I am currently in the Solomon Islands, where I have been spending a fortnight visiting the Anglican Church of Melanesia on behalf of my own Diocese of Lichfield and with the support of Melanesian Mission UK (MMUK).
I have been visiting a whole range of places and communities, learning about the life of the Church here, but also learning about the impacts of Climate Change on these islands which are extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels, stronger storms, longer droughts, as well as the related issues of illegal or barely legal logging and mining that are a blight on the islands.
However I don’t want to dwell on the problems, so much as to share some of the work that the Anglican Church are doing in response. They are running a big citizen science project which involves placing a number of Environment Observatories in different communities around Melanesia (which encompasses Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia). There are 16 observatories so far, and they hope to expand this in the coming years.
These are mostly placed in schools, religious communities, and churches, and each one is looked after by a ‘Green Disciple’ who takes and records daily measurements of temperature and rainfall. At some of the observatories they also measure changes to the shoreline – the slope, crest, and location of the vegetation line – on a quarterly basis. This data is then collected for analysis by the EO project manager, Freda Fataka.
I have visited two of these Observatories during my time here. One which is located at the Bishop Norman Palmer School in Honiara, where the temperature was showing 39° and the rain guage was just about empty. The students like having an Observatory here, as one of the science teachers told me, they are part of making a record of the history of their school.
The other Observatory I visited was at Red Beach, just outside Honiara, which was the site of the first landings of US troops during the second world war. Here they measure temperature and rainfall but also changes to the shoreline. In the six years since the project started the vegetation line has receded by around 3 metres. The Green Disciple for this place, Catechist George, shows me the stump of a tree half way down the beach that he remembers being well above the shoreline.
The Observatories aren’t just about collecting data, they are also a tool for educating communities about the reality and impact of Climate Change, and helping them to think carefully about building resiliance and disaster preparedness. The community at Red Beach estimate that they have around 10-15 years before they will need to be elsewhere. This particular community have already relocated from the island of Sikaiana to this place, so to have to uproot again is particularly emotional.
It is powerful to see the Church showing Climate leadership in their communities. I asked the General Secretary of the Anglican Church whether they were planning to relocate any of their Churches, but his very wise answer was that it was up to the communities. If the people move then the Church will go with them, but there is no point moving the Church if the people don’t follow.
This interplay between scientific data collection and community outreach is a powerful model, which is worth listening to and learning from in other parts of the world. I would be very interested to hear of any other projects elsewhere that take a similar approach.
Rev’d Rich Clarkson