driving).

7. If walking was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

Economics and ethics: does everything have a price?

Fox News is not usually considered to be a great source of ethical insight. So when a friend sent me an article titled almost everything we're taught is wrong, I was dubious. The piece argues that child labour, price gouging, ticket scalping, selling kidneys and blackmail are all deemed morally reprehensibly and illegal in many countries, but when we consider them from an economic point of view, we see that each ought to be considered socially beneficial.

Child labour in poorer nations contributes to the economy and keeps children from prostitution. Price gouging during an emergency reduces hoarding and gives an incentive to distant vendors to supply what is missing, even if this means travelling long distances. Ticket scalping provides a service that adds value, namely, allowing those prepared to pay extra to avoid the time they would have spent waiting in a queue. Making the sale of kidneys legal would save lives by increasing the supply. And if blackmail were legal, then there would be more reason for people to behave; in asking for money to not exercise free speech, the blackmailer is engaging in a form of "private law enforcement" by putting a price on not gossiping.

Each of these arguments needs to be addressed on its merits. Child labour: I agree that simply banning it is insufficient, but any ethical analysis worth its salt is not going to be content with mere legislation. The same argument could well be used against the abolition of slavery: what are the slaves going to do once they are freed? It is worth looking more broadly at what forces have created an economic situation in which the alternative to child labour is child prostitution.

Price gouging doesn't mean prices rising when there is shortage, but dramatic and extortionate price rises during a crisis. Should prices rise in an emergency? Yes, but not too much for essentials, since access to the means to stay alive ought not be contingent upon wealth. Far better for essentials to be rationed.

The argument for ticket scalpers I actually have some degree of sympathy for, though where ticket sales are online, then there is no waiting in line.

The sale of bodily tissues is problematic for multiple reasons. First, it commodifies one of the sites that ought to be most resistant to the logic of the market, one's own body. Second, if people are able to sell irreplaceable bodily organs, then why not their freedom? Thus there is a economic justification for slavery here. Third, if there is a legal price for kidneys, then the price is going to be high and this is almost inevitably going to mean that a black market will develop, incentivising criminal and coercive surgery. The antipathy to the sale of human tissue actually arises partly from Edinburgh history, where in the eighteenth century there was a black market in fresh cadavers for the famous medical school, and it lead to a very famous case of serial murder, which, incidentally, occurred just a few metres from where I sleep.

Blackmail has the same problem; making it legal would incentivise further and worse criminal behaviour. We only need to look at what happened to News of the World (and probably other UK tabloids) when gossip became commodified to see the dangers of encouraging breaches of privacy for profit.

The fundamental failure of the article appears in its opening lines. Economics is not a substitute for ethics. Any society that treats them as commensurate is inviting the thoroughgoing colonisation of all human relationships by market forces and the logic of commercial transactions. Christians of all people have the most reason to be suspicious of this, since we are taught that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6.10) and that our lives are ransomed not with silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1.18). Not everything can be translated into a single numerical language.

Sanctification: an Edinburgh dogmatics conference

At the end of this month Rutherford House are organising a theology conference here at New College on the topic of sanctification (i.e. the why, what and how of holiness). Speakers include Oliver O'Donovan, Bruce McCormack, Henri Blocher, Kelly Kapic, Michael Horton, Ivor Davidson, Julie Canlis, Grant MacAskill and Rick Lints. Given the program, in which all but one of the main papers are happening prior to lunch (over three days), I may find it difficult to attend,* though I commend this event to the attention of any theologians or ethicists within the UK.
*This is not a comment on my sleeping habits (not anymore!), but is because I look after our daughter most mornings while Jessica works.

A parable

Every day while walking up the 193 steps to my desk I pass the smallest nature reserve in the country, a tiny locked garden that thrives with all manner of wee, sleekit beasties.

Today as I walked past, a man, slightly inebriated, climbed over the fence, stumbled through a couple of low bushes, exclaimed loudly to his two friends who had remained behind "It's beautiful! No, I mean seriously, it's really beautiful!" and then proceeded to unzip his pants and relieve himself.

Whether the point of this parable is as an illustration of so many of our interactions with the created order, or is related to the fact that I kept on walking, thinking this was someone else's problem, I am not entirely sure.

Shadows of the Divine: an exhibition

An exhibition at New College
To mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, this upcoming exhibition features works from the internationally renowned Methodist Church Art Collection - including pieces by Sutherland, Frink, Roualt, Eric Gill and Craigie Aitchison - alongside recent works by leading Scottish and Scottish-based artists and a rare first edition Scottish 1611 King James Bible. The Methodist Church Art Collection is the most significant denominational collection of art outside of the Vatican and of course the King James Version the most influential English translation of the holy scriptures in history.

The free exhibition will be hosted at New College in Edinburgh from 14th May to 11th June, Monday to Saturday 10am-5pm.
Crucified Tree Form by Theyre Lee-Elliott, 1959.

What a load of garbage

For Edinburgh residents
If you are ever responsible for creating garbage or live near someone who is, then you're interested in how waste is managed. Edinburgh Council would like five minutes of your time for a survey to help plan for future infrastructure and services. I hope this exercise isn't a waste of time.

Where did the global warming go?

Despite the amazing snow we've been getting in Edinburgh, globally this year is currently tied in first place and is on track to be at least in the top three hottest years on record. More national highest temperatures have been set this year than any previous year. Indeed, ironically the impressive snow (by local standards) received in the UK this year and last year is linked to unusual wind patterns in the Arctic creating a phenomenon dubbed "WACCy weather" - Warm Arctic Cold Continents. Warmer temperatures in the Arctic and over Greenland block the prevailing westerly winds and instead lead to frigid air descending on the UK from the north and north-east.

The Arctic climate is warming faster than anywhere on earth so we might well see more of this pattern in future. This is why it is important to think in terms of climate change and not simply global warming (which is one, often misunderstood, feature of climate change).

Why does this matter? Because within my daughter's lifetime (if she manages to stay healthy), our current climate trajectory could well lead to a billion people losing their homes and three billion losing access to clean water. On our current path, we are headed well beyond a rise of 2ºC and to more than 4ºC by the end of this century, which is likely to mean droughts beyond anything in human memory covering large parts of the globe while other parts flood, millions of refugees, dire crop reductions and the social and political instability these would likely bring.

"In such a 4°C world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world, while the limits for adaptation for natural systems would largely be exceeded throughout the world."

- Rachel Warren, “The role of interactions in a world implementing adaptation and mitigation solutions to climate change”, Phil Trans R Soc A 13 January 2011 vol. 369 no. 1934 217-241.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Scotland as you've never seen it before

You may remember this guy from his little trip around Edinburgh (a video featuring yours truly). I've been to many of the places in this latest video and it has made me look at some of them in a whole new light. Jaw-dropping (or breaking) stuff.

Bruce McCormack coming to New College

The Croall lectures 2011 will be given by Professor Bruce McCormack and will take place in January 2011 entitled "Abandoned by God: The Death of Christ in Systematic, Historical, and Exegetical Perspective" in the Martin Hall at New College at 4pm.

17th January – Penal Substitution: Its Problems and Its Promise
18th January – The Cry of Dereliction: The Strange Fate of Jesus in the New Testament
20th January – The Incarnation as Saving Event: Theories Which Order the Work of Christ to a Metaphysical Conception of His Person
24th January – Let Justice and Peace Reign: Theories Which Fail to Integrate the Person and Work of Christ
25th January – After Metaphysics: Theories Which Order the Person of Christ to His Work
27th January – The Lord of Glory was Crucified: Reformed Kenoticism and Death in God.

Information from the New College website, brought to my attention by Jason.

192 steps & 63 pubs

We recently moved house, and our new place is considerably closer to college, meaning I can go home for lunch. There are only 192 steps from my desk to my front door. Our new home has some other benefits, such as being in a listed building as part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, being within spitting distance of Scotland's most visited paid tourist attraction,* being next door to a pub that has been in recorded existence since 1516** and being within 500 metres of (at last count) 63 pubs, bars or taverns.***
*Under favourable wind conditions.
**It may be an even older establishment; that is the first record of its name and location.
***No, I haven't been to them all (yet?). The count is based on memory from years walking around the area, supplemented by a couple of minutes looking at Google Maps.

Barneys new design

I started this blog just days after our long term church home at St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Broadway in Sydney (a.k.a. Barneys) was burned down early one morning by an accidental fire. The building had been about 150 years old and was one of the better known churches near the centre of Sydney. Some of my first posts reflected on the destruction of the building, and I have continued to follow the unfolding story, even though we left Barneys to serve at All Souls Anglican Church in Leichhardt and have since moved on to St Paul's and St George's Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh.

With that brief church bio out of the way, I can get to what I wanted to say, which is that the design for the new Barneys building is complete and approved, and funds are already being raised. You can find out more under raise the roof on the Barneys website. But to get a very quick idea, take a look at this flythrough video:

More details about the design can be found here.
Image by MER.

Flashmobs for climate action

Next Monday at 1pm, I'm joining a climate change wake-up call flashmob event in Edinburgh. It’s organised by Avaaz and is one of almost two thousand events taking place on September 21st all across the world to demand a strong global climate treaty.

Here is the Avaaz description of the idea:

Flashmobs are fun, peaceful demonstrations in which participants assemble suddenly in a public place, blending in with the crowd, perform an unusual action simultaneously for a few minutes, and then quickly disperse.

On the morning of September 21, everyone participating will set our alarms and gather together a few minutes before the assigned time, at locations chosen by the hosts in our local area. When our alarms go off, we'll hold up our mobile phones and find each other, and then, as a group, call our leaders to urge them to go to Copenhagen and sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty this year. We'll make as much noise as we can, while recording videos and photos for the UN presentation -- then head back to work, school, or home to upload the results!

Want to join me? Here's the link. And here are the details:

When: 21st September, 2009 at 1:00pm
Where: St Andrews Square, Gardens -- Edinburgh, Edinburgh, SCT

Not in Edniburgh? Find one near you.

By themselves, protests like this might not change much. And personally, I'm fairly downbeat about the likelihood of Copenhagen resulting in an agreement over ambitious global targets. I'm also not persuaded that carbon trading is some kind of magic bullet or even the best way forward. Nonetheless, the size and success of symbolic actions like this help to keep ecological issues on the political agenda, which is one small good thing.

Friday video: Edinburgh on a bike

Don't worry, this blog isn't about to degenerate into a compendium of YouTube greatest hits, but I thought I'd post this one because I am in it at 1:35.

Yes, I am one of those tiny blurs in the background. I remember seeing the guy perform that move, noticing the camera and thinking, "I bet I'll see that on YouTube soon". Sure enough...

All filmed in Edinburgh: at least enjoy the scenery if you are bored and feel you can do better yourself.

Scotland 2050

The David Hume Institute, an Edinburgh think-tank, is tomorrow publishing a report called "Reducing Carbon Emissions - the View from 2050". It is already available for download from here. In it, sixteen experts in different fields were asked to offer a retrospective on the effects on climate change on 21st century Scotland from an imagined standpoint in the year 2050. A summary of their crystal-ball gazing can be found here. The report offers a range of scenarios reflecting the areas of concern of the writers: from refugee movements, energy production and political instability to the rise of a Vegan Party and a renewal of eco-spirituality. One of the authors, Michael Northcott, is Professor of Ethics here at the School of Divinity in Edinburgh University.

Such predictions are usually wrong, often humorously so. The range of factors affecting the possible outcomes are myriad and complex in their interactions. But the value of these predictions does not lie in their accuracy. Instead, such pictures act as invitations to our imaginations and affections to come and see the world in a particular way, to try loving certain aspects of it and recognising present and potential threats to those good things. We can only resolve upon particular actions here and now, not in fifty years time or fifty years ago. But imaginative anticipation and memory are crucial elements in our deliberations and in the shaping of the loves and hopes that bind us together.

Review and restart

It has been a few weeks since the last post. And before that, posts were thin on the ground for some time. Where have I been? What have I been doing?

• Packing and preparing to leave our beloved home in Sydney;
• Travelling in India, visiting old friends and meeting some locals;
• Moving into Edinburgh, staying first with a friend of a friend and then moving into longer term accommodation;
• Conferencing in Rome, concerning which I might post a few thoughts in the coming days;
• Helping Jess start a new blog;
• Conferencing again, this time in Dunblane on a more intimate scale with my supervisor, two other academics (including his wife) and a few PhD students from Edinburgh and Oxford;
• Enrolling and being oriented at New College for my PhD studies in the School of Divinity at Edinburgh University;
• Adjusting to a new city, its geography, topography, demography and public transport; and
• Waiting for a reliable broadband connection to be set up.

Thus, I haven't had much space or opportunity to blog, and the little time I have been able to grab on the net has largely consisted of writing emails and Skyping. Hopefully, I will now have a little more space and things can get rolling once more. Enough of the excuses; time to re-start.

Welcome to Edinburgh

Having spent the last few weeks in India, it is something of a relief (and a disappointment) to be back in a country in which seat belts, traffic lanes and stop signs are not optional and in which long pants and a collar in stifling heat and humidity are. Not that Scotland has any stifling heat or humidity, and that is the biggest relief of all. Nevertheless, we had a great time in India (thanks to the Toulmins, our wonderful and very educational hosts) and now have a slightly larger appreciation of the enormous diversity and vibrant colour of the world's largest democracy.

We arrived in Edinburgh late on Sunday night, and Jess celebrated her natal anniversary the next day and started her new job two days later. Our newly adopted home town is very beautiful, very walkable and so far, very grey.

However, I don't intend for this blog to be filled with personal updates. For that, you will have to wait for Jessica's new blog, due to be launched in the next few days (d.v.), or become friends with me on Facebook. Regular posting will resume shortly, and as always, there is more to come.

Leaving the country

After months of planning, praying and packing, we're off to sunny, er, weatherful Scotland! We're spending about ten days in India visiting friends on the way and then will be living in Edinburgh for the next three-ish years. Jessica will be working as an operations manager for a Scottish Episcopal (Anglican) church. I will be beginning a PhD at Edinburgh University in the School of Divinity (I am still planning to post my initial proposal at some stage, if only for humour value in three years' time). Our emails will remain the same.

I intend to pick up the blogging a little more regularly once we arrive, including finishing the current series on running from the past. My wife Jessica has also promised to start a (photo) blog once we get there and has even decided to join Facebook - wonders will never cease!

More to come on the far side of India...

Going to Edinburgh!

Personal update
I have been offered a place and a partial scholarship to research a theology PhD at Edinburgh University starting in September and supervised by Oliver O'Donovan. We haven't yet set a departure date as this depends upon Jessica's work situation. My initial project proposal is to consider the role of the church in a society in crisis (more to come on this in due course).

Jessica and I are delighted at this wonderful opportunity, a little apprehensive at the size of the task and more than a little sad to be leaving church, family and friends for three years. This has been a path we have been hoping to pursue for the last couple of years, though our plans were postponed when I discovered I was quite ill. I am very thankful for more life and now to be given such a gift. I am sure the next few years will be stretching intellectually, relationally, financially and linguistically. If you pray, we'd appreciate your prayers.