For the past year and a half, the UUCSC Global Warming Meeting has studied the issue of Global Warming/climate change and its effect on the earth in response to a Study/Action Issue voted upon at the 2004 General Assembly (GA). The UUA Committee on Social Witness (CSW) drafted a Statement of Conscience (SOC) on 'The Threat of Global Warming'. The draft statement framed the issue, and congregations across the country, including UUCSC, submitted comments. Below is the CSW's timetable for the draft as it moves toward finalization and potential acceptance at the 2006 GA.

March 2006 - Draft SOC revised based on Comments from congregations across the country

June 23, 2006 - Mini-Assembly to propose amendments

June 23, 2006 - Revised draft SOC modified based on proposed amendments

June 24, 2006 - SOC debated and voted

The UUCSC draft SOC 'The Threat of Global Warming' is presented below without editorial markings. Please click here (18 Kb.) to see the edited draft version that was submitted to the CSW. The text that is formatted in red was submitted by the congregation and approved for inclusion by consensus of the Global Warming Meeting. The text that is formatted as strikeout was approved for deletion by consensus of the Global Warming Meeting.

Commission on Social Witness
A Draft Unitarian Universalist Association Statement of Conscience

Threat of Global Warming AUGUST 2005

Earth is our home. We are part of this world and its destiny is our own.

A Matter of Science

Our world is heating up. Average surface air temperatures have increased approximately 1°F since the late 1800s. These temperatures are expected to increase an additional 2.5 to 10.4°F by the year 2100. Temperature increases during the twentieth century were the largest for any century in the last millennium. If temperatures in the present century increase even by the minimum projected, that increase will surpass that of any century over the past 10,000 years. Primary causes for these temperature changes are the increased burning of fossil fuels beginning with the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century and the widespread clearing of forests.

This temperature increase is the result of human activity. Although climatologists have demonstrated periods of warming and cooling in the past, agriculture, then industrialization and widespread urban development have accelerated the rate of warming. The more we burn fossil fuels, the more carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere. The more forests we cut down, the fewer trees there are to absorb and hold carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and some other gases are called greenhouse gasses because they allow sunlight to penetrate the atmosphere, and they trap heat.

Increasing temperatures have a devastating impact on human communities and wildlife habitats. Tropical and temperate zones extend farther toward the poles, dramatically altering ecosystems and increasing the range of infectious diseases. Melting polar ice caps upset the delicate salt balance in the oceans, shifting their circulation patterns, and resulting in unreliable and often violent weather patterns.

While natural greenhouse gases are critical to life on earth, human activity has dramatically increased their concentrations. Carbon dioxide concentration is at its highest level in the last 420,000 years. Until now the effects of global warming have been proportionate to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations. Further increases could cause abrupt, nonlinear, and/or irreversible climatic changes. Those climatic changes, in concert with other human-caused damage such as habitat destruction and pollution, is causing the loss of species, forests, human settlements, glaciers, and coastal heritage sites. It is the duty of humans as stewards of the earth to maintain the delicate and complicated balance of the earth's ecosystems for those organisms that can only exist in a narrow range of temperatures.

A Matter of Politics

Global warming is not only an environmental phenomenon; it is a hotly contested political issue. Economically developing countries lack the resources necessary to protect their citizens from sea level increases, frequent and intense droughts, floods, violent hurricanes and tornadoes. It is a bitter irony and a grave injustice that economically developed countries like the United States possess the wealth, technology, and infrastructure to allow those who have done the most harm to protect themselves, while those who have the least will have the largest burdens to bear.

Since the 1980s, scientists and political leaders have worked to find viable solutions to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. At the same time, many countries in both the economically developed and developing worlds have refused to sign international treaties compelling them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

In 1992, the United States ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Convention calls for its signatories to stabilize their greenhouses gas concentrations in order to prevent climate change. It also states that economically developed countries will take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and not use scientific uncertainty about some aspects of climate change as cause for delaying an immediate response. The United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention, nor has the U.S. Congress passed the Climate Stewardship Act. Both set enforceable limits on greenhouse gas concentrations. International cooperation is critical for addressing this global dilemma. Corporate influence and the lack of international consensus are two of the key reasons the United States refused to sign the Protocol.

A Matter of Faith

As Unitarian Universalists, we revere the potential of collective action as a proven means of achieving widespread transformation. It is important that we urge the United States Congress to pass legislation and ratify international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, change begins with how we lead our individual lives. While the work of a single individual will have a small effect, the cumulative activity of many is essential to reduce global warming. If we knowingly continue to live in a manner which harms the earth and jeopardizes its capacity to support life, we transgress against the sacred web of existence.

The causes of global warming confront us every day, and yet we often refuse to take notice. When we consume products in containers designed to be discarded, we contribute to climate change. For example, soda cans are produced in factories emitting greenhouse gases. These disposable containers cannot be refilled, and their recycling carries its own liabilities as an industrial process that creates greenhouse gas emissions. We contribute to global warming with each soda can we throw away, as well as with each trip we take in a motor vehicle or each time we turn on an air conditioner. The effect is cumulative.

By our mindful deeds, Unitarian Universalists can become agents for positive change. Unitarian Universalists are called to transform our habits of life as a religious witness in a culture of economic privilege. To guarantee the necessities of developing nations, we need to live substantially simpler lives.

A Call to Action

Affirming that we are of this earth and that humankind has brought about this threat of global warming, we, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, pledge to ground our missions and ministries in reverence for this earth and responsibility to it as we undertake these personal practices, congregational actions, and advocacy goals.

• Reduce our use of energy and our over consumption of products that use energy;
• Use alternative sources of energy to encourage their further development;
• Walk, bike, carpool, and use mass transit, as well as limit travel by using communication technologies;
• Reduce waste and recycle;
• Plant and preserve trees; and
• Model these practices by committing to a life of voluntary simplicity and earth stewardship;
• Work for the stabilization of the world's population.

• Celebrate reverence for the interdependent web of existence in all aspects of congregational life;
• Seek certification through the Green Sanctuary Program of the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for the Earth;
• Educate on environmental concerns and treat environmentally friendly practices as a spiritual discipline;
• Assure that our location is accessible by public transportation and encourage walking, biking, and carpooling;
• Seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for all new congregational building projects and use LEED guidelines for renovation projects;
• Practice environmentally responsible consumption and create an atmosphere that encourages voluntary simplicity among members; and
• Build a broader base for environmentally mindful policies and practices through congregational alliances within Unitarian Universalism, through interfaith channels, and with secular entities.

• Full compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;
• Ratification of and compliance with the Kyoto Protocol;
• Funding for research and development of renewable energy resources and energy efficient technologies;
• No development of additional nuclear power generation;
• Policies and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• Funding for development of energy-efficient mass transit and encouragement of its widespread use; and
• Urban planning that reduces urban sprawl.
• The US Government should develop a strong energy policy that incorporates the preceding Advocacy Goals. While acknowledging that, as human beings, we have a special part to play at this moment in earth's history, we undertake this work for the preservation of the endless variety of all flora and fauna and the myriad array of habitats that sustain it. As that part of nature able to reflect upon its own grave situation, we assume with humility and determination our responsibility to remedy global warming through innovation, cooperation, and self-discipline.