As Honorary President of Religions for Peace, I bear this message to you concerning one of the greatest challenges that the believers of the world’s religions and all men and women of good will face today: protecting the earth and its climate.
Our faith traditions call on us to care for the Earth, which shelters and sustains all life. Yet today, the Earth and its inhabitants face unprecedented challenges. Climate change has made natural disasters more frequent and deadly, while diminishing our capacity to provide for current and future generations. Everywhere, the costs of a degraded environment are borne by the poorest and most vulnerable.
Threats to our planet are also threats to peace. Scarce resources, natural disasters, and poverty can all spark violence or exacerbate existing conflicts. Religions for Peace advances the cause of peace by protecting the Earth. We forged a multi-religious alliance to advocate for a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty, and we offer support and solidarity to Religions for Peace affiliates in places where environmental degradation is a threat to peace.
Climate change is among the most serious challenges facing our human family. If we stay on our current course, we can expect increasingly devastating natural disasters, widening shortages of food and water, mass migration and threats to human health and security. These effects will hurt all of us, most especially those already struggling with extreme poverty. As religious believers—and as advocates for peace—we must take common action to reduce climate change.
Many religious leaders and communities are already taking action. They are helping believers build a connection between the challenges of climate change and the practice of their faith. They are calling for personal lifestyle changes that, cumulatively, can have a profound impact. And, importantly, they are advocating for enlightened policies that can help us to transform our economies into environmentally friendly engines of sustainable development. Religions for Peace works to support and multiply these efforts, and to amplify the voices of the faithful in climate policy discussions at the local, regional and global level.
Join our Faiths for Earth Campaign to Protect our Earth by :
1.Signing the online petition of your respective country here: http://faithsforearth.org/ (So far, 290,702 people in 27 countries have signed the petition.)
2.Editing this letter as you see fit and sending it to every member in your network, urging them to join the campaign, sign the petition and forward the petition to their network of supporters.
3. Posting your country’s petition on your organization’s website.
4. Sharing your country’s petition on your social media sites.
Sincerely,
Ismail Serageldin
Honorary President
Religions for Peace