Ohio churches issue global warming statement

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press Writer Copyright 1998 Associated Press October 26, 1998

Members of Nancy Graumlich's inner-city church in Toledo don't drive gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles or live in big new houses built on Ohio farmland.

But they can still do more to fight global warming, such as turning down the heat or planting trees, said Graumlich, 74, a deacon at All Saints Episcopal Church.

An environmental organization founded Monday urges religious groups in Ohio to address global warming from a religious perspective.

"We believe that global warming is an inescapable religious challenge, dramatically reminding us of God's call to faithful stewardship," the Ohio Interfaith Global Warming Campaign said in a statement. "We seek to undergird a scientific consensus with a moral consensus."

More than 75 religious leaders established the organization at a conference sponsored by the Ohio Council of Churches at Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus.

The campaign urged President Clinton and Ohio's two U.S. senators to sign and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the December 1997 document that calls for reduction in factors leading to global warming.

The campaign also encouraged Ohio religious groups to attack global warming through prayer, education and energy conservation. It asks these groups to produce a public service announcement for TV stations and to share the religious perspective on climate change with labor, business, agricultural and environmental organizations.

The campaign believes climate change brought on by global warming violates God's creation and ignores scriptural commands to be faithful stewards of the earth.

Many scientists think that the burning of fossil fuel is raising global temperatures and leading to heat waves, droughts and floods.

Religious officials signing the statement Monday include the Most Rev. Daniel Pilarczyk, archbishop of Cincinnati; the Right Rev. J. Clark Grew II, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio; and Rabbi Mark Goldman of the Central Conference of America Rabbis.

In August, national religious leaders urged Clinton and Congress to ratify the Kyoto treaty. American religious groups chose Ohio as the first state in a nine-state follow-up campaign.

The effort is aimed at areas of the country whose industries are likely to be affected by the treaty, said Paul Gorman of the New York-based Religious Partnership for the Environment.

The statement issued Monday is not meant to be a scientific judgment, Andriacco added.

But "there's enough evidence of accelerating climate change to warrant real concern by the human family as God's good stewards of creation," he said.

The other states in the campaign are Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.

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