Millennium Development Goal #7
Ensure Enivronmental Sustainability
"After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished,
he said (in order to fulfil the scripture),
'I thirst.'"
-John 19:28
The Prayer
Let us pray for an end to the waste and desecration of God's creation, for access to the fruits of creation to be shared equally among all people, and for communities and nations to find sustenance in the fruits of the earth and the water God has given us.
Almighty God, you created the world and gave it into our care so that, in obedience to you, we might serve all people: Inspire us to use the riches of creation with wisdom, and to ensure that their blessings are shared by all; that, trusting in your bounty, all people may be empowered to seek freedom from poverty, famine, and oppression. God of love, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
See also:
An Evening Prayer service for MDG #7 from St. Paul's Cathedral, London
The Challenge
1.1 billion people do not have access to safe and sufficient drinking/water
2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation
3.4 million deaths a year, mostly the poor and children, die from insufficient and unsafe drinking-water
1.6 million deaths are due to Indoor Air Pollution.
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
Click here for targets and progress indicators.
Create a healthy environment for everyone, always. Everyone has access to clean water to drink and use for washing. The environment is better protected so that all children, and their children, and their children can enjoy the trees, fresh air, clean water, fresh food and beautiful places.
Source: Kenyon Conference 2007 Children's Program - Experiencing the MDGs
El objetivo en Espanol
Incorporar los principios del desarrollo sostenible en las políticas y los programas nacionales e invertir la pérdida de recursos del medio ambiente. Reducir a la mitad, para el año 2015, el porcentaje de personas que carezcan de acceso sostenible a agua potable. Haber mejorado considerablemente, para el año 2020, la vida de por lo menos 100 millones de habitantes de tugurioseducir a la mitad entre 1990 y 2015 el porcentaje de personas con ingresos inferiores a un dolar y que padecen hambre.
Metas e indicadores
Are we on track to meet MDG #7 by 2015? Find out at:
MDGMonitor - basic, easy to navigate
GapMinder MDG Charts - This site is great ... moving graphics show how the development of all countries by the indicators you choose. You can even get country-specific charts (for your companion diocese, for example)
Human Development Trends Movable Charts -- More from gapminder, see graphic demonstrations of MDG trends past, present and future.
UN Human Development Report - much more detailed, looks at MDGs through lens of climate change.
Printable Progress Chart on all 8 MDGs
Did You Know...
In our world today around 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation and some 1.2 billion people do not have access to an improved source of water. (Source:Why do the Millennium Development Goals matter? Brochure)
Organizations that support MDG #7:
Episcopal Relief and Development - Learn about ERD's work with MDG #7 here.
Waters of Hope - The Waters of Hope Project is an Episcopal-sponsored bike ride committed to raising money for clean water in Swaziland and the Sudan. Over the course of 10 days the riders will circle the Iowa countryside teaching about the MDGs, along with the lifesaving goodness from clean water.
PlayPumps International - helps improve the lives of children and their families by providing easy access to clean drinking water, enhancing public health, and offering play equipment to millions across Africa.
Use CharityNavigator to search for and vet organizations that work toward this goal.
Scripture that references our call to heal the brokenness of the desecration of God's creation, our environment:
John 19:28 - “After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘ I thirst’”
Isaiah 41:17-18 – “When the poor and needy seek water, I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
Psalm 107:35 – “He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.”
Isaiah 55:1 – “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;”
Matthew 25:35 -- “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.”
Mark 9:41 -- “For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward”
John 4:14-15 – “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’”
Genesis 1:10 - “God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”
Genesis 9:15 – “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”
For scriptural foundations for all 8 MDGs, click here for "The MDGs - Straight From Scripture"
For a comprehensive list of Peace and Justice related scriptures, click here.
What did we miss? Email us your scriptural references to our call to heal the brokenness of the desecration of God's creation, our environment.
Sermons about eradicating the desecration of our environment:
Submit your sermons about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
What One Can Do - Activities
Ways you can make MDG #7 come alive for your congregation:
Carrying Water - A simple way to give people a physical experience of this reality is to fill a 5 gallon water cooler bottle with water and challenge people to pick it up and carry it as long and as far as they can. If you can, have a track that people can walk that goes around the inside of the hall where a forum is going on. You could even have someone in the congregation carry a jerrycan of water (a common container used for this purpose) forward with the elements at Eucharist.
Submit your activities about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
What One Can Do - Children/Youth Activities
Ways you can make MDG #7 come alive for children and youth:
The Three Rs -- Discuss and create tools to take care of our environment, e.g., cloth tote bags. (Page 11 - Kenyon Conference Children's Conference: Experiencing the MDGs)
Salsa from the Garden -- Learn about gardens, shop for produce and create salsa to share. (Page 11 - Kenyon Conference Children's Conference: Experiencing the MDGs)
Submit your children's activities about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
Books about eradicating the desecration of our environment.
Healing God's Creation -- Produced by the Global Anglican Congress on the Stewardship of Creation, it "reflects the many and urgent ways we can take up the ministry of environmental stewardship and eco-justice."
Whose Water is It? The Unquenchable Thirst of a Water-Hungry World, by Douglas Jehl - "13 compelling essays on the state of water use in a collection that offers both dire warnings and causes for hope." (Publisher's Weekly)
General books about the MDGs, including environmental sustainability
What Can One Person Do: Faith to Heal a Broken World, by Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell. - The best primer on the MDGs. A great mix of information, stories, statistics, prayers, resources, practical ideas and discussion questions. Perfect for individual or group study.
Movies/video about eradicating the desecration of our environment
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) -- Al Gore's Oscar-winning film that makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don’t act now.
Planet in Peril (2007) - CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Animal Planet host and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin take viewers around the globe for a two-part documentary on the threats to the world's environment.
Darwin's Nightmare (2006) - Hubert Sauper's Oscar-nominated documentary, profiles links between environmental disaster and globalization in and around Africa's Lake Victoria, thanks to the introduction of the non-native Nile perch, which has wiped out all other fish in the lake as well as the native fishing industry. Many of Victoria's residents now starve while tons of perch are flown each day from factories by the lake to feed millions in Europe. Get information about the DVD release here.
Thirst (2004) - Part of PBS' "P.O.V." series, Thirst looks at how the public accesses water in Bolivia, India, and the United States, asking in each case whether that access is a fundamental right or if water should be a commodity to be bought and sold. Read a synopsis here. Order the film here. Find out more here.
General movies/video about the MDGs, including environmental sustainability
The Girl in the Cafe (2005) - A sweet romance set at a G8 Summit with the subtext being conversation and debate about the Millennium Development Goals. A good combination of passion and impassioned approaches tied up in a moving and entertaining package. A beautiful movie. (Some brief nudity - if you're showing this to a youth group, be aware)
Submit your books and movies about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
Click here for the reading list for the Rev. Ian Douglas' EDS course Contemporary Issues in World Christianity, which includes readings on globalization/international debt, the environmental crisis, HIV/AIDS and women's empowerment, the effect of colonialism and neo-colonialism and more.
Websites with more resources/activities about MDG #7
endpoverty2015.org - The Millennium Campaign's MDG #7 page
http://www.povertymap.net/ - great library of poverty maps and other useful resources
Episcopal Ecological Network - A churchwide movement for environmental stewardship.
BeGreen -- helps you calculate and reduce your carbon footprint and sells carbon offsets for what you can't reduce on your own.
ClimateCrisis.net - The companion website to An Inconvenient Truth
CarbonFund -- learn all about and purchase carbon offsets.
Environmental Defense -- great suggestions how individuals and organizations can fight global warming.
LiveNeutral -- learn how to live a carbon neutral life.
Water Quiz -- take the UN cyberschoolbus online test.
National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program Page
Submit your website suggestions about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
What One Person Can Do
Stories about One Person working to eradicate the desecration of our environment
Submit your One Person stories about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
What One Congregation Can Do
Stories about One Congregation working to eradicate the desecration of our environment
Make Your Church Green -- Use this environmental audit from the ELCA and green church training and building manuals from Web of Creation. Click here to look at the "Responsible Purchashing Guide for Faith Communities." xxxx
Submit your One Congregation stories about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
What One Diocese Can Do
Stories about One Diocese working to eradicate the desecration of our environment
Submit your One Diocese stories about eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
What One Church Can Do
Stories about The Episcopal Church working to eradicate the desecration of our environment
Submit your stories about The Episcopal Church eradicating the desecration of our environment, here.
Other Resources
Information and resources about eradicating extreme hunger and poverty
The MDGs: They Are About Children - information about how this MDG (and others) effects children
What One Has Said
Quotes about eradicating the desecration of our environment
"I join many of my colleagues and many of you on this committee in sharing a profound concern that climate change will most severely affect those living in poverty and the most vulnerable in our communities here in the United States and around the world. I want to be absolutely clear; inaction on our part is the most costly of all courses of action for those living in poverty." - Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the link between global poverty and climate change.
"The most important environmental issue is one that is rarely mentioned: That is the lack of a conservation ethic in our culture." - Gaylord Nelson
Submit your favorite quotes about eradicating the desecration of our environment here.
