"A Matter of Life and Death"

I have the wonderful experience of attending the 4th triennial Micah Network conference on Climate Change in Nairobi Kenya.

The conference is organized by the Micah Network, a international coalition of over 550 Christian relief, development, and justice organizations, churches and individuals from over 80 countries.

The conference I am able to attend is composed largely of the directors and CEOs of these organizations with representatives of 39 countries (me being the youngest in attendance and clearly least qualified to be here). The purpose of this gathering is to adress the issue of climate change and the church's response to it. Some of the organizations are dealing with mitigating the effects of climate change on the field in their various regions (South America, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, etc.) while others are working towards advocacy in the church in the North and working towards pressuring world leaders. One of the objectives of this conference is to together create a statement representing the views of the Global Church on the issue of climate change. (When this statement is finished I will try to post it.) It will be drafted and be send to the UN climate gathering at Copenhagen (at a gathering of world leaders in December of this year) and also be presented to thousands of church congregations and organizations in over 80 countries. What an incredible place to meet Christian leaders and be a part of such an important movement in the world church.

It has been radically eye-opening for me to listen to (and see for my self) the reality of the issue of climate change here in East Africa. Headlines in a Ugandan newspaper announced just this past weekend that, as I write these words, over 2 million are in danger of starvation in Uganda alone ( with a population of only 30 million). This same story is true for most East African countries including Tanzania and Kenya where I have been able to travel in these past months and visit with and talk with farmers. All these East African countries (and most developing countries) are completely dependent on agriculture, not only for income and exports but for their own survival and nutrition. Much of this East African region is incredibly rich in abundance, wildlife, mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, and a dual raining season meaning there are two harvests each year. These farmers have been raising crops to sustain their livelihood for thousands of years. Yet these farmers are fully reliant on the seasonal rains and predictable climate patterns, WHICH HAVE CHANGED. The climate IS changing and HAS changed. I have heard it from the mouths of farmers as well as from NGO workers that these droughts and famines are worse than they have ever experienced in the past. Here in Limuru (just outside Nairobi), I am told that there has been about 16 inches of rain so far in the year. This after the first heavy rainfall which should be yielding over 35 inches by this time. As a result, fields are producing less and less crops that many families are not even able to support themselves.

I have realized that for us, at least in Canada, Climate Change seems distant, improbable, even laughable. Yet here in East Africa, and I am learning from those also in Bangladesh and in Argentina and other corners of the world, climate change is very real and felt in the lives of those starving and being forced to seek food relief in countries which should be exporting abundance of crops. I have been told time and time again here: Climate Change is a matter of life and death for millions of people.

What is humbling about this is that those in the African church who have seen and are experiencing starvation first hand (along with years of violence, genocide, and oppression) are not blaming the North or the developed world. As church leaders have gathered together here, they have collectively announced that the entire human race, the entire church has failed our calling to be stewards over God's earth. It is the brokenness and corruption of all human relationships and sin that has allowed this to be. Together our church leaders are seeking repentance and looking to move forward.

However, the cry of the church in the developing world and specifically here in East Africa is that we in the developed world come to terms with the fact that the implications of climate change are very real, they are being witnessed here, now. Again and again I am reminded that this is "a matter of life and death". May we acknowledge that those suffering the most from climate change are those contributing the least to it and are the most vulnerable to disease and starvation. May we repent, seek forgiveness and begin to take responsibility and find ways to move forward to restore the earth and all its interconnected relationships and complexities.