Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 The Social Meanings of Climate
- 2 The Discovery of Climate Change
- 3 The Performance of Science
- 4 The Endowment of Value
- 5 The Things We Believe
- 6 The Things We Fear
- 7 The Communication of Risk
- 8 The Challenges of Development
- 9 The Way We Govern
- 10 Beyond Climate Change
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
5 - The Things We Believe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 The Social Meanings of Climate
- 2 The Discovery of Climate Change
- 3 The Performance of Science
- 4 The Endowment of Value
- 5 The Things We Believe
- 6 The Things We Fear
- 7 The Communication of Risk
- 8 The Challenges of Development
- 9 The Way We Govern
- 10 Beyond Climate Change
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
In September 2007 an unusual symposium took place in the icefields of the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland. A group of about 200 priests, scientists, theologians and government officials met for a week in western Greenland under the auspices of the organisation Religion, Science and the Environment (RSE); a charitable foundation of the Eastern Orthodox Church. They were there to consider the changing environment in the Arctic and the ways in which humanity should respond. Religious leaders from the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths were represented, and the Pope delivered via video a personal message from the Vatican. The venue for the symposium – the outlet of the largest glacier in Greenland – was chosen for its powerful symbolism of the physical changes in climate and the risks associated with a rising sea level.
This is one example of a growing number of initiatives in which leaders of one or more of the world's established religious traditions are forming alliances – either across religious divides or between religious and scientific or secular associations – to call for action to halt the damage that human activities are doing to the natural world, including its climate. These statements, while acknowledging differences of approach and motive, often emphasise that ‘we are at one in our belief’ that humans must find a way to live more lightly on the Earth, and agree about the profound moral imperative to protect life on Earth.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Why We Disagree about Climate ChangeUnderstanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity, pp. 142 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009