This project will investigate the contrast between short term temporalities and the long run temporality of 'ancestral time' in order to understand and repair the failure of modern industrial societies to mitigate human climate impacts.

When considering the future allocation of resources it is common practice for government and business to discount returns on investments both with respect to time and value. This produces a short-term temporal outlook in public life that trades future costs against present-day consumption. It also promotes a framework in which responsibility for climate and ecological costs is diffused or denied. By contrast secular environmentalism, such as the 'Transition Towns' movement, advocates for care in the light of dramatic future climate change. However 'climate apocalyptic' has catastrophist overtones and assumes a radical break between the present and the near future. Socio-psychological studies reveal that catastrophism can be demotivating to positive change. Climate apocalyptic may therefore be no more effective than economistic temporalities in sustaining a sense of legacy between present and future generations.

Religious organisations, like cultural institutions concerned with heritage, think differently about time, community and responsibility. This is because their mission is to engage the weight of the past in the present. We call this awareness of past time in the present 'ancestral time' and this refers to a spiritual disposition in which debts to past and future generations of humans are honoured. Christian understanding of time is shaped by a conception of intergenerational community, known as the 'communion of saints'. In this idea present generations are conscious of the presence of the past and of their consequent debts both to the dead and of their legacy and responsibilities to future generations. Hence the earliest traces of the human built environment in Scotland are ancient memorials to the dead, such as the neolithic cairns on Orkney. The project team will explore the viability of ancestral time through research into the motives, practices and values of climate activists who are also members of religious communities.

In this project we will seek to discover whether ancestral time can offer an alternative to both economistic and climate apocalyptic temporalities and sustain a greater sense of connection and responsibility between present and future generations. The project research will also seek to articulate a deeper conceptual frame for faith-based climate activism, which, as our practitioner partner notes, often manifests a passionate but 'ill-defined feeling of "care for creation" and can lack a sense of structure, legacy and impetus'. The project brings together the ecumenical charity, Eco-Congregation Scotland, consisting of over 280 churches across Scotland, with an interdisciplinary team from the University of Edinburgh. Drawing on insights from theology, environmental philosophy, economic history, geography, and political theory the project will enable eco-congregations to clarify and re-imagine their vision of the future.

The moral tragedy of climate change is that its effects will be felt decades after the behaviours that cause it: this presents a cultural imperative to promote behaviours and practices that are responsive to a long term 'ancestral' chain of cause and effect. The Scottish government has recognised the potential offered by spiritual temporality by providing financial support to Eco-Congregation Scotland to embed sustainable and low carbon behaviours in local communities and households. The clearer articulation of a unique 'ancestral' temporal horizon may further invigorate religious climate activism, and provide important new resources for secular climate activism and policy makers as they seek to influence businesses, householders and local communities to act in ways that respect the ecological legacy of present generations in the future.

Potential Impact:
1) Who might benefit from this research?

This research brings interdisciplinary scholarship into engagement with third-sector activism to enact and sustain a conversation about how to formulate a robust response to climate change. Given the variety of stakeholders involved, it has the potential to benefit several different groups in addition to those academic specialists described above (under "Academic Beneficiaries").

- First, this research offers a direct benefit to those working to effect climate change action in faith groups and civil society groups in the UK including church clergy and laity, church charities and the general public.
- A second group of stakeholders who may derive additional benefit from this research are those in government and the NGO sector working to frame public policy, deploy behaviour change with regards to carbon generation by persons in Scotland and provide paradigms for living with environmental change.

2) How might they benefit from this research?

The academic research undertaken in this project will resource public and third-sector climate change activism in several respects. First, the research will look beyond the traditional temporal framing which focuses on the immediate past (driven by the limited empirical range of climate science) to a more robust 'ancestral' narrative which links contemporary action to past and future. In this way project research will provide avenues for a new and more formalised rapprochement between the environmental humanities and climate change action, particularly within Scottish churches.

A key objective for this project is to help Eco-Congregation Scotland empirically assess their past public impact and develop a new vision statement to guide future public engagement as they look ahead to furthering project impact on climate change action in Scotland. In this way, the project promises to shape and enhance the effectiveness of this public service and offers a possible contribution toward environmental sustainability, protection and impact reduction in Scotland. Following these two objectives, project investigators will engage concretely with eco-congregations in two ways. First, project investigators will help to develop and deploy an empirical study of eco-congregations impact on behavior change in Scotland. Second, Adrian Shaw (from Eco-Congregation Scotland) will serve as an active participant in research seminars. At a project seminar in year two Mr. Shaw will present a new mission statement for Eco-Congregation Scotland. This presentation will provide a feedback loop to other co-investigators and offer an opportunity for early deployment of critical apparatus developed in research seminars in the ensuing conversation.

Eco-Congregation Scotland is recognised as an important part of government action in Scotland on climate change, and hence its secretariat has attracted government funds. Enhancement of the eco-congregations project offers a potential influence on evidence based policy-making in Scotland and a related influence on public policies and legislation at a local, regional and national level. To this end, a second pathway to impact will involve the hosting of a conference which will include important supporters and members of the Eco-Congregation Scotland including persons involved in the creation of climate policy and members of the Scottish Government.

A third pathway to impact is focused towards general public engagement. Throughout the project, we will communicate our research activity to the public through the eco-congregations blog and email list, popular religious press, and through the project website. In addition, in cooperation with Eco-Congregation Scotland, we will organise and host a workshop for ministers-in-training and parishoners who are interested in, or currently engaged in sustainability initiatives at the local level on the topic of caring for the future and responding to climate change.