To mark this international day focused on climate change and the worrying trend we are seeing across the globe from extreme weather to increasing natural disasters – we share ‘Boiling Point: Voices from the frontlines of the climate crisis‘ the latest documentary film by Trocaire which features our friends and partners at the Jesuit Centre for Development & Ecology (JCED) in Malawi.
There, the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy still ripples having uprooted and shook the lives of thousands damaging infrastructure, crops and livelihoods – inflicting great loss of life and injuries to people.
With JCED we have been supporting a number of projects focused on caring for our common home and sustainability through education.
The Tasinth Mlimi project, funded by Misean Cara, is focused on building resilience in vulnerable communities by way of improving food security whilst building grassroot knowledge of sustainable farming practices.
A big part of the project is to tackle deforestation and restore ecosystems for carbon sequestration which is a fancy term about the process in which CO2 and greenhouse gases can be captured and stored reducing the amount being released into our atmosphere.
Another major component to their work is advocacy and solidarity from lobbying local government for disaster risk management policy to the ‘caravan of hope‘ a nationwide movement giving voice to the voiceless.
JCED are truly at the frontlines giving voice to marginalized communities.
Despite contributing the least to global warming, extreme weather in the global south because of climate change is an immediate and severe problem and young people especially, should we not act to reduce global temperatures and protect biodiversity, are at greater risk in the future.
We were honoured to have Martha Phiri, JCED Advocacy officer, as one of our keynote speakers at our 80th anniversary conference this summer where she spoke so brilliantly of the need for climate justice which centres solidarity and equity at the heart of climate solutions which acknowledges wrongs, calls for accountability and uplifts and supports the world’s most vulnerable communities.
In that speech, Martha spoke of our commitment to climate justice ‘aligned profoundly with the Jesuit ethos of being men and women for others, a call to serve and uplift those in need‘
In ‘Boiling Point’, Martha speaks of the importance of hope as without it all her efforts as a climate activist could not work. Hope and to know that ‘we are all in this together’
For me, Martha’s words stress the urgency of the climate crisis and the reality that failure to support those at the margins and the frontlines, unfairly suffering, is a failure on us all.
You can read Martha’s keynote speech in full, here
Trocaire’s documentary can be seen below