Random Quotes

“The field is like a child, conventional farming is like putting chemicals on a child.”

— South Indian farmer converting to organic farming in a CWS supported programme

Resources

CWS partners in Tonga are replanting coastal areas to slow erosion CWS resources:

  • Clean up the Climate: CWS Backgrounder on Climate Change 2009
  • CAII Hot Topics 5: Climate Change in the Pacific  Looks at the impact of Climate Change on small island nations, what the Pacific churches are saying, and what action can be taken.
  • CWS has free resources for children and youth groups on the issue of climate change. We can also provide images and speakers. Contact us

 

Downloadable Reports:

  • Time to pay climate debt: A briefing paper and full report from the Jubilee Debt Campaign. Examines the concept of climate debt and the ways richer countries have overused the planet’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.
  • Climate Change Science Compendium 2009:  A new report compiled by the United Nations Environment Fund is warning the pace and scale of climate change is even more rapid than scientists have predicted. Read the full report on the UNEP site.
  • Community answers to climate chaos: Christian Aid, September 2009. This report demonstrates that poorer communities in developing countries are not just the victims of climate change, but can be part of the solution. It includes case studies of local actions on climate change that show how effective low carbon development can be for alleviating poverty. It calls for an international fund to support these types of initiatives and demands that the Copenhagen conference put people in developing countries at the centre of all agreements.
  • The Race for Climate Justice in UNFCC Talks: A Christian Aid report on climate change impact on poverty, actions to avoid climate catastrophe, UN negiotiations, and how people can escape poverty without adding to the climate crisis. Download 
  • Climate Change and the World Council of Churches: A summary of climate change work by the WCC. Includes statements and papers on climate change. Download
  • Poverty and Climate Change: An OECD report on ways climate change undermines poverty reduction efforts and threatens to undo decades of development. Download

Film Resources:

  • The IRIN, a UN news agency, has released three short films on the human cost of climate change. Focusing on Asia, these films highlight the threat to Vietnam's coastal mangrove forests, the dwindling fish stocks of Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake, and the innovative introduction of floating schools to flood-prone Bangladesh. View on the IRIN site.

 

Website links:

  • COP15 UN Climate Change Conference website: news, facts and information on the official conference to be held 7 - 18 December 2009 in Copenhagen.
  • Intergovernmental Governmental Panel: The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This website has lots of scientific material on climate change
  • FAO Climate Change: The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has a special section on climate change, especially in relation to agriculture and forestry. 
  • IRIN in depth section on the humanitarian impact of climate change: Humanitarian news and analysis from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Includes reports, comment, film, FAQ, and casestudies. 
  • UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: The latest news and documents relating to the international negiotiating process. Includes full text of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol.
  • World Council of Churches Public Campaign on Climate Change: includes statements and reports from the WCC.
  • Human Development Report 2007-2008: special focus on the challenges of climate change for development. Includes tables of each country's carbom emissions along with its normal poverty indicators. 

 

Action Networks:

  • Countdown to Copenhagen: Established by European development agencies, this is a mass movement demanding a fair and just climate deal at Copenhagen. Includes regular news updates. 
  • 350.org.nz Part of a global grassroots movement to unite the world in solutions to climate change. Takes its name from scientists claims that that an atmospheric carbon dioxide of 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for humanity.

Worship materials:

Shared Resources:

We are all in this together and CWS is providing a space for people to share material that they have written as part of the global response to this crisis.   Contact us to submit your resources.

  • Theological and Ecological ethics: How Christian traditions apply to the earth and its habitat. Submitted by John Howell, St Paul's Union Parish (Methodist-Presbyterian) Taupo.