Hubert is a part-time student, pursuing a Masters of Sustainability and Risk Management at the Ostafalia University of Applied Science.

Thousands of Congolese workers cram into a cobalt mining pit (Siddharth Kara); image sourced from https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/phone-electric-vehicle-congo-cobalt-mine-b2277665.html

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has numerous environmental issues because of an intricate relationship of historical, political, economic, and social variables. These challenges threaten not only the country’s great biodiversity but also the financial security and health of its citizens.

One of the most significant concerns is deforestation, mostly caused by agricultural development, logging, and charcoal manufacture. According to the World Bank, the DRC has lost approximately 0.3% of its forest cover each year from 2000 to 2018. This not only decreases carbon storage capacity but also worsens soil degradation and habitat degradation, providing a threat to Indigenous communities that rely on woodland resources for food and cultural activities (World Bank, 2020).

Further, mining activities, notably for minerals such as coltan, gold, and cobalt present major risks to the environment. These activities frequently occur in environmentally sensitive locations, destroying habitats, polluting rivers with toxic substances, and degrading soil. Cobalt extraction, an essential element in batteries for electric vehicles and electronics, has been connected to deforestation and water contamination, exacerbating environmental concerns (Tsuruta et al., 2019).

Insufficient waste management systems exacerbate emissions in cities and natural areas. With increasing urbanization and growing populations, municipal waste production has risen dramatically, exceeding existing disposal systems. In places like Kinshasa, rubbish frequently moves up in rivers or open landfills, poisoning water sources and threatening the health of aquatic ecosystems. The lack of effective waste treatment facilities not only endangers populations’ health, but also leads to the deterioration of air, soil, and water quality (Schipper et al., 2019).

The impact of global warming poses another major challenge for the DRC, resulting in irregular weather patterns, a rising number of catastrophic events, and fluctuations in agricultural production. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns are expected to exacerbate existing environmental stressors, aggravating food poverty and displacing vulnerable communities. (IPCC, 2019).

Addressing these numerous issues entails striking a balance between conservation initiatives and environmentally friendly growth goals. By tackling forest destruction, inappropriate mining activities, waste management problems, and climate change adaptation, the DRC can protect the environment while also promoting socioeconomic development.

Isaiah 24:4-6 reads “The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.” Stewardship is emphasized in these words, acknowledging that God owns the earth and that it is our responsibility to care for it with respect. They also caution against the negative effects of disobeying this obligation, such as the devastation of the ecosystem and the coming judgment of God.

References

1. World Bank. (2020). Congo, Democratic Republic of the – Forest loss (annual %). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.FRST.ZS?locations=CD

2. Tsuruta, D., Murayama, T., & Nakagoshi, N. (2019). Environmental impacts of mining activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A critical review. Sustainability, 11(15), 4195.

3. Schipper, E. L., Delaney, A., D’Almeida, A., & Wilches-Chaux, G. (2019). Urban waste management in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 21(1), 182-189.

4. IPCC. (2019). IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/.

It began with a simple question.

Last summer (2022), the Board and Staff serving the Lausanne Movement in Canada asked: ‘What would it look like to collaborate with our mission partners around themes that will help equip Canadians to participate in God’s mission more effectively?’

Creation Care, one of seven focus areas Lausanne Movement Canada has prioritized, was selected for the pilot phase of this project. From February 15 to March 22, we hosted an online webinar experience for interested Canadians to interact with featured guests from A Rocha, Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network, Tearfund Canada, and Renew Our World. The format provided interaction with clips from the Lausanne Global Classroom: Creation Care content, then built upon the themes each week with interviews, breakout discussion, questions and reflections, as well as prayer. You can learn about how we structured the content here.

For participants, there were some ‘ahas’ around starting local, operating from a place of worship, stewardship, and wonder of God’s creation. One participant, Olivia (a pseudonym), expressed the following during our sixth session,

“We’ve been at this a long time, so how do we renew our spirits in this? We are so busy to do the work of creation care, that we forget to “slow down” and let God refresh us”.

She went on to say,

“I really resonated with that video clip (from Dave Bookless), where he shared, “If you don’t know what to do, pray.” That hit me like a ton of bricks, realizing I’ve been trudging along with the same things for a long time, but maybe it’s time for me to change this—maybe it’s time for me to pray for new revelation. God’s revelation is constant, and maybe my journey is supposed to change.

Praise God for the gift of being renewed, by His Word and Spirit, and through this community of fellow believers, sojourning together in caring for creation. You are welcome to get in touch with Joel at  learn@lausannecanada.com from Lausanne Movement Canada, for further guidance on how you could initiate something similar where you have been planted, to make a difference.

The new IPCCC Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report (from the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change) was released on March 20^th. The full report took 8 years, runs to 8,000 pages and involved over 780 scientists! Let’s break it down to make it easier to understand:

Chris Elisara writes (based on the 36 page Summary for Policymakers):

Note the “very high confidence” level of the scientific consensus of these findings. First the bad news: “Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence) … The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years” (IPCC, p.25)

While the time to act is fast running out before we are locked into higher levels of temperature increase with the worst possible outcomes for people and the planet, there is still hope if we can step up do what’s needed now. To quote the report again, “Deep, rapid and sustained mitigation and accelerated implementation of adaptation actions in this decade would reduce projected losses and damages for humans and ecosystems (very high confidence (p.27). Feasible, effective, and low-cost options for mitigation and adaptation are already available, with differences across systems and regions. (high confidence) (p.30, emphasis added.)

The good news is that we already have the technology and solutions we need at hand. The time to rally and use them is now.

To learn more about what LWCNN partners are saying about the report, read the related news items below:

• Katharine Hayhoe, WEA’s Climate Ambassador with a one minute video summary of the Synthesis Report. She also released a helpful summary on Twitter, including: “Our choices matter and the faster we act, the better off we will all be – all of us who call this planet home.”
• A Rocha International’s Response to the latest IPCC Report highlights the devastating reality and risks the report reveals, and that there are not one but three crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty and inequality. A Rocha International emphasises that there is a ‘rapidly closing window of opportunity’ but if we act now, we can still secure a liveable, sustainable future for all.

It is now almost 3 years since we lost our dear brother, John Houghton. We have just learned of a tribute by his and our good friend Bob White that was published in The Royal Society several months ago.

The picture above is from the article – I daresay none of us have seen him this young. Following is a brief excerpt:

John Houghton made seminal contributions to understanding the temperature and structure of the stratosphere. After gaining the highest first in physics at Oxford, his DPhil involved building a radiometer that was flown in a post-war Mosquito. It started a long interest in developing instrumentation. He completed his National Service doing research into atmospheric composition at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, then returned to 21 years in Oxford. He led a team that, with others, built a series of instruments launched on Nimbus satellites during 1970 to 1978 to measure infrared radiation from the stratosphere. At age 48 he left academia to head up the Appleton Research Laboratories, tasked to move them to the Rutherford Laboratory and realign their work from upper atmospheric radio research to space support. Four years later he was appointed director general of the Meteorological Office. In his eight-year term, he moved it from dependence on the Ministry of Defence to becoming an independent agency, developed its commercial arm and strengthened its research. He also founded the Hadley Centre to work on climate-related issues. His most significant global contribution was helping to set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), then chairing its working group on scientific assessments through their first three reports during 1990 to 2001. After retirement he devoted his time to raising awareness of climate change through many lectures and articles, and co-founded the John Ray Initiative to address the challenges of sustainable development and environmental stewardship. Appropriately, the Sixth IPCC WG1 Assessment Report in August 2021 was dedicated posthumously to him.

…In 2007 the IPCC was announced as the joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Al Gore Jr. The citation stated it was ‘for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change’. John, along with a group of others from the IPCC, were delighted to attend the ceremony. It remained one of the highlights of his career, along with receiving the Japan Prize in the previous year. In August 2021, the sixth assessment report was released with a posthumous dedication to Sir John Houghton, a mark of the respect in which the scientific community held him.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network is committed to the idea that healing God’s creation is not going to happen because of governments or huge organizations, but because of many thousands of small efforts by Christians in congregations around the world.

One such report has come to us from Katie Young, an American missionary in Marseille, France:

I am just sending along anyway a few photos from the weekend for the creation that we had here in Marseille, France, 8-9 October 2022. I am an American missionary here for the last 30+ years. I am also an ambassador with A Rocha and Eglise verte (Green church). This is the first time we had a weekend like this. Our church just joined the Green church program three years ago. 

Jean-François Mouhot, directeur A Rocha France, spoke to a small group of people on Friday afternoon, then at ‘la Pastorale’ (pastors in our area of the city) Friday night, then on Saturday we heard from our young people’s groupe, Pollen, then planted at our “terrain visa vert”, then came back for a finger food apéro, the conference was after that and our chorus opened it up with 3 songs. Sunday, JF spoke again at Bible classe, had a creation themed worship time, then we even had a vegan pot luck meal. In the afternoon we had ateliers zéro waste toothpaste, face lotions and laundry soap. A lot of people came, and it was awesome to meet other christians from other churches who are interested in caring for the creation. I announced the start of a ‘groupe local A Rocha Marseille’ in January, meaning getting together among Christians concerned for the environment and learning and planning things together. Many were interested. It was a great weekend and we thank the Lord!

Thank you so much for what you do !

Blessings-

Katie Young

Katie sent us a lot of pictures. Here are just a few:

Tell us about your local activities, too!

Dave Bookless has shared an excellent summary of the final conference in the LWCCN Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel campaign.

The report can be accessed below.

There were a number of Creation Care organizations present at COP27. Most of us, however, weren’t able to attend. The following follow up summaries are available – some are reports, some are links to post-COP webinars.

The Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP) sent out daily reports; all are accessible here if you want a day-by-day recap of what it was like to be at COP27. (Remember, this program is run every year – it’s not to early to let them know if you want to be part of the team for COP28… in Dubai!

It’s not a faith-based report, but EcoWatch has a good summary of the accomplishments and disappointments coming out of COP27 here. Also check the Guardian’s very good Explainer which outlines the outcomes from COP27.

If you’d like a video from someone who was there, check JRI’s President Mike Morecroft’s report here.

For a slightly different take, check out SAT-7’s COP27 reporting on this page. SAT-7 is a Middle East based Christian television outlet, and this reporting is helpfully geared toward that audience.

For regular updates, here are some of our partner organizations with the links to sign up:

TEARFUND – They will house COP27 information on their Climate Landing page (a good page to bookmark permanently!), and specific prayers for COP can be found here. If you still use Twitter in this Elon Musk era, Tearfund’s Action twitter feed is here.

CHRISTIAN CLIMATE OBSERVERS PROGRAM (CCOP): The Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP) will bring a team of 36 emerging Christians leaders to the COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt this November 7 – 19.  COP27 is the annual UN gathering where world leaders negotiate how to solve the climate crisis.  The CCOP is a mentoring and training program designed to empower Christian leaders to take the next step forward in climate advocacy within their spheres of influence.  You can follow along with what’s happening at the COP by signing up for their daily COP newsletter.  To learn more about CCOP you can visit the website: http://www.ccopclimate.org/.  Applications for next year CCOP cohort open June 1, 2023. 

Note: CCOP is a collaborative effort by mostly North American creation care organizations and Christian Universities.

CLIMATE INTERCESSORS: This group meets throughout the year for monthly online prayer meetings about the climate crisis. These folks have solved the time zone problem by holding each meeting four different times. Their next meeting is on Nov 8, and will focus on COP27. Here is their latest newsletter, and the schedule for the upcoming meeting is as follows. (These folks have solved the time zone problem by holding each meeting four different times – no excuses!):

Join our global zoom prayer meetings on
Tuesday, November 8

10h00 GMT (18h00 SGT; 21h00 AEDT: 23h00 NZDT)
13h00 GMT (8h00 EST; 5h00 PST; 21h00 SGT;  Wed: 24h00 AEDT)
20h00 GMT (15h00 EST; 12h00 PST;; Wed: 4h00 SGT; 7h00 AEDT)
20h00 EST (17h00 PST;; Wed: 1h00 GMT, 9h00 SGT; 12h00 AEDT)Zoom link for all meetings:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3908003224
Meeting ID: 390 800 3224

And finally, the John Ray Initiative will be offering a post-COP webinar by their President and IPCC lead author Mike Morecroft at

8 – 9:30 pm UK time on November 17.

Registration is here (Free but the Zoom link only available after registering.) (Please note: as of this writing, just 29 places were still available. You have been warned!)

Photo: Christianity Today

Last month we noted the ending of the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care and the Gospel Global Campaign with our final conference for the Middle East North Africa region that was held in Jordan. Christianity Today’s Middle Eastern correspondent was at the conference and interviewed Lausanne Catalyst Ed Brown on a variety of subjects.

Here’s the Introduction. Click here for the web article.

If the world is at stake, stewardship of creation must be global. And with an evangelical passion akin to world missions, Ed Brown is preaching ecology to the nations.

One region at a time.

Following initial consultations in Jamaica in 2012, Brown became the Lausanne Movement’s catalyst for creation care and helped build out the Lausanne/World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network (LWCCN). The goal was to amplify a conviction forged two years earlier in Cape Town, South Africa, at the third Lausanne Congress: Creation care is a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.

Since then, LWCCN has conducted conferences in 12 regions drawing delegates from over 120 nations. Concluding earlier this month in Jordan for the Middle East and North Africa, Brown and his colleagues addressed local issues for a region experts warn is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world.

And the UN is cued in. Its 27th climate change conference, COP27, begins November 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with COP28 scheduled next year in the United Arab Emirates’s Abu Dhabi.

Brown served previously as chief operating officer for the evangelical Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies, and today is a fellow at the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He founded Care of Creation, Inc. in 2005, and is author of Our Father’s World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation.

In Amman, he spoke with CT about the challenge of politics, the response of missionaries, and the drastic impact environmental changes will soon have on ministry to one’s neighbors.

Produced with input from leaders around the world, the report offers a number of ‘big things’ BAM companies can do. Here’s a taste of the report from the Executive Summary:

Business as Mission (BAM) companies serve people who face great environmental, even existential challenges. BAM practitioners are on the ground already in many areas of the greatest need and are positioned to respond.

To help BAM practitioners meet the business as mission goal— or bottom line—of environmental stewardship, we asked some of the leading Christian scientists and thinkers on the topic of business and creation care:

What is the one thing you would tell a God-honouring business they must do to be a good creation care steward?

What other advice would you give to those businesses?

We received strong guidance from this wider group, drawn from their experience and a knowledge of the biblical view of creation care. This report summarises their advice, complemented by our own analysis, into the following emerging themes:

• Be part of the solution

• Talk about it

• Connect with nature and appreciate it

• Become acquainted with local and international environmental laws

• Study the Bible on creation care and ask God for help

• Set measurable outputs and internal incentives for reducing waste and pollution

• Create a sustainable supply chain and go local where possible

• Conduct an energy audit

• Speak up for creation with government officials and politicians

• Dedicate a team for creation care within the staff and be intentional

Read more or download the entire report here.