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TechnoratiMore Christian groups and individuals are calling for greater involvement and lifestyle changes this Earth Day, April 22, than in past years.
(Photo: AP / Reed Saxon)A visitor to the Rose Garden at Exposition Park view one of 50 globes, part of a public art project, 'Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet,' on display as part of Earth Day activities, near downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, April 21, 2009. Each five-foot globe has been custom-designed by local and international artists to showcase a variety of ways to reduce global warming. The globes are being officially dedicated on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22.
And many are becoming more active through a number of Green initiatives and campaigns.
“People today are becoming more aware of the urgency involved in restoring our environment, and they feel empowered to make an impact that will last for generations to come,” said Scott Sabin, executive director of Floresta ministry, an international Christian organization working with people in rural areas where poverty is caused by deforestation.
Earlier this month, Floresta launched its latest green initiative, “Plant With Purpose,” which has two main programs – Grow a Village or Trees Please. Through the latter program, participants can donate anywhere from $1 (for a tree) to $100 (for a forest), which will go toward reforestation and ultimately improving the lives of the rural poor.
“Plant With Purpose provides an immediate opportunity for people to transform the lives of the rural poor by restoring their land and offering them economic opportunities,” said Sabin.
Since 1984, Floresta has already planted 4 million trees and made over 6,500 small business loans worldwide. The organization currently has programs in six countries, including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Tanzania, Burundi and Thailand.
Meanwhile, there are groups such as humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) that have been working to help protect the environment through the political arena. CWS is urging people to help fight climate change by participating in its national postcard “Countdown to Copenhagen” advocacy campaign aimed at getting President Barack Obama and members of Congress to attend an upcoming global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.
During the summit, world leaders will work on a global agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement on climate change that expires in 2012.
“For people of faith, Copenhagen, as it is casually referred to, represents a theological and moral dilemma over carbon emissions and the unfettered greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and motor vehicles that are causing the earth’s temperature to rise, polar caps to melt, and oceans to rise: formula for an unprecedented human and ecological disaster,” said the Rev. John McCullough, CWS executive director and CEO, at the recent Ecumenical Advocacy Days gathering in Washington, D.C.
“Americans need to do more than just confess complicity,” he added. “When 4 percent of the global population is responsible for 25 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions, it means they have the power to affect substantive change.”
The CWS campaign urges the Obama administration and Congress to agree to cut carbon emissions and provide fair and just funding to help poor countries dealing with global warming.
Not all Christians, however, believe that humans are responsible for global warming.
While an overwhelming majority (79 percent) of those polled late 2007 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life believe there is solid evidence that the average temperature of the Earth has been increasing over the past few decades, only 37 percent of evangelicals and 48 percent of mainline Protestants credited human activity for global warming. Continue »
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