Christian Ecology Link

Donate now
Help us in our work
Join CEL

About CEL Sitemap E-mail

About Us

Events

Resources

Campaigns

News, Archive+Links

CEL home > News, archives and links >Greenbelt 2008

September 2009

See also:Greenbelt 2004 Greenbelt 2007 Greenbelt 2009

Greenbelt 2008

Judith Allinson (CEL Web Editor) writes: "The environment featured at Greenbelt this year in many ways.

This was my first ever visit to Greenbelt. It is held at Cheltenham Racecourse .... Fri 22 - Mon 25 August 2008

	Come with me (in yellow) on a tour. Wear shoes suitable for mud- By Sunday 20,000 people have churned this damp grass.	"Generous" Workshop. Full tent! A scheme set up by Greenbelt. Pledge to do something generous- to help others +/or the environment.
	Sunday afternoon service	Camping. Looking towards Cleve Hill (I didn't actually camp. CEL friends two miles away offer me a bed and a bicycle!)

	CEL Stall. A rota of over 15 CEL volunteers look after the people who visited the stall.	We invite people to get their carbon footprints measured.
	Near by is Eco-Congregation Stall	And Operation Noah. Here are Steve Hucklesby (of the Methodist Church,) and Heather.
	A Rocha was in the nearby Church Missionary Society Tent. A play about Ceation/Adam and Eve is taking place	The WildLife Trusts Stall were signing up people for their local Wildlife Trust
		ASWA Anglican Society for the Welfare of animals Animal Welfare Sunday is 4 Oct
NATURE BREAK
	Sunday morning - I spend two hours walking up Cleve Hill. It is limestone grassland with wild flowers such as Harebell.	Beyond the Harebells and Upright Brome grass is the Greenbelt Festival Ground
	I delight to find the Stemless Thistle growing at ground level. It does not grow in the north of Britain. - See map)	And the Carline Thistle - like an everlasting flower.
	Nodding or Musk thistle. Not rare, but beautiful, and a much less common plant than the weed, the spear thistle.	A butterfly. Is it a Wall brown?
	Globules of Nostoc- a blue-green alga.	Nostoc. This grows well in lime-rich areas..
SOME TALKS
	Andy Mellen: Inconvenient Truth 2- Peak Oil. The rate of oil extraction has peaked - governments must prepare for high oil prices.	Ann Pettifor reports that the government is lending our money billions of pounds - to bail out rich banks. ..Hmm and this is before the "Crunch"
There were loads of other talks.	.	Moslems and Christians working together- Discussion led by Wahida Shaffi (Moslem Peace Activist)
	An orchestra practises	A display of striking pictures. And reminders of climate change
GREEN FEATURES:
	Food!	No plastic wasted on plates and forks here. wood knives and forks.
	A passing Friar helps me fix bike lamps onto the bike lent to me by mine hosts.	Volunteers collecting recyclable rubbish!
	CEL members meet and share a meal at Nuts - Veggie food has much less bad impact on the environment.	And finally home.


And just a few more pictures of G-Source Tent


	A customer takes an "ecocell" resources CD
	Our neighbours in the G-Source Tent: Workshop -organises Christian learning Weekends	And the Evangelical Alliance who built a "plastic block" tower - See link