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Bill McKibben is the world’s most significant voice concerning the crisis generated by global warming. So says TIME magazine, backed up by a significant collection of eminent scientists. This weekend McKibben spoke to over two thousand turned on activists as the prelude to a conference on the subject sponsored by Progressive Christians Uniting and held at the Presbyterian Church in Claremont, California. Several hundred religious activists from around the area met for two days to hear world authorities on the subject, to plan specific actions and to engage in services of worship. McKibben is an active Methodist layman and teaches a Sunday School class at his local Vermont congregation. He also preached Sunday morning at Claremont’s largest protestant church. He has generated a worldwide movement centered around the “350” focus, the highest carbon figure in atmospheric parts per million necessary to sustain life on this planet. The current unsustainable figure is 384ppm.
The short-term goal is the reduction of the use of fossil fuels, while forcing their producers to pay for the environmental degradation, as part of the cost of doing business.
During and following the conference, hundreds of calls went to Senators around the country, and to the President, protesting the proposed tar sands pipeline. In addition, a week from Sunday there is scheduled a rally in Los Angeles which will surround the office of a California Senator on the same day other activists circle the White House. Other actions are also being planned. In addition to Christians, the conference heard from Jewish, Moslem, Native American and other religious bodies.
Care of the natural world has been on the agenda of the religious community long before the global warming crisis became widely recognized. For three decades the World Council of Churches has had as its main emphases, “Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation.”
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