Catholics Bishops Issue Statement on Global Climate Change

On Saturday, June 15, America's Roman Catholic bishops issued a statement calling for immediate action to mitigate the effects of global climate change.  The statement by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, titled "Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good," asserts that the United States, because of its wealth, its position in the world and its record as a heavy producer of heat-trapping, or greenhouse, gases, must play a special role in protecting the planet.

The document follows more than a decade of increasingly outspoken interest by the bishops on the environment. In 1993, the United States Catholic Conference began an environmental justice program that encouraged local action by Catholics to protect the environment, with a special eye toward helping the poor. The church has also encouraged priests to take up local concerns, like sprawl and industrial pollution of watersheds.

The statement, which took three years to produce, was adopted on a voice vote by the 217 bishops present. The document makes no independent judgment about global warming, but accepts that numerous scientific findings point to significant evidence that human behavior and activity have contributed to it.

The document takes a particular interest in the potential harm of global warming on the world's poor. It says that poorer nations have a "right to economic development" and that their wealthier counterparts ought to help them develop technologies that would produce lower emissions of heat-trapping gases.  The bishops also discuss the need to protect the environment as a means of exercising stewardship of God's creation. And the statement calls on the United States to "undertake reasonable and effective initiatives for energy conservation and the development of alternate renewable and clean-energy resources."

The complete National Conference of Catholic Bishop's statement can be found at http://www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.htm