Durban, South Africa — Archbishop Desmond Tutu said this week that the threat of climate change could wipe out any gains made in the the fight against HIV-Aids. “We might get to defeat AIDS but discover we are getting ourselves fried — or drowning. We have to take seriously the challenge of climate change.”
The Nobel laureate, who hosted an inter-faith COP17-inspired rally and concert for climate justice in Durban last weekend, was speaking at an HIV-Aids awareness conference in Cape Town. He warned that if developed nations failed to cut back on their emissions, the earth would “go poof and we will go poof with it.”
Retired Anglican bishop Geoff Davies, who compèred last weekend’s We Have Faith – Act Now for Climate Justice event, has also warned that we are rapidly destroying our life support systems.
“Climate change is the greatest threat ever to confront humanity,” he said this week.
“Congregations must recognize that caring for the environment is an integral part of our responsibility, just as we care for the well-being of people.”
Davies heads the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute. The coalition of religious leaders from different faith communities, committed to climate justice, are working to develop a program called “eco congregation,” which aims to get all faith groups committed to caring for, defending and protecting the environment.
Meanwhile, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) was set to hold a Sunday December 4 prayer service in the township of Umlazi outside Durban, focused on COP17 negotiations and climate justice.
As the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (CMP7) reached its weekend halfway-mark at Durban’s Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre complex, the prayer service was reportedly organized at the request of the President of COP17-CMP7, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
An open invitation was extended to anyone from any denomination who wished to attend the multi-faith service, conducted by the general secretary of South African Council of Churches, the Rev. Mautji Pataki and other local clergy.
The SACC has said that it regards the participation of churches and Christians in matters of climate change and climate justice action as driven by ethical, moral and spiritual imperatives in solidarity with poor, marginalized and vulnerable communities.
The service intended to spread the ecumenical message on climate justice action and focus on prayer for the restoration of human communities and the healing of creation and climate change through COP17 and beyond.
Also in Durban on December 4, a multi-faith afternoon prayer service was held in the sports center on the Steve Biko campus of the Durban University of Technology.
Faith leaders representing all faiths were invited to go pray for the COP17 negotiations and the successful reduction of carbon emission in the interest of saving planet earth and ensuring a healthy, safe future for coming generations.
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