MCC is launching “Climate Action for Peace” campaign

Over next two years, campaign will equip people in Canada and the U.S. to call on their governments to lower emissions, support people in other countries disproportionately affected by climate change

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In Cambodia’s Prey Veng Province, Chhin Ya stands in the rice field that was sufficient to provide food and a livelihood for her and her parents when she was young. But droughts have ruined harvests and reduced yields. As crops failed, the family borrowed money for food. Their debt grew. Her daughter dropped out of school and migrated to work in a garment factory. Her husband also left the district to find work. Photo: MCC

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has launched a climate change advocacy campaign, “Climate Action for Peace,” to draw attention to the vast impact of climate change on people around the world and to give people ways to work on mitigating it.

The campaign begins with the launch of a micro website, climateactionforpeace.com, which features stories, resources and tools that people can use to influence government policies in Canada and the U.S.

“The campaign grows out of listening and working with our global partners as they help people adapt to the challenges of climate change,” says Leona Lortie, national public engagement and advocacy manager of MCC Canada’s Peace & Justice Office. “We see the pain that climate change is causing, and we know more action is needed.”

MCC staff and partners have seen that the changing climate results in few harvests, loss of livestock, stress on water resources, reduced income, food insecurity, and the need to migrate to find employment. As resources become scarce, tensions are heightened.

“As followers of Jesus we are called to love our neighbors and to be peacebuilders,” says Tammy Alexander, director of MCC U.S. National Peace & Justice Ministries. “Peace comes when we identify and transform structures and legacies of injustice, including those that make some communities more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.”

Over the next two years or more, the campaign will equip people in Canada and the United States to call on their governments to lower emissions and support people in other countries who are disproportionately affected.

Alexander and Lortie agree that Canadian and U.S. governments need to generate the kind of change that will make a difference. MCC encourages constituents to lend their voices to help bring about climate justice.

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