United to defend the environment ” “

Climate change is placing the life of the planet at risk and represents today “a new and urgent challenge for the European Churches”. That’s why it’s important that Europe should not follow the example of the United States but sign as soon as possible, and without hesitation, the Kyoto protocol on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. This appeal is made in a 50-page dossier with the title “Climate Change – a challenge for the Churches in Europe”, published by ECEN (European Committee for the Environment) and written by a group of theologians and scientists, for the most part of Christian tradition (Protestants, Orthodox and Roman Catholics) from all over the continent. The situation. The alarm of the scientific community is becoming “ever more insistent”, says the document. The climatic trend of our planet is deteriorating from year to year, so much so as to lead scientists to predict an average increase in temperature of 5.8 degrees by 2100. “If that were to happen – observe the Churches – the consequences on the planet’s climatic system would be more devastating than ever imagined”. The Churches devote a whole chapter of the dossier to analyzing the consequences that a heating up of the atmosphere on this scale might produce. “It’s difficult – the documents admits – to predict the changes in detail, but there are no doubts about the general trend”. “Torrential rains and long periods of aridity will take place ever more frequently. Floods and drought will have a strong impact on the planet. The glaciers will retreat, but the most serious effect will be the melting of the snow on the mountains which will reduce the stability of the slopes, increasing the risk of landslides. In many places the sea level will rise considerably”. The appeal to the European Union. In spite of the scientific evidence, “the industrialized nations continue to avoid taking any concrete measures”. The Conference on climate change held in November 2000 raised high hopes. But the Conference failed. The dossier of the Christian Churches is clear in its reconstruction of events: “In March 2001, President George W. Bush declared that the United States was not prepared to ratify the Kyoto protocol, affirming that it would be contrary to the country’s economic interests” to do so. To become mandatory, the Kyoto protocol must be ratified by at least 55 countries, responsible for 55% of the emissions of Co2. “Since the USA is responsible for 25% of the emissions – the dossier continues – the Protocol needs to be ratified by all the other industrialized countries”. That’s why the Churches’ appeal is being addressed to the European nations. “Europe, and especially the European Union has hitherto played a crucial role. The Churches of the continent ought to ask the governments to assume their responsibilities, ratify the Kyoto Protocol and continue to be leaders in the process”. The Churches’ commitment. In the last chapter of the dossier, the Christian Churches compare the Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic points of view. “With the recent failure of the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol – writes the Orthodox Dimitri Oikonomou – the time has come for the European Churches to act and to promote every form of concrete initiative for controlling climate change and gas emissions”. “Those who have opposed acting exclusively on the basis of financial returns and economic growth – declares the Protestant Martin Robra – have often said: there are no alternatives”. And the Catholic Markus Vogt adds: “What we need is the capacity to exercise a new form of global solidarity, which also includes the future generations. Thanks to their universal message, the Christian Churches are present today in every part of the planet. Their unity in Christ obliges them to respect the preferential option for the poor. This consideration has important consequences for their commitment to protecting the climate, because the first victims of climate change are the poorest of the earth. The battle for global justice is not possible without implementing simultaneously development projects and projects for the defence of the environment”. M.C.B.