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The reliable supply of cheap energy is something that is taken for granted in the developed world. This now seems to be under threat.

‘Japanese authorities have raised the severity rating of their nuclear crisis to the highest level, seven. Level seven previously only applied to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, where ten times as much radiation was emitted’ (BBC News, April 12 2011). ‘A year on, fear and division still poison the oil spill coast’ (The Times, April 18 2011). ‘Germany withdraws from nuclear power’ (The Telegraph, May 31 2011). These are bad news stories arising, firstly, from the outcome in Japan following the tragic earthquake and tsunami and, secondly, from 12 months ago with the explosion of the Deep Water Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico causing America’s largest environmental catastrophe.

Michael Beard, the protagonist of Solar, is a memorable creation: a philandering, greedy academic resting on his Nobel Prize reputation.

Elizabeth Braund, who for many years has run Shallowford Farm to help inner London city children, shares her experience.

The riots in a number of cities last summer shocked us all. There were banner headlines about the ‘end of an era’, a constant barrage of grim forebodings from the media, endless political argument and social confrontation. But all this has left us not so much keyed-up to new resolve, as indifferent and only wanting to be left alone to get on with our own lives.

In Bible times people lived in an agrarian society. The rituals and feasts, and the metaphors used by preachers, prophets and the Lord Jesus himself speak of the farming calendar. There was a real sense that riches or poverty, and life itself, depended upon God’s blessing in the fruitfulness of labour on the land.

This connection with agriculture was evident in the UK until modern times. Harvest Thanksgiving was an integral part of the church calendar, acknowledging the importance of food production. There was a general appreciation of farming practice. Now, however, that has been lost. Research shows that many children grow up thinking that milk comes in plastic containers from a factory, that white bread is made from milk and brown bread from wheat. Consumers expect strawberries and tomatoes to be available on Christmas Day and at the same prices as when they are in seasonal production.

On a precarious slope, Etienne digs into the dusty soil with a small hoe, planting beans in hope of the rains. In recent years these rains have become unpredictable. Miles away, his wife is returning from the forest, a bundle of firewood on her head. She was up before dawn carrying water from the spring, her only source of water, nearly an hour’s walk away. The young baby on her back is sick with intestinal parasites from drinking this water she has worked so hard to provide.

The global context may be lost on this family, but they live out its consequences on a daily basis. In the United States, frequent headlines warn of what is happening to the earth and its ecosystems, but because the impact on Western life is minimal, the predictions are largely ignored.

David Potter MBE, founder of the charity Prospects, reflects on the Panorama programme exposing the shocking truth.

Way back in June 1981, Associated Television broadcast a devastating documentary called Silent Minority.

Mahatma Gandhi was right when he said, ‘There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed’. Has the West become gluttonous in its appetite for meat, factory farming being a consequence of this greed? Is it not unnatural and inhumane to cram livestock together to feed a population who eat far too much meat anyway?

Most of us abhor cruelty to animals, so why are we ostrich-like when it comes to factory farming where animals are denied their natural habitat; for example chicken, one of Britain’s favourite meats, live a short life intensively farmed in windowless sheds under bright light to encourage maximum activity, feeding and drinking for nearly 24 hours, not allowing rest: there is much evidence that sick birds are trampled to death in the crowded squalor and infections spread like wildfire, resulting in gross over-use of antibiotics. Ducks are farmed in the same way today and what is alarming about this practice is that they never see the light of day nor do they have access to water.

Leading a group of churches carries enormous responsibilities in the current spiritual climate. John Stevens, recently appointed Director of FIEC, spoke to EN about his work.

EN: Please explain your new role at FIEC.

JS: On September 1 2010, I started in my new post as Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC). According to my job description, I am responsible ‘for providing visionary leadership to and the smooth running of the Fellowship’ so that it can accomplish the goals and objectives determined by the new Trust Board after consultation with the churches.

Missionaries on home assignment have many responsibilities. They talk to their mission, report to churches, reconnect with their home church, contact supporters, deal with health issues, see family and maybe get some holiday. This article is not addressed to them!

Why should Christians be green? Don’t we pay taxes so that the government can deal with issues like global warming? And besides, hasn’t the church got better things to do?

These are the kinds of questions which go through the minds of many ordinary churchgoers as the TV news carries yet another story of what the scientists are saying about changing weather patterns.

It has been suggested that, in a situation of great uncertainty over a vital issue, we should adopt Blaise Pascal’s strategy. Pascal famously argued that, in a situation in which it could not be proved either that God exists or that he does not exist, with the evidence for and against the question broadly speaking balanced, the rational thing to do is to gamble on his existence. If we win we shall escape judgment, and if we lose there won’t be a judgment to escape. Whereas if we gamble on his non-existence, we shall suffer punishment if we are wrong and be obliterated if we are correct, and we have a 50-50 chance of being wrong.

So, perhaps, in Pascalian fashion, in a situation of radical uncertainty, coupled with the possibly dangerous consequences of inaction, we should gamble on the global warming ‘scientific consensus’ being correct.

The Lausanne Covenant, substantially crafted by John Stott, includes the phrase: ‘Evangelisation requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world’.

One might argue that the three wholes embodied in this ringing phrase are hardly new, and go back to the Apostle Paul, if not to the patriarch Abraham himself. Let us look at what each means.

There has been much talk in the media recently about the ‘green shoots of recovery’ (real or imagined), but also of the role education might play in driving the country out of recession.

It’s fashionable to suggest that there needs to be an increased emphasis on vocational routes to individual career choices — on education serving the economy. I would argue, however, that this reflects a philosophy which involves ‘putting the cart before the horse’ (heretical as that may sound in the current climate), and that a distinctively Christian vision of what education is, and what it is for, offers a far better hope of a well-educated and effective workforce than its secular equivalent.

The above heading should give no satisfaction to any evangelical Christian. Some of the finest literature in the evangelical heritage comes from gospel ministers of the Church of England, and many evangelicals continue to belong to that denomination today.

The crisis has arisen from more than one direction; one major cause has been that no discipline has been exercised within the Anglican communion (led by the Archbishop of Canterbury) on the Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church USA for their allowance of practising homosexual clergy. This has prompted the withdrawal of some evangelicals and their realignment with the Province of South Cone (which covers six South American countries), whose Primate, Archbishop Gregory Venables, remains in communion with Canterbury. By this means, the disaffected — of whom Dr. Jim Packer is the best known — support their claim to remain Anglican.

Chicken is on the menu. And not just chicken, but baby animals as well: piglets, lamb, kid goats and veal.

The celebrity chefs, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, have both presented recent Channel 4 programmes on the cruelties of the intensive chicken industry.