Strange bedfellows - Evangelical Christians, FORTUNE 500 execs and environmentalists curb global warming

115981 Resource 107524 107631 205428 1139869114109 1216846356517 Controlled Christian Conservatives Warm to Climate Change Initiatives

What car would Jesus drive? Evangelists pressure Bush to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Just when you thought it was safe to discuss environmental issues and politics in the same blog, it gets even more controversial. Enter religion. Yesterday, a group of top <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/11/ap/politics/mainD8FMJDA81.shtml" title="As Evangelicals Warm to Climate, Bush Cool">American evangelists</a> went public to pressure the Bush administration into action on climate change. What has been termed as “a historic tipping point” by top environmental advocates, <a target="_blank" href="http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/08/news/pluggedin_fortune/?cnn=yes" title="CNN Money -- Evangelical Christians, environmentalists global warming">86</a> leading conservative Christian groups signed a statement entitled, “<a target="_blank" href="http://www.christiansandclimate.org/" title="Christian and Climate URL Pro-Environment">Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action</a>". The statement describes environmental protection as a Christian imperative - to care for God's creation. It urges federal lawmakers to approve mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, but in a way that doesn't hurt businesses. Hmm, but how do you cut carbon dioxide emissions without impacting big businesses’ bottom line?  The statement seems rather tentative to me, but I applaud their step in the right direction.    However, there is strong opposition to this pro-environmental statement no matter how tentative, yet logical it may seem. The <a target="_blank" href="http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pages/home.php" title="Interfaith Stweardship Alliance">Interfaith Stewardship Alliance</a>, a group of Christian leaders with close ties to the Bush administration have expressed skepticism about the initiative saying, “science is not settled on global warming”, and argued that most <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">U.S.</place></country-region> evangelicals do not back the call for regulating greenhouse emissions.  President Bush, who is both an evangelical Christian and an ally of business, has rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, and has kept the country out of the <city w:st="on">Kyoto</city> international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases, saying the pact would harm the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">U.S.</place></country-region> economy. Despite strong opposition, I hope this "Green Christian" trend continues and will encourage more churches to take a stand on environmental issues that affect everyone, especially the poor.    by Erin Swanson<a href="mailto:ESwanson@enviance.com">ESwanson@enviance.com</a> 9 application/xml false Climate Change environment greenhouse gas greenhouse gas emissions Strange bedfellows - Evangelical Christians, FORTUNE 500 execs and environmentalists curb global warming CNN Money Business magazine article on Christians, Businesses, and Environmentalists banding together over environmental issues http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/08/news/pluggedin_fortune/?cnn=yes As Evangelicals Warm to Climate, Bush Cool CBS News article on the rising pressure the Bush administration is getting from the Religious Right http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/11/ap/politics/mainD8FMJDA81.shtml Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.16) Gecko/20080702 Firefox/2.0.0.16 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 jwuebben 74.202.198.130 false true false false true 205814 false false true false false false true 107524 blog blogsite/Enviance/web