Copenhagen and Climate Change
UN Conference's aim: curb greenhouse emissions
Canada's Catholic Bishops' pastoral letters urge us to reflect on our relationship with the Environment; call us to Conversion
The fact is that global warming does affect us all, but especially the most vulnerable in our society: the poor, little children, the aged and the infirm. In the poorest countries such as Bangladesh melting Himalayan glaciers now threaten the source of drinking water for millions.
Global warming is affects farms and crops in Canada. As Arctic and glacial ice disappears, there is less water to irrigate soil. The atmosphere in turn leaches water from arable land, leaving it arid and unable to be cultivated. Incidences of drought worldwide are spreading. These factors raise the price of food.
It can even be said to affect governments' ability to build housing, since longer warm periods have allowed pests to infest trees; pests like the pine beetle had been held in check until now by cold weather. A depletion of timber means higher construction costs and less affordable housing.
Here in Canada there have been efforts to raise awareness about the impact of global warming. Among those whose voices are raised are Canada's Catholic Bishops. In October 2003 and in March 2008, they issued pastoral letters that underscored the link between ourselves and the environment and repeated Pope John Paul II's call for "ecological conversion" and Pope Benedict's who calls us "to be respectful of the environment and attentive to the needs of the most deprived peoples."
Canada's Catholic Bishops have also produced two Pastoral Letters dealing with our relationship to the environment and a collective consciousness to face critical environmental problems affecting the earth.
Produced by the Episcopal Commission for Social Affairs, the pastoral letter is titled "Our Relationship with the Environment: The Need for Conversion."
Read complete CCCB Pastoral Letters on Environment
A Pastoral Letter on the
Christian Ecological Imperative - PDF
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
October 4, 2003
Our Relationship with the Environment:
the Need for Conversion - PDF
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
12 March 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE EDITORIAL
Profound emergency facing humanity prompts global Editorial:
56 newspapers in 45 countries speak with one voice
Unless we combine to take decisive action, says a combined editorial in 45 newspapers around the world, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. It points to the dangers that have not become an "inconvenient truth".
In 11 of the past 14 years, we have experienced a period among the warmest on record. The Arctic ice-cap is melting and inflated food prices, ever more destructive storms and rising sea levels that will threaten millions worldwide especially the poorest are but a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.
Over the next two weeks more than 15,000 people - this includes political leaders and climate negotiators from 192 countries - will be in Copenhagen to reach agreement on controlling greenhouse gas emissions that have now begun to shrink glaciers and change weather and sea patterns globally.
The hope is that this will not be another UN conference filled with rhetoric-inflated statements or simply restating past positions. Copenhagen will only be a success if it delivers significant and immediate action. Unless we combine to take decisive action, says a combined editorial in 56 newspapers from 45 countries who have united to demand action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security.
It points to the dangers that have not become an "inconvenient truth": 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, not only are glaciers melting but so is the Arctic ice-cap. While such things sound remote, we only need recall that without glaciers there is no water and without the Arctic ice cap, weather and sea patters are disrupted.
READ FULL EDITORIAL
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/copenhagensummit/article/735124--star-joins-global-climate-crusade?bn=1
Other related documents
Commonwealth Climate Change Agreement
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/files/173014/FileName/FinalA5ClimateChangeAW_2col.pdf - PDF