May 2004
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 Judeo-Christian scripture, all creation, by God's handicraft, is deemed "good." Because "the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness 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 percent of the world's population, we have contributed 25 percent 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. Carol Brewer
Director
Ecologists, Educators, and Schools Program
Division of Biological Sciences
University of Montana
His Grace Bishop Dimitrios
Ecumenical Officer of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Dr. Thomas Eisner
Director, Institute for Research in Chemical Ecology
Cornell University
John H. Gibbons
President, Resources Strategies
Former Science Advisor to the President
Dr. Kurt Gottfried
Chairman of the Board and Co-founder
Union of Concerned Scientists
Professor Emeritus of Physics
Cornell University
Reverend Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Dr. Leanne M. Jablonski, FMI
Director
Marianist Environmental Education Center
Climate Change Research Scholar
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology
The Ohio State University
Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk
Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
Dr. Alan I. Leshner
Chief Executive Officer
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Executive Publisher, Science
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. Richard Mouw
President, Fuller Theological Seminary
Professor of Christian Philosophy
Dr. Margaret A. Palmer
Professor of Entomology
Professor of Biology
University of Maryland
Dr. Peter Raven
Engelmann Professor of Botany
Washington University in St. Louis
President, Sigma XI
Hannah Rosenthal
Executive Director
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Dr. William H. Schlesinger
James B. Duke Professor
Professor, Earth & Ocean Science
Nicholas School of Environment &
Earth Sciences
Duke University
Carole Shinnick, SSND
Executive Director
Leadership Conference of Women
Dr. George M. Woodwell
Founder/Director, Woods Hole Research Center
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
Reverend Dr. Robert Edgar
General Secretary
National Council of Churches U.S.A.
Dr. Christopher Field
Department of Global Ecology
Carnegie Institution
Stanford University
Dr. Marvin L. Goldberger
President Emeritus
California Institute of Technology
The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, U.S.A.
Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr.
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop
President, National Council of Churches U.S.A.
Reverend Bernice Powell Jackson
Executive Minister
Justice and Witness Ministries
United Church of Christ
Dr. Neal F. Lane
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
Professor, Physics & Astronomy
Rice University
Theodore Cardinal McCarrick
Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
Chairman, Domestic Policy Committee
United States Catholic Conference of Bishops
Reverend Dr. A. Roy Medleyt;br />General Secretary
American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.
Dr. Ernest J. Moniz
Director of Energy Studies
Laboratory for Energy & the Environment
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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
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
Rabbi Ismar Schorsch
Chancellor
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Bishop Melvin Talbert
Interim General Secretary and
Ecumenical Officer
Council of Bishops
United Methodist Church
Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
President, Union for Reformed Judaism
For additional information on interfaith perspectives and activities related to climate change and air pollution, see:
