Addressing climate change through faith and science

It began when several of us came together to share our concerns about multiple environmental threats to not only human health and well-being, but to all life on Earth. Our greatest concern was the challenge that climate change poses to life and civilization.

Our desire was not only to share our concerns, but also to connect those concerns to our faith and to raise awareness and take action in our communities as a faithful response to the challenge of climate change. We believe that our common love for the Earth as a sacred gift will help us begin to overcome fear and the danger of imminent despair, and that we will reach out and invite others to join us in our mission. I realized that this is what motivates me to do this.

Currently, the Helena Interfaith Climate Change Advocacy Group (HICA) includes individuals who identify with Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Baha’i, Unitarian Universalist, and Native American traditions.

We believe that the Earth is a living system of extremely finely balanced elements and entities that exist within a vast and complex web of existence. This balance of elements and beings has created a narrow range of environmental conditions that allow us to thrive as part of a community of interconnected and interdependent beings.

We consider the earth, which supports this biological community, to be sacred.

Furthermore, how we live on Earth and how we utilize its gifts affects the balance of elements and beings that support all life on Earth. We believe we have a sacred duty and privilege to live in a way that protects, nurtures and honors. Do it with respect and respect.

We have learned from relatively recent experiences, such as atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, the use of certain pesticides such as DDT, and the use of certain compounds as refrigerants and aerosol propellants, to change the composition of the environment that threatens our lives. I know what happened. Life and health, and the life and health of the creatures with whom we share our planet.

In each of these cases, the scientific community warned us about those threats, the global human community listened and agreed to stop the practice, and the worst outcomes were averted.

Now, as the scientific community has been warning us since the 1950s and with increasing urgency since the 1980s, the unrestricted burning of fossil fuels has kept Earth’s climate relatively stable and our It warns that we are disrupting the balance of elements in the environment that have allowed the world to thrive. About 100,000 years ago.

Climate scientists believe that to avoid this catastrophic disruption of the climate, we must quickly and significantly reduce fossil fuel use, preserve and restore forests and other carbon-capturing ecosystems, and change the global environment. It says other measures need to be adopted, such as: Industrial farming practices reduce damage to the environment.

As people of faith, we see science as a gift that allows us to better understand and thereby better care for our home planet, and we believe in listening to scientists and acting on them. We choose to respond accordingly.

In February, HICA joined 40 other organizations in Montana to support the Montana Energy Information Center’s petition asking the Public Service Commission to adopt rules requiring the Public Service Commission to consider climate impacts when regulating energy producers. signed.

This year, as we celebrate the 54th Global Earth Day, we celebrate the good gifts of our planet, grieve the suffering it has caused as a result of the unwise exploitation of those gifts, and honor our sacred duty to care for and protect our planet. We will do our best to protect it better. nurture them.

Among these events, the Helena Interfaith Climate Advocacy Group will hold a “Vigil for the Planet” on Saturday, April 20th. This is a time to listen, reflect, and renew our commitment to care for the Earth, each other, and the entire community of beings. .

The public is invited to join us at 10 a.m. for a time of interfaith reflection and community at Plymouth Congregational Church, 400 S. Oakes St. in Helena.

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