by Martin de Jong, Caritas New Zealand Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand and Caritas Nepal have recently completed production of a 15-minute video looking at climate change in rural Nepal. The video will provide a core resource for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand’s programme in schools for Lent 2011, and is also expected to interest a wider ...
With Climate talks scheduled for December in Cancun, Caritas Mexico is keeping busy in their planning to raise awareness. Bishop Gustavo Rodriguez Vega, the President of Caritas Mexicana was part of the Caritas Internationalis delegation last year at the climate talks in Copenhagen and is eager to mobilize civil society organisations and the Church in ...
By Carlos García Paret, a climate activist from the Brazilian Amazon The situation in Brazil regarding climate change is quite different from that in industrialised nations with higher emissions, such as China, the USA and the EU. As the world’s fourth highest producer of greenhouse gases, 50 percent of Brazil’s emissions derive from deforestation and ...
Nigeriens ran out of food months ago, now the situation is desperate. Half of the people in this landlocked West African nation now don’t have enough to eat. People are eating leaves and livestock feed in order to survive. While hunger in Niger is nothing new, this year is particularly bad. Rains failed last year ...
By Lane Hartill, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Habsu Boubacar has got used to being hungry. The burning stomach, the blurred vision, the joint pain: Habsu has learned how to work through aches, how to force herself to go on. Growing up in Toudoun Jaka, a sand-blasted village full of skeletal cattle and bone-thin dogs that ...
At a recent meeting of the Caritas Internationalis Climate Justice Reference Group there was a lively discussion about the “greening” of our offices. We quickly became aware that we are not only talking about environmental issues and the impact they have on the people we work with but we are also personally trying to do ...
By Mumtaz Bashir Bhatti, Caritas Pakistan Pakistan contributes little to global warming – responsible for one 35th of the world’s average carbon dioxide emissions. Temperatures in the country’s coastal areas have risen from 0.6 to 1 degree centigrade since the early 1900s. Over the last 40 years, precipitation has decreased 10 to 15 percent in ...
Typhoon Morakot was the most distressing catastrophe to hit Taiwan in 50 years, devastating several areas in the south of the country. The heavy rainfall on August 8, 2009 caused mudslides and flooding that buried the entire town of Xiaolin. Hundreds of lives were lost and hundreds more were left homeless and displaced. Morakot’s aftermath resulted in billions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, as well as to agriculture that supported the aboriginal people.
By Tim Walsh, Caritas Oceania A workshop organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) was held during the first week of June in Rarotonga, the capital of the Cook Islands. The aim was to improve the coordination of both the emergency and the gradual response to weather events as ...
One cannot overemphasize the fact that the environmental challenge is the greatest global challenge humanity has ever confronted - one that concerns the very existence of the civilization and all ecosystems of the earth.