There are several challenges that humans in the 21st century have to address. We have created those problems and therefore we are responsible to act to mitigate and resolve them. One such challenge is that of global warming. If we fail to take urgent responsible action, we are the “devils” who will destroy God’s “good” creation!
Therefore Christians have to act!
- Churches have to set up active ministries/departments for Ecological Concerns.
- We need to join hands with ecological activist movements and government initiatives for ecological preservation (eg. drive against plastics, while offering alternatives) and growth (eg. planting saplings and re-forestation programmes).
- Encourage our youth to engage in research on eco-friendly alternatives in all facets of living.
- We have to start changing our life-styles and make them eco-friendly. Let us not sacrifice creation on the altar of convenience, consumerism and corporate notions of development.
- We need to learn from our tribal/adivasis brothers and sisters how to live in integrated harmony with creation. Let us also learn indigenous people’s sciences.
Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad,
General Secretary,
National Council of Churches in India.
The following article of Lisa Cox in The Guardian on 15th June 2018 highlights the urgency of cutting global warming.
(https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/15/leaked-un-draft-report-warns-of-urgent-need-to-cut-global-warming)
Countries can fight climate change and keep warming below 1.5 C if they take immediate measures, says the leaked UN draft report.
The world is on track to exceed 1.5C of warming unless countries rapidly implement “far-reaching” actions to reduce carbon emissions, according to a draft UN report leaked to Reuters.
The final draft report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) was due for publication in October. It is the guiding scientific document for what countries must do to combat climate change.
Human-induced warming would exceed 1.5C by about 2040 if emissions continued at their present rate, the report found, but countries could keep warming below that level if they made “rapid and far-reaching” changes.
