wfn.org | [ENS] Scientists and Religious Leaders issue Letter on Climate

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Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Scientists and Religious Leaders issue Letter on Climate Change

By John Johnson

ENS 051904-2

[ENS] Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold joined 30 national religious leaders
and prominent scientists in signing a letter to U.S. Senators, bringing
attention to global climate change and pressing senate leaders to revisit
consideration of legislation to reduce human-created greenhouse gases. Nobel
Prize winners, evangelicals, Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Jewish leaders
joined a number of mainline church leaders in the effort lead by the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment.

"When 'discernable human influence' is determined to be a cause of
destruction, we are dealing with moral and ethical concerns as well as
scientific and policy issues. For many, these are shaped by religious
conviction," the letter stated.

The Episcopal Church through the Executive Council has called on the
President to provide financial support and leadership for developing nations
to control their emissions of greenhouse gasses in order to reduce their
vulnerability to climate change. In April 2001, following the Bush
Administrations' announced policy to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, the
Presiding Bishop wrote to the President to express support for efforts to
reduce global warming and concern that the United States was abandoning the
historic treaty.

President Bush has called for U.S. companies to commit to voluntary measures
to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and supported billions in funding for more
study of climate change. Many of the world's leading scientists on global
warning, including several of the signers of the letter to Senators, have
stated that additional study is not needed as scientific evidence is well
documented on the subject.

"At this critical moment in history, however many of us share a deep
conviction that global climate change presented an unprecedented threat to
the integrity of life on Earth and a challenge to universal values that bind
us as human beings," the letter stated.

The full text of the letter follows:

EARTH'S CLIMATE EMBRACES US ALL

A PLEA FROM RELIGION AND SCIENCE FOR ACTION ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

We are people of religious life and people of science who travel diverse,
individual paths in our search for truth. Over centuries, our communities
have disagreed, sometimes contentiously, about fundamental questions of human
origin, nature, and purpose. 

At this critical moment in history, however, many of us share a deep
conviction that global climate change presents an unprecedented threat to the
integrity of life on Earth and a challenge to universal values that bind us
as human beings. 

Each of our two communities is seeking to contribute to a better, broader
understanding of this issue and its larger meaning. 

Highly regarded institutions in the international scientific community have
reached a broad consensus on causes and potential consequences of climate
change. Citing "discernable human influence on global climate," the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that the current
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the main human-made greenhouse
gas affected by human activity, has not been exceeded during the past 420,000
years and likely not during the past 20 million years. According to a 2001
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, "Climate change simulations for
the period of 1990 to 2100 based on the IPCC emissions scenarios yield a
globally-averaged surface temperature increase by the end of the century of
1.4 to 5.8 C (2.5 to 10.4F) relative to 1990.... Even in the more
conservative scenarios, the models project temperatures and sea levels that
continue to increase well beyond the end of this century." 

Among the predicted consequences of climate change are more frequent
occurrences of heat waves, drought, torrential rains, and floods; global sea
level rise of between one-half and three feet; increase of tropical diseases
in now-temperate regions; significant reduction in biodiversity. All these
conditions would seriously affect human health and well-being. And, according
to the IPCC, "the impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately upon
developing countries and the poor persons within all countries, and thereby
exacerbate inequities in health status and access to adequate food, clean
water, and other resources." 

When "discernable human influence" is determined to be a cause of
destruction, we are dealing with moral and ethical concerns as well as
scientific and policy issues.  For many, these are shaped by religious
conviction.

For example, in Judaeo-Christian scripture, all creation, by God's
handicraft, is deemed "good." Because "the Earth is the Lord's and the
fulness thereof" (Psalms 24:1), its gifts are intended for the benefit of
all. Humans are called into covenant with their creator as stewards of life.
In love, we care for the conditions of one another's well-being; in justice
we attend first to the needs of the most vulnerable. When significant danger
threatens, the traditional value of prudence requires us to prevent damage to
the common good.  All these obligations apply to the protection of future
generations. 

Religion and Science may not always agree on the sources of these ideas. But
such principles--of stewardship, justice, protection of the weak,
inter-generational duty, and prudence--are universal values when responsible
scientific study has identified grave risk. Global warming is a universal
moral challenge.

We appreciate obstacles to addressing this problem, significantly an
unintended consequence of technologies which have made possible great human
progress. However, the same ingenuity that devised such benefits can redress
their destructive consequences. Extensive study and debate--in science,
technology, commerce, and public policy--have led to significant agreement
about measures that would indeed slow the pace of climate change. This is a
challenge we can meet.

Necessary initiatives include: continued scientific research; the further
development of new, clean technologies in power generation and
transportation; an energy economy with far less dependence on fossil fuels;
targets and timetables for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions;
training and just transition into new jobs created by new technologies. The
wealthier nations of the planet have a solemn moral obligation to help
developing countries protect the poor in their midst as they seek to limit
greenhouse gas emissions. 

What is most required at this moment, however, is moral vision and
leadership. Resources of human character and spirit--love of life,
far-sightedness, solidarity--are needed to awaken a sufficient sense of
urgency and resolve. 

In this situation, the United States has both responsibility and opportunity.
With 4% of the world's population, we have contributed 25% of the increased
greenhouse gas concentration which causes global warming. Moreover, we
uniquely possess technological resources, economic power, and political
influence to facilitate solutions. 

However, policies that devalue scientific consensus, withdraw from diplomatic
initiative, and seek only voluntary initiatives do not seem to us adequate
responses to this crisis. We recognize that there are other perspectives than
our own. Societies and governments respond slowly to such challenges.
Partisanship and acrimony have brought us no closer to solutions. 

The Climate Stewardship Act now before the U.S. Senate offers a way forward
and an opportunity for renewed resolve. It calls for moderate greenhouse gas
reductions and provides market-based incentives to lower energy costs. In
addition to its provisions, it can help raise the standard of discourse,
encourage local and international initiative, and generate fresh moral
resolve. While we take no position on specifics of the legislation, we urge
the leadership of the Senate to bring this measure forward and to provide
sufficient time and reflective tone for debate. We ask our senators to step
back from partisanship and consider what is needed here for the common good
of humankind and our planet home.

We will continue efforts to mobilize our two communities, separately and in
joint initiatives. We do not have to agree on how and why the world was
created in order to work together to preserve it for posterity. In this
spirit, we call upon leaders in other sectors--commerce, labor, education,
government and non-governmental organizations, research and technology--to
join us in finding ways to communicate to their own communities the urgency
of this threat to our global commons and the well-being of future
generations. 

Earth's climate embraces us all.

Rosina M. Bierbaum
Professor and Dean
School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan

Dr. Lewis Branscomb
Aetna Professor in Public Policy and 
Corporate Management, Emeritus
Center for Science and International Affairs
Kennedy School of Government 
Harvard University

Reverend Richard Cizik
Vice President for Governmental Affairs
National Association of Evangelicals

His Grace Bishop Dimitrios
Ecumenical Officer 
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Reverend Dr. Robert Edgar
General Secretary
National Council of Churches USA

Dr. Thomas Eisner, Director
Institute for Research in Chemical Ecology
Cornell University

Dr. Christopher Field
Department of Global Ecology
Carnegie Institution
Stanford University

John H. Gibbons
President, Resources Strategies
Former Science Advisor to The President

Dr. Marvin L. Goldberger
President Emeritus
California Institute of Technology

The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate 
The Episcopal Church, USA

Reverend Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr.
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop
President, National Council of Churches USA

Reverend Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk 
Presbyterian Church (USA)

Dr. Neal F. Lane
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy 
Professor, Physics & Astronomy
Rice University

Dr. Alan I. Leshner
Chief Executive Officer
American Association for the 
Advancement of Science 
Executive Publisher, Science

Theodore Cardinal McCarrick
Archbishop of Washington, DC
Chairman, Domestic Policy Committee
United States Catholic Conference of Bishops

Dr. James J. McCarthy
Alexander Agassiz Professor of 
Biological Oceanology
Director, Museum of Comparative Zoology
Harvard University

Dr. Mario Molina
Professor, Environmental Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 1995

Dr. Ernest J. Moniz
Director of Energy Studies
Laboratory for Energy & the Environment
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Richard Mouw
President, Fuller Theological Seminary
Professor of Christian Philosophy

Dr. Michael Oppenheimer
Director, Science, Technology and Environmental Policy
Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University

Dr. Stuart Pimm
Doris Duke Chair, Conservation Ecology
Nicholas School of Environment & 
Earth Sciences
Duke University

Dr. Peter Raven
Engelmann Professor of Botany
Washington University in St. Louis
President, Sigma XI

Most Reverend John H. Ricard, S.S.J.
Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
Chairman, International Policy Committee
United States Catholic Conference of Bishops

Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland
Bern Research Professor, Earth System Science
University of California at Irvine
Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 1995

Dr. William H. Schlesinger
James B. Duke Professor
Professor, Earth & Ocean Science
Nicholas School of Environment &
Earth Sciences
Duke University

Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor
Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Bishop Melvin Talbert
Interim General Secretary and 
Ecumenical Officer 
Council of Bishops
United Methodist Church

Dr. George M. Woodwell
Founder/Director, Woods Hole Research Center

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
President, Union for Reformed Judaism

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