The UKZN’s Ujamaa Centre recently hosted Rev. Canon Dr. Kaya J. Kaoma for the Gunther Wittenberg Lecture as part of their ongoing speaker series. Following the theme of Earth Theology & The Environment, Dr. Kaoma discussed global warming and climate-related disasters, posing the question, “can theological and ethical reflections help arrest this life-threatening crisis?” While highlighting environmental crisis as the most serious issue the world is facing that demands immediate response, Dr. Kaoma proposes that “humanitarianism ought to become biotariams – it must uphold the sanctity of all life as opposed to human life alone.”
by Rev. Canon Dr. Kapya John Kaoma
Introduction
“Daddy, are we going to die? Is the snow going to bury us?” My 5 year-old son, Takudzwa asked this question in February 2015, following the historic snow storms and blizzards that pounded New England in the United States. The blizzards brought the city of Boston to a complete standstill. I assured my son that everything would soon be back to normal. “Spring is coming,” I insisted. It then occurred to me that I lied to my son. Regardless of my publications on the environmental crisis, when confronted with the fears of a five year old, I forgot all the lessons I have learned! Yet, there is only one lesson—if we don’t arrest global warming also known as climate change, things will not be normal anymore. And if Takudzwa is troubled by the snow, hundreds of millions of children are threatened by, and victims of climate-related disasters – heatwaves, storms, floods, landslides, soil erosion, wild-fires, droughts and famines among many other environmental disasters.
All these disasters are indicative of the environmental predicament we all face. We must stop, pause, and ask, how are we going to resolve these problems? Can the ethics of humanitarianism inform human responses to the ecological crisis? Besides, what kind of Earth are we going to leave to future generations? As Christians, we are also obliged to ask, can theological and ethical reflections help arrest this life-threatening crisis?
Today, headlines such as “floods kill hundreds and displace 200,000 in Malawi”; “the heatwave kills thousands in Asia,” and “Typhoon Haiyan displaces millions” do not shock us. If anything, they are now part of our social existence. Of course, they make international headlines for a while, but disappear as soon as new climate-related disasters strike, and so do humanitarian problems which accompany them. So how did we get here?
Locating the Crisis—Human Caused, Humans to Resolve it
The human-induced global warming is behind the growing number of climate-related disasters. The burning of forests and fossil fuels (coal and gasoline) release anthropogenic gases (carbon dioxide, methane and other gases) which in turn trap “solar radiation near the Earth’s surface, causing [Arctic and] global warming.”[2]
Global warming has a web of interconnected problems—major changes in temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and wind patterns among many others. In regard to rainfall, for example, regions that receive more rains are becoming wetter while those which receive less rainfall are becoming drier. As expected, these changes will lead to severe humanitarian crises—in wetter regions floods, landslides, and severe storms; and in arid geographical regions, droughts, heatwaves, and famine—something we are already experiencing. Global warming will also have other ecological effects. It will force some plant and animal species to die out, while others will increase massively—leading to an imbalance in the food chain as well as to new diseases.
Aside from driving Arctic and global warming, anthropogenic gases (CO2) dissolve into the waters –thus increasing the acidic levels of the oceans—with severe negative consequences on marine species. Besides, Arctic warming melts polar caps, thereby increasing the volume of water in the oceans. Eventually, ocean waters will claim some coastal lands, cities and islands.
The strong correlation between economic wealth and carbon emissions exists. The immediate victims of the environmental crisis are also the least contributors to this predicament both locally and globally. The global North contributes most of the carbon emissions than the global South, but global South residents are the most threatened by the effects of climate change. Unfortunately, despite compelling scientific and physical evidence, human response to climate change is tame at the most—mostly due to the fact that the immediate victims of these disasters are invisible to the rich and the powerful. They exist on the margins of our economically and racially defined society—women, the poor, indigenous people, and people of color.
Besides, these climate extremes are not only increasing in intensity but also in numbers. The yearly occurrences of these climate extremes dwarf humanitarian responses – even in rich nations. Despite being one of the richest economies of the world, the U.S. is still to fully recover from the havoc of the 2005 hurricane Katrina, and the 2012 Sandy. If rich nations are finding it hard, one wonders how poor nations like Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique will resolve the effects of these weather extremes.
Amidst the pending catastrophe, it is tempting to simplify the mounting ecological crisis. The truth is, it is a multi-facetted problem that demands interdisciplinary analysis. It involves wrestling with issues of imperialism, human development, economic sustainability, income inequalities, gender, land rights, neo-colonialism, poverty, racism, and ecological integrity among many others. It also calls for ecologizing Christian spirituality, mission, ethics, theology, and biblical hermeneutics. But it also means upholding our God given obligation to care for the natural world. This obligation carries ethical and humanitarian implications—it invites us to care for this Earth for the sake of the poor and future generations of life. In this regard, the environmental crisis demands Christian prophetic responses. As Professor Gunther Wittenberg points out in his 2013 article “Prophecy in a Time of Global Crisis,
Humanity faces a crisis of unprecedented proportions. It is impossible to exaggerate the environmental problems facing humanity in the twenty-first century. In South Africa we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the many problems we have to deal with: Land degradation with resultant mass migration to the cities, over-exploitation of natural resources and loss of biodiversity, deteriorating water quality through pollution, breakdown of sewerage systems and acid mine drainage, and destruction of wetlands critically important for the storage of water. The growing mass of unemployed youth that cannot be employed on account of the breakdown of the education system has often been referred to as a “ticking time bomb.”[3]
Much of his reflections were directed to contemporary South Africa’s socio-economic and political issues, but he also argued that the crisis has global ramifications:
We live in a time of species extinction, the rapid depletion of the oceans’ bounty, deforestation and desertification with large parts of drinking water disappearing; a time of exploding world population and dangerous climate change.[4]
I am afraid the bomb is already exploding—from organized violent crimes to xenophobia attacks – creating new humanitarian disasters with life-threatening effects. It is within this context, however, that Christian prophecy emerges. How can we remain faithful to the Creator amidst the tensions brought about by this global crisis? How can we remain faithful to the gospel as the Earth goes to waste? And how can we participate in the mission of the Creator God amidst the challenges of environmental degradation? Answering these questions invites theological and moral repositioning on the future of the Earth as our home and home to future generations of life.
While climate change sceptics are many (among them some U.S. conservative Christians), credible scientific evidence shows that human activities are radically modifying the planetary biological processes that make life possible. We may bury our faces in the sand, but climate change is now an existential and humanitarian “scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity.”[5]
Although the decisive mitigation of this crisis needs inter-disciplinary approaches, religion has a critical role to play. Since the 1990s, scientists have repeatedly noted that religion has the ability to bring the “sacred” into the mitigation of this crisis—something science, economics and politics can hardly do.[6] While this appeal goes back to the 1990s, in their 2014 article in the Journal Science, Partha Dasgupta and Veerabhadran Ramanathan make a similar point. They assert that religion is better placed to mobilize “public opinion” on the ecological crisis than politicians and scientists.[7]
Notwithstanding, scientific evidence on the effects of the recurring ecological crisis paints a very dire picture for life on planet Earth. Its mitigation is THE MORAL issue of our generation. Christianity does not believe that humanity is perfect without the power of the Holy Spirit and Christ. Nonetheless, it upholds human capacity to make informed moral decisions. As the ecological crisis worsens, humanitarianism ought to become biotarianism—it must uphold the sanctity of all life as opposed to human life alone.
Consequently, the sacred moral relationship between humanity and God implies reflecting God’s attitude to all Creation. Ecosociotheology—by which I mean theological reflections that take into consideration ecological relationships utilizes this perspective in its examination of the link between Earth, humanity and God. As God’s missioners, we must relearn our Christian faith and begin seeing God in Creation. Aptly stated, ecological conscious Christianity brings the Creator God in the socio-economic and political justice issues of our time.
What is the Role of Christianity in Political Biotarianism?
Scholars have repeatedly pointed to the role of religious, economic and cultural worldviews in directing human attitudes to the natural world. Lynn White’s complaint against Western Christianity and various scholarships from Eco-feminist are great examples.[8] Without dismissing such complaints, there is need to move beyond them in our attempts to address these ecological concerns. Whether Christianity is a culprit or not, is immaterial—the ecological crisis is here with us. The major question is, can post-colonial Christianity slow down and to some extent arrest this crisis? Moreover, if the crisis was brought about by “certain ideological and economic assumptions,” can the new epistemology of the Earth-human-God nexus influence future human attitudes toward the natural world?
It is important to realize that we always relate and respond differently to crises when they are planted in our life-worlds and cosmologies. It is one thing to speak about the Earth as under mortal attack, but it is another to humanize such attacks—the poor whose livelihoods depend on the Earth are the ones who are massively threatened by this crisis. Since the poor lack economic capital, it makes it difficult for them to invite serious eco-political responses from policymakers. As we shall see, at both national and global political levels, the poor people’s rights to safe environments are persistently trampled down – something Wittenberg noted in his reading of the prophet Hosea. Just as rich nations make decisions that secure their economic interests, at national levels, the elite and a tiny rich minority makes policies that protect their vested economic interests at the expense of the poor and the Earth. Be it in South Africa or Zambia, the poor people live around polluted areas, smelters, and dumping sites.
It is here that the morality of biotarianism can direct human responses to the growing ecological crisis. At the heart of climate change, soil erosion, droughts, floods, deforestation, water and air pollution is a poor person’s face; at the heart of the ecological crisis is the poor baby’s face; and at the heart of environmental degradation is the face of all life as we know it.
Yet, the eco-humanitarian duty to protect, care and defend the Earth and the poor is reflected in Scriptures. The human duty to care for the Earth, so I argue, was first pronounced in Genesis when God planted the Garden, created Adam from adamah (earth) “and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it’’ (Genesis 2:15). The Hebrew abad and shama translated as ‘‘to work’’ and ‘‘to take care’’ respectively have custodian and caring overtones.
Besides, the command to love God (Matthew 22:37) and our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31; Matthew 22:39), and the golden rule to do unto others what we would love them do to us (Matt. 7: 12; Luke 6:31) suggest that addressing the plight of Earth and the poor is our sacred and moral duty. For Christians, this duty is at the heart of spirituality, ethics, theology and mission. We cannot love God while ignoring the plight of Creation and the poor. Thus, Leonardo Boff’s original argument, recently reflected in Pope Francis’s encyclical that the cry of the Earth is the cry of the poor needs heeding.[9]
Humanitarianism and Earth Theology
Humanitarianism holds “the sanctity of human life” as “the first, and non-negotiable, principle of humanitarian assistance.”[10] Since the 1990s, however, humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence from politics have been challenged. Although there is no single definition of humanitarianism, Ilana Feldman argues that the challenge is whether humanitarian efforts should focus solely “on alleviating immediate suffering,” or work for the transformation of structural injustices.[11] Acknowledging the “religious traditions of charity” and the “secular claims to a common humanity” in humanitarianism, Feldman insists that “humanitarian action requires identifying the situations which demand intervention.”[12] In many respects, the very process of naming and identifying the root-causes of humanitarian crises has political overtones. As Feldman asserts, the belief that humanitarian “aid agencies’ nonpolitical approach will have no political impact is a fallacy.”[13]
Michael Walzer, however, places this debate in morality. He questions whether humanitarianism is a voluntary act (charity and philanthropy) or a moral duty.[14] He insists that human dedication to humanitarian causes “is not merely philanthropic. It arises also from a commitment to justice;…it is a commitment that we are all bound to make, as individuals and as citizens, and that all states are bound to make.”[15] In this regard, humanitarianism seeks to address “what ought to be done right now? The answer to that question will change depending on the existing needs, the political circumstances, the resources that benevolence can provide, and the requirements of justice;” hence it “is a political project.”[16]
This understanding is equally reflected in Michael Barnett’s argument on humanitarianism: He writes,
Humanitarianism is now more firmly part of politics. — Humanitarianism and politics are no longer discursively constructed in binary, oppositional terms; instead, their points of intersection are many, and humanitarianism’s meanings increasingly are defined by the sort of politics once viewed as its bete noire. Humanitarianism, in short, is self-consciously part of politics.[17]
The fall of the Soviet Union and the establishment of human rights in the 1990s aided the transformation of humanitarianism from principles of neutrality and impartiality (to human rights violations), to pro-active defense of human rights in humanitarian disasters. According to David Rieff, humanitarian agencies had no choice but to reject “original neutral principles” and embrace the protection of human rights in order to remain “effective and morally coherent.”[18] This shift has its own problems especially if aid agencies side with the perpetrators of injustice. Nonetheless, the human rights paradigm has many “positive outcomes,” Kimberley Armstrong contends, since it presents the affected as “active subjects rather than passive victims. The recipients of relief aid are not objects of charity.” Instead, they “are maligned citizens demanding their just rights.”[19] In other words, humanitarianism ought to address the historical roots of poverty, climate change and others social ills. Hence amidst large-scale global poverty; amidst the life-threatening environmental degradation and the ever-increasing gap between they have, and the have nots, pro-human rights humanitarianism ought to address global economic disparities which are at the heart of the mounting ecological crisis.[20]
Moreover, as the global population increases and the global wealth remains captive to a select few, the question of economic development arises. But how can we resolve the plight of masses while ensuring ecological wellbeing? To Bretton Woods’s institutions, the answer is capitalism.
Across the globe, capitalism is the norm—leaving masses in abject poverty while enriching a select few! To its credit, capitalism has brought some economic benefits to a small population of the globe—chiefly in the West.[21] These “benefits” influence and direct Bretton Woods’s poverty alleviation (rather eradication) initiatives. But as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o rightly argues, capitalism has also “ensured poverty and mass starvation on the scale unknown before” to the majority world.[22] This observation is confirmed by the 1986 United Nations’ report, Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). The report noted that we have “more hungry people in the world today than ever before in human history, and their numbers are growing.”[23] Although this observation dates back to the 1980s, it stands true as it did then—if worse.
Award winning economist Jeffrey D. Sachs argues that global poverty must be addressed holistically. Using the example of clinical diagnosis of illnesses, Sachs advocates “differential analysis” of poverty as opposed to the “one size fits all.” To the IMF and the WB, the answer to Malawi, Uganda, DR. Congo, Nigeria and Zambia’s poverty is the same, liberalize the economy![24] He writes,
Not every problem facing the improvised world is homegrown, nor will all solutions be found in good governance, belt tightening, and further market reforms. True solutions will also require deeper debt relief, greater development assistance, more open trade with rich countries, and further market reforms. Any IMF or World Bank official, as well as any academic development practitioner, has the responsibility to speak truth not only to the policy makers within the improvised country, but to the policy makers of the rich and powerful countries as well.[25]
Zambia’s first President Kenneth Kaunda made a similar argument about the Bretton Woods’s dictated economic reforms. In line with Sachs’s argument, Kaunda characterized global North /South relations as “that of the master and a servant.” But Kaunda also challenged the infamous myth of donor aid as the key to Africa’s poverty. “What we need more,” Kaunda contended, “is fair conditions of trade rather than aid.” [26] Currently “what we sell in the market of the West, we sell at giveaway prices. What we buy from them . . .we pay through our nose,”[27] the President noted.
President Kaunda’s words are somehow reflected in William Temple’s 1942 critique of capitalism:
The charge against [capitalism] is one of injustice. The banner so familiar in earlier unemployed or social processions—“Damn your charity; we want justice”- vividly exposes the situation as it is seen by its critics. If the present order is taken for granted or assumed to be sacrosanct, charity from the more to the less fortunate would seem virtuous and commendable; to those for whom the order itself is suspect or worse, such charity is blood-money. Why should some be in the position to dispense and others to need that kind of charity?[28]
Humanitarian aid to victims of environmental tragedies, for example, is definitely not a substitute for justice. In most cases, humanitarian disasters are caused and worsened by anti-poor economic policies promoted by the West.[29] Dipankar Sinha addresses this problem when she chastises Western nations and the Bretton Woods institutions for showing concern during humanitarian disasters while rejecting “structural change” in international relations and trade. Bretton Woods institutions, she argues, sponsor and impose economic policies that aggravate “the sufferings of the poor.”[30]
Wittenberg did not have kind words for capitalism either. He argues that global empires have been propelled by power and greed. He writes, “the globalising empires of the West were unique in that their imperial history was closely intertwined with the history of capitalism,” and “capitalist economic domination.”[31] Wittenberg further contends that capitalism “has only one goal, the relentless pursuit of profit whether through total deregulation of the free market and the removal of all barriers, or through pursuit of ever increasing returns on investments even if, on closer inspection, they turn out to be nothing.”[32] Guyanese historian Walter Rodney made a similar point: “Imperialism was in effect the extended capitalist system, which for many years embraced the whole world––one part being the exploiters and the other the exploited, one part being dominated and the other acting as overlords, one part making policy, and the other being dependent.”[33] Do we need further studies to agree with Wittenberg’s or Rodney’s observations?
Here one may ask, “Is the good will directed towards the victims of climate-related disasters enough to absolve the global North of its Earth and human killing policies? Do rich nations have moral obligations to compensate victims of climate-change related disasters? In short, who should pay for climate-related disasters?”
In Africa as elsewhere, there is a danger in seeing humanitarian aid as a solution to past and present socio-economic injustices. Doing so is delusional. Didier Fassin writes, “In today’s world, where inequalities have reached a probably unprecedented level, humanitarianism … provides the illusion of a global moral community that may still be viable and a solidarity that may have redeeming powers.”[34] But as already noted, this illusion fades as soon as new disasters strike—and the victims remain entrapped into deplorable economic and environmental conditions. Hence humanitarianism and environmentalism are deeply interconnected!
It is important to note that the capitalistic perception of the Earth and the poor is the same—their value is in commercial terms—the very assumption that was behind transatlantic slave trade, colonialization and now the neo-colonial imperialistic IMF and World Bank policies. It is tempting to assume that such worldviews left with colonialism. Sadly, the international community—by which we mean the rich nations of the West and now China still views Africa as the dark reservoir of endless raw materials. Ironically, the IMF/WB and donor countries are quick to respond to natural disasters – while resisting efforts to prevent such catastrophes in future! The global North sees “the evils of poverty” when landslides, floods and famines are declared humanitarian crises, but is sinfully blind to its life denying economic policies and international trade injustices applied and forced on poor nations, which mostly cause and intensify such disasters.
Theologically, the poor may be invisible to the IMF/WB, however, they are uniquely visible to the God of the oppressed, who sees their miseries, hears their cries and comes down to rescue them (Exodus 3:7). For Christian theology and ethics, therefore, participating in the mission of the Creator God entails accepting what Freya Mathews calls the “worldview organized around a principle of interconnectedness, with transformative implications for metaphysics, epistemology, spirituality and politics, as well as ethics.”[35]
That said, the African Church and theologians’ failure to reject and oppose sinful structures in post-colonial Africa begs an answer. The God of the poor demands that we call out politicians, religious leaders, and even academics who baptize evil at the expense of the tears of poverty stricken masses. “As legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti prophetically contends in “Coffin for Head of State”—behind that corrupt African dictator, politician or business executive, there is a respectable Christian bishop or Muslim Imam. Those who deny this fact are definitely out of touch with African politics” as well as the post-colonial African Church.[36] In other words, Kuti’s song is a serious indictment of Christianity and Islam on the continent.
Global Christian Responses to the Crisis are on the Increase[37]
If human rights changed humanitarianism, the mounting ecological crisis should transform humanitarianism into biotarianism – that is, into upholding the sanctity of all bio-kind as the basis of all humanitarian actions. Political biotarianism, for example, is reflected in what South African Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba calls “the collective moral voice” of global Christianity on climate change.[38] This moral voice has moved from passive engagement with policymakers to making specific political demands on the resolution of climate change. From the World Council of Churches to the Evangelical Lausanne Movement, addressing climate change is now a gospel, economic-justice, and political issue.[39]
In the Anglican Communion, for instance, successive Archbishops of Canterbury – the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion—have independently attached Earth care and social responsibility to Christian mission, spirituality and ethics. In 2009 Archbishop Rowan Williams called climate change “a moral imperative” for the world as well as challenged developed nations to take “responsibility” for causing, and for resolving climate change—a demand later made by the U.S, President Barrack Obama in Anchorage, Alaska in August 2015. Archbishop Justin Welby’s called for the urgent redoubling of efforts to limit global warming to less than 2oC in June 2015.[40] The Church of England went even further in its political demands—it divested from companies that deal in fossil fuels in 2015. The divest movement is already growing in its political and economic demands—forcing fossil companies to evaluate the future profitability of such investments.
In Roman Catholic circles, various Pontiffs have addressed human responsibility to the natural world and the poor. In the Orthodox tradition, in 1997, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew termed the ecological crisis a ‘‘crime against the natural world’’[41] and has aggressively campaigned for Earth care since then. Similar sentiments have been heard in various Christian Protestant traditions and African Initiated Churches.[42]
In addition, the ecological crisis has invited complete unity in global Christianity since the turn of the century. In 2002, for example, Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II jointly warned of the eco-social “crisis confronting our world.’’[43] In June 2015, Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Welby jointly called for addressing climate change.[44] In November 2015, Patriarch Bartholomew will give a lecture on Earth care at Lambeth Palace—the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This unity is equally reflected in Pope Francis’s June 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’ (Praise be to you).[45] Aside from citing Patriarch Bartholomew and accepting the dangers of climate change, Pope Francis affirmed the intrinsic value of all biokind—“other living beings have a value of their own in God’s eyes.”[46]
The growing collective moral voice is among the major shifts in global Christianity in our generation. But this paradigm shift comes at the time when the Christian center of gravity has shifted to the global South; the phenomenon that excites missiologists. Yet, this shift comes with its own life-threatening challenges — population explosion, pollution, poverty and environmental degradation among many others. Can African Christianity balance this growth?
Earth Theology and Humanitarianism—Allies or Foes
If humanitarianism seeks to save human lives, by its definition, Earth theology or ecosociotheology seeks to save the entire Creation. So what kind of theology can address the above concerns without negating either of them?
In his 2010 response to Peet Van Dyk’s challenge, Professor Wittenberg struggled with finding a better metaphor that can contribute to the resolution of our crisis. At the center of this debate is the concept of dominion—the belief that humans have a God-given mandate to exercise unlimited control over the natural world as stated in Genesis 1:26-28. Can ecotheology address this short fall?
In her exploration of “The Context of Eco-Theology,” Laurel Kearns rightly concludes that eco-theology is “multi-voiced, multi-faced complexity in which a range of theological, geographic and demographic voices are trying to be heard, so that the dominant discourse is not only by white Euro-Americans.” This achievement must be applauded, but as Kearns warns, “it is also the challenge [ecotheology] faces… as Christian theology struggles to transcend the many limitations and embrace the many possibilities of its past complex and often ambivalent views of humanity, God, and nature.”[47]
It is important to note that Christian theology is born from the social-cultural context of its practitioners; hence it is expected to take various shapes and forms in different social and economic contexts. In line with Wittenberg’s argument on multi-metaphors and models, the diversity of global Christianity suggests a new way of hearing nature’s voice. I thus propose ecosociotheologies, ecosocioethics and ecosociospiritualities because the ecological crisis goes beyond Nature’s rights. Ecosociotheologies locate humanity to the natural world; we cannot exist without the Earth.
This paradigm shift in Earth Theology will also confront the neocolonial myth that Mr. Christian Theology lives is a white man of European descent! In The Creator’s Symphony, I argue that the center of gravity of Christianity has shifted to the global South, but theology has not. To be a theologian, one is expected to study Western theology and ethics. American, British, German and other global North male scholars do CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, while non-western, non-male and non-white scholars do Asian, feminist, womanist, black, African theology etc. In short, to be a theologian is to think like dead white men—something that still baffles me.
Consequently, ecosociotheologies, I submit, can dethrone the theological hegemony of Western theologies, while inviting respectful dialogue with other theologies in global Christianity. Since Earth, the Church and all life is interconnected, it is time African, Asian, Latin American and Western theologies challenged and reshaped each other with metaphors that best explain human-Earth-God interactions. Ecosociotheologies respect the interconnectedness of all Creation, the intrinsic value and the instrumental value of every species.
As the ecological crisis mounts, it is tempting to dismiss the ecological-instrumental value of all Creation to the web of life. Nonetheless, the concept of bio-interconnectedness suggests that all creation serves a purpose in the sacred web of life. Some species’ direct usefulness is visible to humanity (meat, trees, fish, etc.), while others possess indirect usefulness—that is, they play a critical role in our common life on Earth. Unlike deep ecologists, ecosociotheology perceives God as the immanent Creator who resides in and with Creation; it also recognizes the natural world as imbued with God’s sacredness; and it rejects anthropocentric theologies of separation in favor of theologies of ecological interconnectedness.
Besides, ecosociotheologies and biotarianism are interlinked. If theology is the science of God, then understanding God’s relationship with Earth and the poor is fundamental. But this raises another question—what then do we make of the term “Theology?” The linking of ecosociotheologies to humanitarianism suggests a paradigm shift in how we do theology. Any theology that addresses the plight of the poor ought to be political theology; any Earth theology is political theology too. To this end, global Christianity should reattach itself to the God of the Earth. It should also re-experience the Creator who relates, and reveals the Godself in Creation. Ecosociotheologies, I submit, will then become diverse global Christian reflections on the Creator who loves, creates, and sustains every creature both big and small. In addition to confronting the selfish interests of global capitalism, ecosociotheologies will also work to proactively address the unprecedented levels of corruption in the world and in post-colonial Africa in particular. It is from this perspective that all lessons of humanitarianism maybe addressed—something I attempt to do in the following section as we reflect on some lessons learned so far.
First Lesson—The Global Economic Inequalities need Confronting
In 2013, the World Bank and the IMF set 2030 as “the global target” for eradicating global poverty.[48] But that goal has the “$1.25-a-day income threshold.” Yet poverty is a major threat to environmental wellbeing. Economic dispossession pushes the poor into destroying “their immediate environment in order to survive: They will cut down forests; their livestock will overgraze grasslands; they will overuse marginal land; and in growing numbers they will crowd into congested cities. The cumulative effect of these changes is so far-reaching as to make poverty itself a major global scourge.”[49]
Poverty is the “major global scourge” indeed! But can Africa address poverty without adding to the ecological stress the continent faces? Michael Darkoh and Apollo Rwomire make a compelling case about Africa’s abject poverty. They argue that the separation of Africa from its own social, economic, and political history, and the imposition of European political and capitalistic values partially explains the continent’s socio-economic difficulties.[50] Africa boasts of political independence, but the continent’s natural goods exist at the mercy of the neo-colonizers—capitalist interests. As things stand, Africa’s economic development means selling-off the continent’s future! Amidst ever increasing population pressures, amidst limited economic growth, and amidst land grabs, the poor and Earth suffer the most.
Second Lesson—Landlessness Bleeds Injustice
The majority of the world’s population lacks access to land—and those who do watch helpless as their lands are taken away without compensation—which as Wittenberg suggests was behind the great prophets—Amos, Micah and Isaiah’s political indictment of ancient Israel in the eighth century.[51] In Africa, however, this situation is compounded by uncontrolled population growth. As Christians, we may celebrate the fact that over 633 million people in sub-Saharan Africa will be Christians by 2025, but we should also understand that “under even the lowest of the U.N.’s projections, sub-Saharan Africa’s population will nearly double in size to 1.2 billion by 2025.”[52] Additionally, Africa leads the world with the youngest population, the highest birth rate and with the fastest-growing population of 24 million per year. Also, the continent is projected to hit 2 billion by 2050[53]—with urbanization closely linked. The Global Environmental Outlook 5 –– released on the eve of the June 2012 Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, noted that climate-related displacements will accelerate urbanization.[54] Besides, 70 million to 250 million Africans and Asians are likely to face water shortages by 2020.[55]
Third Lesson—Xenophobia – We Don’t Want Strangers in our Land
Africa’s double curse is that colonialism condemned her children to racial and economic humiliation, while corruption thrusts them into extreme poverty. To negotiate this double curse, most Africans are forced to migrate to urban areas or foreign cities in search for a better life. Unless conditions of global poverty, Africa’s corruption, and lack of rule of law are adequately addressed, migration remains the better of the two evils. People will always move towards bread and water at all costs—no WALL, LAW OR WATERS can stop them.
Earlier this year, the South African city of Durban made international headlines for xenophobia attacks. These attacks where directed on foreign nationals, especially from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nigeria, Malawi and many other African nations. In 2014–2015, the U.S. equally made international headlines when immigrants – mostly unaccompanied children – from South and Central America were targeted by anti-immigrant groups. In both cases, some local people felt that newcomers were taking their opportunities. There is some truth to such accusations—but it is not only in South Africa or the U.S. “We don’t want strangers in our land” is now a global phenomenon—from the Dominican Republic to Europe to Asia. Where violent attacks are absent, Western nations are reworking their laws to limit legal migrations.
Nonetheless, xenophobia is not limited to Africa to Africa and global South to North migrations, but extends to rural relocations. While such attacks fail to make international headlines, V. Dzingirai’s study of Zimbabwe’s Bhinga Tonga of the Gwembe Valley reveals that rural communities equally view newcomers negatively.[56] Ecosociotheological reflections on migration, poverty and environmental degradation, I propose, can help address some challenges associated with xenophobia.
Fourth Lesson – Environmental Activism Is Risky Business
The lesson of xenophobia is equally related to Environmental activism. Across sub-Saharan Africa, land grabs are taking place at alarming rates—with both Western and Chinese economic interests scrambling for Africa—this time around, going after the continent’s natural goods. Those courageous enough to oppose such moves are usually killed or imprisoned—for capitalistic interests value profits over human life, culture, and ecological wellbeing.
The April 2015 Global Witness Report How Many More shows an increase in the violence targeted on environmental rights defenders.[57] These deaths are not new to the world—they represent billions of the world populations who lost and continue to lose their ancestral lands to colonial and neo-colonial capitalistic interests. The late Nigerian Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged by the Nigerian military government for protesting against Oil giant Shell’s irresponsible pollution of Ogoniland in 1995, and the killing of thousands of the Amazon’s defenders in Brazil illustrate the cost of liberating the Earth. But just as the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, and nationalist freedom fighters sacralized their struggles by appealing to spiritual powers, environmental liberation need to be planted in the God of the poor, the oppressed and the Earth. From this perspective, one can safely contend, defending the poor people’s rights to their lands is not just a prophetic imperative, but also an act of solidarity.
Fifth Lesson—Global Warming Compromises Human Health
Safe environments are critical to human health. The June 2015 Lancet Commissions’ Report (a reputable British Medical Journal) warned of the global health challenges posed by global warming, which it argues has potential to reverse all global gains in human development:
The implications of climate change for a global population of 9 billion people threatens to undermine the last half century of gains in development and global health. The direct effects of climate change include increased heat stress, floods, drought, and increased frequency of intense storms, with the indirect threatening population health through adverse changes in air pollution, the spread of disease vectors, food insecurity and under-nutrition, displacement, and mental ill health.[58]
Like in all other cases, the poor (mostly the elderly, women and children) “with little or no access to health care” are the most vulnerable to these predicaments.
In Africa, the Lancet’s findings are reflected in scientists Paul R. Epstein and Dan Ferber’s 2011 study in Kenya. Epstein and Ferber observed that global warming creates “conditions that favor insect-borne diseases.”[59] Specifically, “the climate warming of just 0.5 C (0.9 F) over two decades would more than double the stimulated mosquito population.”[60] In Kenya’s highlands where temperatures were colder thus limiting the survival of malaria carrying mosquitos, today, new cases of malaria are reported due to global warming, so they argue.[61] Given this scenario, Africa should brace for more climate-related epidemics.
Sixth Lesson—Global Warming Affects Food Security
According to the World Food Program “hunger kills more people in the world than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.”[62] In fact, every 3.6 seconds, someone dies from hunger with children under 5 years being hit the most. Against the long held assumption that natural disasters and wars are the chief causes of starvation, the U.N. Millennium Project noted that “only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations.”[63] Hunger related illnesses kill over 11 million children a year while 146 million children are underweight––again, most of them in developing countries.[64] The Food Agriculture Organization projects the starvation of masses by 2050 unless global food production increases by 70 percent. Specifically, this increase involves “an additional quantity of nearly 1 billion tonnes of cereals and 200 million tons of meat.”[65]
Under the current economic inequalities and land degradation, is this projection achievable? The Global Environmental Outlook 5 thought otherwise. It noted that the provision of “food, safe drinking water, improved sanitation and modern sources of energy, all within the ecological limits of the planet” to all people by 2050 is impossible unless we massively reform global economic systems.[66]
Amidst such injustices, the mounting environmental crisis demands hard political choices and actions today, and not tomorrow. We need to secure the rights of the poor, indigenous people and the whole Creation to Earth’s natural goods. We need global will to enforce and limit carbon emissions, and to encourage investments in clean energy. And as followers of Christ, we must become pro-active Earth’s keepers. This all-inclusive application of Christian spirituality and theology envisions an interdependent community of all creatures, intricately connected to a single sacred web of life in Christ.
The Way Forward—Sustainable Living is the Answer
The highly promoted concept of sustainable development is a fallacy since it never gets away from the capitalist economics of limitless growth.[67] I propose an ethic of “sustainable living,” which seeks to meet the legitimate human needs as opposed to wants. This ethic demands human realignment with the working of the entire Earth Community.[68]
For Africa, this realignment is overdue; the continent’s natural goods are limited—soon we won’t have anything to exploit. During the 1986 WCED Opening Ceremony in Harare, Hon. Victoria Chitepo, then Zimbabwe’s Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism pointed to this very concern. Aside from censuring the Industrial Revolution for its failure to accept the limitedness of natural goods, she writes, “today we should know better. The alarming rate at which the Earth’s surface is being denuded of its natural vegetative cover seems to indicate that the world may soon become devoid of trees through clearing for human developments.”[69] Almost 30 years later, do we know better? Our mother land is dying; our mighty rivers are filled with sand, not waters; pollution darkens our skies; various pollutants darken our waters; our lovely forests are no more; and poverty and violence characterize our cities from Cape Town to Cairo!
Not all is lost. Africa can still rediscover its nature loving spirituality which once characterized traditional communities. As David Korten observes, “The living Earth is sacred, beyond price, and not for sale. Rather than seeking to suppress, dominate, and exploit it, we must align ourselves in integral partnership with its structure and dynamics.”[70] Traditional societies, I must say, related to Earth as a sacred commons. So with the help of Earth Theologies, we can still recover this spirituality. Life does not depend on how much money or skyscrapers we construct; the Earth’s wellbeing is the GRAND ECONOMY to protect. We must constantly remind ourselves of one existential truth––unlike biblical manna; our “daily bread” does not come from heaven or supermarkets, but from God’s Earth.
In addition, Christianity in Africa is tainted with colonialism just as it is also stained with traditional religions. I propose that post-colonial Christianity ought to reconsider its traditional and cultural roots, which accords sacredness to the universe. In an environment where God, ancestors and other spirits are said to exist in constant harmony with creation, our theological reflections should bring the triune God back to Earth—after all, God walks on Earth (Gen 3:8). Further, our understanding of Jesus as an ancestor, for example, ought to instill ecological consciousness on one hand, and invite biotarianism on the other hand. As I argue in The Creator’s Symphony, Jesus is the source of all life—thus he is the ecological ancestor to all Creation. As Christians therefore, we need to rethink and align our eco-social values to Earth’s Grand Economy. Doing less is, in fact, suicidal.
Finally, Takudzwa’s question needs answering—will the ecological crisis end human life on Earth? The inconvenient truth is YES! Unless we act today and start healing the Earth, we will be lying to our children just as I did to my son. Professor Gunther Wittenberg invited prophecy in a time of global crisis,” and as communities of faith, we have the power to rewrite the Earth’s story; or else, we will kill our children’s as well as their children’s future. Then, there will be no tomorrow!
Rev. Canon Dr. Kapya John Kaoma is a Zambian, working in the U.S. as visiting Researcher at Boston University Center for Global Christianity and Mission as well as adjunct Professor at Episcopal Divinity School. He has written and spoken about subjects in mission history, gender, sexual rights, and eco-social justice. Dr. Kaoma has also authored a number of books including God’s Family, God’s Earth: Christian Ecological Ethics of Ubuntu (2013), American Culture Warriors in Africa: A Guide to the Exporters of Homophobia and Sexism (2014) and Raised Hopes, Shattered Dreams: Democracy, the Oppressed, and the Church in Africa (The Case of Zambia) (2015) and forthcoming The Creator’s Symphony: African Christianity and the Plight of the Earth and the Poor being published by Cluster Publications. He just finished editing the Edinburgh 2010 series’ volume on Ecology and Christian mission. Globally recognized for his human rights work on Sexual Minorities in Africa, Dr. Kaoma is also the Moderator of the World Council of Churches’ Reference Group on Human Sexuality. For more information about the speaker: http://www.kapyajohnkaoma.com/.
Selected Bibliography
Armstrong, Kimberley. “Seeing the Suffering” in Northern Uganda: The Impact of a Human Rights Approach to Humanitarianism,” Canadian Journal of African Studies /Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 42, 1 (2008), 1-32.
Bartholomew and John Chryssavgis. On Earth as in Heaven: Ecological Vision and Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. NY.: Fordham Univ Press, 2012.
Boff, Leonardo. Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997.
Daneel, Marthinus L. African Earthkeepers: Wholistic Interfaith Mission. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 2001.
Darkoh, M.B.K. and A. Rwomire, eds. Human Impact on Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa. Hampshire: Aldershot, 2003.
Dasgupta, Partha and Veerabhadran Ramanathan. Persuit of the Common Good, Science 345 (19 September 2014): 1457-1458.
Dzingirai, V. Stealing the Birthright, Migration Dynamics in the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe, Institute of Natural resources, University of Natal, Pietmaritzburg, 2003.
Epstein, Paul R. MD., and Dan Ferber. Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It. Berkeley, Los Angeles: Univ. California, 1st edition, 2011.
Fassin, Didier. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 22, 1, Special Issue: Human Rights between Past and Future (Fall/Winter 2013): 33-48.
Feldman, Ilana. “Gaza’s Humanitarianism Problem,” Journal of Palestine Studies 38, 3 (Spring 2009): 22-37.
Kaoma, Kapya J. Caring for Creation as Christian Mission. Oxford: Regnum Books, 2015.
Kaoma, Kapya J. God’s family, God’s earth: Christian Ecological Ethics of Ubuntu. Zomba, Kachere, 2013.
Kaoma, Kapya J. Raised Hopes, Shattered Dreams: Democracy, the Oppressed, and the Church in Africa (the Case of Zambia). Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2015.
Kaoma, Kapya J. The Creator’s Symphony: African Christianity, The Plight of Earth and the Poor. Dorpspruit, Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2015.
Kearns, Laurel. “The Context of Eco-Theology,” In Blackwell Companion to Modern Theology. Gareth Jones, ed. 467-481. New York: Blackwell, 2004.
Krugman, Paul R. The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century. New York, London: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Makgoba, The Most Revd Thabo. “Foreword: Creation Care as Christian Mission,” Kapya John Kaoma, ed., Creation Care as Christian Mission. Oxford: Regnum Books, forthcoming.
Martone, Gerald. “Relentless Humanitarianism (Global Insights),” Global Governance 8, 2 (Apr.–June 2002): 149-154.
Mathews, Freya. “Ecological Philosophy,” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward Craig, ed. 197-202. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Piguet, Etienne. “Population,” In Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, (ed) George Philander, 817-819. Los Angeles: Sage, 2008.
Rieff, David. “Humanitarianism in Crisis,” Foreign Affairs, 81, 6 (Nov. – Dec., 2002): 111-121.
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington D.C: Howard University Press, 1982.
Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin Press, 2005.
Sinha, Dipankar. “Summit-Led Humanitarianism: Towards Fourth World Women’s Conference,” Economic and Political Weekly 30, 34 (Aug. 26, 1995): 2102-2104.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013; 2012.
Temple, William. Christianity and Social Order. New York: Penguin Books, 1942.
Wa Thiong‘o, Ngugi. Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. London: James Currey/Heinemann, 1981.
Walzer, Michael. “On Humanitarianism: Is Helping Others Charity, or Duty, or Both?,” Foreign Affairs 90, 4 (July/August 2011): 69-72, 73-76.
Wittenberg, Gunther. “”The Significance of Land in the Old Testament,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa77 (1991): 58-60.
Wittenberg, Gunther. “Prophecy in a Time of Global Crisis: Hosea 5:8 – 6:6,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 146 (July 2013): 139-169.
[1] Special thanks to the Ujamaa Center and the School of Classic and Religion at the University of KwaZulu Natal for the invitation, and to Boston University Center for Global Christianity and Mission for sponsoring part of this trip.
[2] UN., Our Common Future, Chapter 1: A Threatened Future, Par. 24.From A/42/427. UN., Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-01.htm. (Accessed May 19, 2015)
[3] Gunther Wittenberg, “Prophecy in a Time of Global Crisis: Hosea 5:8 – 6:6,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 146 (July 2013) 139-169, 139.
[4] Wittenberg, “Prophecy in a Time of Global Crisis,” 139.
[5] Vatican, “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity. The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Humanity: Declaration of Religious Leaders, Political Leaders, Business Leaders, Scientists and Development Practitioners,” May 3rd, 2015. http://jeffsachs.org/2015/05/protect-the-earth-dignify-humanity-the-moral-dimensions-of-climate-change-and-sustainable-humanity-declaration-of-religious-leaders-political-leaders-business-leaders-scientists-and-development/. (Accessed May 19, 2015)
[6] “Preserving and Cherishing the Earth: An Appeal for Joint Commitment in Science and Religion.” http://earthrenewal.org/Open_letter_to_the_religious_.htm. (Accessed October 15, 2014).
[7] Partha Dasgupta and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Persuit of the Common Good, Science 345 (19 September 2014): 1457-1458.
[8] Carol P. Christ, Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflection on a Journey to the Goddess (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987); Naomi Goldenberg, Changing of Gods: Feminism and the End of the Traditional Religions (Boston: Beacon Press, 1979); Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985); Kathleen M. Sands, Escape from Paradise: Evil and Tragedy in Feminist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 115-135.
[9] Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997).
[10] Gerald Martone, Global Governance 8, 2 (Apr.–June 2002): 149-154, 153.
[11] Ilana Feldman, “Gaza’s Humanitarianism Problem,” Journal of Palestine Studies 38, 3 (Spring 2009), 22-37, 24.
[12] Feldman, “Gaza’s Humanitarianism Problem,” 24.
[13] Feldman, “Gaza’s Humanitarianism Problem,” 25.
[14] Michael Walzer, “On Humanitarianism: Is Helping Others Charity, or Duty, or Both?,” Foreign Affairs 90, 4 (July/August 2011), 69-72, 73-76, 77-80.
[15] Walzer, “On Humanitarianism,” 78.
[16] Walzer, “On Humanitarianism,” 75.
[17] Barnett, “Humanitarianism Transformed ,” 734.
[18] David Rieff, “Humanitarianism in Crisis,” Foreign Affairs, 81, 6 (Nov. – Dec., 2002), 111-121., 113.
[19] Kimberley Armstrong, Seeing the Suffering” in Northern Uganda: The Impact of a Human Rights Approach to Humanitarianism,” Canadian Journal of African Studies /Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 42, 1 (2008), 1-32, 7.
[20] Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013; 2012); Paul R. Krugman, The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century (New York, London: W.W. Norton, 2004).
[21] U.N. Our Common Future, Chapter 1: A Threatened Future, Par. 9.
[22] Ngugi Wa Thiong‘o, Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (London: James Currey/Heinemann, 1981), 66. See also Kapya J. Kaoma, God’s family, God’s earth: Christian ecological ethics of Ubuntu (Zomba, Kachere, 2013), 161.
[23] UN., Our Common Future, Chapter 1: A Threatened Future, par. 10.
[24] Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (New York: Penguin Press, 2005), 78-79.
[25] Sachs, The End of Poverty, 81.
[26] Harry Kreisler, “Conversations with History: Reflections on Empire, Nationalism and Globalization, with Kenneth D. Kaunda,” University of California Television. http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=12102. First Aired, 1/22/2007. Accessed 02/10/2011.
[27] Kaoma, Raised Hopes, Shattered Dreams, 93.
[28] William Temple, Christianity and Social Order (New York: Penguin Books, 1942), 14-15.
[29] Armstrong, “Seeing the Suffering” in Northern Uganda,” 37.
[30] Dipankar Sinha, “Summit-Led Humanitarianism: Towards Fourth World Women’s Conference,” Economic and Political Weekly 30, 34 (Aug. 26, 1995), 2102-2104.
[31] Wittenberg, “Prophecy in a Time of Global Crisis,” 144-145.
[32] Wittenberg, “Prophecy in a Time of Global Crisis,” 151.
[33] Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Washington D.C: Howard University Press, 1982), 12.
[34] Didier Fassin, Studies in American Indian Literatures, 22, 1, Special Issue: Human Rights between Past and Future (Fall/Winter 2013), 33-48, 37.
[35] Freya Mathews, “Ecological Philosophy,” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward Craig, ed. 197-202 (London and New York, 1998), 197.
[36] Kapya J. Kaoma, Raised Hopes, Shattered Dreams: Democracy, the Oppressed, and the Church in Africa (the Case of Zambia). Trenton, New Jersey : Africa World Press, 2015), 168. Fela Kuti, “Coffin for Head of State,” 1981. Kuti argues that while traditional African cultures protected the people, today, Islam and Christianity have sanctioned corruption and nepotism. Pastors live in good houses, while “it [is] hard for my people for dem (sic) to buy soap.” Corrupt directors who practice “nepotism “and “corruption,” have “senior Allaha-ji na ‘im” or a “Bishop” as a best friend.
[37] This section is adapted to my introduction to Caring for Creation as Christian Mission, 2015.
[38] The Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, “Foreword: Creation Care as Christian Mission,” Kapya John Kaoma, ed., Creation Care as Christian Mission (Oxford: Regnum Books, 2015).
[39] WCC, ‘‘Invitation to the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace’’. http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/ documents/central-committee/geneva-2014/an-invitation-to-the-pilgrimage-of-justice-and-peace. (Accessed April 30, 2015).
[40] Archbishop of Canterbury join faith leaders in call for urgent action to tackle climate change, 16 June 2015. https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2015/06/archbishop-of-canterbury-join-faith-leaders-in-call-for-urgent-action-to-tackle-climate-change.aspx. (Accessed June 17, 2015)
[41] Larry B. Stammer, ‘Harming the Environment Is Sinful, Prelate Says: Theology: Declaration by Bartholomew I, Orthodox Christian leader, is believed to be a first by a major religious figure’, LA Times, November 09, 1997. http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/09/news/mn-51974. (Accessed June 1, 2015); Bartholomew, and John Chryssavgis, On Earth as in Heaven: Ecological Vision and Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (NY.: Fordham Univ Press, 2012), 195.
[42] Marthinus L. Daneel, African Earthkeepers: Wholistic Interfaith Mission (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 2001).
[43] Daniel Howden, ‘The Green Patriarch – Bartholomew I’, BBC, 12 June, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2040567.stm. (Accessed January 9, 2014)
[44] Bartholomew and Welby, ‘Climate Change and Moral Responsibility’.
[45] The English translation is Be Praised, which is a reflection on St. Francis of Assisi’s Cantico di fratre Sole—‘Song of Brother Sun’, which invites all creatures to praise their Creator.
[46] Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, 50.
[47] Laurel Kearns, “The Context of Eco-Theology,” In Blackwell Companion To Modern Theology, Gareth Jones, ed. 467-481, (New York, Blackwell, 2004), 481.
[48] Annie Lowrey, “Is It Crazy to Think We Can Eradicate Poverty?,” April 30, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/magazine/ Accessed 05/15/2013.
[49] UN., Our Common Future, Chapter 1: A Threatened Future, par. 8.
[50] M.B.K. Darkoh, and A. Rwomire, (eds.), Human Impact on Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (Hampshire: Aldershot, 2003), 7.
[51] Gunther Wittenberg, “The Significance of Land in the Old Testament,” Journal of Theology in southern Africa, 59.
[52] New York Times, Magazine, “The Population Explosion Is Over,” December 14, 1997. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/14/magazine/I-the-population-explosion-is-over-52 6258.html. Accessed 2/16/2013.
[53] Population Reference Bureau, 2009 World Population Data Sheet, http://www.prb.org /Publications/Datasheets/2009/2009wpds.aspx. Accessed 06/05/2013. AllAfrica, “Africa: Continent’s Population Reaches One Billion.” 08/20/ 2009. http: //allafrica. com/ stories/200908200660.html. Accessed 06/05/2013.
[54] The United Nation Environmental Programme, Global Environmental Outlook 5, June 6, 2012. http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/geo5/RS_Africa_en.pdf. Accessed 06/06/2012.
[55] Etienne Piguet, “Population,” In Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, (ed) George Philander, 817-819 (Los Angeles: Sage,2008), 818.
[56] V. Dzingirai, Stealing the Birthright, Migration Dynamics in the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe, Institute of Natural resources, University of Natal, Pietmaritzburg, 2003. http://www.id21.org/id21ext/s10cvd1g1.html. Accessed 12/20/2008.
[57] Global Witness, How Many More: 2014’s Deadly Environment: the Killing and Intimidation of Environmental and Land Activists, with a Spotlight on Honduras, Report/April 20, 2015. https://www.globalwitness.org/campaigns/environmental-activists/how-many-more/(Accessed February 20, 2015)
[58] The Lancet Commissions, Health and Climate Change: Policy Responses to Protect Public Health (June 23, 2015), 1. http://press.thelancet.com/Climate2Commission.pdf. (Accessed Jun 19, 2015).
[59] Paul R. Epstein, MD., and Dan Ferber, Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1st edition, 2011), 66.
[60] Epstein and Ferber, Changing Planet, Changing Health, 48.
[61] Epstein and Ferber, Changing Planet, Changing Health, 48.
[62] UN., “Fast Facts: The Faces of Poverty.” http://www.unmillennium project. org/documents/UNMP-FastFacts-E.pdf. Accessed 06/06/2012.
[63] UN, “Fast Facts: The Faces of Poverty.”
[64] UN, “Hunger Stats.” http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats. Accessed 5/25/2012.
[65] FAO, “How to Feed the World in 2050.” http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/expert_paper/How_to_Feed _the World_ in_2050.pdf. Accessed April 1, 2015.
[66] UNEP, Global Environmental Outlook 5, June 6, 2012.
[67] Boff, Cry of the Earth, 67.
[68] Kapya J. Kaoma, God’s family, God’s earth: Christian Ecological Ethics of Ubuntu (Zomba, University of Malawi Kachere Press, 2013), 165-170.
[69] In UN., Our Common Future, http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-01.htm.
[70] David Korten, “In Partnership with the Biosphere, Reframing the Debate on Limits,” Club of Rome blog, http://www.clubofrome.org/?p=2832. Accessed 4/5/2012.