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259 items

  • Message of His Holiness Pope Francis on the Occasion of the 20th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

    Pope Francis's statement on climate change was issued at the High Level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference on December 10, 2014. The introduction to the Holy See's message is stated below:

    "At this very decisive moment in the history of climate negotiations we have to come to the point where we must overcome inaction. As Pope Francis said in his Message to our Conference, the issues we are debating 'affects all humanity, especially the poor and future generations: […] it is a serious ethical and moral responsibility […] There is a clear, definite and urgent ethical imperative to act […] We can only find adequate solutions if we act together.'

    The longer we wait, the more it will cost; more victims will suffer from our inaction and the greatest weight will fall on the most vulnerable, the poorest peoples and future generations: what is at issue here is respect for their fundamental human rights."

  • Message by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the UNFCCC COP-23 Session (Bonn, Germany)

    Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople addressed the UNFCCC COP-23 Session in Bonn, Germany on November 6-17, 2017. He laments the continued resistance of some for positive changes with regard to climate issues. One salient theme focuses on the urgent need for radical changes in behavior and attitude regarding the negative impact of growth and development on our planet.

  • Message by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for World Environment Day

    Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople delivered the message below for World Environment Day on June 5, 2009. In it, he emphasizes human's responsibility to "serve and preserve" God's creation. This message is a call to all people to take a more active role in coming together to protect and preserve the environment.

  • Message of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the Day of the Protection of the Environment

    Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople delivered a speech on January 9, 2018 for the Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Environment. The following one salient excerpt from the speech:

    "The Ecumenical Patriarchate’s ecological initiatives provided a stimulus for theology to showcase the environmentally-friendly principles of Christian anthropology and cosmology as well as to promote the truth that no vision for humanity’s journey through history has any value if it does not also include the expectation of a world that functions as a real “home” (oikos) for humanity, particularly at a time when the ongoing and increasing threat against the natural environment is fraught with the possibility of worldwide ecological destruction. This evolution is a consequence of a specific choice of economic, technological and social development that respects neither the value of the human being nor the sanctity of nature. It is impossible to truly care for human beings while at the same time destroying the natural environment as the very foundation of life, essentially undermining the future of humanity."

  • A Bishops’ Letter about the Climate

    Below is a section of the introduction from A Bishops’ Letter about the Climate, which covers a multitude of critical environmental issues, from the 2014 Bishops' conference:

    "We have lived with reports and forecasts of climate change since the 1980s. Our climate is the result of the interaction of complex systems and there is often a great distance between cause and effect in terms of both space and time. There are uncertainties and a lack of clarity. However, the knowledge we possess today does not allow us to postpone until tomorrow
    what needs to be done now. Our human climate impact must decrease for the sake of the earth, for the sake of the world that God so loves that God gave us Jesus Christ."

  • Resolution on Global Warming and Atmospheric Degradation

    The Church of the Brethren of The General Board issued their Resolution on Global Warming and Atmospheric Degradation on October 21, 1991. The final section of the resolution, discussing the General Board commitment, is as follows:

    "FURTHER the General Board commits itself to; support and participate in national and international networks of religious bodies and other non-governmental organizations addressing the greenhouse effect; and continue through its program staff, within the context of a theology based on caring for the earth, and educational effort to acquaint the members of the Church of the Brethren with the nature, causes, and consequences of the greenhouse effect, including suggestions for individual and collective action to help address the problem. This will include the promotion of the use of the General Board’s study resource, Creation in Crisis: Responding to God’s Covenant, in all congregations. We will elicit the cooperation of District Executive as agents within each district to work directly with pastors to reach the membership of the church."

  • Our Moral Opportunity on Climate Change

    On November 3, 2017, the New York Times posted an article by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury and primate of the Church of England, discussing some of the devastating weather-related disasters that had occurred at that time and how climate change factored into the tragedies. Below is one section of the article, discussing responses of various faith groups with regard to these events:

    "Indeed, even amid the hurricane-caused devastation and despair of recent weeks, I have seen seeds of hope. Different expressions of the Christian faith are freshly united around the need to care for our common home. The Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches just came together with the World Council of Churches to celebrate a month long Season of Creation. During this season, people all around the globe prayed and acted to address climate change and to protect the earth."

  • The world is our host: A call to urgent action for climate justice

    Anglican Bishops from around the world discuss various environmental complications resulting from climate change. They provide a list of initiatives of commitment that they have pledged as a church, some of which include strengthening collaboration among partners, developing and distributing educational resources and liturgical materials, and strengthening of ethical investment guidelines. They also list actions that individuals can take to support their mission.

  • Episcopalians Confronting Climate Change

    This article discusses American Episcopalians' concern over climate change and the impact with regard to those facing poverty. The introduction to the article is stated below:

    "In September 2011, the House of Bishops in the Episcopal Church, attending a meeting in Quito, Ecuador, sent a pastoral letter to Episcopal clergy worldwide expressing 'mounting urgency' to address climate change within church membership. The letter argued the critical need for Christians to care for all of God’s creation and urged that justice be sought for the poor, who it said will suffer most from climate change."

  • The Hope We Share: A Vision For Copenhagen

    The Anglican Communion Environmental Network addressed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
    Conference Of Parties (COP) Meetings, the Fifteenth Session, held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. They lament the consequences of environmental human footprints, some of which include the lack of drinkable water in various parts of the world, the increased difficulty to grow crops due to the water shortages, rampant consumerism, and subsidies for fossil fuels.

  • Preachable Moments: Evangelical Christians and Climate Change

    This article by Yale Climate Connections provides encouraging news of how some evangelical Christians are re-examining their stance on climate change. The following is an excerpt from the article:

    "About 60 percent of evangelicals think climate change has nothing to do with human activities. By comparison, less than half of all Americans, or 47 percent, share that view. (Both figures are in sharp contrast to the overwhelming majority of climate scientists who agree that climate change is occurring and primarily caused by human actions).

    Richard Cizik sees climate change as ‘top-tier issue’ for younger evangelicals. But the theological doors are beginning to open. Signs are that more evangelicals now are addressing climate change as a moral issue that appeals to the conscience of their Christian communities."

  • Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action

    This statement on climate change from members of the Evangelical Climate Initiative encourages church leaders and congregation members do what they can to take action to protect the Earth. A brief description of the group is provided below:

    "The Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) is a group of over 300 senior evangelical leaders in the United States who are convinced it is time for our country to help solve the problem of global warming. We seek to do so in a way that creates jobs, cleans up our environment, and enhances national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, thereby creating a safe and a healthy future for our children. Our deep commitment to Jesus Christ and his commands to love our neighbors, care for “the least of these,” and be proper stewards of His creation compels us to act. Our views are articulated on the ECI statement page."

  • ELCA issues statement on Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change

    In an effort to demonstrate solidarity of interfaith-based environmental action, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America released a statement in support of Pope Francis's encyclical on climate change. The following concluding excerpt emphasizes the movement of solidarity within the statement:

    "Today we join with Pope Francis in calling on world leaders to embrace our common responsibility as work continues toward a global agreement on climate change. We urge leaders to support an ambitious agreement that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, encourages development of low-carbon technologies, and supports the ability of countries to cope with the effects of a changing climate and build resiliency for a sustainable future."

  • Lutherans Reflect on Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

    This article discusses some of the sentiments regarding proceedings from the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. While some attendees expressed disappointment in the outcome, others were more optimistic about steps which may lead to more effective action for climate change in the future. The following excerpt provides a brief description of the event:

    "More than 3,000 ELCA members, along with a coalition of U.S. faith leaders, sent some 20,000 postcards to President Barack Obama, urging him to be at the meeting, she said. Obama attended the conference and urged leaders of Brazil, China, India and South Africa to join the United States 'to fund developing nations' projects to deal with droughts,
    floods and other impacts of climate change, and to develop clean energy,' among other agreements, according to a U.N. news release."

  • Why Lutherans Care for Creation

    This article discusses how various concepts of Lutheran theology are woven into ecological messages with regard to God as creator, human interactions, and ways of worship. The following is a section from the introduction of the article, emphasizing human responsibility towards care for the Earth:

    "For Christians, care of the Earth is not an 'environmental cause.' Rather, it is central to our holy calling to treasure the Earth and to care for it as our common home, fully integrating creation-care into our love of God and neighbor. Without sacrificing the transformational effects of the 16th-century Reformation, we are called to embrace an eco-reformation that will re-examine and rethink how we read the Bible, how we can expand the scope of our theology, how we can reconfigure our personal vocation and our common ethic, how we worship, how we organize our church life together, and how we understand ourselves as creatures within creation as a whole. This call to continuing reformation is for the whole church, not solely for the committed. Earth care is not an add-on. It is not just for those who happen to be interested in it. It is a call for all Christians to participate in this great work of our time."

  • Caring for Creation Today

    This video, put forth by the Evangelical Church in America, encourages individuals to act as stewards by both assisting those in need and caring for our land, as God had intended. The salient message is to do what you can to work for change and care for God's creation, as this is our duty as humans.

  • Existentialism an the Ecological Crisis

    This segment of The Philosopher's Zone with David Routledge (on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) focuses on the importance of existentialism in modern times. Specifically, how existentialism can help us understand current relationships between the self and others, as well as with nature. Likewise, the podcast’s contributor, Dr Dalia Nassar points out that existentialism implies a sort humanism (as Sartre argued) that connects each individual to all of humanity through their actions. It is the fact that each of our actions can affect one another is why the existentialists place so much emphasis on how we act. Furthermore, the podcast extends this to the ecological crisis by explaining how this radical humanism can inform how we make environmental decisions. The important point here is that we can derive environmental values based on the inherent freedom that humans have, there is a constant need for action. As the interviewer explains in the podcast, the individual determines the moral future of humanity and nature. Thus, each person has a moral obligation to transcend the current situation and make better choices for the environment. Likewise, there is a special attention to art and literature as a mode of connection, to hopefully shape others moral and environmental values. Therefore, existentialism provides a framework (much like religion) for guiding our actions based on a mutual care for the environment. Finally, I should note that the key points of the podcast (concerning the environment) starts at the 18-minute mark, while the latter half provides background knowledge on existentialism.

  • One World, Our Coalition: Religion and Environmentalism Larry Linenschmidt

    The One World, One Coalition interview guest of various backgrounds about climate advocacy. In the first episode Matthew Kim and Isla Ferguson interview Larry Linenshcmidt of Hill Country Institute. Hill Country Institute is a Christian organization focused on addressing important issues while encouraging safe discussions on topics like human rights, education, and the environment. As the executive direction Linenschmidt lectures about holistic environmental stewardship in the Christian community.

  • Resources for Preaching & Speaking on Climate Change

    The resource gives information for preachers and other religious figures to use when talking about climate change. It starts by giving reasons for preaching about climate change and why it is important for us now and in the future. It also gives facts from scientists on the climate which mentions the aspects of climate change such as the causes and effects on the environment, and what humans can do to help. The article then gives biblical themes related to climate change and also gives advice for religious leaders to overcome possible barriers when preaching.

  • Ancient Judean Dates

    A date tree planted in Ketura, Israel from 2000 year old seeds found at an archeological site in the Judean wilderness has finally bore fruit earlier this month (September 2020). The harvest was hailed a modern miracle of science. “In these troubled times of climate change, pollution and species dying out at alarming rates, to bring something back to life from dormancy is so symbolic,”... Date palms were praised in the Bible and the Quran, and became symbols of beauty, precious shade and succulent plenty.

  • Engaged Organizations: Global Oneness Project

    The Global Oneness Project was founded in 2006 as an initiative of Kalliopeia Foundation, and is focused on education aimed a planting seeds of empathy, resilience, and a sacred relationship to our planet. They are passionate about the power of stories and offer a rich library of multimedia stories comprised of award-winning films, photo essays, and essays as well as companion curriculum and discussion guides focused on world culture, social justice and sustainability.

  • What Karl Marx has to say about today's environmental problems

    Ted Benton, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, writes about how Marx's theories can be applied to modern environmental issues such as climate change. He talks about how Marx's ideas about capitalism relate to current exploitation of nature, and specifically about soil degradation which was an issue during the 1860s when Marx was alive. He also includes problematic parts of Marx's attitudes towards nature, such as his praise of increased productivity of land that may have inspired Stalin.

  • How Buddhist monks in Ladakh are fighting climate change

    Buddhists Monks in the Himalayas are taking a stand to climate change. On Earth Day 2018, thousands of people came together in the village of Yerat to plant trees. The region is rapidly losing glaciers, causing a shortage in water supply to the villages in the area who rely on snowmelt for water. The volunteers were inspired to participate due to their devotion to His Holiness Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoche and his vision for "a more verdant and organic Ladakh."

  • Seeing true nature: Buddhism and the environment

    John Worthington-Hill describes how Buddhism can encourage environmental awareness and sustainability. Embracing individuality is our disconnection from the natural world. In order to live in unity with the earth, we must find the 'middle way' (a buddhist morality based on self-discipline). "Self-centeredness is the great illness from which all imbalance, insensitivity and abuse ultimately stem – an illness directly linked to the Buddha’s ‘three poisons of greed, ill-will and delusion’. These poisonous mentalities seep into the collective consciousness and are instilled in the norms and structures of culture and society, helping to direct how politics and economics deal with the environment." "Environmental destruction is therefore an outer manifestation of an inner affliction. If our thoughts are polluted, then our actions will be polluted too, and so will their consequences."

  • Episcopalians bring spiritual urgency to youth-led climate strikes

    The Episcopal News Service shares stories of Episcopalians from around the country engaging in climate strikes. Episcopal leaders spoke on behalf of the environment, bringing the Christian responsibility to protect the earth into the discussion. Episcopal bishops, priests, and students all stood in support of climate change, citing the urgency of the threat.