INTERFAITH GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGNS:
NORTH CAROLINA
Coordinator: Sister Evelyn Mattern
North Carolina Council of Churches
1307 Glenwood Ave., Suite 162
Raleigh, NC 27605
919-828-6501
Email: EMattern@nccouncilofchurches.org
Global Climate Change: A Call to Action
North Carolina Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign
Recognizing the necessity for spiritual communities to be leaders in turning human activities in a new direction for the well being of the planet, we have established The North Carolina Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign. Participants include Ba’hai, Baptists, Buddhists, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians, Jews, Lutherans, Muslims, Presbyterians, Religious Society of Friends, Roman Catholics, United Church of Christ, United Methodists, and Unitarian-Universalists.
Global Climate Change:
Certain gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, trap heat reflected from the earth’s surface, creating a "greenhouse" warming effect. At natural levels, this "greenhouse effect" enables and sustains life on our planet. But human activity is increasing the amount of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. Scientific evidence links man-made emissions of these gases to global warming.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a warming of 2.5 to 10.4°F by 2100–by far, the greatest rate of change in human history.
At the request of the White House, the National Academy of Sciences conducted a month-long review of the current climate science. In June 2001, it reaffirmed that the earth's atmosphere is getting warmer, and that the warming is expected to continue due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions. It said this warming has intensified in the past 20 years, accompanied by retreating glaciers, thinning arctic ice, rising sea levels, lengthening of the growing season in many areas, and earlier arrival of migratory birds.
What You Can Do:
As an individual and as a family:
- Educate yourself. Learn how ALL our choices (including inaction) effect our community of life and our planet.
- Use less energy at home for heating and cooling, water heating, and lighting.
- Use public transportation.
- Conserve gasoline by driving less in more efficient vehicles.
- Evaluate consumption patterns: consider the energy costs of all purchase decisions–production, transportation, disposal, etc.
- Eat locally grown organic food and reduce meat consumption.
- Reduce, reuse, repair, before you recycle.
- Make recreation and vacation choices that use less fossil fuels.
- Choose the most efficient appliances and tools.
- Inform elected officials of your energy and climate change concerns.
As a congregation:
- Appoint a contact person to the NC Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign.
- Sign on to our religious leaders statement.
- Become an EnergyStar congregation.
- Conserve energy in your buildings.
- Walk or car pool to church.
- Educate your youth groups (and your adults) on energy stewardship and climate change.
- Raise awareness (and money) with the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb project.
- Join the growing efforts of spiritual communities. Leaders from all major faith traditions have urged our national leaders to address climate change in our national policy. Eighteen states now have interfaith efforts to address global climate change.
Sources of Leading Greenhouse Gases:
- Carbon dioxide: combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal and gasoline; and deforestation.
- Methane: agriculture, especially meat production; and fossil fuel extraction and distribution.
More
than Climate Change:
While the types of changes cannot be predicted with certainty, the fact
of change is certain. And the changes will cause great hardship for humans
and other forms of life.
- Rising sea levels could inundate island nations and coastal areas, creating hundreds of millions of refugees.
- Tropical disease are spreading to where they were previously unknown.
- Ground level ozone, of particular concern to children, elderly, and those with respiratory ailments, increases with longer, warmer seasons.
- Agriculture and water distribution could be disrupted, causing widespread famine.
- Severe weather events (storms, heat waves, droughts, floods) are already increasing in frequency and intensity.
- Species extinctions are likely to increase. Widespread forest decline and desertification may occur.
Let us now "join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: for the healing of the earth and the renewal of all life" –United Nations Environmental Sabbath Program
A
Concern for People of Faith:
All spiritual traditions place great value on ethics, compassion,
and love, and they show respect for the sacred.
- Our ethical base leads us to question the justice of our consumption habits. The United States, with about 4.7% of the world’s population, uses about 25% of the world’s energy and contributes almost 25% of the heat-trapping gases.
- Our compassion leads us to take action to prevent suffering. The burdens of a degraded environment fall disproportionately upon the most vulnerable and helpless: the poor, sick, elderly, and future generations.
- Our love for one another leads us to protect the ecological systems that support our community of life.
- Our respect for the sacredness of life and the natural systems that sustain it, leads us to work to prevent their violation and desecration.
What we can offer:
- Presentations on climate science, energy conservation, and religious faith.
- Religious education materials.
- Videotape cassettes.
- Resources for saving energy and money at home and in your congregation.
- Energy and consumption evaluations.
- Fundraising/energy-saving CFL youth projects.
Please let us help by:
- Joining our information network.
- Arranging for a presentation at your church.
- Requesting educational materials.
- Participating in our CFL Project.
- Conducting an energy audit.
For more information, please contact:
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