INTERFAITH GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGNS
WEST VIRGINIA
Coordinator: Marcia Leitch
P.O. Box 226
Talcott, WV 24981-0226
home: 304-466-0982
fax: 304-466-4790
email: jmleitch@mountain.net
Having Faith in
the Planet
Failure of Biosphere a reminder
we have only one place to live
Friday
February 22, 2002
By Bob Schwarz
CHARLESTON GAZETTE STAFF WRITER
A
few years ago, scientists designed a self-contained Biosphere and installed
eight volunteers to live in it. The Biosphere, which cost $150 million
to build, was an airtight greenhouse covering 3 acres. Scientists had
to shut it down when the oxygen supply began to drop and humans had trouble
breathing. Many of the animals inside had already died. "The only
species which did well were cockroaches, which served well as pollinators,
too," said Carol Warren, who represents the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston
on the West Virginia Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign.
"Even
with the minds of the best scientists and all that money, we can't create
a bio-system as good as the one we have," she said. "The one
that we have does all that free, and I'm not sure that we appreciate it."
People don't want to worry about global warming when they have more pressing
worries, like getting their children out the door so they can catch the
school bus. "So the Arctic ice sheet is melting and pieces are breaking
off and the Greenland ice sheet is melting," Warren said. "We
can fix that," they think.
We haven't had much luck fixing these things yet, Warren said. Politicians
and business leaders may have mixed views about global warming, but scientists
do not. The planet has been warming rapidly since the 1970s, and many
of the warmest years ever recorded have occurred during the last 15 years.
Most
scientists point their fingers at the burning of ever-larger amounts of
fossil fuels and the resulting increase in greenhouse gases. As part of
a national initiative, more than 80 West Virginia religious leaders are
asking the president and Congress to forgo drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and embrace an energy policy other than the one President
Bush currently proposes. The leaders are calling for energy conservation
and higher gas-efficiency standards for the vehicles that people drive
in their everyday lives.
Warren
and her husband, who attend St. Ann Church in Webster Springs, put in
a hybrid wind-and-solar generating system at their rural home. They don't
expect it ever to pay for itself, and they're not totally free of the
power grid. "It's a demonstration project. We've had school groups
come out to see how it works," she said. The wind-and-solar generating
experiment has taught them valuable lessons, Warren said. They have learned
the pointlessness of running appliances 24 hours a day - from coffee makers
to videocassette recorders to televisions - just so they're ready for
instant use when desired. They learned that their hot water heater was
an electricity hog. "Once we figured out how much power it used,
we started turning it off. If we want to take a shower, we turn it on
a little before, and then turn it off when we're done," Warren said.
Even a home's windows can help save energy, provided the resident opens the south-facing shades on wintry sunny days to help heat the house, and keeps those same shades closed on hot summer days to keep from overheating the house. "Our grandmothers knew enough to pull down the shades on hot sunny days," Warren said.
Churches
often fostered the belief that everything on the planet belonged to people
to do with as they wished, Warren said. The Bible begins with Genesis,
the story of creation, when God gives humans dominion over everything.
"But the root word for dominion is the same as for Lord, dominus.
That means to me if we're going to have dominion, we should have God's
attitude toward things. "God appreciated it. God said everything
was good five times before there were any people."
Warren
asks people to examine their beliefs and decide whether their lifestyles
are measuring up. "As Christians, we're supposed to care about those
among us who are most vulnerable*." And right now, our planet, which
has no voice, is one of the things that is most vulnerable." Religious
leaders of many faiths, including Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Bahais,
are asking for something they call climate justice. "It's a justice
issue," said Marcia Leitch, the Global Climate Campaign's state coordinator.
"What kind of world are we leaving our children and grandchildren?"
To
contact the global warming campaign, call Carol Warren at 304-343-3360
or Marcia Leitch at 304-466-0982.
To contact staff writer Bob Schwarz, use e-mail or call 304-348-1249.
This article was taken from
the Charleston Gazette Online, http://wvgazette.com/news/.
*in the original article, this was misquoted as "valuable."
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