Listen to climate change victims, Fijian archbishop urges

The archbishop made this point at a public lecture in Fiji on March 27. The lecture was titled “Victims’ Narrative of Climate Change: The Missing Voice”. He stressed the devastating effects of climate change on local communities in Fiji and elsewhere in the Pacific.

The archbishop referred to a study from Australia’s Monash University that showed that those who are bearing the brunt of the crisis are seldom heard in climate change discussions.

Archbishop Loy Chong said while the global conversation often centres on empowerment and leadership, the real stories of suffering from shoreline erosion, rising sea levels and frequent cyclones are overlooked. He added that, despite contributing minimally to global carbon emissions, Pacific communities are facing some of the most severe consequences of climate change.

But when only the politicians are being heard and not the victims, “why fuss about climate change when there are no victims?”

To illustrate his case, Archbishop Loy Chong said that theologians struggled to find language to address the catastrophe of the Holocaust inflicted by the Nazis.

“They could not find the language to talk about this kind of dehumanising event,” he explained.

“So one theologian, a Jesuit, said we have to bring the voices of the victims and the vanquished and even those who have disappeared from the earth to interrupt the world, to shock the world, so the world knows that something is wrong.”

So the voice of the victims and even the voices of those who have died have to come out to shock the world, to interrupt the world and to call to change, the archbishop said. 

“Unless the world knows and listens to the voice of the victims and what they are going through, things will continue as usual,” he lamented.

Last month, Archbishop Loy Chong joined villagers from Navunikabi in Namosi Province to deliver a petition to Fiji’s Prime Minister objecting to a proposed hydroelectric dam project.

He told reporters that he was supporting the group “to protect their land, river, plants, trees and the people who live along the river, who could be exploited and forgotten in the construction of the dam”.

FULL STORY

Archbishop demands focus on climate victims – FBC News (By Shania Shayal Prasad/FBC News)

Facebook/Fiji Times (Facebook/Fiji Times)

Petition against hydro dam in Fiji (Radio New Zealand)

RELATED STORY

Churches take on issues – The Fiji Times (Fiji Times)