Amy Carter, associate pastor at University Congregational Church, is in the spirit as far as Advent goes.
But she and other religious leaders are tired of waiting on more worldly matters. At the top of that list is global warming.
“With global warming, we can wait no longer,” Carter said Tuesday at a news conference called by local church leaders and the National Environmental Trust. “It's time for us, all of us, to heed that call.”
The trust issued a national global warming report Tuesday, coinciding with a meeting of international leaders on the same topic in Bali. The report, called “Taking Responsibility: Why the United States Must Lead the World in Reducing Global Warming Pollution,” tracks annual carbon emissions from U.S. states and compares them with emissions from developing nations.
To see the full report, go to www.net.org/proactive/newsroom/
release.vtml?id29270.
Montana, with its population of less than 1 million, produces more emissions related to global warming than 56 developing nations, said Anna Swanson, Montana representative for the trust.
To people like Carter, John Lund and Claudia Brown, that means progress on global warming can start at home.
“Every single thing people do can have an effect, even if it's small,” said Lund, of Lutheran Campus Ministries. “And those actions are important because they send a message.”
That message is aimed directly at Congress, the president and other world leaders. Because no matter how many compact fluorescent light bulbs are burning in Missoula, the major impetus for serious, climate-changing change has to come from the top, Carter and Lund said.
“We can't debate the science on this anymore,” Lund said. “It's time to do something.”
It's time, Carter said, because it is right and it is moral. It's not possible, she said, to countenance behavior and lifestyles that will raise the level of the oceans, flooding poor developing nations such as Bangladesh. America produces more than
25 percent of the emissions responsible for global warming, scientists say.
“We have to ask, ‘What is our moral obligation to (other countries)? What is our responsibility?' ” Carter said. “Our faith gives us the answer.”
And the answer is not to sit idly by as ice sheets melt and islands slip under the surface of rising oceans.
“That's the core value of who we are and who we believe ourselves to be,” Lund said.
But because a cause is moral doesn't mean it will be joined by national leaders. And Carter and Lund know that. Still, they believe Americans have awakened to the looming problems spawned by global warming and are ready for action.
“We are at a time of heightening awareness,” Lund said.
Translating that awareness to action is the next step, the pastors said. America needs to lead by example by developing new and sustainable energy technologies.
“Perhaps, with those technologies, we don't have to watch China start a bunch of new coal-fired power plants,” Lund said. “We believe that the countries that provide and use these new technologies will be the leaders in the future.”
Re-envisioning a world that has long run on oil won't be easy, but it's possible, Carter said.
“I hope we can help create a groundswell that catches our leaders' attention,” she said. “Because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't try.”
And trying is what people like Claudia Brown, who helped found the Caring for Creation Network in Missoula, do best. The ever-hopeful Brown is even optimistic about the prospects for change.
“Things are looking up,” Brown said cheerfully. “It's a yeasty time.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)