The UN Refugee Agency says the impacts of climate change are adding to conflict, from Darfur to Somalia to Iraq and Syria. Scientists warn that if we don't urgently slash planet warming pollution now, it will be to late to stop runaway climate change. There needs to be action by Governments across the world now.
We can only stop the pollution of our planet if we radically reduce the productions of plastics, and the damping of toxic waste into our rivers, seas and air. Did you know that plastic is made from fossil fuels? Fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal which are the biggest causes of climate change.
Trees provide the oxygen we breathe, helps nature thrive and enrich our lives with beauty and wonder. Crucially, trees also play a vital role in fighting climate change by removing carbon dioxide from our air. Yet forests are cut down and not replaced particularly in South America. If countries were to plant trees and double their tree cover it would make real impact is reducing greenhouse gas each year.
We all have to work together to get government around the world take action to protect the world we live in.
The International Day of Forests reminds us about the damage to and importance of Forests which we need to remember all year round.
- This global celebration of forests provides a platform to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and of trees outside forests.
- Forests cover one third of the Earth's land mass, performing vital functions around the world. Around 1.6 billion people - including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures - depend on forests for their livelihood.
- Forests are the most biologically-diverse ecosystems on land, home to more than 80% of the terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects. They also provide shelter, jobs and security for forest-dependent communities.
- They play a key role in our battle in adapting to and mitigating climate change. Forests contribute to the balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and humidity in the air. They protect watersheds, which supply 75% of freshwater worldwide.
- Yet despite all of these priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate - 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed annually. Deforestation accounts for 12 to 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Surely the time has come to care for our forests and make sure all logging is done in a sustainable way?
Source: http://www.un.org/en/events/forestsday/
Politicians are starting to address climate change.
The Paris climate change talks in December 2015 managed to get the world’s politician to agree there needs to be action to reduce air pollution. Some of us have been aware that action was need thirty years ago, so while the deal in Paris is historic, it falls far short of the rhetoric from the world leaders and is not legally binding. Instead the new climate deal agrees to peak emissions “as soon as possible”, while allowing the door wide open for the use of offsetting instead of genuine emission cuts. The deal also kicks this action well into the future by aiming for “the latter half of the century”. But, crucially, the agreement was weakened by the US and EU text that explicitly precludes the concept of liability and compensation. The 2021 COP conference made some more progress in taking action to protect the Planet, but with some of the biggest polluters missing there is still a real lack of political commitment to address the issue. The COP 22 was again full of meaningful rhetoric, but some of the world's biggest polluters were missing and appear unwilling to take action. The COP conferences will not succeed in reducing the damage human kind is doing to the plant until all the major government of the world are prepared to take the action needed.
The CAFOD website says that the Overseas Development Institute shows that UK government departments are still investing billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in fossil fuel projects overseas – more than double the investment in renewables. There is clearly a lack of coordination between government departments. There is now no excuse not to introduce ambitious policies to deliver an acceleration of a low carbon economy.
Governments must take a closer look at their domestic energy policies which are currently confused and holding back low carbon energy potential. Energy efficiency and renewable power should form the backbone of future energy policy. Governments need to end their scandalous support for fossil fuels, including fracking. We know we need to keep global temperature increases to well below 1.5 degrees to minimize the impacts of climate change. Emissions need cutting rapidly and deeply, aiming for full decarbonisation by 2050.
We're already seeing the impacts of just 0.85 degrees of warming; floods, droughts, sea level rise and extreme weather. If the various agreements are to achieve their aspiration of limiting temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees then it will require countries to show they mean business, by put in place a practical long term goal of zero emissions by the second half of the century. Governments need to be ambition when it comes to tackling climate change. While the COP agreements will help good politicians to boost action at home, it also allows bad politicians the space to go home, get some good publicity, and then do nothing
World Water Day
Water means different things to each of us but one thing is certain – it is vital for our lives.
This is why the UN designates 22 March every year as World Water Day: a day to celebrate life-giving water.
Safe water transforms lives. The United Nations wants everyone, everywhere to have clean water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030 and believe this goal is possible.
Today 748 million people around the world still have no clean water to drink.
Without it children get sick and miss school. Women waste hours walking for water rather than spending time more productively.
We need to get clean water and safe toilets to the top of the global agenda. Clear water and sanitation brings better health and prosperity for millions around the world. So why are countries still ignoring this important fact?
Source: http://www.wateraid.org/_/world-water-day
This pages contains articles the destruction of our planet. Scroll Down to see articles on: Climate Change, Environmental Damage, Fragile Earth and Forests. Plus link to the Pope’s Encyclical on the environmental, "Care for our common home."
Images from Goggle images
The destruction of the Environment
The debate over climate change has lost sight of the fact that the Earth’s fragile ecosystem is slowly being polluted and destroyed by human kind, it is only relatively recently that politicians and religious leaders have started to take the problem seriously. Not all climate changes are due to human activity some are through natural processes, but human action, often driven by greed, is having a damaging effect on the environment. Human beings in the rich countries have become greedy wanting much more than they need, this view is supported by various aid groups and religious leaders, but action will have to be taken by politicians if the current trends are to be reversed. The Aid Groups believe that action is needed to bring change in the over consumption behaviour of consumers. However, if the issues are to be addressed, we need to understand how greed has a detrimental effect on the environment.
Greed is an intense and selfish desire for food, wealth or power. It is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and is also called avarice or covetousness. All of these are condemned in the Bible. The consumer society which can be criticised for its grasping, possessive materialism, money-grabbing, and gluttonous behaviour, illustrates how much greed impacts on everyday life. Materialism, consumerism, and over exploitation of resources, plus unequal distribution of wealth, illustrate how greed is seen in environmental problems. Globalisation has created great understanding between people, but it has also enabled the greedy to exploit the situation to satisfy their desires.
Christian agencies tend to focus on the issues of justice or more appropriately injustice, but the ethical issues relating to the natural environment are far wider than this. These include business ethics, capitalism, collective responsibility, public goods and world hunger. The subject also relates to conflicts of interest, free will, human nature, motives, needs, principles, selfishness, self-indulgence, self deception and moral perspectives. All these impact on a person’s perspective on the problem and make challenging the ethical issues at the root of the problem very difficult to solve.
If we are to bring the changes needed to stop the slow destruction of the earth, we ought to seek reduction in the transportation of consumer goods which causes pollution through the use of road, air and sea freight and help for the most vulnerable poor people affected by environmental damage. The biggest challenges will be to educate the rich consumers on the need to change their lifestyles and industry to stop practices that create environmental damage. This can only be truly addressed if people control their greed. This is a large subject which I will write about in a more detailed article in the future.
The Earth is a fragile life support system which supports human kind. Yet it is being destroyed by the very people who need it to survive. Space travel has shown there is no other planet near us that can support human life, but politicians and corporations ignore this fact. The World’s leaders seem to close their eyes to the fact that if human beings continue their destruction of the Earth; the human race will bring about its own destruction. We need to care for the Earth and its ecosystems, if we don’t the human race will become as extinct species like the dinosaurs.
Caring for the environment is therefore important, because it provides the things were need to survive. Important things like the air we breath and the food we eat. When we damage the environment through Wars, pollution of air and drinking water, and destroy forest.
This subject has recently been examined in the context of faith by Pope Francis. His encyclical provides a detailed look at the issues surrounding Climate Change and why we must act to protect our planet. Click on the link to go to the Vatican webpage with the Pope’s Encyclical on Care for our common home.
The Global issues website also provides some guides and information on this subject.
David Rogers Ministries
Desertification and land degradation
"Without a long-term solution, desertification and land degradation will not only affect food supply but lead to increased migration and threaten the stability of many nations and regions. This is why world leaders made land degradation neutrality one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-mo
There is probably no greater issue than land as it touches everyone. From the food we eat, to the clothes we wear and the houses we live – it all stems from land resources, therefore we need to have sustainable development. The World Day to Combat Desertification advocates for the importance of inclusive cooperation to restore and rehabilitate degraded land and contribute towards achieving the overall Sustainable Development Goals. In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 17 the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought to promote public awareness of the issue, and the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa.
What is Desertification?
Desertification is a process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas due to various factors including climatic variations and human activities. Or, it is when land that was originally of another type of biome turns into a desert biome because of changes of all sorts. A huge issue that many countries have is the fact that there are large pockets of land that are going through a process that is known as desertification.
Causes of Desertification
The causes are; overgrazing: Animal grazing is a huge problem for many areas that are starting to become desert biomes; Deforestation: When people are looking to move into an area, or they need trees to make houses and do other tasks, then they are contributing to the problems related to desertification. Farming Practices: Some farmers do not know how to use the land effectively. They may essentially strip the land of everything that it has before moving on to another plot of land. Urbanization and other types of land development. As mentioned above, development can cause people to go through and kill the plant life. Climate Change plays a huge role in desertification. As the days get warmer and periods of drought become more frequent, desertification becomes more and more eminent. Unless climate change is slowed down, huge areas of land will become desert. Stripping the land of resources. Natural Disasters: There are some cases where the land gets damaged because of natural disasters, including drought.
Effects of Desertification
Farming becomes next to impossible. Hunger: Without farms in these areas, the food that those farms produce will become much scarcer, and the people who live in those local areas will be a lot more likely to try and deal with hunger problems. Flooding: Without the plant life in an area, flooding is a lot more eminent. Poor Water Quality: Overpopulation: When areas start to become desert, animals and people will go to other areas where they can thrive. Poverty: Without food and water, it becomes harder for people to thrive,
Solutions for Desertification
Policy changes related to how people can farm. Changes to Other Types of Land Use. If people are using land to get natural resources or they are developing it for people to live on, then the policies that govern them should be ones that will help the land to thrive instead of allowing them to harm the land further. Education: In developing countries, education is an incredibly important tool that needs to be utilized in order to help people to understand the best way to use the land that they are farming on. Technology Advances. In some cases, it’s difficult to try and prevent desertification from happening. Putting Together Rehabilitation Efforts. There are some ways that we can go back and rehabilitate the land that we’ve already pushed into desertification; Sustainable practices to prevent desertification from happening.
Source; http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/ and The United Nations Website.
David Rogers Ministries