         
I'm new to the whole blogging world -- so this is a very simple initial musing. I've just been at a conference -- the 2007 Ecumenical World Development Consultation -- which had a partial focus on Climate Change as part of its general theme of "how do our choices [in the North] impact on the Global South?" Andrew Simms from the New Economics Foundation and Sir John Houghton (www.jri.org.uk) gave excellent presentations on the nature of global warming and what needs to happen in terms of adaptation and mitigation. Now, back home, I'm looking at what I plant in my garden this year. From the very large-scale . . . to the very (in the case of my garden, VERY) small. But I'm keenly aware that it's in that gardening, that connection with "the natural world" that I'm most immediately conscious of the impacts of global warming in this precise area at this immediate time. Will we have another baking summer? Is it worth planting lupins? Or should I go for ever more lavendar? And then this thinking about the land and my relation to it brings me back to conversations with colleagues in the Global South, colleagues whose awareness of the potential impacts of global warming is far greater -- not least because the potential consequences in their areas are on a scale we can't really yet conceive of. I think of the woman from a small Pacific island, who recently described how another island had been completely submerged and spoke of her fears for other islands. . . . a woman from Swaziland (Southern Africa) describing the terrible impact on her largely rural society of the current drought, the kind of drought that could become ever more common if global warming scenarios progress. . . . I remember the fragility of the land, the very marginal nature of it, in the area of South Africa with which our diocese and church are linked. And I remember the comment of a Melanesian, expressing what so many in developing countries must feel: "We are the innocent victims." So, given these potentially horrendous consequences for others of our continuing along in the status quo, how do we begin to inspire people to act in positive ways? I am so glad to be part of Climate-X-Change and hope that we can continue to explore ways to inspire, challenge, and move each other along the road!
Blog post by msjn on March 30, 2007 at 12:50 p.m.
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