Isn't Protecting the Environment a Moral Issue?

Dear Fellow Activists,

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 160,000 people die each year due to the direct and indirect impacts of global warming. That is almost as many as have died in the recent tsunami. If they all had died in a single hour would millions of Americans have risen up to demand that the Administration change its attitude toward environmental issues? Or do we simply not care about children choking for lack of air, climate changes that result in the starvation of millions or the fact that much of our coastline may disappear in our lifetimes?

On National Public Radio, the Rev. Jim Ball, Executive Director of the Evangelical Environmental Network, said:

The impact of global warming will get much worse as the century progresses. Millions could die. God’s other creatures will suffer as well. A report in Nature magazine suggests that up to 37 percent of God’s creatures could become extinct in this century due to climate change, their songs of praise to their creator snuffed out forever. On Wednesday,[February 16, 2005] much of the developed world takes an important first step to address global warming as the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty, goes into effect. The United States, however, is not participating. While I believe President Bush cares about the plight of the poor, this is not reflected in his climate policy. As a country, and as the world’s No. 1 source of green house gases, America needs to do much more.

In that same story, the British Environmental Secretary noted that developing nations were not among the 140 countries who signed the Protocol because it would require some to make choices between environmental protection and feeding the starving. What she was graceful enough not to note was that the richest nation on earth was almost the only developed country not to sign the treaty. After the Clinton administration had been a party to drafting the treaty, the Bush Administration refused to sign it. The whole world was stunned by the arrogance of the nation best able to afford to honor the protocols and the nation most responsible for many types of pollution. What does this say about the kind of people we are?

Wednesday (2/16/05) came and went with hardly a mention of Kyoto in this country. We liberals felt our moment of shame, then jumped in our cars and drove home to our coal-powered, electrically-lighted homes that would house twenty in an undeveloped nation. Today the U.S. watches as the rest of the world takes a step toward saving the planet. The question is what will we do?

Take Action Today

In a few weeks the skies over Dallas and many other cities will become hazy, and everyone will begin to complain of burning eyes, headaches and sinus infections. Is complaining all we will do? I hope not, because there is much to be done:

• Carpooling, using mass transit, walking more. If just the one-third of the population who claims to be liberal would do these things we could have the same impact on the environment that signing the Kyoto Protocol might have had.
• Talk to your family, friends and co-workers about your environmental concerns. We need to make it a cultural issue where progress is an assumed position. It ought to be a passion of all people of faith who believe that “the earth is the Lord’s.”
• Email your elected officials. In Dallas, if the Cathedral of Hope were to mobilize to make it a campaign issue, we could force the Dallas City Council to actually enforce the Clean Air Act and to institute the kind of recycling program that any civilized city ought to have. If just those of you receiving this letter would email the City Council they would get over 14,000 emails. If you live outside Dallas then consider who you might impact.
• Recycle. It helps the environment, but perhaps even more importantly it is good for your soul. It is a tangible physical act by which you distinguish yourself as one of those “radical environmentalists.” Change for the better must begin with better habits by people who care. Surely we are those people.
• Raise Cain…or whatever you raise where you are from when you are fed up. It is time for us to start speaking prophetically in uncompromising terms about how tired we are of living in a country that makes us ashamed. You can support the work of Hope for Peace & Justice by clicking HERE now!.

Other Issues & Sites that Deserve Our Attention

1. Finding Our Voice in Alabama... Rev. Piazza appears on a popular morning talk show in Birmingham, Alabama to defend same-sex marriage. A “defense of marriage” bill passed recently in Alabama. Kyle Anderson of WECR asks Rev. Piazza, “So do you just give up on states like Alabama?” Mike replies, “No, just like laws banning integration and mixed race marriage during the civil rights movement in the 60’s, the law just passed in Alabama will be looked back on as just as foolish.” Click here to hear the entire interview. (mp3 file)
2. In a complementary article to the issues above, Deanne Stillman simply asks, “Can America’s wild horses survive another four years of Bush?”
3. Liberals Like Christ… the name says it all.
4. In honor of Black History Month, Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson has written an article for the United Church of Christ’s website that talks about Ossie Davis, who recently died. Many knew him as an actor, but he might wish to be remembered more as an activist.
5. Most Americans knew the day that American casualties in Iraq surpassed 1,000. Who among us knew the day Iraq civilian casualties surpassed 100,000? God knew and cared.

Please feel free to forward this email to as many people as you like. My prayer is that the Spirit is calling us all to be liberal disciples of Christ.

Blessings,

Rev. Michael S. Piazza
Executive Director, Hope for Peace & Justice and
Dean of the Cathedral of Hope