We all have a responsibility when it comes to climate action
Religious or not, we have a responsibility to cut through the clutter about climate action.
Look at the people affected by adverse weather and arid lands. The UN High Commission for Refugees states 21 million people have been displaced by weather and climate related events in the last decade. Rich countries can figure out a way around weather woes – through building stronger infrastructures, warning systems, and insurance to protect property. But for the poor, weather causes drastic life changes, as we saw with Cyclone Idai wiping out 90% of the port-city Beira in Mozambique, or the torrential rain that fell so fast in Rio De Janeiro, a month worth of rain in just 4 hours – and people were unable to evacuate.
And those Mexican border cues swell for many reasons, but a key cause is unemployed workers migrating because a warming climate in Central American countries has made a farm economy untenable.
If we are going to love people, as the Biblical mandate says, then loving the world that sustains people is also a Christian imperative. Caring for people requires caring for the earth that sustains us. For me, that’s a God delivered challenge – a biblical justice and a neighbourly call to action on climate care.
