We are
moving beyond undisputed science towards that of understanding the human
development implications of a rapidly warming planet that are touching everyday
life. Those who are suffering the
effects of climate change have done the least to cause it and have the least
resources to do anything about it.
The Pan Africa
Climate and Poverty Hearing was hosted last week by Oxfam at Common Ground!
Leading up to the UN summit in Copenhagen in December, international climate
talks are being held at more than 2600 events in 135 countries across the globe
to issue a deafening wake-up call for world leaders to act on climate change. Desmond
Tutu
and Mary Robinson, former Irish president, heard testimony from people living
on the climate front line.
Many
gathered at Common Ground on Monday 5th October to attend the OXFAM Climate
Change and Poverty Hearings hosted by the Common Good Foundation. Julie Stevens
reports back on the challenge we face as believers and as citizens of this
planet.
It
was 2007 when things changed in Tororo District in Eastern Uganda, a small village
on the border of Kenya. The floods came and washed everything away. Before then
Constance and her family lived contentedly off the land with not too little and
not too much. They had just enough.
Torrential
downpours and swollen waters sent families seeking refuge in the next village
while houses, crops and animals were swallowed in its path. Now crammed into a
shared house with 29 other people, and very little to sustain them Constance
cried out in her suffering “Is it you God who is doing all of this, and why?”
All the wealth is gone, and there is nothing.
Then
the drought came. The few surviving crops just shriveled and died. ‘But God why
are you doing this?” cried Constance again. Then more annihilating floods came.
A whole month with non-stop rain. Back to zero again.
As
a concerned small scale farmer, Constance travelled to Kampala to a meeting
about the changing weather. It was here that she came to know about climate
change. She also came to understand that it was not God doing this but people
in distant countries living out very different lives that were causing it.
The
testimony of Constance and many others like her around the globe bear witness
to the effects of a human induced catastrophe. We are moving beyond undisputed
science towards that of understanding the human development implications of a
rapidly warming planet that are touching everyday life. Those who are suffering the effects of
climate change have done the least to cause it and have the least resources to
do anything about it. Such a collective of voices from around the world spell
out this great injustice and are paving the road to Copenhagen in December
2009. Here the leading conscience of the world will sit to determine a way forward.
Is a fair deal for future of the planet too much to hope for?
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu presiding over the hearings drew a parallel with the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of 1995 which bore witness the human violations of
our country’s past. We are now hearing evidence of another grave injustice.
Climate change will likely go down as the greatest issue of our time. A force
greater than humanity produced by humanity. In our world shrunken by media we
see on a daily basis the devastation caused by extreme weather events impacting
largely on poor communities. We don’t need to go far to see the worsening
effects of water on the Cape Flats community. Those whose lives depend on
natural resources suffer worst through severe drought, flooding, disease, loss
of property and hunger. In decades to come the future picture is of
environmental refugees who are unable to adapt to the devastation of climate
change.
Our
call to care for the word is as old as the human race itself. The Creator of
our planet is also its owner and we are placed in a position to cultivate and
protect this beautiful blue and green globe. All of creation is God’s temple
and within this sacred space he made us in his image.
While
we believe that God’s ultimate plan is to restore all things, creation has
suffered the effects of our sin. Romans 8: 23-24 We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies.
We
live as ambassadors in this world and measure out our lives loving God and
loving our neighbour as ourselves.
While our Christian mandate to care about the environment is long
established, climate change is above all a justice issue. The ministry of Jesus
establishes the restoration of justice as a key element of life in His Kingdom.
The worlds richest are at their peak while the poorest are still struggling to
get onto the development ladder. Rich nations produce about 25 times more CO2
per head than poor. South Africa has the highest Gini coefficient in the world
and is the biggest emitter of green house gases on the continent which confirms
the “have’s” as the perpetrators.
The injustice will not end with the present generations poor. Our own
children will inherit an earth which is struggling for survival.
Climate
change is not simply a question of acknowledging and addressing injustice. We
first need to recognize the link between human induced global warming and
poverty and then to formulate a just response. We need to recognise that our
consumer culture lifestyle is at the heart of the climate change issue and is a
fundamental part of the inequality we need to address. As individuals and as an
organised body, we need to revisit the underlying values of the dominant global
culture which has lost recognition of our dependence on nature. We need to live
as Jesus would have us live and renew our perspective of the divine design for
creation. We should slow down, practise frugality, have compassion for all
living things, keep the wellbeing of future generations in mind when making
decisions, and share our scarce resources with the less fortunate.
This
is not only a task for politicians and experts to handle. We need to delve into
our own impoverished imaginations and create a different world from that of
image building, over-indulgent consumption. Once we learn to listen, respect
and work together, we will recognise that our fragile collective existence as
shared citizens on this planet depends on each other. Our survival and that of
the polar bears is up to you, me, Constance, and 6 billion other people.
God
let your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as is it in heaven.