July/August 2009

Editorial
This issue comes out at the same time as the Commission enjoys its annual Spirituality Day. We shall be spending July 4 in a wood near Everingham where one acre has been dedicated to our late, dear, friend Tony Storey. His many friends contributed more than £1000 with which the Woodland Trust have set aside this piece of woodland as his memorial. We shall be spending a few hours in the wood, stopping 3 or 4 times to have a time of quiet and prayer led by different people. Tony actually planted some of the trees here. At the same time an inscribed bench given by the people of Cottingham will be dedicated to Tony.
Our November meeting at St Francis, Acklam, is a joint meeting with CAFOD. Michael Edwards, CAFOD’s Climate Change Programme Development Officer will
speak to us about the impact that climate change is having on people in developing countries, about the need to work for Climate Justice and what CAFOD is calling on world leaders to agree at the UN Climate talks in Copenhagen in December this year.
Chris Dove
Note: the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission

The environment
"Last year saw a record melting of the Arctic sea ice. This year that record has been broken: for the first time in history, the northern ice cap can be circumnavigated. and with melting ice, more sunshine is absorbed rather than reflected back into space. The result is more warming, and more melting. In turn this increases the degassing of methane from Arctic bogs, lakes and thawing permafrost - and methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas in its own right, in fact 70 times stronger than CO2 over 20 years.


It is entirely possible that the melting of the sea ice and the emissions of Arctic methane have already reached a point of no return that will lead to a warming world no matter what we do. "
Source: Oliver Tickell Guardian Weekly 12/09/08

“The Pyrenees mountains have lost almost 90% of their glacier ice over the last century,” said scientists who warn that global warming means the glaciers will disappear completely within a few decades.
While glaciers covered 3,300 hectares of land on the mountain range that divides Spain and France at the turn of the last century, only 390 hectares remain, according to Spain's environment ministry.
Source: Guardian Weekly 6/3/09

“It is becoming increasingly apparent from our studies of Greenland and Antarctica that changes to sea ice are being transmitted to the hearts of the land-ice sheet in a remarkably short time,” said Dr David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey in announcing that rising sea levels, triggered by global warming, pose a far greater danger to the planet than previously thought.
There is now a major risk that many coastal areas around the world will be inundated by the end of the century because of the melting of the ice sheets. Low-lying areas, including Bangladesh, Florida, the Maldives and the Netherlands face catastrophic flooding, while in Britain large areas of the Norfolk Broads and the Thames Estuary are likely to disappear by 2100. Major coastal cities including London will need new flood defences.


In 2007 when the International Panel on Climate Change presented its report they concluded a rise of sea-level of between 20 and 60 cm would occur by 2100 but that report contained little input from melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. The revised figure, backed by the US Geological survey is now as much as 1.5 metres.
Source: Guardian weekly 13/3/9

Drying forests raise global risks
Chris Field, Co-chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago that the panel's report on climate change in 2007 had underestimated the severity of global warming this century. Instead of a rise in the earth's temperature of between 1.1C and 6.4C by 2100,

"We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected, primarily because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal."

Of particular concern was the impact of climate change in the tropics, where higher temperatures could have a dramatic impact on the environment. If the regions become dry enough for fires to start, tropical forests will pass the tipping point from absorbing carbon from the atmosphere to releasing it. Tropical forests are essentially not flammable, but if they dry out just a little, the result can be very large destructive wildfires.
Source: Guardian Weekly 20.2.09

Water sustainability
A researcher working for the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility [ECCR] focused on water sustainability and it is predicted that by 2020 – 2025 some 25% of the world’s population will be in water-threatened regions.
Water is increasingly going to provoke conflict. ECCR identified industry in the developed world as using 25% of all water use whereas in the developing world agriculture takes 70% of all water. Her conclusion: responsible water use is a corporate responsibility.


The cost of food
The threat of famine in Africa is returning. The average price of a meal has risen by over 40% where half the population survives on less than $1 per day.
Imagine the impact such increased prices will have not only on Africa but also in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America where people already spend up to 80% of their income on food. Many people will go hungry and even die from hunger.
The current situation clearly presents a big threat, but it may also be an opportunity. Governments need to act now. Developed countries need to give more money to reduce the immediate shock, but longer term investment is also necessary.
Greater investment in agriculture, focused on small farmers and women, so that they are in a position to benefit from higher prices, is urgently needed and we need also to reform the food policies of rich countries.
Much aid is sent in kind, from miles away and takes too long to arrive: it is often better to buy food locally.
Source: Oxfam GB
But will the west be more generous? In 1960 aid stood at $61 per capita from Western countries when gross national income (GNI) per head in the same countries was $11,303.
In 2000, the GNI had nearly tripled, to $28,500; the aid per person had risen by just $6.
Source: The Independent 30/8/08

Toxic legacy from mining in Honduras
Catholic aid agencies, CAFOD in the UK and
Development & Peace in Canada, are calling on the multi-million pound mining giant Goldcorp to
ensure that their San Martin mine in Honduras does not leave a toxic legacy when it closes at the
end of 2009.
The San Martin mine in the Siria Valley is the
largest opencast gold mine in Honduras, run by
Entre Mares, a Honduran subsidiary wholly
owned by the Canadian-US company Goldcorp
Inc.


The company has consistently disputed test results confirming the presence of arsenic and cyanide in water sources flowing from within the mine boundaries.
Last month 24 dead cattle were found on grazing land near the mine; while large numbers of the local population, including children, have been suffering skin conditions. Local people believe this is a result of pollution caused by the mine. Goldcorp denies this has any connection with their operation. Legislation regarding mining in Honduras is weak, and the government has done little to ensure that the rights of affected communities are protected.

Sonya Maldar, CAFOD's extractives policy analyst,
said: "Despite repeatedly raising our concerns with Goldcorp, and on the basis of the evidence we've seen,
the company has yet to live up to its social and environmental responsibilities at San Martin. With
the mine due to close at the end of 2009 and all the
signs showing there is serious pollution at the site,
Goldcorp must act now to ensure they do not leave
behind an environmental disaster in Honduras."
The mine, which began full operations in 2000, has
caused controversy from the start, with local people
claiming they were not fully consulted about the
project.
Love Saint-Fleur, advocacy officer for Development & Peace said: "Pollution from gold mines can continue for hundreds of years after closure - unless strict measures are put in place to counteract it. If the company is not willing to act in a socially responsible manner, the Honduran government must protect the rights of its own people by ensuring that Goldcorp cleans up the San Martin mine site and prevents the poisoning of water sources."
During the mine's period of operation, the company used the controversial cyanide heap-leaching method to extract gold from low grade deposits. This means piles of crushed gold ore are soaked in a solution of cyanide which filters down leaching out the gold deposits and releasing other toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead. Without careful management, these pollutants can seep into streams and contaminate groundwater. This practice is banned in some US states.
Source: CAFOD

Commission contacts
Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398
KateWard Secretary 01642 781676
Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621
Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043
email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop
or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS
website www.middlesbroughjp.org
Food into fuel tanks
In less than a year, the price of wheat has risen by 130%, soya by 87% and rice by 74% according to the UN's FAO. Overall global food prices have risen by 83% since 2005. The IMF estimates that 20 to 30% of the food price increases in the past two years are accounted for by biofuels.
Not long ago hunger appeared to be in gradual retreat. Not any more. In 2004 researchers at the University of Minnesota said they expected the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world to fall from over 800m to 625m by 2025. In early 2007 they updated this to include the biofuel effect.
The result? They expect the number of hungry people to rise to 1.2bn by 2025.
The UN food and agriculture organisation reported that 2008 had seen the biggest increase in malnourished people in decades. More than 960 million people - one in every six people in the world - now goes to bed hungry. Forty million extra people suffered malnourishment in 2008 because of higher food prices.
Source: The Guardian Weekly 19.12.08
Food into fuel tanks (continued)
Some people are making good livings from biofuels, thanks to lavish support from Washington. Under existing policies the US biofuels industry will, in aggregate, benefit from support worth over $92bn from 2006 to 2012.
The secretary general of the FAO, Jaques Diouf, said in June that he found it "incomprehensible” that subsidies worth $11 to 12bn in 2006 were used to divert 100m tonnes of cereals from human consumption mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuels for vehicles.
Hopes are now rising that so-called second-generation biofuels could be more efficient.
These process the inedible parts of the plants and so do not divert food away from the animal or human food chain; but scientists say it will be 5-10 years before they become commercially available. There are more distant but still credible plans for producing fuel from algae, or by using genetically modified bacteria to convert carbon dioxide.
For the moment, though, biofuels continue to take food directly from the mouths of the starving.
Source: The Tablet 28 June 2008

[Since writing this I noticed the following in the Guardian Weekly of 15/5/09]
Obama blow to ethanol

The Obama administration, in the face of intense pressure from agricultural companies, has decided that the fuel
needed to process the corn means that ethanol could be
more polluting than the fossil fuel it was meant to replace.

Finding poverty, not asylum
A new report by the Leeds-based Pafras charity warns that many failed asylum seekers are living in a twilight zone with no housing or financial support and no right to work. The number of destitute asylum seekers dealt with by Pafras has tripled in the last two years. They call this destitution a deliberate policy to force asylum seekers out of this country.

"The fact that the government is trying to starve people out of the country is absolutely inhumane and it just isn't working. These people would rather starve on the street here rather than return to their own countries."

The report found that following refusal of their claim to asylum, 72% have spent time sleeping outside; of these 38% have experienced attacks. More than a third of the women sleeping rough had experienced sexual assault including rape.
A lack of access to legal advice is having a significant impact on the number of valid asylum seekers being refused sanctuary, and returned to countries where they could be tortured, according to human rights lawyer Louise Christian.

"The government's asylum policies are entirely at odds with its human rights obligation - particularly with regards to children in detention. It is a huge source of scandal and shame to this country"
Source: Guardian Weekly 20.03.09

Unbelieveable?
Nearly one in every five children in the US is currently growing up in outright poverty.
Source: Centre for American Progress

Thought for today
“In the middle of last year [2008], we had a global outcry about the perilous state of billions of people in developing countries whose governments could not afford to provide enough food for them and who
could not themselves earn enough to buy food at prevailing prices. These problems are now worse, but the global outcry is all about the multinational banks that are under threat. And several multiples of the money that could not be found to feed the hungry are quickly being found to bail out irresponsible banks.”
Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics,
Jawaharlal Nehru University in India.

Lifetime
When I was very young
the field outside my house
was a kind of Paradise.
The farmer used no pesticide
and every wild flower bloomed there;
The hedge enclosing this sweet-smelling space
Was full of treasure:
hawthorn, honeysuckle, holly,
blackthorn, dog rose and small singing birds.
I was happy then.
In my middle years
someone bought the farmer’s field.
He cut down the hedge
and sprayed the grass.
Few flowers grew
and the small birds flew away.
I was sad then.
Now I am old
a businessman has bought the field
and all the grass has given way to concrete.
“Executive homes”
have been built in rows
blocking the sky and sun.
The businessman has named his site “Meadowfield”.
I smile at that, because I do not wish to cry,
but I am angry now.
A.M.D.