Guest preacher - Kathy Hey
Global Warming and warnings!
It’s their fault! Those out there.
It’s your fault!
It’s my fault!
It’s our fault!
Yes, we are all responsible for it – for what?
For Global Warming, for Climate Change that is taking place on our planet earth. Whether we like it or not Humankind is responsible for what has happened and is happening to the Earth.
We are accountable for the conservation of this planet, its future wellbeing and all that is in it.
Late last September the Stern Report released in Britain predicted an economic recession on the scale of the Great Depression. Tens of millions (not thousands, but millions) of displaced people will become environmental refugees as a result of foreseeable droughts, starvation, floods, fires, rising sea levels and water shortages. Already we are seeing signs of this environmental recession.
In 1991 I saw a TV documentary which I found very disturbing. Rain forests were rapidly being felled and as a consequence causing droughts and also the extinction of a number of species of insects. Many varieties of birds and animal life were also threatened devastation, or are now extinct from our planet as a result, never to be seen again.
In the early 1970’s I recall warnings that the earth will run out of water, oil and other commodities if we continue to live life as if there is no tomorrow, and we don’t practice conservation.
Well, it seems that humankind has lived life as if there is no tomorrow.
At the beginning of last month a report made public from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which embraces 2500 scientists from more than 130 nations, lays 90% of the blame for global warming on human activities in the past 50 years. What a legacy for us to have to own.
The scientists maintained that one of the main culprits is the burning of fossil fuels, and as a result, the increase of stronger hurricanes.
While it may be informative to see pictures on the TV screen of chimneys belching smoke, the affects are very, very, concerning.
Human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, for industrial processing and generating electricity, - deforestation, agriculture, transport over the past century, have formed a blanket around the Earth letting the sun’s energy in, but preventing it escape back into space. As this Greenhouse of gases gets thicker the Earth becomes warmer and climate disasters result.
Are we doomed then? A question posed to a New Zealand scientist, Dr Jim Salinger of NIWA. (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research)
Jim’s response was, “that while it is obvious we will see significant climate change this century, and it is very serious, he never believed in being doomed because we are still here and we can do something about it.
So what is being done? and What is our Christian response?
In the Spring / Summer 2006 issue of Christian World Service magazine - Action Against Poverty mentions a similar theme of the UK Stern Report. Earthquakes, floods, war, drought, cyclones, volcanoes … Disasters hit poor communities the hardest, leaving them unable to cope with the destruction by themselves.
In the article Harvesting the Rain it tells how the Zimbabwe Council of Churches trained Zimbabwe women to build rainwater tanks in a project working to improve health, nutrition, environment and the place of women. Funded by the Christian World Service the programme works in the driest and poorest areas of south-western Zimbabwe.
The women learn the techniques of building and maintaining their tanks and also work together to construct them. Rain is collected from the roof of their homes. The tanks provide enough water for household needs and watering of seedlings for most of the year.
The benefits of the water tanks are far reaching.
- Not only do the women not have to carry water like they used to - but diarrhea a leading cause of death in developing countries has declined dramatically.
- Families with water-tanks receive fruit tree seedlings and are encouraged to plant vegetable gardens, improving household nutrition.
- The training workshops cover health issues and HIV and AIDS awareness. The list of benefits goes on. It is wonderful to know people are learning to help themselves.
What is our Christian response?
By beginning or continuing to make financial contributions to the Christian World Service as their funding go towards projects such as Harvesting the Rain programme.
‘Climate Change’ is one of the World Council of Churches priorities for the next four years - the Christian World Service is part of WCC.
What else is being done?
In mid January this year at the East Asian Summit in the Philippines many of the countries including New Zealand who were represented at the summit agreed to the reductions of Greenhouse Gas Emissions as part of an energy security pact.
What is our Christian response?
By holding the NZ Govt. accountable to their commitment and taking responsible actions on these issues. We at Wesley could establish a committee of people who were prepared to regularly write to our Member of Parliament keeping such conservation issues in the foreground.
We can’t afford to let anyone including ourselves off the ‘environmental hook’. Perhaps we could look for guidance from the Leader’s Meeting on this matter.
In his President’s Address at the Methodist Conference in Rotorua last November the Rev. Dr. John Salmon said “Global climate change is both a theological issue and a practical one.
A church with clear social responsibility will engage in both. John mentioned there are economic issues involved and often these are used as excuses for avoiding making the hard practical decisions. Economic factors have stood in the way of full enactment of the Kyoto Protocol.
Today, economics is often another word for greed, said John Salmon.
What is our Christian response?
Taking up John’s suggestion from his address for the Methodist church in general – maybe we at Wesley could
- encourage our young people to include economics in their studies,
- include basic economic study in theological education in our local congregational study groups.
- It could be a topic for Table Talk and / or Perhaps the Education Committee could guide us here.
In the Bay of Plenty the temperature could rise 3 oC over the next 70-100 years due to Climate Change. Over the past century the temperature increase in New Zealand was about 0.7 degrees.
We are already aware of the financial, economic, and emotional costs related to events such as Cyclone Bola in the late 1980’s or the floods in May 2005.
Flooding could be up to four times as frequent as it is now by 2070. Climate change is happening right here on our door step.
What is our Christian response?
- We could become informed about what is happening to our coast and what will happen to it in the future.
- Turn off dripping taps, conserve water, recycle, and use energy fluorescent light bulbs.
- Turn off microwaves and TV’s when not in use.
- Walk, ride bikes, car pool, keep our cars well tuned and tyres correctly inflated.
- One that appeals to me is to vacuum once a fortnight!
- The list goes on
- This brochure Small Acts, Big Impacts, from the Ministry for the Environment is available as you leave this morning. It explains some of the ways in which we as individuals can play our part.
Methodist president John Salmon suggests ‘salvation’ includes making sure we can all live safely and fully as well as being concerned for our spiritual well-being. Our social responsibility includes using our gospel insights, our pastoral sensitivities, our analytical skills and organizing abilities and our value-base for the good of our society and wider world.
Salvation includes the safety and wellbeing of the whole planet of which humankind, including this faith community of Wesley are caretakers.
In this morning’s New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about ‘a time of testing’.
We too are at a time of ‘testing’. In 2007 and beyond, humanity world wide will be tested by the affects of Global Warming. I also believe God is providing a way out, as God’s concerning and challenging spirit works through our scientists, theologians and many concerned people who give leadership in the way forward in conserving our planet.
Caring for the environment is a faith issue. In the Creation story God saw all that had been made and it was good. As Christians we need to care about God’s Creation.
For the sake of our grandchildren,
our great-grandchildren and the generations beyond,
we must play our part,
so in the words of the Psalmist,
‘our descendants are not destroyed in the depths of the earth’ -
but can live healthy and free lives.
Amen. | 
