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On International Earth Day, Salesians in Africa Highlight “climate solutions” Program

Poster of the International Mother Earth Day/ Credit: Don Bosco Tech Africa

On the annual International Mother Earth Day observed April 22, officials of Don Bosco Tech Africa (DBTA) have highlighted their program that is championing climate solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In a Thursday, April 22 report, officials of the body coordinating all Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centres run by the Religious Institute of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) in Africa note that “global warming, pollution and deforestation are some of the major problems posing a threat to nature.”

“In the wake of this reality,” DBTA officials say they have “been upfront championing climate solutions through mitigation, adaptation, and encouraging individual action for the common good” through the Green Clubs present in the over 102 TVET centres spread across 35 countries in Africa and Madagascar. 

They add that members of the Green Clubs, which are supported by the German-based Don Bosco Mondo, have been involved in reforestation activities “as a way of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, also provide vital habitat for animals and ecological services for humans, such as purifying the air we breathe and regulating the temperatures.”

“Our technical schools, through the Green Clubs have also been frequently undertaking clean-ups to reduce waste and plastic pollution, improve habitats, prevent harm to wildlife and humans and even lead to larger environmental action,” DBTA officials add in their April 22 statement. 

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Established by the United Nations (UN) through a resolution adopted in 2009, the International Mother Earth Day aims at demonstrating support for environmental protection. 

This years’ observance is marked under the theme “Restore Our Earth.”

Referencing the theme of the International event, the officials of SDB entity say, “Restoration of the Earth is everyone’s responsibility; we all need a healthy Earth to support our jobs, livelihoods, health and survival.”

“A healthy planet is not an option – it is a necessity!” they conclude their April 22 statement.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has called on world leaders to “act with courage, operate with justice, and always tell the truth to people,” so as to avoid the destruction of the planet.

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In a video message for Earth Day celebration April 22, the Holy Father says that “the adversity we are experiencing with the pandemic, and which we already feel in climate change, must spur us, must push us to innovation, invention, to seek new paths.”

We do not need to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis the same, Pope Francis says and continues, “We come out better or worse.”

“This is the challenge, and if we do not come out better, we go down a path of self-destruction,” the Holy Father further says, adding that COVID-19 has shown the interdependence between human life and nature, thus the need to find solutions to climate change.

“The COVID pandemic has taught us this interdependence, this sharing of the planet. And both global disasters, COVID and the climate, show that we don’t have time to wait any longer. That time is pressing us and that, as COVID-19 has taught us, yes, we have the means to face the challenge. We have the means. It is time to act, we are at the limit," Pope Francis says in his video message availed on YouTube.

On his part, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has, in his message issued ahead of Earth Day 2021, observed that humanity is continuously abusing the world and called on all people to take part in restoring the planet.

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“As we mark International Mother Earth Day, our planet is at a tipping point. Humanity continues to abuse the natural world. We heedlessly plunder the Earth’s resources, deplete its wildlife and treat air, land and seas as dumping grounds. Crucial ecosystems and food chains are being pushed to the brink of collapse,” Mr. Guterres has bemoaned. 

Describing the injustices against the earth as “suicidal”, the UN head called for an end to the “war on nature and nurse it back to health.”

“That means bold climate action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius and adapt to the changes to come. It means stronger steps to protect biodiversity. And it means reducing pollution by building circular economies that drive down waste,” Mr. Guterres said.

He added that it is by restoring the earth that “our only home” will be safeguarded and millions of new jobs created.  

“On International Mother Earth Day, let us all commit to the hard work of restoring our planet and making peace with nature,” the UN Secretary General has said.

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Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.