Climate Justice and MFSA
By Taku Chinogwenya
Hello, once again. My name is Takundanashe (Taku), and I am a third year Master of Divinity student at Drew Theological School with a focus in social justice advocacy. In September 2023, I started interning at Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) working as the organizing associate. For my internship, I will be organizing an event called the Worldwide Climate Teach In. This is an event that will be conducted in association with Bard College. It is an advocacy event centered around climate justice and environmental sustainability. In the next few MFSAVoices (MFSA newsletters) we will be continuing to highlight climate justice and what we can do to make a bigger impact.
My interest in climate justice stems from my upbringing. I am from Zimbabwe, Africa. It is a landlocked country whose economy is based on agriculture. This means we are dependent on good rainfall and arable land for our sustenance. Our livestock and animals also require water and good grazing grounds. Even people that are not professional farmers still have small pieces of land to be able to grow crops for them to eat. In the last few years, we have seen erratic rainfall and thus poor agricultural yields and starving livestock. This has caused widespread poverty to run rampant in Zimbabwe. What struck me is the reason for all of this. It is our failure worldwide to take care of the earth and our environment.
In my second year of studies at Drew University, I did a course called Global faiths and the earth and interned with the Bard College’s Graduate Programs in Sustainability. This further opened my eyes to the problem of global warming and climate change. The evidence was overwhelming. It is not unusual to see the air polluted by smoke from big industrial areas, landfills, old quarries with big piles of earth which has had its mineral striped from it. We are called to preserve the earth and all that is on it, and we have proceeded to cause havoc. It would be an injustice not to focus our energy, even in part, to this global crisis of the disregard of the environment.
As a young girl, I often went to events with a wildlife conservation parastatal in Zimbabwe. Their motto is “in harmony with nature.” Everything they stood for was aimed at protecting wildlife in Zimbabwe. This exposure let me to being interested in finding out why the animals needed such stringent protective measures. During my time as a practicing lawyer, I was privileged enough to work with the same parastal and learn more about challenges faced by the parastal in protecting the environment and animals. Poaching and deforestation were rampant. A social ill that was perpetuated by humans. I realized that as a people we were failing to live according to the mandate we were given by God which continues even after the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:15 (NIV) says: “The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it”. We are called to take care of the earth and everything on it.
The environmental crisis is not just an ecological issue. It touches on issues such as economic and racial justice amongst others. The people most affected by some of the social ills inflicted on the earth are those who struggle economically. Most of the pollution and factories are based in poor communities. In these areas we often see issues with asthma and other respiratory issues. Sadly, it is often people of color that reside in those areas making it not just an issue about economic or climate justice, but one of racial justice. Through my experiences with MFSA and with other organizations in different contexts, I have seen the interconnectedness of these social issues.
It is my wish that we work alongside each other to get our earth back to good health. Together we can make a difference. Engaging in conversation will help people become more conscious of the problem. Knowledge is power they say. Once people are more aware of the consequences of their actions, maybe then there will be more conscious efforts to heal the earth. As individuals that are aware of the problem, change can occur on a larger spectrum through changes to legislation. Even if we are not involved in big initiatives for change, we can do a lot by just changing our lifestyles. I encourage us to stop being bystanders and take action. Become a climate justice advocate and spread the news that this battle is far from over. There is hope for the earth and for us if we just become more environmentally aware and act accordingly.