Urgent Action Needed to Address Climate Crisis

As part of our celebrations of the Earth and our commitment to care for creation, Bishop Michael Bird wrote the federal Minister of the Environment, The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq about Canada’s role in addressing the global climate change crisis. His letter comes in response to a vestry motion initiative organized by our diocesan Greening Niagara Committee.

At the annual vestry meetings of over one-third of our parishes passed motions supporting the Bishop in urging the Government of Canada to work constructively with the international community towards a legally-binding global climate agreement in Paris in 2015. The motion noted that any agreement should seek to limit the global temperature increase to less than 2° Celsius while distributing the burden of taking action in an equitable way. As a further sign of their commitment to care for creation, many of our parishes committed to actions designed to reduce their impact upon the Earth.

The letter notes that the Bishop is “deeply concerned about the impacts that climate change is having, and will continue to have, upon vulnerable populations and habitats throughout our planet.” He drew on stories shared by bishops from Anglican dioceses throughout the Communion in a recent Good Friday Call to Action, to illustrate the disturbing impacts climate change is already having upon communities throughout the world. The Bishop promised the Minister that Anglicans in Niagara would continue to do their part to address the climate change crisis. He joins in solidarity with global Anglicans faith who assert that “bold, coordinated action is needed now to safeguard the integrity of the environment for all people of this generation and subsequent generations.” 

Last fall, the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change concluded that there is “overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is human-induced” and that without action its impacts will continue to grow in intensity and frequency. Moreover the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that “continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.” That same report notes that “limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks.”

The Primate and National Lutheran Bishop also issued a statement as part of this year's Earth Day observances.