Faith-based environmental groups hope Bush sees the light

By Joan Lowy
Scripps Howard News Service
April 03, 2001

WASHINGTON - President Bush is being lobbied by religious leaders and faith-based environmental groups to change his position on global warming and mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

 Bush, a born-again Christian, was told in letters delivered Tuesday and last week that climate change is not merely a matter of science and economics, but a moral imperative.

"For us, climate change represents the single most comprehensive challenge to all of God's creation here on Earth,'' said a letter from the Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign signed by leaders of faith-based environmental groups in 19 states. "It is a test of biblical covenant, a challenge of obedience to God's mandate of stewardship, and a standard of justice among all of God's children.''

A similar letter to Bush last week was signed by mainstream Protestant, evangelical, Jewish and black religious leaders.

Bush promised during last year's presidential campaign to cut carbon dioxide pollution from power plants, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. On March 13, after heavy lobbying by the coal and electric utility industries, Bush announced that his administration will not regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Bush has cited the cost of carbon dioxide regulation and the need to continue to burn coal in light of the electric power crisis.

The administration also has made it clear that the United States will no longer participate in international negotiations to implement the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty signed in Japan in 1997 by the United States and more than 100 other nations setting carbon dioxide reduction goals. Bush's position has drawn intense criticism from European leaders.

The United States is responsible for an estimated 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Faith-based environmental groups are hoping to appeal to Bush's religious convictions, which he has said play a central role in his life.

The New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is "the one who holds all of creation together,'' said Cal DeWitt, an evangelical leader with the Wisconsin Climate Campaign. "Human activity on Earth which is destructive to creation's order is a very serious assault on creation and is contrary to what it means to follow Christ.''

Mark Jacobs, director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, said: "We wanted to make it clear to the administration that this isn't a handful of national leaders saying they are concerned, but that this is people in the pews organizing around global warming.''

 (Joan Lowy is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail LowyJ@shns.com)