Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In July 2009 the Episcopal Convention endorsed the Earth Charter
Initiative, a document written to promote the transition to sustainable
ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical frame-
work that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological
integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice,
democracy, and a culture of peace. The House of Bishops at the con-
vention urged the government to adopt “equitable subsidies for renew-
able energy (such as solar and wind turbine power, and research into
new technologies) along with balancing its current subsidies for non-
renewable energy sources (oil, gas, and coal).” They also voted to
support the adoption of a federal renewable energy standard that would
require power plants to produce 20 percent of their electricity through
renewable sources and committed the church to a 50 percent reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions from the facilities it maintains by 2019.
At their 2003 convention, they had passed a resolution aimed at stop-
ping mountaintop removal as a means of coal mining. They authorized
the sending of action alerts to Episcopalians asking them to contact their
elected offi cials about mountaintop removal. Imagine the possible effect
if all church hierarchies in the United States were as aggressive as the
Episcopalians in urging their adherents and the government to agitate
for a sustainable society.
In October 2009, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew, the leader of
250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide warned a gathering of sci-
entists, policymakers, and other religious leaders in New Orleans that
humanity's care for the environment is near a tipping point “where abso-
lute limits to our survival are being reached.” Noting that deforestation,
water pollution, the collapse of fi shing stocks, and other environmental
crises indicate “we have lost our balance, externally and within,” and
urged his listeners to recognize their “sacred responsibility to the future.”
That same month, the archbishop of Canterbury spoke to leaders of
nine of the world's major faiths about the moral vision of the world's
religions and their crucial role in tackling climate change. Environmental
commitments of various kinds were made by several leaders.
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There is a growing movement among religious leaders who use their
pulpits to stimulate environmental action. More than 10,000 congrega-
tions of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and other faiths are working
in thirty states as members of Interfaith Power and Light.
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IPL is the
brainchild of the Reverend Sally Bingham, a priest in the Episcopal
Diocese of California. She says that most people want to do the right and
moral thing, but that they do not always know what that is. She believes
