Do we have a prayer of preventing global warming?

[Guest guest]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/338302.asp

Millennium miracles

Do we have a prayer of preventing global warming?

By Francesca Lyman

SPECIAL TO MSNBC

Nov. 24 — For many, Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for nature’s

bounty. For others, it may mean looking at the cornucopia in a new way.

National religious leaders are appealing to their congregations’ moral

values to draw attention to what they see as the greatest threat to God’s

creation — global warming — and joining hands with environmentalists to

adopt lifestyle changes that would be healthier for the earth.

FOR HIS Sunday sermon on the eve of Thanksgiving, Reverend

Huenink, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church for 25 years, quoted former

U.N. Secretary General Dag Hamarskjold, “For all that has been, thanks! To

all that shall be, yes.” In other words, says the Eugene, Ore., minister,

“we need to be grateful for what we have, but we can’t squander that which

belongs to the future.”

Huenink, speaking from a pulpit outside Salem, Ore., also quoted an

Englishman who poked fun at Americans’ favorite holiday. “You Americans have

come up with a great way to celebrate. You don’t have to go to church, go

anywhere or do anything — just stay home and eat like gluttons!” he cited.

The United States is now seen in the eyes of the world as a major

carbon contributor, he says, because, with only 4 percent of the world’s

population, we contribute 22 percent of the carbon emissions that play a

role in global warming — by far the greatest percentage.

To comply with the reductions called for in the Kyoto Protocol, we’ll

have to cut our emissions far more than most countries, he points out. “That

will be tough on us, because people is this country aren’t used to

conserving. But if we are going to provide a livable and beautiful planet

for our children, we need to be doing just that.”

On the last Thanksgiving before the millennium, the reverend preached

the following: Stop looking back to the pilgrims — and the great land of

plenty they landed upon — and instead look toward a future in which we stop

taking America’s plentiful resources, fuels, and forests for granted. And

don’t ignore its role as a polluter.

Huenink is one of several representatives of the Ecumenical

Ministries of Oregon, a coalition of 15 religious faiths, who announced a

campaign in late Nov. to get their congregations involved in environmental

activism, with a focus on global warming. Theirs is the first of 17

state-driven Interfaith Global Climate Global Warming Campaigns organized by

ministers, rabbis and other religious leaders who are concerned about the

environment, he says.

The growing movement is bringing religious leaders of all

denominations into partnership with environmentalists and proving beneficial

to both, says Gorman, director of the National Religious Partnership

for the Environment, founded in 1993.

Gorman is helping to organize the state-driven efforts of the broad

coalition launching Interfaith Global Climate Campaigns, which includes the

U.S. Catholic Conference, the National Council of Churches and evangelical

Christian and Jewish organizations. With congregations representing 100

million people, it could be a powerful new constituency, says Gorman.

Advertisement

“Our goal is to under-gird the scientific consensus on global

warming with a moral consensus,” says Gorman, who believes the issue

resonates strongly with the faith community. “Reducing carbon to prevent

global warming is going to be a tough sell, but religious people see this as

fundamentally tampering with the entirety of God’s creation — not just one

rainforest, however important that might be, or one species — but everything

under the sun.”

Global warming, the gradual rise in the Earth’s average temperature

that is largely blamed on our use of fossil fuels since the Industrial

Revolution, has largely been framed as a scientific and political issue. The

world’s climate scientists broadly agree that the earth’s surface is warming

and that “a discernible human influence on global climate” can be detected.

The effects of global warming

To a growing number of religious leaders, however, the introduction

of a human role in the issue gives it a profound ethical dimension.

Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders held a dialog on climate change

at an Oct. 1998 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of

Science, where one rabbi noted that while the Bible says nothing directly

about greenhouse gases, it does provide ethical principles.

One principle, said Rabbi Swartz, associate director of the

National Religious Partnership for the Environment, is the goodness of the

world. If we degrade it, he said, we are prey to the sin of ingratitude. If

we don’t heed the second chapter of Genesis, in which humans are charged to

“till and tend” the land, we fail as stewards. And we fail to realize that

the choices we make have consequences from generation to generation,

according to Swartz.

Recently the National Council of Churches took a stand on global

warming, declaring that the Kyoto Protocol is “an important move toward

protecting God’s children and God’s creation.”

The Vatican council, too, has declared that “the world and humanity

are at a mortal risk” from environmental degradation. On November 8 at a

plenary assembly of the

Pontifical Council or Justice and Peace, the council said “this

touches every aspect of the life and activity of the human person.” The

declaration was widely reported in the Catholic press and represents a

significant, new commitment by the Catholic Church, religious leaders say.

PRACTICAL APPEALS

Many of the religious leaders’ ethical concerns are leading to

practical appeals. The National Council of Churches and other faith groups

sent educational materials on climate change to 50,000 U.S. congregations.

The heads of 24 denominations have appealed to President Clinton and the

Senate to sign a global climate change treaty that calls for reducing

greenhouse gases.

Among those working most closely with religious groups are Sierra Club,

World Resources Institute, Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of

Concerned Scientists. These groups are promoting a range of policy

initiatives, from increasing the efficiency of power plants to creating more

fuel-efficient cars, to help the U.S. meet its Kyoto reduction targets. They

are also focusing on increasing public awareness so consumers can use their

purchasing power to cut global warming.

To this end, UCS has been “conducting a national campaign with highly

visible public service announcements about global warming in movie theaters

and on radio and TV,” says UCS’ Rich .

BACK IN OREGON

Back in Oregon, the 15-faith coalition is asking ministries to inform

their congregations about the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts

Group’s recent report forecasting that the Pacific Northwest could suffer

more winter flooding and summer drought if temperatures rise as predicted.

Parishioners are being asked to consider a range of personal

lifestyle choices — from using less gasoline to choosing appliances that are

more environmentally-friendly.

“It’s a new effort at an old problem,” says Reverend Huenink. “We

want to take the challenge of climate change from the laboratories of

science and halls of diplomacy to the pulpits and pews of the America. And

we hope to make some kind of difference.

“We want to help people in the pews realize that global warming isn’t

something out there that someone else is going to fix for them, though

governments will have to take steps,” he adds. “It’s a matter of individual

conscience and personal choice. People need to become informed and take

action themselves.”

Francesca Lyman is an environmental and travel journalist and editor

of the American Museum of Natural History book, “Inside the Dzanga-Sangha

Rain Forest” (Workman, 1998).

http://www.msnbc.com/news/291336.asp

also see: Terminal Planet (4 parts)

http://www.msnbc.com/news/263403.asp