How global warming goes against the grain

By Martin Mittelstaedt, Globe and Mail

The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate.
[Read the article and link to their Climate Change series]

Global Warming likely to increase hunger: Hits the poor hardest

Climate change (or global warming) is already affecting and will dramatically impact food production patterns. Scientists also say that global warming causes larger and fiercer storms. As we witnessed in Indonesia and the Gulf Coast, those with few resources are typically hardest hit.

We are called as Christians to love our neighbors and, how we, individually and corporately, react to climate change and our own role in causing global warming demonstrates this witness to God. While the link may not appear obvious at first, reducing our energy use, particularly our use of fossil fuels, is one way of demonstrating our love for our neighbors.

In June, the General Assembly passed an action calling on Presbyterians to live a carbon-neutral life by reducing our use of fossil fuel energy and purchasing offsets to make up for the amount we still contribute to carbon emissions, the main cause of global warming. The 217th General Assembly:

1. Directs the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) to make a study of personal responsibility and carbon-neutrality available as a working paper on the Web site of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as soon as possible, in order to share its concrete, effective action steps for Presbyterians to take to reduce their energy consumption. This working paper will highlight the threats posed by accelerated climate change and lift up ways for individuals, families, and congregations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases produced in heating, air conditioning, transportation and food production, packaging, and shipment. In addition, this paper will suggest policy measures being considered in greater depth by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy and several consultant theological ethicists and political scientists for eventual report to the 218th General Assembly (2008).
2. Finds that the Christian mandate to care for creation and the biblical promise of the restoration of right relationships between God, human beings, and the rest of creation impels and inspires us to act to reduce our energy usage;
3. Finds that the urgency, injustice, and seriousness of this issue calls us as Christians to act NOW and to act boldly to lead the way in reducing our energy usage;
4. Strongly urges all Presbyterians to immediately make a bold witness by aspiring to live carbon neutral lives. (Carbon neutrality requires our energy consumption that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere be reduced and carbon offsets purchased to compensate for those carbon emissions that could not be eliminated);
5. Directs the General Assembly Council to assign the appropriate staff to inform all Presbyterians, governing bodies, and churches of the urgent need for them to reduce their energy consumption and the injustice of our current energy practices while ACSWP completes its work;
6. Calls upon all Presbyterians to take this seriously, to pray asking for God’s forgiveness and guidance, to study this issue, to calculate your carbon emissions, to educate others, and to use less energy, striving to make your life carbon neutral.

What's new

Biofuel crops increase carbon emissions
The rush to grow biofuel crops — widely embraced as a solution to global warming — is actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions, not reducing them, two studies published in the journal Science find.
View Los Angeles Times article.

Climate could devastate crops
Climate change could cause severe crop losses in South Asia and southern Africa over the next 20 years, a study in the journal Science says.
View BBC article.

Presbyterian News Service · October 30, 2007
Mission workers request “carbon offsets” for Mission Challenge ’07

2007 National Eco-Justice Conference Presentations
Earth Sabbath, Earth Justice: Protecting God's Gifts of Food and Fuel
View and download presentations from keynote speaker Karl Rabágo and Andrew Kang Bartlett.

The Energy Diet

"...Governor Schwarzenegger, was set to sign legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for his state — the world's 12th largest contributor of such gases — at a level the federal government had continually rejected. Everyone was chipping in, even Arnold, the first civilian ever to drive a Hummer. I took another bite of doughnut.

And that's when it came to me. I should go on a diet. A half-ton diet.

I knew, having taken the Calculate Your Impact survey, the companion Web site for the Gore movie, that our household produced some 19,100 pounds of CO2 last year, 4,100 pounds more than the national average." Read this entertaining article.

Climate Change and Hunger: The Problem

Global Warming Will Increase World Hunger

By Philip Pullella, Reuters
May 27, 2005

Global warming is likely to significantly diminish food production in many countries and greatly increase the number of hungry people, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday. An FAO report said that food distribution systems and their infrastructure would be disrupted and that the severest impact would likely be in sub-Saharan African countries.

"There is strong evidence that global climate is changing and that the social and economic costs of slowing down global warming and of responding to its impacts will be considerable."Read the article.

One in Six Countries Facing Food Shortage

By John Vidal and Tim Radford, Guardian
June 30, 2005

One in six countries in the world face food shortages this year because of severe droughts that could become semi-permanent under climate change, United Nation scientists warned yesterday. In a stark message for world leaders who meet in Gleneagles next week to discuss global warming, Wulf Killman, chairman of the U.N. food and agriculture organisation's climate change group, said the droughts that have devastated crops across Africa, central America and south-east Asia in the past year are part of an emerging pattern.

"Africa is our greatest worry," he said. "Many countries are already in difficulties ... and we see a pattern emerging. Southern Africa is definitely becoming drier and everyone agrees that the climate there is changing. We would expect areas which are already prone to drought to become drier with climate change." [Read more]

2006 General Assembly

Hunger Program invests in renewable energy sources to 'offset' oil and coal energy used to fuel 217th GA

Read the PNS article.

And for you history buffs...

Offsetting Emissions at the 2004 General Assembly
Support of 'wind farm' is repentance for Assembly-related pollution

Read the PNS article.

- Files marked with this icon can be downloaded in printable Adobe Acrobat format. This file requires the free Acrobat Reader. For best results, right-click the link (or click and hold for Macintosh), select " save target as" and save the document to your desktop for viewing and printing.