Trócaire hopes that many parishes will get involved in its new IT’S UP TO US climate change campaign. Its newly-produced parish community action sheet – ‘Connecting for Creation’ – includes facts about climate change, prayers for the environment and action ideas for parishes.
Thanks to Hannah Evans, Trócaire’s Church Officer, for sending us the following report:
Those who tuned into recent events regarding the drought in the Eastern Horn of Africa were horrified by the scale of hunger and destitution that has been landed upon this region. These horrendous circumstances are largely due to the drastic effects of climate change in Africa.
In recent years Trócaire staff and partners have witnessed increasingly dramatic changes in climate patterns which have challenged the existence of vulnerable families, livelihoods and livestock across the region. The majority of families in Africa are dependent upon rain-fed agricultural production in order to meet their own food needs and to generate an income. However, the global pattern of extreme in weather conditions is making this way of living more and more precarious and risky, more specifically, erratic rains and increasingly prolonged droughts.
Hard won gains in developing countries are being rapidly eroded by the degradation of our environment and this in turn is worsening poverty cycles. People are now being forced to survive through desperate means such as selling their assets, migration and further degradation of the environment. While rich countries continue to consume resources and use unsustainable energy levels far beyond what they are owed, developing countries must sit back and bear the brunt of shattering consequences.
Meet Andrew Lodio from northern Kenya in east Africa. Currently this region is experiencing its worst drought in over sixty years. Ten million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are now dependent upon food aid. Drought is not new to this region, but people’s capacity to cope with it has been eroded by conflict, lack of investment, increased competition for land and water, and even more so from the effects of climate change. Poor people are being hit the hardest and have the least means to cope with these environmental consequences.
Andrew and his family built their home near to Lokitaung alongside the river. At the time, the river was over 50 metres wide. Nowadays that same river is as dry as the barren land which stretches for a thousand kilometres either side of it. “Other years were different,” he says. “There have been droughts here before but never like this one. This one is worse because it is all over the region. Normally if it is bad here we can go somewhere else, but now it is bad all over. There is nowhere to go.”
As the mammoth impact of climate change on earth becomes increasingly evident, Trócaire is driven by the fact that the poorest communities are being forced to deal with these consequences imminently. Trócaire is urging all dioceses and parishes across the country to answer the cry of the earth and to make a stand on behalf of God’s creation and of humanity itself. As followers of Christ we are given an automatic mandate to become stewards of the earth and must answer Gods call.
What can you do?
Sign Trócaire’s online petition telling the Government that you want strong action on climate change, and then share it with all your friends.
Visit the Trócaire website www.trocaire.org/uptous
Follow the campaign on twitter and facebook. #everyoneact.
Send a letter to your local TD saying you want the Irish Government to pass a strong climate change bill.
Join the Trócaire volunteers list to receive regular campaigns updates.
Church groups can avail of Trócaire’s new Parish action sheet called ‘Connecting for Creation’ , read the Irish Bishops Pastoral letter ‘The Cry of the Earth’, set up a social justice group or invite a Trócaire speaker to your Parish.
Contact Hannah Evans, Church Officer, at Trócaire 01-6549121.
