FOUR DAYS BEFORE deadly floods swept through western Germany and parts of Belgium in mid-July, the hydrologists and flood forecasters at the University of Reading in the UK, were congratulating themselves. They were proud of the advanced technology that had enabled them to predict extreme rain and a Europe-wide flood alert. But they were soon left dumbfounded at the scenes of devastation and deaths that occurred despite their warnings.
The world’s most advanced countries remain powerless to thwart the brute forces of nature. Faced with unprecedented changes in weather, people are gradually coming to terms with the underlying cause of its unpredictability: climate change.
The month of July witnessed disastrous natural calamities across the world, all related to climate change. Floods in Henan resulted in “significant loss of life and damage to property,” the BBC quoted China’s president, Xi Jinping, as saying. The official death toll from devastating floods that struck the central Chinese province stood at 69 on July 26. More than three million people have been affected by the severe weather, which slammed the provincial capital, Zhengzhou. Scientists have zeroed in on the reasons for the heavy rainfall and flood: “Widespread dam construction has exacerbated climate change problems.”
Even as mainland China was facing torrential rain and floods, across the straits Taiwan faced a contrasting problem in the month of May—severe drought. Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, called for more water conservation with the island facing the worst drought in nearly 60 years. The situation is little better in the United States. On July 20, the New York Times reported: “Much of the western half of the United States is in the grip of a severe drought of historic proportions. Conditions are especially bad in California and the Southwest.”
While Europe and Asia were experiencing extreme rainfall and flooding, Russia had a different problem to tackle. Wildfires have flared across the country amid a heatwave, tearing through over 1.5 million hectares of land in Yakutia, the worst-hit region.
The problem is there for everyone to see, but what people refuse to see is a solution. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and scientists from the World Meteorological Organisation have given guidelines to tackle the impending horrors of carbon emission and global warming.
The Church considers it as a commandment to “Care for Our Common Home.” Five years ago, Pope Francis provided the recommendations in his encyclical, Laudato Si’, and there is no dearth of literature on caring for God’s creation. Yet the Church today lacks a roadmap to match the encyclical.
The Church must offer an action plan for dealing with a warming earth. Our Sunday schools and adult catechism classes should take up environmental issues together with faith formation. Parish-level service groups must be set up to promote care for creation. There must be a common plan to strengthen climate education in all Catholic schools across Hong Kong. Our parishes and Church institutions must take up energy audits.
How are we to fulfill God’s call to be stewards of creation in an age when we may have the capacity to alter that creation significantly—and perhaps irrevocably? jose cmf
