Climate Justice
Lighting up the dark corners of our worldview
Partnership Coordinator, Roger Thompson from CMS Ireland, considers the climate crisis in Nepal and the ways in which we can play our part here, in Ireland.
“Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” Luke 11:35-36
When it comes to the global climate emergency, many of us are still living in the dark. The COP26 conferences in Glasgow, and more recently COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, have highlighted the alarming reports of melting ice-sheets, rising temperatures, current disasters and impending catastrophe – but what am I actually doing to make a difference? And what are we all doing in our churches, in our society? To be honest, it feels like we are making a few token gestures, while for the most part carrying on exactly as before – it’s all we can manage just to pick ourselves up after the covid pandemic and deal with the cost-of-living crisis.
Through our global partners in Nepal, however, Jesus is shining a light on this inertia and indifference, challenging us to wake up. Last August during the Kingdom Voices conference Kapil Sharma, Executive Director of HDCS, spoke passionately about the devastating impact global warming is having on his country. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas combined with increasing monsoon rainfall are resulting in ever more flood disasters, while frequent and severe heat waves are causing droughts and food shortages.
During his “Treasure” seminar at the Leaders’ Conference in St Donard’s, Kapil showed footage of the unseasonal monsoon cataracts in June 2021 that ripped through the Melamchi Valley 30 km northeast of Kathmandu. The wall of water killed 20 people and
swept away more than 100 homes, along with 6 highway bridges and 12 suspension footbridges. Moreover, it caused a massive landslide that knocked out headworks infrastructure at a vital Water Supply Project which provided drinking water to over 1 million citizens in the city below. The construction of the project’s giant 26-km tunnel had taken 22 years, had cost $700 million and had only been open for 2 months!
These kinds of disasters are so frequent in Nepal that HDCS has employed Sahara Misra to be their Technical Coordinator for Disasters and Climate Change. Sahara’s role involves overseeing a range of practical projects responding to those who are affected on the ground. At CMSI we support many of these projects through prayer and financial resources. One recent example was a medical camp which was set up in a remote rural area of Lamjung District which made medical care and post- traumatic counselling available to over 500 people caught up in flooding and landslides.
Staff travelled many hours by jeep and on foot into the mountainous terrain. They carried medicines and equipment so that a local clinic could be set up to treat patients who otherwise would not have been able to access care. As well as receiving disaster relief packages, these patients were given a free health check-up. Anyone requiring further medical attention was referred to the hospital in Lamjung and given free medical care through a charity fund.
While it’s amazing that HDCS provide these services in the name of Christ – and that undoubtedly shines out His light in a powerful way – there is another aspect of this situation that demands a light to be shone here in Ireland and the UK. As Desmond Tutu once said, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
When we look at the evidence, we find that the increased rainfall, melting glaciers and floods in Nepal are all caused by global warming, which is in turn the result of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
As Sahara commented in a recent video message recorded for our Children’s Resource, “Nepal’s contribution to Climate Change is negligible – just 0.08% of total global greenhouse gas emissions (Climate Analysis Indicators Tool 2016) – and yet it is the world’s 4th most vulnerable country to climate change (Global Climate Risk Index 2017). Nepal’s contribution is so small, yet it is amongst the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – ranked 8th least resilient out of 192 countries.”
It is a flagrant injustice that people in Nepal are suffering the consequences of climate change when they have done virtually nothing to cause the problem. The vast majority of GHG emissions come from the combustion of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, oil and natural gas, as well as food production. Undoubtedly, we in the industrialised west contribute far, far more GHGs than Nepal.
Cumulatively to date, Our World in Data estimates that the UK has emitted 78.16 BILLION tonnes of CO2, whereas Nepal has emitted only 160 MILLION tonnes. When it comes to such large numbers it can be difficult for us to fully grasp the difference in scale. To put these figures another way – imagine they were measuring time rather than mass. If there are just over 31.5 million seconds in a year, the UK’s emissions would equate to 2,476 years, whereas Nepal’s contribution would be only 5 years! This is not just a difference, it is an astronomical difference!
Eating habits have a significant role to play in increasing the carbon footprint. Nepal is a predominantly vegetarian country, relying mostly on rice, lentils and other legumes for their daily meals. This sort of diet causes relatively low levels of GHG emissions. For most people in the west, however, food consumption is heavily dependent on meat and dairy, causing far higher levels of emissions. The International Panel on Climate Change 2022 report points out that one vital step towards net zero is to reduce our consumption of meat. Professor Annette Cowie, Principal Research Scientist on Climate at NSW University, comments: ”One of the biggest individual contributions we can make to reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions is adopting a sustainable diet, rich in plant-based food, with moderate intake of meat and dairy.”
Indeed, when buying meat and dairy, shopping locally will further reduce carbon emissions whilst helping sustain the local economy.
The light of Christ shines out brightly through acts of compassion, but it also shines down upon our worldview, convincing us that our behaviours as individuals and as a society have profound consequences for our brothers and sisters in Nepal and many other countries. As this happens, may we become changemakers not only through our prayers and giving, but through our lifestyle too.