Pacific Conference of Churches DIscuss Environmental Sustainability
World Council of Churches (WCC) representatives from the nineteen member Pacific region called for solidarity on environmental, societal and economic issues, during a plenary session at the WCC's Central Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Feb. 18, 2005.
Significant issues of concern included climate change, HIV/AIDS and the fallout of nuclear testing, according to the WCC.
Selai Cati, a member from the church in Kiribati, said climate change is threatening the way of life for the region’s island nations. Cati specifically pointed to the extreme weather, rising sea levels, erosion and the loss of crops, as topics of concern for the island dwellers.
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"For us it is a matter of life and death," she declared. The Pacific region was described as "the liquid continent", consisting as it does of widely distributed small islands sitting in millions of square kilometres of ocean.
In lieu of environmentally abusive ways of life, Cati encouraged the US and Australia to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol and presented a list of recommendations to the central committee, including one that called on “our sisters and brothers in Christ throughout the world to act in solidarity with us to reduce the causes of human-induced climate change". The recommendation especially extended that call to the highly industrialized nations to take responsibility and pay "for the costs of adaptation to the impacts that can be anticipated".
Meanwhile, John Doom of the Maòhi Protestant Church detailed the sad history of nuclear testing in the region, with 322 such tests between 1946 and 1996. He asked the WCC to continue to make the test victims' voices heard and to help them obtain compensation, according to the Council.
Valamotu Palu, the general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, closed the session with words of hope.
"We have taken you to the Pacific and presented you with the hopes and dreams of our people,” said Palu. “We need action, and, more importantly, we need solidarity from our Christian brothers and sisters."
