Climate Injustice: A Christian Perspective

Written by: Edward Lai Ka-chun (Senior Communications Officer)

 

On 15 March, thousands of students from New Zealand, Australia, India, Thailand, and Hong Kong skipped school and took to the streets to protest against the collective inaction of governments and other world leaders on alleviating global warming. The wave of ongoing protests against climate change has spread across the globe since last Autumn. In an interview with foreign media in February, a French student who boycotted school said, “Why study for a future, which may not be there?”

 

This is somewhat true. In recent years, the United Nations has issued multiple warnings on the imminent threat of climate change: If the countries do not collaborate and adopt comprehensive policies to stop temperature rises, based on the current volume of greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will increase by 1.5°C by 2030. Once we reach the tipping point of a 2°C rise, the world will be plunged into an eco-catastrophe and our offspring will bear the consequences of their ancestors’ poor behaviours.

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Ethiopian Child Sponsorship Programme – Graduates Passing on the Love

Every year in Ethiopia, there are a few beneficiaries “graduating” from the Child Sponsorship Programme* supported by CEDAR. Generally, beneficiaries are no longer supported by the programme once they reached 18 years old, however, we believe that the criterion to “graduate” from the programme shall not be limited to their age. We, instead, take the holistic development of the beneficiaries into account. For this reason, even as they turn 18 years old, we continue to subsidise them in occupational training for 1 to 3 years in hope of a higher chance for them to be employed with a certain qualification. For those that were admitted to university, our subsidy will apply until the completion of their degrees. From 2018, the programme has subisdised 145 children and adolescents and helped 204 parents or guardians form self help groups to fight against long term poverty.

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What is Creation Care?

God and His Creations

“Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” – Romans 1:19-20

When Apostle Paul explain the gospel to the church in Rome, he pointed out that the created world manifest God’s eternal power and divine nature, and no one can hold excuses against it. In the Old Testament, the writers wrote numerous times about the world’s creations to praise God, for example, in Psalm 8:3-4: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Man can glimpse the glory of God through the created world, and knew that he himself was also part of the creations. Man and all things in the heavens, on earth, and in the seas belong to and sustain by the Creator.

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The Letter From CEDAR | March 2019

Dear Friends of CEDAR,

 

Few weeks ago, I took a train to Yuen Long for a meeting. Arriving at the train station’s lobby, I heard a loud and angry voice with foul languages from a short distance. A young man was yelling at a Station Assistant because the ticketing machines would not take his HK$100 note and he was in a hurry. The Assistant patiently advised him to purchase a ticket from the ticketing office. At the ticketing office, right after handing in the HK$100 note, he started scolding again for the same issue. The staff then had to respond to his complaint, instead of getting him a ticket.

 

I didn’t stop to see how he finally got the ticket, but I wondered if this young man realised his emotional act was actually causing further delay to his trip. This is an example of how emotion and a busy mind could distract us from the important things.

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