Ash Wednesday after Super Tuesday is a headspin...but the idea of doing a carbon fast in Lent is provocative. Zoe Williams explains:-

You don't have to get rid of your car or pledge never to take another long-haul flight - just take it a bit at a time. Remove a lightbulb in an act of symbolism and also saving; don't use the dishwasher for a day; snub the plastic bag; pray for a developing world community whose climate has been ravaged by western excess. How effective that is depends on the depth of your faith, but you have to admit it doesn't use much carbon.


Others trace the broader implications:-
The Carbon Fast has been launched in association with the Christian global poverty charity Tearfund.


 The Bishop of Liverpool and vice president of Tearfund, James Jones, said: “It is the poor who are already suffering the effects of climate change. To carry on regardless of their plight is to fly in the face of Christian teaching.


 “The tragedy is that those with the power to do something about it are least affected, whilst those who are most affected are powerless to bring about change.


 “There’s a moral imperative on those of us who emit more than our fair share of carbon to rein in our consumption.”