A Catholic Response to Climate Change
The work of promoting Fair Trade is more and more joining with the work of fighting climate change. From our work with coffee farmers in Latin America, CRS has known that climate change is already beginning to affect the harvest of small-scale coffee farmers, already struggling to earn a reasonable income. Climate Change Threatens Central American Coffee, a recent article from Reuters, confirms that lack of water and extreme weather systems, are damaging the crops of coffee farmers.
With more drastic changes in climate expected over the next 10-15years, regardless of the altitude of their farm, coffee farmers will need to adapt their farming techniques, and possibly even the crops they farm, to ensure they have a crop to harvest and a continued source of income. As the result of 3 year grant, CRS and our partner CIAT are working on a project called CUP – Coffee Under Pressure: Climate Change Adaptation in Mesoamerica. Through the project we are developing a system to identify how farms at different elevations will be affected by climate change and working with farmers make the appropriate adaptations to their farms.
The article in Reuters stresses the importance of government involvement in the coffee industry to assist farmers and maintain a stable supply of coffee. However, we in the U.S. also have a role to play in stemming the tide of climate change. Catholics Confront Global Poverty, a joint initiative between the USCCB and Catholic Relief Services, invites Catholics to take action on climate change. If you haven’t joined yet, sign up for Catholics Confront Global Poverty!
Here’s why…
“The Catholic Church brings a distinct perspective to the debate about climate change by lifting up the moral dimensions of this issue and the needs of the most vulnerable among us. As Catholics our faith calls us to care for all of God’s creation, especially the ‘least of these’ (Mt 25:40). Of particular concern to the Church is how climate change and the response to it will affect poor and vulnerable people here at home and around the world.” (learn more…)
Tags: Catholic Confront Global Poverty, climate change, Coffee, fair trade
