ICE BREAKER
Split the group into teams and give them five bin bags, a toilet roll and tape. Give the groups seven minutes to dress two of their team in clothes fit for the arctic. There will be points for detail, practicality and craftsmanship. At the end of their time, the groups must score each other out of ten to find the winning team.
CAUSE AND EFFECT
Say: climate change is impacting our planet. We see it in the UK with very cold winters, shock floods and unusually warm summers. One day we’re wearing wooly jumpers and ready for snow, the next the flip-flops are out. But the effects of climate change on the rest of the world are far more severe. The typhoon in the Philippines was considerably more damaging because of the effects of climate change. Climate change is also a significant contributor to reasons why people are trafficked. We’ll explore this more through this activity.
Divide into smaller groups and give each group a large piece of paper. Invite them to create three sections on the paper: ‘causes’, ‘effects’ and ‘dangers’. Give the groups a good seven minutes to fill out everything they know about the causes, effects and dangers of climate change. Then invite all groups to feedback to everyone else. (Answers might include - causes: too much CO2 pollution, too many cars on the road, mass farming for beef from cows producing methane, deforestation. Effects: communities’ water supplies dry up, no rain for a crop season results in no food, flash flooding washes away crops. Danger: people die of malnutrition, people have to drink dirty water, people accept offers of a better life elsewhere and are trafficked into forced work.)
VIDEO
Watch the ‘Climate change 101’ video from the links section of the website (www.youthwork.co.uk).
KEY POINT
Climate change is a significant problem in our world today. The actions and lifestyle of the richer nations (including ours) are having a detrimental impact on communities in desperate poverty. When people hear about children sold into trafficking or tricked into trafficking, it’s often hard to believe, but when presented with a choice between a life of toil, poor crops and no food, or a life promised with lots of money and a good job – which would you choose? Some parents are forced to sell their oldest child because the rains didn’t come again this year and there’s not enough money to feed all their children. They sell one child to save all the rest from dying of hunger. We live in a difficult and broken world but it is not hopeless. Climate change is not a natural disaster, scientists are more than 95 per cent certain that it is man-made and as such, we can reduce our impact and start to have a more positive influence on the planet. All this can be achieved through our daily habits and through embracing our God-given role as stewards of the planet. We can do something about this.
READ AND DISCUSS
Read Genesis 2:15-22 as a group and then discuss these questions:
• God gave the human race a role, what is it?
• Do we still have that same role today?
• God gave them boundaries of how they should consume in the Garden of Eden. Do we have boundaries on this earth of how much we can consume?
• Climate change has an impact on the planet and also impacts people and their lives. What do you think Christians should do in response?
ACTIVITY
What could you and I do this week to make a difference? Grab a bunch of wooden clothes pegs and write ideas for everyday actions that would be a positive impact on the planet. Peg them on a line. These ideas could be anything from recycling more, having a meat-free-Monday, reading the BBC website once a week or mending something instead of buying new. Invite everyone at the end of the session to take a couple of pegs with them and try to ‘peg’ someone else before they leave. Any peg that ends up on you by the time you go home is a little challenge for you that week.
RESPONSE
There are lot of actions we can take to tackle climate change and contribute to seeing the dangers of hunger, disease and trafficking reduced. One of these actions is to speak up to the government. The ‘One Planet’ petition asks the UK government to stick to and meet its promise to reduce carbon, but they’re not on track at the moment. Add your voice to the hundreds of people signing this and make your wishes known to the government. If you have a laptop with you in the session you can let people sign up at rhythms.org/ oneplanet, or you could print a petition sheet and post it back.
PRAYER
Read the introduction and then pray: Lord, make us people who respond to your world in whatever way we can; would we see your beauty and creativity in the planet around us. Help us to take daily actions that are a positive impact on the planet and mean that we get to contribute to your restoration of the world and people in it. We pray for those who suffer the impacts of climate change, those who are hungry, those who are trafficked and those who are forced to drink dirty water. Give us a passion to see the world become a better place and help us take everyday actions to become more like you. Amen.
RHYTHMS ACTION
This week recycle everything you can, even if it’s inconvenient and you need to carry a sandwich wrapper all the way home in order to find a recycling bin. Find out more at rhythms.org/action/recycle-everything-youcan-for-a-week/or via the Rhythms app.
