Issue 150 | December 2023

Hello dear readers, December has arrived, and so too the time of bright frosty days, advent calendars, and mugs of hot chocolate! Hopefully we have a warming issue of the Voice for Arran for you too. At least, despite the icy weather and wider global challenges, I have been enlivened by the pieces that have come in for this issue. As if living for a little while in each, and touching a sense of anticipation for an upcoming winter solstice gathering, appreciation for the beauty of the Little Egret currently visiting our shores, sharing the joy that a climate choir’s uplifting song brings.

Of course the festive season is not only a time of good cheer, and the nature of our incongruent human condition is also apparent in the following pages. This is perhaps no more evident than in Peter Finlay’s reflection on the current situation in Israel-Gaza. In ‘Peace on Earth?’ the author tries to process the horrors we are capable of, alongside the knowledge of our innate capacity for love. Is it possible to go forward at this time with a hope for peace for all involved, in the face of such devastation?

The sense of dissonance comes again in the news at the start of the COP28 Climate Conference in Dubai this week. Sally Campbell notes the alarm from scientists and journalists: “Final warning,” “Now or never,” “Crazy off-the-charts records.” At the same time we are told of yet another proposal to develop fossil fuels in this country. Following the recent approval by Westminster politicians to open up Rosebank oil field in the North Sea, the latest plan to be lodged with the Scottish Government is for the expansion of Peterhead Gas station in Aberdeenshire. Already Scotland’s single biggest climate polluter, according to Friends of the Earth, if the proposed extra plant is built and both plants operate simultaneously, emissions will significantly increase. FoE further report that the energy company, “SSE have admitted in planning documents that this could cause major impacts on Scotland’s carbon budget.”

With COP28 taking place in UAE, one of the world’s biggest oil producing nations, things perhaps don’t look too hopeful for a change in the Climate’s fortunes. But as Sally Campbell says, “We all need to recognise all sectors must tackle this together, in the same room, negotiate, collaborate, and compromise for the good of our home, Planet Earth.” And already on the first day yesterday, there was an unexpected early agreement about the climate disaster fund, with countries committing $420 for nations suffering the unequal impacts of climate change.

Communities, activists, people everywhere have become so used to decision-makers not taking on board their wish for stronger climate action. But I wonder (and hope quietly), could these next couple of weeks mark the beginning of a change? The first window in my calendar today was a picture of a golden crescent moon. An image of rebirth and renewal, a symbol to keep hope and the possibility of transformation alive in turbulent and troubling times.

From all of us at the Voice, we wish all our readers a peaceful and restorative time this Christmas. Elsa