By Leela Ramdeen, Chair of The Catholic Commission for Social Justice
As we prepare for the coming of the Christ-child, let us act on the advice of Pope Benedict XVI, who said recently:
“Advent, this intense liturgical time… invites us to pause in silence to grasp a presence. It is an invitation to understand that every event of the day is a gesture that God directs to us, sign of the care he has for each one of us. ..Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord who is present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us to see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to see our whole existence as a ‘visit,’ as a way in which he can come to us and be close to us, in each situation?”
We are called to see the world through the lens of Christianity and to act in accordance with the tenets of our faith. Therefore, while we pray that God will inspire those who are currently meeting at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen so that they will act responsibly, we also have a duty to act responsibility and play our part in caring for God’s creation.
God’s presence with us will help us in this process. It will also help us to be vigilant and to speak out against unjust policies and programmes that may be proposed under the guise of ‘dealing with climate change’. My heart sank as I read an article online recently by JohnVidal in the UK Guardian (3 December) entitled: Rich nations to offset emissions with birth control.
What first greets the reader is an aerial view of 12 black babies from Dakar, Senegal, lying on a white sheet. Inter alia, the article states:
“Consumers in the developed world are to be offered a radical method of offsetting their carbon emissions in an ambitious attempt to tackle climate change – by paying for contraception measures in poorer countries to curb the rapidly growing global population.”
Vidal says that the scheme, called PopOffsets, is backed by heavyweights such as “Sir David Attenborough, the former diplomat Sir Crispin Tickell and green figureheads such as Jonathon Porritt and James Lovelock.”
The cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the trust claims that family planning is the cheapest way to reduce carbon emissions. Every £4 spent on contraception, it says, saves one tonne of CO2 being added to global warming, but a similar reduction in emissions would require an £8 investment in tree planting, £15in wind power, £31 in solar energy and £56 in hybrid vehicle technology.
“Calculations based on the trust’s figures show the 10 tonnes emitted by a return flight from London to Sydney would be offset by enabling the avoidance of one unwanted birth in a country such as Kenya. Such action not only cuts emissions but reduces the number of people who will fall victim to climate change,” it says.
Trust director, Roger Martin believes that this scheme “offers a practical and sensible response” to climate change! In keeping with the culture of death that surrounds us, the message is clear; let’s save black babies from falling victims to climate change by preventing them from being born in the first place!
Why pay so much to plant trees, invest in wind power, solar energy etc., when for every 4pounds sterling spent on contraception, we can save one tonne of CO2 from being added to global warming? And the cost of reducing CO2 by 34 gigatonnes – roughly what the world emits in a year? US $220bn with family planning, “but more than US$1tn with low carbon technologies.” Is this not appealing to those who are anti-life?
It is thinking such as this that should jolt all people of faith and people of good-will to pray and take urgent action to promote a culture of life. Advent is a time of hope; a time when we remember that the Christ-child came so that we may have life and have it more abundantly; not to have it snuffed out in its early stages.
Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that during Advent we should remember that by coming among us, Jesus brought us and “continues to offer us the gift of his love and of his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways…In turn, we can speak to him, present to him the sufferings that afflict us, impatience, the questions that spring from the heart. We are certain that he always hears us!”
Let us speak to him and ask him to touch the hearts and minds of the whole of humanity so that all will see each child as a gift from God.
The Holy Father is right: “Each child who is born brings us the smile of God and invites us to recognize that life is his gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and to be safeguarded always, at every moment.”
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