Transcript Four threats web Ppoint

The four greatest threats…
Climate change
Terrorism
HIV/Aids and other major diseases
Challenge for evangelism
Climate change
• The burning of coal, oil and gas has increased
the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 30 per
cent over natural levels
• 150,000 people already die every year as a result
of climate change
• Just 2-3°C of warming could mean up to 300
million more people will be at risk of malaria
Climate change
www.stopclimatechaos.org
Terrorism
• In the four years since al-Qaeda launched its war in
earnest, 5,000 people have lost their lives in attacks in,
among other places, Washington DC and New York,
Bali, Madrid, London and Sharm el Sheik
• Four suicide bombers struck in central London on
Thursday 7 July 2005, killing 52 people and injuring 700
• A car bomb on the Indonesian island of Bali on 12
October 2002 killed 202 people, from as many as 24
different countries, though the majority were Australians
Terrorism
“We must try to find ways of dealing with terrorism
in the dangerous world we live in which do not
actually spark off a war... by the less glamorous,
less dramatic form of counter-terrorism – through
good intelligence-sharing and getting such good
information on the intentions and plans of the
group that you can intervene before they carry out
their attacks.”
Professor Paul Wilkinson, The Centre for the Study of
Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St
Andrews
HIV/Aids & other major diseases
• There are 8.8 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) a
year with some 5,500 people dying every day
• There are almost 300 million cases of acute malaria
each year – of which more than a million are fatal. Some
90 per cent of the burden falls on tropical Africa
• An estimated 250,000 to 350,000 deaths were averted
in 2004 because of expanded access to HIV treatment
HIV/Aids & other major diseases
“Baptist leaders are breaking the silence
around HIV and speaking out in their
communities. They are taking a critical look at
how HIV has profoundly changed the world,
re-evaluating theology and asking tough
questions about how we may be failing in our
teaching about sexuality, compassion and
care.”
Sally Smith, UNAids
Challenge for evangelism
• Only three per cent of mission personnel work in
countries defined as unreached
• Nearly 400 million people live in a culture where
there is no witnessing church
• An estimated 60 per cent (1.2 billion) of
Christians are nominal and non-practising
Challenge for evangelism
“From one perspective, things don’t look too
bad. Out of some 6.1 billion in the world,
about one-third are Christian. That’s far more
than any other single faith system. But it’s
misleading, for it includes anyone and
everyone who could come under a heading
of ‘Christian’, no matter how nominal or
absent any faith.”
Alistair Brown, BMS World Mission General Director
What next?
Some key websites…
• Stop Climate Chaos www.stopclimatechaos.org
• The Guardian special report – Terrorism threat to
Britain www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism
• UNAids www.unaids.org
• Operation World www.gmi.org/ow