Cameroon: Presbyterian Church More Concerned About Climate Change

By Christopher Ambe Shu
The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) is not only worried about the negative and disastrous effects of global climate change but is now determined to make more contributions to help address the problem।

It was in this light that the PCC held a two-day conference (from 22-23 July 2009) at its head-office in Buea with senior officials and workers of the church to brainstorm on the problem of climate change and draw a plan of action to follow. The PCC will soon also be participating in a London Conference on Climate Change, prior to another Conference on same subject next November in Denmark

The Buea conference, organized by the PCC Development Secretary, Kumbo Denis, brought together over 40 participants from within the national territory.
Mr. Kumbo said it was intended to come up with contributions on how the church could better help in reversing the negative effects of climate change
Reverend Dr। Nyansako-ni –Nku, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon opened the Buea Conference, which was later characterized by paper presentations on climate change and group discussions.

Drawing inspiration for the Bible, the PCC Moderator noted that when God created man he asked him to go multiply and fill the earth। But he regretted that, while man has been multiplying and filling the earth, the same man has been reckless in making it fruitful.

He further regretted that some activities and actions of man are only helping to make the earth barren despite the warning from scientists about the negative effects of global warming.
The Man of God recalled that it was about twenty years ago that the PCC started paying much attention to environmental protection, by introducing the church’s tree-planting week in effort toward making the city cities greener।

"We should be concerned with what we as a church can do to make sure that the environment is fruitful; we should not only be concerned with our greed, but our needs," the moderator remarked, calling for more commitment to the sustainable management of the environment

Of course, there are both natural and man-made causes of climate change.
Some natural factors responsible for climate change include volcanoes, ocean currents, continental drift and the earth's tilt।

But more worrying are the human causes, which include deforestation, the emission of gases into the air and population increase
According to EduGreen, " the energy sector is responsible for about ¾ of the carbon dioxide emissions, 1/5 of the methane emissions and a large quantity of nitrous oxide। It also produces nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) which are not greenhouse gases but do have an influence on the chemical cycles in the atmosphere that produce or destroy greenhouse gases"

"Carbon dioxide is undoubtedly, the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Changes in land use pattern, deforestation, land clearing, agriculture, and other activities have all led to a rise in the emission of carbon dioxide."
The conference ended with a call to all Christians to contribute, in one way or the other, in reversing the negative effects of Climate change by doing what is legally and morally right.