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Good morning. When I was at school there was a field next door that was full of butterflies fluttering about in the summer. Now there seem so few to be found-and many people care about this. Why do we care? More widely than particular species we care about the future of the planet as a whole-care about what will be agreed at COP28, which began yesterday. Why do we care? The reason I think is to be found in the first book of the Bible. Life has of course evolved but in Genesis we have a wonderful poetic account of the process. Planets, plant life, animals and humans come into being and at the climax we read ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold it was very good’. (Genesis 1.31) The drive to preserve the richness and variety of different species and the effort to pass on our planet to future generations in a reasonable state stem from a conviction that creation is fundamentally good. Too often we hurt one another and ravage the earth, but still we sense that physical life is a blessing not a curse. Umpteen million people round the world learn from David Attenborough better to appreciate the awesome mystery and beauty of the natural world. People like him and Chris Packham alert us to the sheer marvel of creation. The goodness of creation could not always be taken for granted. In the early years of the Christian Church there was a widespread view that the material world was in fact evil, and the purpose of life was to detach the soul from this-a view which sometimes tempted Christians. But the church was firm-No, the physical universe is good. We are embodied beings, set in a habitat we share with plants and animals. So it matters what happens at COP 28, in particular that greater efforts are made to keep the rise in the earth’s temperature as near as possible to one and a half degrees above pre-industrial levels. For global warming effects everything, not just the climate, but agriculture, migration, health and the survival of different species. The Welsh Priest and poet R.S.Thomas wrote a poem about an old man looking down a valley and seeing a stream shining. He knows that he has not long to live but he sees a kestrel in the sky and herbs growing in his garden. He smells the scent of wild beans. He notices his grandson and his wife bringing him a cup of tea. The poems ends with the words ‘It is well’ and is called simply ‘Good’. Because creation is good, we want COP28 to help us hand it over to our children and grandchildren in a good state.