8/9/2019 January 2009 Resolutions to Action Leadership Conference of Women Religious

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Resolutions LCWR Global Concerns Committee

Volume 18, Number 1 January 2009

To Action

LCWR8808 Cameron StreetSilver Spring, MD 20910301-588-4955fax: 301-587-4575mlucey@lcwr.org

Roxanne Schares, SSNDInternational Shalom (JPIC) Coordinator -- Rome, Italy

www.lcwr.org

E XPERIENCE

Resolutions to Action is an occasional publica-tion of the Global Concerns Committee of the

Leadership Conference of Women Religious(LCWR). Members of the committee are: Jacquelyn Doepker, OSF; Janet Lehmann,SC; Miriam Mitchell, SHSp; Andrea Nenzel,CSJP; Susan Schorsten, HM; Kathleen Storms,SSND; and Marie Lucey, OSF, staff. Pleaseaddress correspondence to:

Climate Change and Hunger

S ia Ana ysis

For I was hungry Many speakof hunger. Who are the hungry?Around the world desperate criesof hunger resound. With higher foodprices now, we eat only once a day.We had hoped the rains would im-prove, but the animals died and food

is scarce. Often it is leaves, shrubs,and mud cakes for the children.

A family of six has less than half asack of corn, with eight months untilthe next harvest. Encamped refugeesreport food rations cut again, far below minimum standards. Mostheart wrenching is the report of aWest African mother; desperate toprovide for the family, she sold fourof her children. The $64 she receivedhelped her feed the rest awhile longer.Estimates are that one billion peoplewill go hungry and another two billion will be undernourished. (BanKi-moon, UNs Millennium Develop-ment Goals Report 2008, 11 September2008) 16,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day.

Why hunger? Reasons given for thefood crisis are varied, complex, andsubject to debate. Blame is cast upon

high fuel prices which heighten costs oftransportation, agricultural inputs, andcommercially produced crops; increasedproduction and use of biofuels; risingdemand for energy and a varied, higheranimal protein diet among populationsin emerging economies; national andinternational trade and agricultural poli-cies; commodity market speculations;more frequent oods, droughts, and poorharvests; climate change.

C limate change is a key factor inthe increased hunger in the world.Global climate change means notonly average global temperature increas-es, but global sea level rise, unpredictableweather patterns with more frequent andsevere droughts, oods, and hurricanes.Poor people and countries who havecontributed least to climate change sufferthe worst impacts and are particularlyaffected by the negative consequences.

Most of the worlds one billion extremelypoor reside in areas prone to ooding, cy-clones, and droughts and are without thecapacity to adapt to such disasters. Manylive in rural areas and depend on agricul-ture or other climate-sensitive industriesfor their livelihoods. Impoverished areas

of Africa and Asia face severe croplosses from climate change within thenext 20 years. Yields from rain-fedagriculture in sub-Saharan Africa could be reduced by as much as 50 percent by 2020. (Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change, 2007) In low-lyingregions of tropical Asia, more frequentoccurrences of hurricanes, tsunamis,and coastal ooding increase salinityin soils and loss of cultivated land andnursery areas for sheries. Glaciersretreating in the Himalayas and theAndes already affect vast numbers ofpeople in Asia and Latin America.

Obtaining world food security in thecontext of the impact of climate changemay be one of the greatest challenges of

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the 21st century. Escalating food insecu-rity and the scourge of hunger demandthat governments and the internationalcommunity recognize everyones rightto food, address root causes, and devise

comprehensive and just responses thatallow all human beings, from all partsof the world, to live with dignity andfreedom from want.

Every faith tradition calls us to feedthe hungry and to care for Earthand its myriad life forms. Thepowerful account of the judgment ofnations in Matthew 25:31-46 is but one

summons to ponder our response to thehungry and vulnerable. Catholic SocialTeaching, rooted in the sacredness andfundamental dignity of every humanlife, reiterates that all have a respon-sibility to care for creation, contributeto the common good, the well being ofeach and all, and respond with particu-lar concern for the poor and aficted.

Climate change and the food crisis areissues of justice, issues of life and deathfor billions of poor around the world,for eco-systems and species, and forEarth itself. The seriousness of eachcrisis lays bare the depth of the presentmoral and spiritual crisis. The urgencycompels us to face the injustices withinstructures and policies which shapethese issues and to work for appropri-ate local and global response. There isa need to break with the logic of mereconsumption and promote forms ofagricultural and industrial productionthat respect the order of creation andsatisfy the basic human needs of all.(Compendium of the Social Doctrine ofthe Church, No. 486)

Pope Benedict XVI in his message tothe Vatican seminar on climate changein April 2007 invited everyone to adopta way of living, models of productionand consumption marked by respect forcreation and the need for sustainable

development of peoples. There is needfor prophetic communities, which willlook for the deeper, long-term solutionsand will embody and witness to alter-native lifestyles that respect and foster

fullness of life for all. There is need forauthentic global solidarity for the heal-ing and restoring of right relationshipswith all of creation.

T he crises facing us make appar-ent that we live in an interrelated,interdependent world. Policy andlifestyle choices affect not only our-

selves but extend to all corners of theuniverse and into the future. In theo-logical terms this is a kairos moment, because the decisions taken by this gen-eration will have huge consequencesfor future generations. If this generationfails to confront this issue, then no fu-ture generation will be able to undo thedamage. Every human being and everycreature in successive generations willsuffer. (Sean McDonagh, SSC)

Each of us is called and has the moralresponsibility to discern and carry outpersonal and corporate actions forclimate and food justice. We have heardthe cries, For I was hungry... (Mt.25:35) We cannot remain indifferent.The time to act is now.

In solidarity enter into the experienceof hunger. Fast as a spiritual exerciseand while fasting pray for the hungry,particularly those affected by climatechange and our 25,000 brothers andsisters who die of malnutrition andhunger-related diseases every day.

Reect on the culture and patterns ofconsumption within our personal andcommunal lives and corporate institu-tions and take concrete steps to useGods gifts wisely and to live sustain-ably, in harmony with all in the Earthcommunity.

Educate ourselves and others aboutthe diverse but interrelated issues andfactors of climate change, poverty, andfood within a global framework andabout the moral and spiritual obliga-

tions to face up to the radical changesrequired.

Collaborate and advocate with othersfor a holistic vision and approach; forinnovative and sustainable solutionsto the interrelated global food, climate,energy, and nancial crises; and formore just national and internationalfood, agricultural, trade, and climateagreements and policies.

For additional resources, visit websites:

www.catholicsandclimatechange.org;www.usccb.org/sdwp/interna-tional/globalclimate.shtml;www.coc.org: Center for Concernon climate change, the global com-mon good, etc.;www.educationforjustice.orgforupdated analysis of the world foodcrisis;www.operationnoah.org for Be-tween the Flood and the Rainbow:Climate Change and the ChurchsSocial Teaching study guide andother resources;www.bread.org : Bread for theWorld background paper onGlobal Climate Change, Hunger,and Poverty What is at Stake?www.bread.org/learn/global-hun-ger-issues/global-climate-change.html;Human Development Report2007/2008: Fighting climate

change: Human solidarity in adivided world, http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/.

http://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/http://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/http://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.shtmlhttp://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.shtmlhttp://www.coc.org/http://www.coc.org/http://www.educationforjustice.org/http://www.educationforjustice.org/http://www.operationnoah.org/http://www.bread.org/http://www.bread.org/http://www.bread.org/learn/global-hunger-issues/global-climate-change.htmlhttp://www.bread.org/learn/global-hunger-issues/global-climate-change.htmlhttp://www.bread.org/learn/global-hunger-issues/global-climate-change.htmlhttp://www.bread.org/learn/global-hunger-issues/global-climate-change.htmlhttp://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/http://www.bread.org/learn/global-hunger-issues/global-climate-change.htmlhttp://www.bread.org/http://www.operationnoah.org/http://www.educationforjustice.org/http://www.coc.org/http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.shtmlhttp://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/