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Category: World Touch
Lebanon

Christians Tempted to Flee Rising “Islamization”

Christians are tempted to flee Lebanon as the country becomes increasingly “Islamized,” according to the founder of the Center for Arab Christian Research and Documentation (CEDRAC). One-third of the nation’s Christian population has left since the beginning of the 1975-90 civil war, and a recent surge in emigration means Christians now make up just 34% of Lebanon’s population, Father Samir Khalil, a Jesuit teacher at Beirut’s St. Joseph University’s CEDRAC department, told Vatican Radio.

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Global

Agriculture “Largely Ignored” in Climate Talks

Agriculture is in danger of being ignored in any final deal made would be made at the key climate talks in Copenhagen in December, says a top negotiator. Michael Zammit-Cutajar, who chairs the working group on financing for adaptation measures in developing countries, said agriculture was “flagged” in the working text but would probably not get more of a mention than that.

Irin News
Vatican

Don’t Pass the Buck on Climate Issue

Benedict XVI says that neither the poor nor future generations should pay the price for current waste of shared resources, and he urged governments to take responsibility for the environment. The Pope gave this exhortation in a video message taken from a general audience by which he addressed the U.N. summit on climate change. The meeting was a lead-up to this December’s event in Copenhagen.

www.zenit.org
Japan

Experts Expect Super Typhoons to Cause a Lot of Damage

Japanese weathermen predict that global warming will spawn ‘supertyphoons’ in the second half of this century that will hit coastal Japan, causing unprecedented damages. However, typhoons and tropical storms have already sown death and destruction in the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

Pino Cazzaniga
Africa

Trees “Vital for Food Security”

Countries tackling food insecurity and climate change adaptation can greatly benefit from agroforestry – integrating fleshy plants and trees into their farming systems, environmental specialists say. Those in Sub-Saharan Africa, that have a history of food insecurity brought on by meager rains, land degradation, declining soil fertility and bad management of resources, would have much to gain.

Irin News
Holysee

To Respect God is to Respect Nature

Where God is respected, so is nature, affirmed Benedict XVI. Noting the gift of nature, and the “phenomena of environmental degradation and natural calamities,” the Pontiff recalled the need for mankind to enter into “a correct relation with the environment.” And noted: “A new sensitivity to these topics is being developed, which arouses the correct concern of the authorities and of public opinion, which is also expressed in the multiplication of meetings at the international level.” Benedict XVI called the earth “a precious gift of the Creator,” and said “we must hold ourselves as stewards of His creation.”

www.zenit.org

Petition to Abolish the “Law on Blasphemy”

Christians in Pakistan are working against the controversial law on blasphemy. The Justice and Peace Commission of the Pakistani Bishops’ Conference, has called for the signing of a petition to be presented to the government, calling for an abolition of the law. Specifically speaking, they refer to Articles 295 (b) and (c) and 298 (a), (b), and (c) of the Pakistani Penal Code, which have to do with the laws over blasphemy which are often used against religious minorities like Christians and Ahmadi. The Code condemns “any, who with words or writings, gestures, or visible manifestations, direct or indirect insinuations, insult the sacred name of the Prophet.” The punishment for violating the law is life in prison or the death penalty.

www.fides.org
Asia

An Unprecedented Food Shortage

Asia faces an unprecedented food crisis and huge social unrest unless hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in better irrigation systems to grow crops for its burgeoning population, according to a UN report quoted by the British newspaper The Guardian. India, China, Pakistan and other large countries avoided famines in the 1970s and 1980s only because they built giant state-sponsored irrigation systems and introduced better seeds and fertilizers. But the extra 1.5 billion people expected to live on the continent by 2050 will double Asia’s demand for food, says the report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank-funded International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

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East Timor

Justice is Key to Development

Long-term development in East Timor – which celebrated the tenth anniversary of its vote for independence on August 29 – will be “seriously hindered” if justice for past crimes remains undelivered, the international development agency Progressio has warned. Despite a decade of self-rule, East Timor is still the poorest country in the region and one of the least developed nations in the world. An estimated 40% of the East Timorese people live on less than a dollar a day.

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Biofuels

New Vision is Urgently Needed

Massive subsidies and quotas for biofuels are wreaking social and environmental havoc and in many cases actually exacerbating climate change, says a new Christian Aid report. Titled “Growing Pains,” the study demands a radical overhaul of governments’ multi-billion dollar support for biofuels, so that only crops which offer genuine greenhouse gas savings and wider social benefits are encouraged.

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