wfn.org | General Council News Release / Moderator's Climate Change Letter

["Broadhurst, Tom" <tbroadhu@united-church.ca>]

For Immediate Release -- Sunday, January 17, 2010

Climate Change a Crisis of Conscience for All Canadians

Toronto: Mardi Tindal, the Moderator of Canada's largest  Protestant
denomination, The United Church of Canada, today issued a n open letter
to Canadians calling on them to consider climate change  a crisis of
conscience.

In the letter Tindal urges Canadians "to choose hope an d action over
despair and paralysis" in addressing what she calls "one  of the most
urgent moral challenges in human history."

"I believe this is a unique time in humanity's fretful  reign on Earth, a
rare moment that will have historic significance," writes  Tindal in the
letter that was written after she returned from the Uni ted Nations
Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this past December.

Tindal attended the conference as part of a World Counc il of Churches
delegation, and was the only North American denominational  church leader
present.

She returned to Canada bitterly disappointed with the out come of the
negotiations.

"Our moment of opportunity came and then went, and here  we are now, the
fate of civilization and of millions of the planet's li fe forms hanging
by the frayed thread of inaction," she writes in the  letter titled
"Where Is the Hope after Copenhagen?"

Tindal believes this is a transformative moment in the  planet's history
and that "the world will be shaped by how we and ou r communities respond
in the months to come."

"We need each other. We are emphatically, biologically no t alone. As the
carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere rise, the  planet will
fail to provide for us. Life as we know it will die . Millions of human
lives are on the line, rich and poor, old emitters an d new, vulnerable
and strong. There is no inoculation against this except  all of us
changing our behaviour all at once," writes Tindal in t he letter.

This is why Tindal says the issue of too much carbon  dioxide in the
atmosphere has moved far beyond being a political process . It has also
moved far beyond being just a scientific issue. It is  an ethical issue.

"Science has shown us that we have caused the chemical  changes we can
now track in the atmosphere and the ocean. Therefore, b ecause climate
change has been caused by our actions, we are ethically  obliged to take
responsibility for those actions," writes Tindal.

She says that she believes we must look at issues lik e climate change
through the lens of morality and faith.

"Science describes what is. Faith describes how things ca n and should
be. On this issue science is not enough. We need more . And that is why
ecological issues are also fundamentally moral, ethical, an d theological
concerns."

The complete text of Tindal's letter is posted on The  United Church of
Canada's website (www.united-church.ca). An abridged version  of the
letter (950 words) is available upon request for use as  an op-ed or
commentary.

For more information, or to arrange media interviews, ple ase contact:

Mary-Frances Denis

Program Coordinator, Media and Public Relations
The United Church of Canada
Tel: 416-231-7680 ext. 2016
Toll-free: 1-800-268-3781 ext. 2016
Cell: 416-400-7273
E-mail: mdenis@united-church.ca

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