Dear People of God,
Protect Our Earth, Protect Our Children
(PROTEC) campaign Year Five – Use
Less Paper and Wood
Season of Creation 2024 – To Hope and
Act with Creation
Year 2023 was the hottest year on record with average global temperatures hitting over 1.4°C above preindustrial levels. This is a dangerous development, considering that the Paris Agreement aimed to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C, a limit we are likely to reach temporarily within these five years.
The world is simply not reducing greenhouse gas emissions fast enough, while destroying precious carbon sinks such as our natural forests. One of the leading causes of deforestation is timber logging.
Some 420 million hectares of forest were lost through deforestation between 1990 and 2020, and we are losing about 10 million hectares every year. When we kill our forests, we destroy the lungs of the planet, worsen global warming, kill precious biodiversity and threaten the survival of billions of people who rely on forests to live. We have to stop deforestation now. One thing everyone can easily do is to reduce their consumption of paper and wood.
We are now coming into the fifth year of the Protect Our Earth, Protect Our Children (PROTEC) campaign with the theme: Use Less Paper and Wood. This theme runs for one year from Sep 1, 2024 to Aug 31, 2025. PROTEC Year Five will be launched on Sep 1 in Kuala Lumpur with Mass. We thank His Grace, Archbishop Julian Leow and the Creation Justice Commission of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur for hosting the launch events. This launch will coincide with that of the 2024 Season of Creation (Sep 1 to Oct 4) with the theme: To hope and act with creation.
The Episcopal Commission for Creation Justice of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei earnestly calls on all the faithful in all dioceses to fully celebrate the PROTEC Campaign Year Five and the Season of Creation 2024. While the human race has done much harm to creation, let us hold fast in faith to this promise that “where sin abounds, grace greater abounds” (Romans 5:20). May the grace of the Holy Spirit spur us to hope and may our hope bear fruit in loving and committed action to build God’s kingdom of love, justice and peace amidst a world in crisis.
Yours in Christ
Rt Rev Bishop Joseph Hii, DD
President
Episcopal Commission for Creation
Justice of Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei
July 1, 2024
