October 11, 2007

The warm-up pitch

Dear Friends

No, this is not a letter about baseball. Baseball is virtually unknown in the South Pacific. It is about something even more important than baseball in October.

Youth from local churches in Pago Pago led devotions every morning of the General Assembly of the Pacific Conference of Churches.

I recently attended the General Assembly of the Pacific Conference of Churches in Pago Pago, American Samoa. This was a wonderful ecumenical gathering that involved church leaders from all over the Pacific and included many denominations, languages, and probably as many cultures as there were delegates. Our morning devotions were led each day by youth from the local churches and the Kanana Fou Congregational Seminary where the assembly was held. All the young people sang with such enthusiasm and beauty that I often had a lump in my throat. Items on the agenda included HIV/AIDS, good governance and leadership, ecumenism, human rights, globalization and trade, and the ongoing battle for compensation from the effects of nuclear testing.

One of the most important items on the agenda was global warming and what its effects are on island countries in the Pacific. The news is not good.

A combination of factors is creating havoc, particularly in the countries of Kiribati and Tuvalu. These factors include rising sea levels, increasingly strong cyclones, greater storm surges, and extremely high spring tides called “king tides.” Since none of these countries have any land to spare, any land lost to the sea is critical. The king tides often have waves of nearly ten feet high that wash well into land where homes have been built or is used to raise food crops. Some of the lower coral atolls have already disappeared beneath the waves. If you were here I would show you a picture I have of a former atoll with only one lone tree sticking up out of the water and no land visible! Kiribati has a population of 107,000 people!

With limited fresh water supplies to begin with, these effects are also poisoning the wells that do exist. Farmland that was once viable has now been ruined by salt water. Homes that were once on the shore have been flooded by the ocean.

All of this is happening today—not tomorrow or next week. This involves people, not polar bears or walruses. While I am concerned for the polar bears and walruses, I am more concerned about our brothers and sisters who are losing their homes, their history, their culture and their language. Surely, once the inhabitants of these countries are scattered across the Pacific, it will be only a matter of time before their language is lost, cultural values and norms subsumed into whatever culture they find themselves, and their history, much of which is oral, will disappear forever.

Of course the churches have no governmental power in any of this. Among other things, they are advocating for an open immigration policy for those that are displaced due to the environment. They also have agreed that church leaders will accompany any who are displaced and that receiving congregations will assist in any needed relocation.

So what can we do when we are thousands of miles away? The conference has asked for our prayers and, at the very least, we must do that. We also can work to reduce our own impact on global warming. Driving less and using less energy to heat or cool our homes, for example, are a couple of things we might do. Doing business with or investing in those companies that are operating in environmentally sound ways will contribute to the common good. Yet another way to help is to buy locally grown foods, thereby reducing the amount of energy used to bring produce to market. Lastly, we need to hold our government’s feet to the fire and insist that regulations and laws that begin to reduce our carbon footprint are passed into law and then enforced.

God has made us stewards of the Earth. We have a responsibility to care for creation as a matter of theological belief as well as concern for our fellow humans. This is not a responsibility that we can pass on to our grandchildren anymore than we would pass on the need to obey the Ten Commandments to them. Whether or not you believe that humans are a major contributor to global warning or not I suspect you agree that, at the very least, we do contribute to the problem. So please pray, insulate, drive less, buy locally, and advocate with your representatives for sound environmental policies. Our friends in the Pacific (and the polar bears and walruses) need our help. Thank you.

Sincerely,

David Walter

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 105