wfn.org | Group urges climate change commitment

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 499 modified by UMNS on Dec. 10, 1997 at 15:58 Eastern (2928 characters).

Contact:  Joretta Purdue  	687(10-21-71B){499}
		Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722  	Dec. 10, 1997

United Methodist urges Vice President Gore
to commit to reducing greenhouse gases

	a UMNS news feature
	by Shanta Bryant*
	

	A United Methodist executive, in Kyoto, Japan, Dec. 8, presented several
thousand postcards from 26 denominations to  Vice President Albert Gore Jr. to
emphasize concern about climate change.
	The postcards, addressed to U.S. President Bill Clinton, urged the United
States to work for a treaty that substantially reduces greenhouse gases from
industry and automotive vehicle emissions.
	The United States has not, so far, committed to a binding agreement to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, as requested by the
religious groups.
	Jaydee Hanson, an assistant general secretary of the United Methodist Board
of Church and Society, presented the postcards on behalf of the Eco-justice
Working Group of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
	"We have an obligation to our children and future generations to clean up
U.S. pollution now, not wait until 2010 as the administration proposes,"
Hanson said.
	In presenting the postcards, he reminded Gore of Luke 12:48 in the New
Testament, which states: "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will
be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will
be demanded."
	Gore commended the churches for their work on climate change. He said the
pressure from churches helped the Clinton Administration move closer to the
churches’ position in regard to the goals of emission reduction.
	In April, many of the NCC communions sent materials on climate change to
their congregations. In addition to the postcard campaign, churches also
collected 20,000 petitions urging the administration to adopt better climate
change policies.
	On behalf of the religious group, Hanson pressed Gore to change the U.S.
position so that the United States first begins its pollution control and then
assists developing countries in reducing pollution. The U.S. Senate has passed
a resolution urging the administration to refrain from signing any treaty that
does not require developing countries to clean up at the same time as
industrialized nations.
	The NCC Eco-justice Working Group plans to press the U.S. Senate to ratify
the Kyoto protocol, according to Hanson.
	Other NCC Eco-justice Working Group members at the Kyoto Framework Convention
on Climate Change are the Rev. William Somplatsky-Jarman of the Presbyterian
Church (USA) and the Rev. Richard Killmer, staff director for the Eco-justice
Working Group. Somplatsky-Jarman is also part of the World Council of Churches
delegation.
	# # #
	* Bryant is the program director of communications for the United Methodist
Board of Church and Society and associate editor of Christian Social Action.
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