Poo-power to save the world?

Last week, it was reported that Bristol is planning to have a fleet of 'poo buses' in the city, after a successful 6-month trial of the Bio-bus on one of the routes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-34919563

The buses will be powered by human and food waste that is turned into biomethane gas, and it all sounds like a very good move to me, if we are trying to move away from fossil fuels.

In Uganda, my good friend, and CRED Partner, John Njendahayo has been building biogas units, on demand, for several years now - providing schools, orphanages, homes and whoever else is interested with clean, sustainable power, albeit powered by cow poo rather than from humans. John has even developed ways to convert the biogas so that a fridge can be run off it, and once you add in solar panels for electricity generation, and use interlocking bricks, and rainwater harvesting then you have a very environmentally friendly building.

John's next project is to develop a biogas farm. He recognises that not everyone has room for the cows that are required to provide the waste needed for the biogas, and there is a lot of suspicion and stigma about the human waste option that will require a lot of education to overcome. But, if you have one big generator with lots of cows creating lots of waste that can be turned into lots of biogas, and if you then supply nearby households with gas bags so that they can go and collect their gas, then a whole load of homes will be able to cook on clean fuel, less trees will be cut down, less respiratory infections will be experienced, less time will be spent by girls looking for firewood so they can go to school for longer instead, and so the list of benefits goes on.

John, and the city of Bristol, are showing that it is possible to move away from fossil fuels, towards cleaner, more sustainable options.
As the Climate Change Conference continues in Paris, let's pray that those making the all-important decisions can similarly find routes forward that lead to a better, and more sustainable world for all (and I mean ALL!)

Pray:

for safety for all attending the event
that leaders and decision makers will acknowledge the level of climate action needed
that the event will provide a basis for positive negotiations in the weeks to follow
that the media attention around the talks would increase the level of ambition in statements made and actions agreed

Father God, as many world leaders attend the negotiations, please work in their discussions, whether public or private, to bring consensus and ambition on the commitments needed.

We ask that their negotiations will not be characterised by talking with little action, and that all country leaders will be heard, not just those seen to be the most powerful. Amen

(prayer from Tearfund)

Praying for the Climate Conference in Paris

Taken from the Facebook Page 'Pray4COP21':

1 December

Yesterday saw many developments both in the Leaders Event and in side events. Today, the 1st of December, the actual COP negotiating sessions start. In addition the Lima Paris Action Agenda, which brings together state and nonstate actors for cooperative action around key issues, will hold events focused on forests and agriculture.

Fittingly, it’s also a day when many people will be taking part in prayer and fasting for the climate negotiations, as they have every 1st of the month since the Fast for the Climate movement was started after the Warsaw climate talks.

In the speech that inspired the Fast for the Climate Movement, Filipino negotiator Yeb Saño called for “real ambition and climate action.”

Please pray today:

in thanksgiving for Yeb Saño’s inspiration and all who have been
part of fasting and prayer for the climate over the past two
years
that the negotiations that begin today will lead to an agreement
that involves real ambition and climate action.
That the events on forests and agriculture will help to preserve
and protect earth’s forests, ensure the livelihoods of farmers
worldwide, and enable access to food for all people.

Dear Lord,
We see sea level rising in low Pacific Island Nations,
plants and animals becoming extinct,
birds changing their migration patterns,
and the flowering time of plants advancing.

We also see that it is the poor
who are suffering the most
from the way that the rich world
is changing the climate
through overuse of fossil fuels and deforestation.

But today we have hope.
The preparatory meetings for the Paris negotiations
have gone further than any past meetings.
There is hope that a binding climate change treaty
can be drafted in Paris.
We pray in hope for a positive result.

We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Prayer contributed by A Rocha UK from material written by Sir Ghillean Prance

May that hope be realised, may the politicians be brave and courageous in their decisions, may a united global benefit rather than individual point-scoring be the inspiration that fuels that courage, to lead to positive results that have benefits for now and for the future

The fisherman, his wife, the tigers and the Sunderbans

The fisherman

‘As the tiger jumped, he caught hold of my head and pulled me backwards. The whole world became dark. I could no longer see anything as my head was inside the tiger’s  mouth.’

When he was seized by a tiger, Rabi Majumdar tried to re-enact an old folk tale his father had told him, about a woman who poked a crocodile in the eye. By jabbing his fingers into the palate of the tiger’s mouth, Rabi was able to free himself.

Rabi Majumdar

The wife

Before he was attacked and killed by a tiger, Minati Roy’s husband spent two days worshipping a female deity, Bonbibi, believed to protect fishermen and honey collectors.

‘On that day, I was not in a good mood. Some unexpected occurrence or bad news was going to come to my heart, I could predict it. I had an anxiety feeling inside. Some misfortune is going to happen.’

Despite her loss, Minati says: ‘The tigers are protecting the forest. If there are no forests, no trees, there would be no life.’

Minati Roy

When I was in Kolkata earlier in the year, we were very close, geographically to a massive mangrove region called the Sunderbans. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of year for taking a trip to visit the area, but locals spoke of the  Sunderbans as a place of great signifance, both due to the tigers that lived there, and also due to lifestyle of the people who lived and farmed in and around it, which ties in with Indian folk-tales of yore.

All that follows is thanks to Christian Aid, but it gives a greater insight into the area, and the impact that climate change is already having. Ironically, what the Kolkata residents didn’t seem to be aware of was that the hunger for development that is going on in India, fuelled by the use of huge amounts of coal-fired industry, is actually part of the cause of the climate change that is ultimately leading to so much poverty in their country.

However that doesn’t give us in the West the excuse to say it’s therefore nothing to do with us– we also have played, and continue to play, a massive part in the fossil-fueled impact on climate change, and so need to look at what we can each due to reduce our footprint on the earth.

The rising sea

The Sunderbans is home to the tiger, and it is also home to millions of subsistence farmers and their families who live in absolute poverty around the edge of the region and venture into the mangroves in search of the fish, and crabs, and also to harvest honey which can be found there and is of high value on the open market.

Sea-level rise in the Sundarbans is double the global average. Over the last 30 years, the region has lost an area equivalent to the size of Manchester. Much of the remaining land has become salinated and unfit even for subsistence farming.

Scientists predict that much of the Sundarbans could be under water in 15 to 25 years. If the 13 million people living in the Sundarbans have to migrate, this would be the largest migration in the history of mankind.

The relationship between the tiger and the humans is an important one, and feeds into the greater issue of the balance of the whole ecosystem.

Kolkata-based conservationist Joydip Kundu, explains why tigers attack and how they keep millions of people in south Bengal safe from the devastating impacts of climate change:

‘The tiger is protecting the entire ecosystem. It is the fear of the tigers that is keeping people out of the forest.’

The Sundarbans was a land which was full of tigers, but People started entering into the area from the British period. Then they started encroaching into the tiger habitat and this is how conflict began.

These people, they don’t have alternative livelihoods, so ultimately they are falling back on the forest. They are venturing into the forest to tap honey, to catch crabs, for fishing. If given a chance they are going into the forest to cut down trees.

For a tiger, the Sundarbans is a very poor habitat. a tiger in the Sunderbans eats crabs, eats fish. And when a tiger sees a human walking inside the forest, he will see it as its prey.

If you take the tiger away from the landscape, people will be fearless and they will go inside the forest and do all sorts of illegal activities – felling of trees and other activities as well.

So tigers are protecting the entire ecosystem. It is from the small fish in the river to everything in the Sundarbans – the tiger is the sole protector of everything. The moment you take the tiger out of the landscape, the entire ecosystem will vanish.

It’s like a chain. The tiger is protecting the ecosystem, the mangrove ecosystem. And because of that, the mangrove shield is still there. The moment this mangrove shield vanishes, the cyclones like Aila, Sidr and all that will straight away hit the city of Kolkata.

It is because of the Sundarbans mangrove shield that the entire south of Bengal is safe.

India’s Project Tiger estimates there are fewer than 100 wild Royal Bengal tigers left in the Sundarbans. The World Wildlife Fund says there are more, but predicts that most will be lost because of rising sea levels by the end of this century.

Life for the fishermen and their families is a hard and dangerous one, as shown by the following stories. No-one wants to live life this way, but these people have no other choice. If climate change continues, then even that choice will be taken from them as their livelihood and homes are destroyed by rising sea levels.