Mar Thoma Church urges 'carbon fasting' during lent

The head of Mar Thoma Church in India has appealed its people to observe 'carbon fasting' during the lent season.

Dr Philipose Mar Chrysostom Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan, the senior most bishop of Mar Thoma Church, urged the community to protect the environment by consuming less energy and thereby helping reduce global warming.

In his letter, the head of over one million members mostly from Kerala, provided a 50-day action plan to help achieve this.

He asked people to switch off air-conditioners, use energy-saving electric bulbs, avoid using plastic bags, and reduce the use of motor vehicles.

"It is the poor who suffer the effects of climate change. The tragedy is that those with the power to do something about it are least affected," the bishop says.

Churchgoers were urged to begin the carbon fast by removing one light bulb from a prominent place in their houses and live without it for 50 days as a constant reminder during Lent.

"This is necessitated because there is no longer any real doubt about it: Global warming is happening. The 'carbon fast' is in response to an 'urgent need' to reduce carbon emissions and to protect poor communities around the world that are already suffering from the ravages of climate change.

"The current climate change estimates predict increase in temperatures of 1.4 C to 5.8 C by 2100. This will affect species in several ways such as changes in distribution; increased extinction rates; changes in reproduction timings and changes in length of growing seasons for plants," he says.