Liuan Huska (陈柳岸) is a freelance writer and speaker focusing on topics of embodiment and spirituality. Her writing, on everything from chronic pain to evangelical fertility trends, appears in Christianity Today, The Christian Century, In Touch Magazine, Hyphen, Sojourners, and Church Health Reader. She lives with her husband and their three little boys in the Chicago area. Liuan is a member of the A Rocha USA board of trustees.
As I scrolled through the Facebook updates from my friends in the area, I heaved a deep sigh of frustration and lament. Again!? How could a thousand-year rain event happen every other year? Something was amiss.
David Attenborough’s latest BBC documentary, ‘Extinction: the facts’ makes shocking but deeply compulsive watching. Viewers have spoken of being so overwhelmed as to switch off and return later, and being moved to anger and sleeplessness. I wasn’t as depressed as many, and will come back to why.
Shouldn’t poverty alleviation be the biggest global priority? Isn’t the world going to end anyway? Are climate activists trying to play God? These are all questions raised by well-intending individuals, who may not view climate change as a high risk. By addressing these questions, we can argue that Christians, and members of all faith systems, can play a key role in leading climate action.
A friend of mine who has a brother living in Australia recently took the difficult decision never to fly to Australia again. ‘Love hurts’, she commented ruefully. Others will make different choices, for different reasons, but choose we must.
When Greta Thunberg speaks, the world listens. How is it that a 16-year old Swedish schoolgirl, unknown just over a year ago, has become one of the best-known faces and voices on the planet?
Extinction Rebellion’ (XR) has been getting plenty of media coverage recently. It’s a new nonviolent, direct-action movement aiming to provoke discussion and transform the climate change agenda. In over 80 cities across 33 countries, XR has closed bridges and roads, protested outside fossil fuel companies, and seen hundreds of people arrested. When interviewed, most XR activists have spoken of their fear or eco-anxiety for the future, and their anger at the lack of action.
At the launch of our book, Low Carbon and Loving It, I was asked a difficult question: ‘Flights go everyday from Sydney to Johannesburg. Whether or not I book a ticket and get on that plane, it will go. So what difference does it make if I fly or not?’
I was woken by a bright flash and a deafening bang, despite my earplugs and eye-mask. Was it a bomb? No, this was Typhoon Mangkhut (locally called Ompong), the biggest storm recorded in the world so far this year.
As I spent time in homes and churches in Cape Town, talking to ordinary residents, faith leaders and a few politicians and experts, I found myself reflecting on the issues this water crisis reveals, so here are a few personal thoughts as a result of many conversations and wide-ranging reading.
Professor Katharine Hayhoe is coming to town (well, at least if you live in the UK within reach of London, Oxford or Edinburgh). You may be asking, ‘Who is she?’
