From GreenFaith (http://greenfaith.org):
One of the things about religion is that our words carry weight.
Our faiths don’t call us to “love someone 50%” or “be compassionate by 2050”. They tell us to do what’s compassionate, loving, and just – now.
Send a message to world leaders at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sacred-people-sacred-earth-sign-the-multi-faith-climate-statement: the Sacred People, Sacred Earth Demands are the moral compass for climate justice.
Watching the recent climate summit, it was hard not to notice that while leaders were big on aspiration, there was a lot of hedging. Plenty of “50% by 2035” and “net zero by 2050”.
To the uninitiated, this language may feel powerful or mystifying. In reality, these “promises” obfuscate and dehumanize what’s at stake.
For example, one of the most important moral challenges of the climate crisis is the growing number of climate refugees, millions of them poor farmers in Africa and Asia forced to leave their homes because of droughts, floods, and wildfires.
But almost no political leader is willing to state the obvious – that wealthy countries, responsible for the majority of climate-forcing emissions in the atmosphere, owe a generous welcome to these innocent people and reparations to the world’s most vulnerable nations, some of whom have their very existence threatened by this crisis (for example, all 38 small island developing nations).
Or consider another example – the slippery use of “net zero by 2050” as a smokescreen for relying on inadequate or unproven solutions. Earlier this year, Shell Oil, a wealthy fossil fuel giant, pledged net zero emissions by 2050. How do they plan to do this? Through “nature based solutions” (e.g. planting trees), and Carbon Capture and Storage technology, which is yet unproven at scale.
What’s really needed? Shell, and the entire oil and gas sector, must enter a managed decline and end the fossil fuel era while society massively scales up clean renewable energy.
We understand that these changes are not easy. But the need for them is staring us in the face. Political, financial, and business leaders are failing the most basic test of true leadership by choosing not to speak directly and plainly about the depth of the problem.
As this November’s UN climate negotiations approach, you’ll hear a lot of language that has the dangerous lure of the sirens of Greek mythology. Merchants of spin will tempt us to think that everything is OK when, in fact, we face threats that call for true courage and action based on moral values. Nothing less will suffice.
When grassroots people of diverse religions worldwide created the 10 Sacred People, Sacred Earth Demands, they did so in a spirit of pure-hearted truthfulness.
Then, and only then, we’ll have a prayer of building a better tomorrow.
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