Operation Noah

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WAVE AFTER WAVE of rainbow banners wound their way in a procession through the English city of Coventry. The march of Christian environmentalists from around Britain included a model of Noah's Ark carried shoulder high, and a 12-foot-high 'Saint Francis', intended to highlight that care for the natural world is part of Christian tradition. Participants danced, chatted to strangers and handed out leaflets to bemused shoppers. It was 9 October 2004, and around 500 people were participating in a colourful 'rainbow pilgrimage'. It was part of a day's activities to launch Operation Noah, a campaign by Christian churches in Britain to curb human-induced climate change.

A climate covenant

Earlier in the day several hundred activists from around Britain converged on the city for a conference where they were asked to sign a 'Climate Covenant' promising to cut their own greenhouse gas emissions. They were also encouraged to put pressure on the UK Government and world leaders to do the same. Churches were urged to sign up to green electricity, deriving from renewable energy sources. A standing ovation was given to Ed Beale - a 27-year old walking from one end of the country to the other to raise awareness about Operation Noah - as he entered the hall in his walking boots and carrying a heavy rucksack.
From the platform, Sir John Houghton, an eminent meteorologist and former member of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), called upon US President George Bush to read the scientific assessments of the IPCC. Perhaps we should persuade him to do his homework he told delegates, alluding to the fact that the US produces one quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing towards global warming. He had strong words for the British prime minister too, who had declared climate change to be one of his international priorities. It is not enough for Tony Blair to make grand speeches, he said, urging specific actions, particularly during 2005 when the UK Government will assume the presidency of both the G8 and the EU.

Church project

Operation Noah coordinator, Paul Bodenham, called upon all Christians to sign Operation Noah' s Climate Covenant. It is a mechanism to draw us into a covenant with vulnerable people he said, referring to the likelihood that the worst impacts of global warming will be experienced by populations in poor countries. He hoped the issue would move up the agenda of Church groups as well as of civil society.
The initiative has been given the enthusiastic backing of all five presidents of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The presidents include Most Revd. Mario Conti, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow (see interview on pg. 6 of this issue), and Most Revd. and Rt. Hon. David Hope, Anglican Archbishop of York. It is organised by Christian Ecology Link on behalf of the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland is the umbrella body for all the major Christian Churches in Britain and Ireland. It liaises with ecumenical bodies in Britain and Ireland as well as ecumenical organizations at European and world levels, providing a forum for joint decision-making and enabling the Churches to take action together.

The problem

The scientific consensus is that the world is warming. During the last century, the temperature rose very substantially, particularly since the 1970s. The year 1998 is the warmest year on record.
Why is the world warming? The main reason is because of the burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - by human beings, which is putting about seven billion tons of carbon as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Because carbon dioxide absorbs heat radiation - making it a greenhouse gas - it acts as a blanket over the earth's surface, maintaining it warmer than it would otherwise be. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has gone up by over 30% since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Indeed, during the last half of the twentieth century this warming became increasingly apparent and during the twenty-first century the average surface temperature over the globe is expected to rise faster than at any time over the last 10,000 years.
Humans and ecosystems have adapted closely to the current climate, and so rapid warming will have largely adverse impacts. The first of those will be due to sea level rise. That is not because the ice sheets will be melting, but because the ocean water, when it warms up, will expand. The oceans will take centuries to warm up, so it will be a slow process, but sea level rise could be about one metre over the whole world by the end of this century. About 10 million people in Bangladesh live below the 1 metre contour, and they will be facing a crisis when their land and homes go under. In southern China, 25 million people will be displaced by such a sea level rise. There are islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans which will disappear. The Nile Delta in Egypt, and even the Mississippi and Florida in the USA, will have problems. Where are all the displaced people to go? There could be 150 million environmental refugees by 2050.
A second major impact will be on water supplies. There will be more frequent and intense floods and droughts, and the regions most likely to be adversely affected are in developing countries in the sub-tropics, where there is a lack of infrastructure and capacity to cope. Floods and droughts cause more deaths, misery and economic damage than any other types of disasters. Any increase in their frequency or intensity could be the most damaging impacts of global climate change.
Other likely impacts are on human health - increased heat stress and more widespread vector borne diseases such as malaria - and on the health of some ecosystems, such as forests and corals, that are not able to adapt rapidly enough to match the rate of climate change.

International action

What action has been taken to combat the threat of Climate Change? The world's community of scientists, through the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced authoritative reports on the science of climate change and the likely impacts. The last report was produced in 2001. In the light of the scientific information, over 160 governments (including all the world's major countries) agreed the Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Convention spelt out the need for action by all countries, but especially by industrialised nations who have benefited so greatly from cheap fossil fuel energy.
A start with binding commitments on the emissions of carbon dioxide was made in 1997 through the Kyoto Protocol, whereby developed nations had to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by the year 2010 by an average of 5% compared with 1990. Only now is this being ratified by the inclusion of Russia. Necessary post-Kyoto action, however, will be more demanding. To slow and eventually halt climate change, a reduction of global emissions to well below 1990 levels has to occur over the next 50 years. A recent report by the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has recommended a target for the UK of a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, a target that has been accepted by the UK government. By going further than what might be required for the globe as a whole, this demanding target recognises that developed countries need to reduce further than the average to allow developing countries the opportunity to build their industries. To achieve such a target will require rapid development and deployment of appropriate technology, together with a drive to much increased efficiency in the generation and use of energy.

Local and personal action

Global Warming is one of the most severe problems facing the world at the present time. Poverty, population growth, over use of resources, generation and disposal of waste, and loss of biodiversity are other urgent problems. All are strongly linked together, and need to be addressed together.
Many actions can help - planting trees to mop up carbon, being more efficient in our energy generation and use, moving to more non-fossil sources of energy, and learning to consume things in ways which are much less wasteful. Our consumption in the western world is not sustainable, and a radical change of attitude is necessary. The challenge for Christians is to sell a package for this to the world as a whole. Churches can change to green electricity, and design new church properties to incorporate sustainability in terms of energy use and insulation to conserve energy. Church communities can promote the development of renewable energy from windmills, tidal streams and solar. A one metre square photovoltaic solar array can be used by a household or a village in the third world to provide the necessities of life without any connection to a main power supply at all. Lots of these are being produced, but not yet on the scale which would bring the cost of them within the reach of ordinary people, particularly in the third world.
Individuals can cut down on waste, and save energy and natural resources by a whole variety of means in the home. Transport is important too - reducing car use or having fuel-efficient motor cars, and cutting down on air travel because it contributes enormously to carbon dioxide emissions.

Otin Taai Declaration

Here on the small island atoll of Kiribati, the impacts of human-induced climate change are already visible. The sea level is rising. People's homes are vulnerable to the increasingly high tides and storm surges. Shores are eroding and the coral reefs are becoming bleached. The water supplies and soil fertility are being threatened by the intrusion of salt water. Weather patterns are less predictable, posing risks to fisher-folk and farmers.
These words introduced the Otin Taai Declaration, produced by the Pacific Churches' Consultation on Climate Change, which met on the small island state of Kiribati during March 2004. The consultation involved 50 representatives of the Pacific Conference of Churches from Kiribati, Nauru, French Polynesia, Niue, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and the Cook Islands. Otin taai, pronounced osin tai, means sunrise, a symbol of hope in the Kiribati language.
Kiribati is not alone in its plight, according to the Declaration. Many other island nations in the Pacific are experiencing similar impacts of human-induced climate change, affecting about seven million people. The signatories promised to dedicate themselves to engaging Christian Churches internationally in education and action on the issue. Church-related specialised ministries for emergency-response, development and advocacy were called upon to integrate climate change and adaptation projects into their policy development, education and advocacy. Churches were also asked to encourage companies that are major producers or consumers of fossil fuels to support a transition towards less carbon-intensive economies, reduced energy usage and the development of cleaner, renewable energy sources.

Modest little efforts

Over the past few years Dr. David Hallman, of the World Council of Churches' Climate Change Programme, has challenged inaction by the US government over the issue. In the US itself, the Catholic Bishops' Conference issued a statement in 2001: Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good in which they stated that the level of scientific consensus on global warming obligated taking action to avert potential dangers. Since our country's involvement is key to any resolution of these concerns, it said, we call on our people and government to recognise the seriousness of the global warming threat, and to develop effective policies that will diminish the possible consequences of global climate change. The Bush administration was urged to undertake initiatives for energy conservation and the development of renewable energy. US citizens were asked to reflect on their lifestyles as voracious consumers, and consider living more simply. In the UK, on 5 July 2004 the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, endorsed remarks made by Sir David King, the government's chief scientist, describing climate change as a weapon of mass destruction.
Dr Hallam was there in Coventry Cathedral at a service on 9 October to conclude the launch of Operation Noah. From the pulpit, he described climate change as an issue of international justice and inter-generational justice. He felt that seemingly modest little efforts made by individual Christians around the world connect into advocacy and lifestyle change at an international level.