Cardinal David urges action after deadly Nepal floods

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David has said that the flash flood in Nepal should be a wake-up call for people to better protect the planet.

“Let us pray for Nepal. Let us pray also that tragedies like this finally awaken us to a frightening truth: what we do to our common home, we ultimately do to ourselves,” he said in a social media post.

Following the flash floods that occurred on 26 August, David said Nepalese authorities reported at least 165 bodies recovered, with hundreds of people — including many foreign tourists and pilgrims — still unaccounted for.

The Cardinal said the images of the aftermath may be frightening; however, he pointed out that “even more frightening is what they are telling us.”

“Climate change is no longer something we can speak about merely in the future tense,” declared the prelate.

According to scientists investigating what happened, David said the flash floods may have been triggered by a gigantic part of the glacier in the Himalayas that broke off and crashed into the river system.

Though the investigation remains ongoing and no conclusions have been made, David said “they warn that rapid warming and glacial retreat are making these high-mountain environments increasingly dangerous.”

“The great glaciers of the Himalayas are melting and becoming increasingly unstable as the planet warms,” the prelate lamented.

“Nepal’s glaciers have reportedly been melting 65 percent faster in the last decade than in the previous one,” he added.