EU donor countries are helping to meet the MDGs

On Wednesday April 9th, the European Commission launched its yearly update on how EU donor countries are helping to meet the MDGs. This year President Barroso and Commissioner for Development Louis Michel used the opportunity to make some key announcements on advancing crucial development assistance for African countries. It’s fantastic that the leadership of the Commission is putting development matters so high on his political agenda. Less than a week after the London Summit, the Commission outlined three main ways it would act to help developing countries combat the effects of this economic crash:
Read more

http://www.one.org/blog/2009/04/09/european-commission-update/

What’s your carbon reduction strategy?

In this week's British Medical Journal

by Fiona Godlee, editor, BMJ

Back in 2006 I wrote an Editor’s Choice called "What did you do about climate change Mum?" read here. It suggested that doctors might start measuring their carbon footprint. The most interesting thing about this short piece was the response it received on bmj.com read here. What was this stuff doing in a medical journal? What was I doing uncritically accepting the propaganda of the global warming lobby?

Things have changed since then. WHO’s director general Margaret Chan has called climate change the biggest public health challenge of the 21st century. And last week the UN and Red Cross warned that a humanitarian crisis caused by droughts, floods, storms, and heatwaves could overwhelm relief agencies read here. Most chilling for me was a comment at a meeting at the Royal College of Physicians last year. When asked what people should do about climate change, Tom Burke of Rio Tinto said "Don’t be under 40."

To look at the editorial click here

Rowan Williams warns of ecological doomsday

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that the world faces an ecological “doomsday” if the issues of climate change and the environment are ignored.
Read more here

Stop new coal power stations in the UK

As part of the Carbon Fast, Tearfund have asked us to take action and treat climate change as a justice issue. We can take action to stop new coal power stations now!

Climate change is happening now, and it’s hitting the poorest hardest. But the UK government is set to give the go-ahead to new, coal-fired power stations which would emit massive amounts of greenhouse gas. Please urge the government to say ‘no’ to new coal power stations.

If built, Kingsnorth power station will release 8.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – more than Kenya’s annual emissions. (Source: Earthscan, The Atlas of Climate Change, 2006. We are finding that climate change is already affecting the world’s poorest people through floods, droughts and rising sea levels. But poor communities produce only a tiny fraction of the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. The average annual emissions of a UK citizen are 32 times higher than a Kenyan. (Source: Earthscan, The Atlas of Climate Change, 2006)

With one hand, the UK government is striving to get climate change under control. It has introduced the Climate Change Bill to cut UK emissions and is working on an international climate change agreement.

But with the other hand, the government is doing the opposite – looking to approve new, coal power stations, beginning with Kingsnorth in Kent. These will make it nearly impossible for the UK to make the emissions cuts promised in the Climate Change Bill.

Tearfund is mobilising Christians and churches to ask the government to say ‘no’ to new coal power stations and promote renewable energy and energy efficiency instead. Take action.
Find out more and send an e-mail to Gordon Brown here
here
Please take action. We need to act urgently to ensure that the government works to prevent climate catastrophe for the world’s poorest people.

Please pray

*
* That the government will take the right steps to promoting clean energy in the UK
* That the government won't build new coal-fired power stations
That Christians will set an example with their lifestyles in protecting creation and living in a way that doesn’t harm poor communities"
http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/Climate+change+and+disasters/Coal.htm

You can sign the put people first petition

here

More details on how the Church is contributing to this campaign, and also the church service that's part of Saturday's events in London, can be found here

Put People First

David Golding of Make Poverty History North East has highlighted the Put people first coalition which says:"The financial crisis has graphically demonstrated to people in rich and poor countries that the current international economic system doesn't work. We need a radically different economic system which puts people and the planet first. The only sustainable way to rebuild the global system is to create a fair distribution of wealth that provides decent jobs and public services for all, to end global poverty and inequality and to build a green economy. I call upon the G20 leaders to Put People First when they meet in London on April 2nd." Why don't we add our names to this petition or go to the church service, march and rally in London on 28th March, just before the meeting of the G20 group of world leaders.
Put People First is a major new coalition of British agencies uniting to promote the interest of ordinary people, and particularly the poor, throughout the world. Its members include Cafod, Christian Aid, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Micah Challenge, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund, Traidcraft, and scores of others. Website, www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk

Puddles of Grace

As I sit quietly,
Snug in the warm
I am content to listen,
To the relentless downpour;
Watching as droplets
Collide with the glass
And slide down in rivers
To pool on the grass.

A necessary hindrance
To the tasks of the day
The water collects
And over pedestrians does spray.
Its purpose and importance
So easily forgot
To those of us who live
Where it is less hot.

But to those who live
In the dry, arid lands
And whose breath is sucked out
By the harsh, parched sands,
The droplets of mercy,
That fall from the heavens,
Bring healing and hope
And sustenance to millions.

How much we take for granted
In our lands of plenty
Where food and water’s consumed
And our bellies never empty
Yet we don’t taste the joy
Or feel the pleasure
Of finding puddles of grace
That bring life without measure.

Becca Mayo 2009