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Is climate change the greatest threat to tackling
poverty?
The unharmed
house behind
illustrates that the
poor are more
vulnerable.
Mike Wiggins 7th March 2010
Rita’s story
“I was just married when the big
men came and took all the trees,
even though they belonged to us.
Then the land started flooding and
washed away the good soil. This old
lady here says there weren’t any
floods in her childhood. And now we
have droughts coming more and
more [frequently]. Diseases that hit
our children that we’d never seen
before – trouble with their eyes, and
with the breathing. One by one the
insects started disappearing. It was
when our crops failed and we saw
the bees lying on the ground
desperate for water that we really
worried”
Giodone’s
story
“We used to know when it would rain, but now we don’t. We
don’t know when to plant our crops. We asked the
government and the NGOs for help, but they didn’t know
what to do. We went back to the old ways. We learned from
the very old men and women how to feed ourselves from
the beginning.”
Albutou’s story
“When I was a young girl, my mother
told me to prepare for the big drought.
She said it comes when the young girls
become women, and maybe once more
only in their lifetime, so we have to save
food to survive that year. . .
We have had drought ever since I can
remember. And these last 7 years have
all been drought. We’ve lost our cattle,
and our crops have all failed. This area
used to have grass. Now it has all gone.
Sometimes we survive on the roots and
the thorny grass. We are so ashamed.”
Why is a Christian development
agency involved with climate change?
Partners reporting
weather changes &
asking for help
"Lord, when did we see you hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or
sick or in prison, and did not help you? "
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not
do for one of the least of these, you did
not do for me.”
Matthew 25v44-45
What does the science say?
Variations of the Earth’s
temp risetemperature for the
surface
past 1,000 years
What is causing the temperature rise?
The greenhouse effect
is unequivocal
CO2 Sources
Fossil fuels
Deforestation
Agriculture
Cement production
Climate disasters are increasing
• weather related
disasters doubled in
10 years
• due to increased
severe weather,
floods, storms
• increase mainly &
medium-scale
‘forgotten’ disasters
• geophysical
disasters unchanged
Other findings
More than a third of
species assessed in
a major international
biodiversity study
are threatened with
extinction, scientists
have warned.
Methane released from thawing sea beds
Hundreds of
thousands of
funnels of
methane
bursting out of
the sea.
Dead oceans
All fish and
seafood gone by
2048 (Science: 2007)
UK Met Office: world
heading for 5-7oC rise
• mass extinction
• ocean acidification
• brutal heat waves
• 1-2m sea level rise
• >100 million climate refugees
• >1/3 planet desertified
• ½ the planet in drought
• loss of glacier water to 1Bn people
Impact of climate change on
the majority world
Climate impacts
Extreme weather
Climate impacts
More floods
Climate impacts
More intense hurricanes
Climate impacts
More drought
Climate impacts
Displacement
Climate impacts
Desertification
Climate impacts
More disease
Climate impacts
Food insecurity
Climate impacts
Rising sea levels
The cost of responding
Respond now: 1% of global GDP/ yr
Respond later: 15% - 20% GDP/ yr
What does the bible say?
“Where were you when I laid the
earth’s foundation? . . . Have you
ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place?”
Job 38
We should care because God does
Restored relationships
“There is no faithfulness, no love, no
acknowledgment of God in the land. There is
only cursing, lying, murder, stealing and
adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed
follows bloodshed. Because of this the land
mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the
beasts of the field and the birds of the air and
the fish of the sea are dying.”
Stewardship
Love our neighbours
“Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind . . . And . . . Love your neighbor
as yourself.” Mtt 22:37-39
“I was hungry and you gave me food,
thirsty and you gave me drink . . . sick and
you took care of me” Mtt 25:35-36
Our eternal destiny
We know that the whole of creation
has been groaning as in the pains of
childbirth. Rom 8:19-22
What can we do about it?
Pray
Campaign
Give
North Niger: Wells and dikes
Restore soil
Burkina Faso
Cot Darat, Indonesia
Growing crops on salty soil
Flood escape platform
Indonesia
Live more simply
Use less energy
Travel less
Consume less