Flooding displaces 200,000 in Kenya
“Unprecedented and devastating” flooding in Eastern Africa has caused the displacement of 235,000 people in just five days, according to a UN report. Countries most affected include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania. In total, the UN estimates 637,000 people are affected, including tens of thousands of refugees. Over 200 people have died. In…
Passion for environment, humans, creativity motivates fashion revolution
“An estimated 92 million tons of textile waste is created annually from the fashion industry,” Fashion Revolution reported in 2020, citing Global Fashion Agenda. “Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned globally.” In 2022, Bloomberg published that “fashion accounts for up to 10 percent of global carbon-dioxide output—more…
‘We have no safe area under the sky’
For much of my life I associated Ethiopia with famine. I’m just old enough to recall the searing scenes from Ethiopia in the mid-1980s: windswept, dull-beige landscapes; skeletal cattle; distended bellies; flies; people crowding trucks laden with sacks of food; and charitable rock concerts. It was the most famous famine of modern times, made so…
Lonely without insects
Once upon a time I hitchhiked to a park visitors centre nestled beneath Wyoming’s Grand Tetons. Next to other quotes by famous American wilderness gurus were the words of a far-less recognized teacher of ecological wisdom. “Woe be unto you, who add house to house and field to field until you live alone in the…
Grace, guilt and CO2
1. Grace There is more grace in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. That does not let anyone off the hook; it promises that we can face the grim fate of the Earth and the compromises of our lives without being utterly overwhelmed. (And it means I can break bread with sisters and brothers who do…
MC Canada issues call to eco-mission
Leaders of Mennonite Church Canada are calling on the members, congregations and regional churches of the nationwide church to respond to the climate emergency. “We must act, we must act together, and we must act urgently,” write the executive ministers of Mennonite Church Canada, in a four-page document published on Feb. 7. The document, entitled…
Defending peace, defending the climate
Leadership from 18 Anabaptist organizations in the United States and Canada convened at the Anabaptist Collaboration on Climate Change (ACCC) on Jan. 26 and 27 to address what many consider a moral emergency. Those gathered drafted a statement that was later signed by the majority of the participating organizations: “As organizations founded on Christian faith…
Food waste a resource for change
Humanity wastes 931 million tonnes of food each year. This figure—from the 2021 United Nations Environment Programme Food Waste Index Report—is an estimate with an admittedly wide margin of error, but it is probably the best of the wildly varying estimates of food waste in the media. The energy it takes to produce, process, store…
Warm but not fuzzy in 2050
Climate change has been on the agenda of our global village for a generation. The science, the discourse and the mood have shifted over time. As has reality. What was once a dark cloud in the distance has become an atmospheric river overhead. At this particular moment, with the so-called “last chance” UN climate conference…
MC Canada urged to act for climate justice
At the beginning of November, thousands of people from across the globe gathered at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to address the climate crisis. Meanwhile, there was also action happening closer to home. A committee of Mennonites from across Canada launched “7 Calls to Climate Action for Mennonite Church Canada,” which urges the denomination’s…
