Let me tell you a quick but compelling story. Andrew lives in Malawi. He has a wife and a young child. He is a farmer who works about 2 acres of land. In the past, consistent predictable rains came meaning he knew when to plant in order that his crop could grow. Now things have changed.
In 2006, there was a sustained drought when it normally rained, resulting in Andrew losing his crop. Following the drought heavy rains came which brought floods. Andrew’s fields turned into rivers and these rivers dumped sand on his land.
Guess, how much sand do you think the river dumped?
When the waters went away they left 10,000 tones of sand, equally almost a metre in depth. How does Andrew plant now?
Andrew’s is the most disturbing and compelling story I have heard in a long time - when I stop an think about it, its truly frightening. The climate is changing and to a large extent I know you and I have contributed to the pain people like Andrew now experience. I want to do something to change this and to give Andrew a chance in life.
Having finished our 10-week journey, this Spring during lent we are going to focus on lifestyle choices we can make to reduce our carbon, so we can limit the number of stories like Andrew’s. So, we are committing to doing the Carbon Fast, a resource Tearfund have developed for Lent. Each day for 40 days there’ll be a simple action we can do, reducing our carbon use.
To inspire and amuse us, ‘Low Carbon Man,’ a friend of Journey Beyond, will be posting video journals for us to follow his challenge to live a carbon free life for 40 days.
Join us for the Carbon Fast - if you haven’t already, subscribe to our email list (top right corner of the screen) and you’ll get the daily actions in your in box. We’ll be in touch soon with more details. The fast starts on 5 February 2008.
ACTION POINT
This will work best if we all do it together. In order to have the biggest impact, we need lots of people involved. Over the next few weeks tell people about the Carbon Fast and get them on board with doing it.
