Opinion: Religious leaders call for transition off fossil fuels

This Earth Day there is a heightened awareness of the dangers we face caused from runaway climate change. At the beginning of the industrial revolution two centuries ago, the carbon dioxide concentration was some 280 parts per million. Today it is 415 ppm, the highest level by far in all of the last million years, and rising faster than ever.

Burn fossil fuels and CO2 concentration increases. Increase the CO2 concentration and the planet warms. This uncontested science goes back over 150 years to when first Eunice Foote of Seneca Falls, NY, in 1856, and just a few years later in 1859 the Irish physicist John Tyndall, published papers demonstrating that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps the Earth’s heat and can lead to global warming.

The Earth is already experiencing consequences from increased global warming: stronger storms, more frequent and greater floods, larger and more intense fires, longer and deeper droughts, and pronounced changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns.

Globally, agricultural productivity in recent decades has been depressed some 20% by these climate impacts, with the effects particularly acute in the developing world.

The scientific community set an increase of 1.5 degrees centigrade as the point where the odds of catastrophic climate change become increasingly likely. The planet has already warmed by more than 1.1 degrees, and at our current rate of burning fossil fuels we will hit 1.5 degrees by the end of this decade. We must take action now to move our energy economy away from fossil fuels to reduce the chances of hitting irreversible thresholds in the planetary climate.

To address this climate crisis the NYS Climate Leadership Community Protection Act was passed in 2019. It mandates a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases across all sectors of the State by 2030 and an 85% reduction by 2050. Now is the time to work at the local level and find ways to reduce our carbon emissions and help the state meet its ambitious but necessary goal.

I am pleased to see that religious leaders from Central NY signed onto the statement below to help spark a discussion that will lead to support for a communitywide effort to start reducing carbon emissions.

The statement: “Given the dangers represented by the continued burning of fossil fuels to the planet we depend upon for life and the importance of the next ten years in keeping the planet under 1.5 degrees centigrade of heating we urge the community in CNY to start planning a transition away from fossil fuels now.”

This was endorsed by a broad spectrum of religious/faith leaders (Baptist, Catholic, Earth based Spiritualities, Episcopal, Hindu, Jewish, Lutheran, Methodist, Muslim, Native American, Pres­byterian, UCC, Unitarian, Sikh, Tibetan-Buddhist, Zen) representing over 400,000 people of faith across upper NY State, listed below. I am pleased to join this group in the strong statement to commemorate Earth Day 2021.

Robert Howarth,
Professor at Cornell University
Member of the New York State Climate Action Council
Trumansburg

The endorsers include:

Bishop Douglas J. Lucia
Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse

The Right Rev. Dr. DeDe Duncan-Probe
Diocesan Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Central New York

Oren Lyons
Onondaga Nation

Mission Hope Community, an American Baptist congregation
Rev. Suzi Harriff
Loyola Jesuit Community at Le Moyne College
Donald J. Kirby, S.J.
Superior, Jesuits at Le Moyne College

Sisters of St. Francis
The Leadership of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.

Care for our Common Home (Laudato Si) Task Force
Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse
David Babcock, lead contact

Social Action Ministry
Paul Welch, director
Catholic Diocese of Syracuse

All Saints Parish
Father Fred Daley

St. Lucy’s Parish
Father Jim Mathews
Peace & Justice Committee

Church of the Greenwood
Kurt Hohmann
Earth-based spiritualities

Hindu Faith & All World Gayatri Pariwar (AWGP)
Dr. Rachna Zirath MD

Temple Adath Yeshurun
Rabbi Yehoshua Zehavi

Temple Concord
Rabbi Dan Fellman

Congregation Beth Sholom-Chevra Shas
Rabbi Daniel Jezer, Rabbi Emeritus

Upstate NY Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Rev. Gail R. Wolling, Dean

Chair of the Social Holiness Committee of the Upper NY Methodist Annual
Conference
Rev. Alan Kinney

Plymouth Congregational Church UCC
Rev. Eric Jackson
University Methodist United Church
Pastor Alicia Wood

The Islamic Society of Central New York
Mohammed ElFiki, Imam

Presbytery Cayuga – Syracuse (USA)
Karen Chamis
Resource Presbyter for the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse

May Memorial Unitarian Uni­versalist Society
Rev. Jo VonRue
Senior Minister

Rev. Jennifer Hamlin-Navias
Unitarian Universalist Minister

Sikh Foundation of Syracuse
Dr. Baljinder S. Dhillon & Mrs. Gurvinder Dhillon
Dr. Mehtab S. Bajwa

Gobind Sadan USA – Sikh Temple
Ralph Singh

Dzogchen Atin Ling of Syracuse NY
Madalyn Smith, coordinator
Tibetan – Buddhist

Zen Center of Syracuse
Chaplain JoAnn Cooke
Shinge Roshi