Climate change is a defining moral challenge for our times

In her recent piece, "It's time to chill about global warming," national columnist Susan Stamper Brown accuses global warming activists of being obsessed with polar bears; making vicious predators into our “poster child.” She selectively reports contradictory observations to support her suggestion that, whether the planet is warming or cooling, it’s really not our fault. We just need to trust in God, “who causes occasional warming to help his animals survive.“

In fact, she reveals a shallow interpretation of the motivations of those concerned about climate change, a distorted understanding of the science and a dismissive attitude about the magnitude of the problem and our central role in creating it.

Do we care about polar bears? Sure we do, as one magnificent species that is representative of every creature, every ecosystem, every human being whose welfare is threatened by a warming planet.

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On the day Ms. Brown’s piece was published, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released their Arctic Report Card. Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA’s Arctic Research Program stated, “Rarely have we seen the Arctic show a clearer, stronger or more pronounced signal of persistent warming and its cascading effects on the environment than this year.”

We’ve heard the message repeated: There is agreement among more than 97 percent of (peer-reviewed) climate scientists that climate warming is occurring, due largely to human activity, with emissions of greenhouse gases at their highest levels in recorded history. Indeed, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.

We witness the impacts, as every day the media brings new images of melting ice caps, retreating shorelines, devastating weather events, bleaching of coral reefs, species extinction, uncontrolled spread of disease. We can see it right here in Delaware. According to a recent EPA report, higher water levels are already eroding beaches, submerging lowlands, damaging farmland, worsening coastal flooding and increasing salt levels in critical estuaries and aquifers. Our growing season is being affected, as are migratory patterns of the birds and waterfowl that we take so much delight in, which attract tourists from around the world.

Climate change activists are not just talking about the future of polar bears. We’re talking about the kind of world we want to live in, the world we want to leave our children and the all too real suffering that the all too real impacts are causing now.

The board of directors, faith leaders and members of Delaware Interfaith Power and Light believe climate change is a defining moral challenge of our times.

One of 40 state affiliates, with 18,000 member congregations throughout the country, our shared mission is to serve as a religious response to climate change. We believe we have a moral responsibility to care for Creation, to protect those most vulnerable, to scientifically inform and spiritually deepen our understanding of our relationship with each other and the natural world.

We do not believe that God will intervene to save us from our ill-informed and reckless mistakes. We have a long and dismal history of spoiling our nests, of desecrating this beautiful, wondrous, miraculous Creation that sustains us. And we have paid a high price in human suffering.

The immensity of this challenge calls on all of us to be part of the solution. Our collective congregations – each in their own way, inspired by their own faith – are finding practical ways to be the change we want to see in the world. We participate in preach-ins, form Earth care teams, become learning centers, secure energy audits, upgrade energy systems, install solar panels, plant, community gardens, explore eco-systems and advocate for a safer, healthier, more equitable future for the generations to come.

We cannot afford to live in a state of denial. Nor can our policy makers. We need a reality check for ourselves and we need to hold our leaders accountable. Then, together, we need to believe that we can pull back from the brink of our own destructiveness. It will require inquiring minds, open hearts, helping hands and a certain leap of faith to deliver this precious and all too fragile cargo, including the polar bears, to our children’s children. They are counting on us.

Lisa Locke is the Executive Director of Delaware Interfaith Power & Light.