Kenyan bishop says climate change causes real suffering

(Feb.24,2010): A Kenyan bishop said that climate change is causing immense suffering to his diocese. “Even as world leaders hesitate to enact strong measures on climate change, my diocese is struggling daily with the effects of global warming,” Bishop Peter Kihara Kariuki of Marsabit told Fides, the Vatican missionary news service. "The failure of the Copenhagen Summit has deeply disappointed us, as we have been experiencing the deadly effects of global warming for years now," he added.
The U.N. Copenhagen conference last December ended with an agreement on some objectives but failed to reach a comprehensive, binding accord on reducing global emissions. The region around Marsabit in Northern Kenya is caught in the grip of a long drought, Bishop Kihara Kariuki said in late February. "It has practically not rained in three years and the population depends on aid from the church, the government and NGOs to eat and drink. The little water that is collected is not potable, and many have to travel kilometres to get water, he said. As the situation has worsened, the region's nomadic herdsmen have seen their animals die, and pasture and water disappear, he said and added - "As a church, we want to give a future to the younger generations through education. Bishop Kihara Kariuki said the church continues to provide educational and health care services to the population of the diocese, which is predominantly Muslim. He said Catholics are a minority of less than 10 percent.