An Amazing Workshop
The Climate Change Workshop led by Janet Kabue in Abuja, Nigeria, [see previous article] was amazing. Human-caused climate change is a reality and a threat to life on earth.
It is terrifying to know how big the impacts of climate change will be in Africa if strong actions aren’t taken. The satellite image of climate change that Janet presented to us showed where the world was in 1971 and 2017 and where it is now. Africa has done little or nothing to improve its environmental condition.
Africa is our own—we cannot continue to stay quiet and watch our life, our hope, our future, our destiny go extinct.
The question Janet posed to us was, “How do enough of us from across the world unite in demanding change in ways that cannot be ignored?”
We outlined the steps we need to take. The following are a few of them:
- We have to discharge—the Co-Counseling session is the “medicine.” We have to discharge our discouragement to know where we are, where we are going, and how to fight back to liberate our society, our people, our environment, our culture, and our future.
- We need to find other organizations that are working on climate change and bring RC to them.
- We need to find out what our Ministry of the Environment is doing and tell it how RC can support it.
- We need to encourage renewable energy. We have a lot of sun and wind in Africa that can generate alternative energy.
- We must reduce our consumption and encourage others to do the same. (We buy things that we mostly do not need.)
- We have to be the opposing voice—opposing all the bad things that are happening around us. We should not keep quiet anymore. If our life is in danger, it is a serious issue.
- Our environment is our life. We have to take it seriously. The time to act is now.
The discharge was deep.
Thank you to Janet for taking up the struggle, to Tim Jackins and Diane Shisk for supporting her to do this work, and to Chioma Okonkwo (the Area Reference Person for Lagos, Nigeria, and the Apprentice Regional Reference Person for Nigeria) for making sure that all the Nigerian RC Communities partake of the knowledge Janet shared. We are in this together.
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria