For Our Common Home
KAIROS member Development and Peace launched the For Our Common Home campaign in 2019 in response to Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Sí. The campaign’s first theme, A Future for the Amazon, urges Canadians to act to protect the Amazon through solidarity, advocacy, and personal commitment. Showing solidarity with and advocating for Amazonian communities facing the impacts of deforestation and resource extraction supports land defense and protection of this significant ecosystem.
The Amazon regulates humidity, water cycles and carbon levels at regional and global levels. The forest absorbs and stores greenhouse gases and the outflow of the Amazon river into the Atlantic Ocean is a cooling mechanism. The Amazon’s significant power to mitigate climate change is being weakened by deforestation and the exploitation of resources and this is having a global impact.
Canadian-owned mining, energy, oil and gas companies are among those exploiting the Amazon’s resources. The federal government established the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) in 2018 and promised to empower this office to investigate alleged human rights abuses linked to the overseas operations of Canadian resource and energy companies. So far, the CORE has not been given enough power and independence to be truly effective. We need to ensure that communities suffering from the impacts of Canadian mining operations have access to justice.
Canadians are invited to participate in For Our Common Home by signing Solidarity Letters to support two Brazilian communities – the seringueiros of Machadinho d’Oeste and the Mura people of Manaus to shine a spotlight on these communities’ struggles and pressure the federal Brazilian government to demand protection of land defenders. Canadians are also invited to meet with their federal Members of Parliament to share the urgency of acting to protect the Amazon and land defenders and to advocate for an effective and independent CORE.
To encourage personal commitment to act for the climate, the campaign also challenges Canadians to take an Intergenerational pledge for our common home and commit to at least one lifestyle change to reduce personal impact on the environment. These personal commitments to lifestyle change are important alongside the solidarity and advocacy actions, as they signal to our leaders that we understand what is at stake and that we are ready for change.
TODAY’S RESOURCE
Read the Backgrounder: A future for the Amazon, a future for all
Watch this short video about For Our Common Home
TODAY’S ACTION
Take the intergenerational pledge For Our Common Home. By signing, you will join a movement for ecological conversion, allowing current and future generations to live in harmony with nature, using only what is necessary.
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