December: Climate Change
Climate Change and Global Warming are unfriendly words for me. They bring images of destruction and disempowerment. My people struggle with trying to understand the social challenges that globalisation has inflicted upon us—HIV/Aids, increasing impoverishment, violence and lawlessness, breakdown of family values and now this—climate change. As a result of climate change, the 7 million people of Oceania are already suffering and are vulnerable to more impact in the future.
My brothers and sisters in Tuvalu and Kiribati already live with rising sea level. Family homes in which many generations have lived, grown up and died are threatened by increasingly high tides and storm surges. Homes that keep us anchored to our community—to our beloved country. Shores where our grandparents shared stories and celebrated life are eroding. Coral reefs that shelter our fish and assure us of a meal are bleaching and no longer habitable. The intrusion of salt water means our water supplies are no longer safe and soil fertility is threatened. Unpredictable weather patterns pose risks to fishers and farmers. Our earth is falling into chaos. Creator God who brought order out of chaos, where are you?
Our community responds in different ways and most of us are pulled apart as we listen. The young ones see a better future in another country. They celebrate the prospect of being ‘ecological refugees’. Older folks, steeped in tradition and church, hold to belief in Yahweh’s covenant with Noah never to flood the earth again.
And the rest of us? We know that time is running short but continue to hold to the hope that something can be done before we lose this paradise to the ocean. Becoming an ecological refugee may be attractive, but it means displacement from all that is loved, treasured and revered—Vanua/Fonua/Whenua. How can we tell our stories in a strange and perhaps hostile land? What heritage do we give to our children and grandchildren? Those things we had and then we lost, through no fault of ours, will they now be only photographs?
Strong waves caused by the greed of our big and powerful neighbours threaten to engulf us. Why is this happening to us Lord, why? Is it because we are small and poor and our voices are too weak to be heard above the waves?The Revd Amy Chambers, Diocese of Polynesia
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