Prophets of Climate Change

Baimuru in the mud. 

The prophets of the Old Testament and the preachers of climate change have a lot in common.

The Hebrew prophets would declare to anyone who would listen, often via dramatic means, that people needed to repent and be saved. Repent means to acknowledge wrong and commit to a changed path. The salvation was a combination of the changed path and the work of God in no longer condemning.

Baimuru in the dry. That’s the same path as the other picture.

Modern prophets also use dramatic actions to tell us to repent and be saved, they just don’t use those terms. What they do tell us is that unless we recognise the effects of our actions and dramatically change how we live, we will suffer. If we do dramatically change, then we may avoid disaster. In other words, repent and be saved.

Last year when we visited Gulf Province there had been major rain in the Highlands causing major flooding in the Delta area. This combined with king tides to inundate gardens, kill crops and leave people hungry. At the same time this year, there is a drought in PNG, caused by El Nino. When El Nino last struck PNG with drought in 1997, many people died, and they are predicting that this cycle will be worse than then. The Highlands are crying out for rain and the Delta area is experiencing a rather dry wet season. Once again, people are going hungry. The same time of the year, two very different seasons, but the same result.

King tide at Kapuna hospital. I can’t usually

bring the boat to the front window and

unload directly inside!

I was recently reading that respected scientists think that a 1m rise in sea level is now unavoidable. During king tides, water already floods many villages in the Delta area. At regular high tides, the water level is less than 50cm from flooding the village. An increase of 1m will cause regular flooding, permanent destruction of gardens and probably result in people having to leave their traditional lands and seek refuge elsewhere.

Something else the Hebrew prophets were big on was care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger. Climate change looks like creating a whole lot more of these categories. Will we listen to the modern prophets as they tell us to repent and be saved? Will we listen to the prophet who told us to love our neighbour as ourselves? This will mean sacrificing some of the comfortable ways we like to do things so that others may continue to live at all. Will we listen to the ancient prophets when they remind us to love the vulnerable and the outcast? 

Shifting Coastlines

 The Kivaumai beach that used to be inland of the village.

As we travelled about Gulf Province by dinghy, I heard stories of the changes in the land and water around them. Much of what I heard I could confirm from my own observations.

At Maipenairu village, we were told that they had moved there a few generations ago and that it had been the beach. Now the beach was a kilometre or so away, beyond more rivers and islands. At night you could sometimes hear the breakers on the beach, but it was not within easy access. The growth of land in this area was put down to soil coming down the river from the Highlands.

At Kivaumai village, we were told that the village had moved inland some generations ago, because the ocean had reclaimed the land where it was before. Some sticks in the water indicated where the village had been. Once again the village is thinking about moving inland, as the ocean continues to invade.

While we were in the area, we experienced unusually high tides. People told us that high tides have been happening for generations, but not with such frequency or severity. The water would come into the village maybe once or twice a year and never so deeply. For three days we saw the water flood the entire village twice a day.

 Exposed roots show where the recent high tide
 pushed the beach towards the village yet again.

The truth of what we were told was confirmed by the loss of gardens and walkways. People in these areas know what the usual tide range is, so build their gardens out of reach of the salty and destructive water. For their gardens to be inundated indicated that the tides were not behaving within the normal range. Similarly, walkways which had been in use for some time and had been built to be above the range of the tide were being damaged by the higher-than-high tides.

We heard stories of people learning to adapt to the new normal, of finding new ways to plant mini gardens on every high point they could find. Still, I cannot help but wonder how rising sea levels will effect these people in the long term. The ground of their villages is not far above sea level and will easily go under. Where then do they go when their gardens and their land is taken from them?