austraLasia #3030
Sink or swim - low-lying EAO!
Low-lying EAO -- 'Dives and Lazarus' (actually, Luke has no name for his rich man: 'dives' is a word meaning 'rich' from the Latin Vulgate) might have an interesting application in our region, where 'dives' is more reminiscent of food-gathering, fishing and maybe coral-reef tourism. But it may be a real case of Dives being today's Lazarus, as many of our island and low-lying areas already begin to feel the effects of king tides and rising sea-levels. Have you ever witnessed a king tide on a low-lying island? I have!
Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Guam, Samoa all have a Salesian presence and all are nominated as being amongst those will see the likely displacement of between 150-200 million people within the next 40 years due to a combination of rising sea-level and increased salt-water intrusion rendering coastal areas virtually uninhabitable. Not sure where Korea stands in all this. Japan is not considered to have quite that problem (scientists believe in fact that there has been the opposite - growth - on the Western side) but this year's anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami (March 11) hardly leave us confident about geological stability for that set of islands either!
We do not have Salesians permanently present in Kiribati, although the Bishop has been asking for Salesians for many years, but i-Kiribati (the term for the people of this nation) are to be found in strong cultural groups in many of our existing presences, sometimes making up the population of entire islands where they have migrated (as is the case in the Gizo Diocese for Bishop Capelli, for example). Kiribati makes an interesting study case of what is likely to happen for some people or peoples in the other named countries above.
Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas: there is no written 's' in their language; instead 'ti' is a phoneme pronounced as 's') has to be one of the most unusual countries in the world. It stretches 4,000 kms from east to west and 2,000 kms north to south, straddling the Equator, and is made up of 33 atolls (some say now just 32, to highlight what is happening). But 100, 000 people live there, all Christian, 55% of which are Catholic. Their Prime Minister is currently in talks with the Fiji Government about the relocation of these people to Fiji. They already have an entire island, Rabi, which belongs to Fiji but its population is largely i-Kiribati. The problems begin to pile up when one considers that given the few natural resources available to people in these low-lying areas where in many cases soil is permeable and largely made up of sand and coral fragments, even small incremental changes have a dramatic impact. The fresh-water 'lenses' that actually do exist underground are disappearing. Then when people are forced to migrate, there is a new human impact as different peoples have to learn to get along together.
There's no end of New Age reflection around on climate change - the challenge is to find something more in keeping with New Evangelisation! Readers might be interested to know that Blessed Kateri Takakwitha, an Iroquois Indian, will be canonised by Pope Benedict XVI this coming October. She is described as a 'child of nature. Her sainthood will raise the minds and hearts of those who love nature and work in ecology'.
Take a look at the website named after her. It is the least we can do.
Sink or swim - low-lying EAO!
or, who's under your carbon footprint?
Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Guam, Samoa all have a Salesian presence and all are nominated as being amongst those will see the likely displacement of between 150-200 million people within the next 40 years due to a combination of rising sea-level and increased salt-water intrusion rendering coastal areas virtually uninhabitable. Not sure where Korea stands in all this. Japan is not considered to have quite that problem (scientists believe in fact that there has been the opposite - growth - on the Western side) but this year's anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami (March 11) hardly leave us confident about geological stability for that set of islands either!
We do not have Salesians permanently present in Kiribati, although the Bishop has been asking for Salesians for many years, but i-Kiribati (the term for the people of this nation) are to be found in strong cultural groups in many of our existing presences, sometimes making up the population of entire islands where they have migrated (as is the case in the Gizo Diocese for Bishop Capelli, for example). Kiribati makes an interesting study case of what is likely to happen for some people or peoples in the other named countries above.
Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas: there is no written 's' in their language; instead 'ti' is a phoneme pronounced as 's') has to be one of the most unusual countries in the world. It stretches 4,000 kms from east to west and 2,000 kms north to south, straddling the Equator, and is made up of 33 atolls (some say now just 32, to highlight what is happening). But 100, 000 people live there, all Christian, 55% of which are Catholic. Their Prime Minister is currently in talks with the Fiji Government about the relocation of these people to Fiji. They already have an entire island, Rabi, which belongs to Fiji but its population is largely i-Kiribati. The problems begin to pile up when one considers that given the few natural resources available to people in these low-lying areas where in many cases soil is permeable and largely made up of sand and coral fragments, even small incremental changes have a dramatic impact. The fresh-water 'lenses' that actually do exist underground are disappearing. Then when people are forced to migrate, there is a new human impact as different peoples have to learn to get along together.
There's no end of New Age reflection around on climate change - the challenge is to find something more in keeping with New Evangelisation! Readers might be interested to know that Blessed Kateri Takakwitha, an Iroquois Indian, will be canonised by Pope Benedict XVI this coming October. She is described as a 'child of nature. Her sainthood will raise the minds and hearts of those who love nature and work in ecology'.
Take a look at the website named after her. It is the least we can do.
