Climate Justice
Oh, that’s right. The earth is still warming.
With almost constant talk of the pandemic over the last 18 months it can be easy to forget that global climate change is still taking place.
Thankfully, as some of the research has shown, with heaps of us limiting our travel or being staying at home the earth is able to take a breath.
Things aren’t fixed, though we have seen a reduction in smog in highly populated areas where people haven’t been commuting to work, and our ongoing battle against CFCs affecting the ozone layer appears to be working (albeit slowly).
We’re far from done. There’s lots more to do.
As a movement the Uniting Church in Australia knows that it’s part of our responsibility to care for the earth and everyone in it, and so we’ve publicly supported events like the School Strike for Climate to encourage young people to have a voice and encourage action to turn around the effects of man-made climate change. There are resources available for you church to display that will help people remember it’s our responsibility to look after God’s creation.
There’s also opportunities like the Better Futures Forum that our church is actively engaged in with our Indigenous brothers and sisters to advocate with our political leaders to act on climate change.
The Synod Climate Action Strategy is powering who we are and will be, determined bystanders the 2019 Synod in Session, to “reduce carbon emissions across all councils and agencies of the church”, “advocate to all levels of government to take decisive actions to reduce emissions,” and “support young people in their call for action on climate change.”
The situation is deadly serious.
In every opportunity we should encourage our young people to express their faith in how they talk about and take action on climate change. There’s lots of great resources and ideas here that can help get you, and them, started.
Remember you can keep in touch with PULSE by signing up for our monthly newsletter, or for further information contact our team via email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
Molk is the Senior Field Officer (North), and Young Adult ministry leader as a part of the PULSE team.
