A world expert on climate change has said Christians are neglecting one of the most important commandments in the Bible if they fail to tackle climate change.
On the day that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), announced their most up-to-date findings on climate change, Sir John Houghton, former Co-Chairman of the IPCC, said Christians should take the lead in action to reduce carbon emissions.
Sir John Houghton said: "Human induced climate change will hit poor communities the hardest. It will bring more frequent and intense heat waves, floods and droughts leading to poor harvests, malnutrition, increases in disease and much loss of life.
"The Bible says, 'Love does no harm to its neighbour' (Romans 13:10). But climate change shows us that our energy-hungry lifestyles are harming our poorer neighbours across the world, now. The moral imperative for us to act is unquestionable and inescapable."
Sir John advises leading UK Christian relief and development agency Tearfund, which works through the local church in more than 70 countries to eradicate poverty. He added: "Tearfund's partners around the world are already beginning to experience the damaging effects of climate change. We have no choice but to act now."
Tearfund is helping communities cope with the impacts of climate change right around the globe. Tadesse Dadi, a Tearfund worker in Ethiopia, said millions were already being affected: "Climate change may not yet be a problem for people in Europe, but here in Ethiopia its effects are being felt today by millions of ordinary men and women farmers. Aside from the awful drought that has devastated parts of Somalia, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, the impact of climate change is being faced every single year by peasant farmers in different parts of our country.
"These poor communities, who have contributed least to climate change, are suffering the most from its effects."
To help churches respond to this challenge, Tearfund has launched its first ever climate change challenge. Called 'Don't be Derek', it gives churches across the UK and Ireland a simple way to start cutting their emissions and putting the brakes on climate change.
Tearfund Vice President, the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones has said he will write to his colleagues asking them to take up Tearfund's challenge and promote it to their dioceses.
The Bishop of Liverpool, who has called for a Carbon Fast in his diocese for Lent, says: "It is the poor who are already suffering the effects of climate change. To carry on regardless of their plight is to fly in the face of God's commandments. Tragically when we in the richer countries feel the real force of climate change it will be too late to reverse the inevitable."
The challenge contrasts an average Westerner dubbed 'Derek' who puts his own convenience and comfort first, with Andrew, a farmer from Malawi, struggling to cope with the impact of climate change. It has a range of measures for churches and their congregations to follow, from walking to church, turning down the thermostat by a degree and using china cups after the service rather than disposable ones, to installing solar panels, switching to a green energy supplier and even installing a wind turbine.
Each activity wins the church points. The winner of the challenge will be announced at the end of the year.
For a copy of Tearfund's Don't be Derek click on www.tearfund.org/derek or call 0845 355 8355.
