A Kenyan bishop said that even as world leaders hesitate to enact strong measures on climate change, his diocese is struggling daily with the effects of global warming."The failure of the Copenhagen Summit has deeply disappointed us, as we have been experiencing the deadly effects of global warming for years now," Bishop Peter Kihara Kariuki of Marsabit told Fides, the Vatican missionary news service.
The U.N. Copenhagen conference last December ended with an agreement on some objectives but failed to reach a comprehensive, binding accord on reducing global emissions.
The region around Marsabit in Northern Kenya is caught in the grip of a long drought, Bishop Kihara Kariuki said in late February.
"It has practically not rained in three years. The population depends on aid from the church, the government and NGOs to eat and drink. The little water that is collected is not potable. The people have to use drinking water sent by the government with a tank, at several distribution points. There are people who have to travel dozens of kilometers to get water," he said.
As the situation has worsened, the region's nomadic herdsmen have seen their animals die, and pasture and water disappear, he said. This has made them more dependent on governmental aid for survival, and has led to increased violence between herdsmen armed with weapons acquired to protect from neighboring countries, he said.
"As a church we want to give a future to the younger generations, especially trying to change the traditional mindset that is the basis of conflicts between herdsmen," he said.
"Our hope lies mainly in the education of young men and women," including technical training to teach new trades to new generations such as opening a small business, he said.
Bishop Kihara Kariuki said the church continues to provide educational and health care services to the population of the diocese, which is predominantly Muslim. Catholics are a minority of less than 10 percent, he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: CNS