Correct this Injustice
I’m a ONE member, an evangelical minister, and a strong believer in protecting this world and all its inhabitants. In 2007 and 2008, I had the honor of working with Rabbi David Saperstein and a bipartisan group of senators to make sure the first ever comprehensive climate change legislation included provisions to help the world´s poorest people overcome the terrible suffering threatened by a changing global climate.
The legislation we helped with did not become law, but what we fought for is back in the spotlight again. as a new climate bill works its way through Congress. Unfortunately, the House version, which passed earlier this summer, falls far short of meeting the needs of those most vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change. That´s why I’m taking action and adding my name to ONE’s petition calling on our senators to correct this injustice.
Click this link to add your name to ONE’s petition: http://www.one.org/us/climatefive/
Petition text:
Please ask your leadership to make sure this year’s Senate climate change legislation meets the standard set by last year’s bipartisan Lieberman-Warner climate bill, and allocates 5% of any revenue to begin helping the world’s poorest people overcome the threats posed by climate change.
I grew up on a farm in the Pacific Northwest, and as the old saying goes, you can take the boy out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy. I’ve often joked about how I learned the hard way that climate can seriously impact a farm family’s income—on more than one occasion rainstorms destroyed our cherry crops. But for countless small-scale farmers in the developing world, more and more intense storms, increased droughts and floods, and the expansion of deserts are no laughing matter. These climate-driven changes threaten livelihoods and lives, and demand a response from us and our leaders.
We can convince our senators to commit 5% of any potential revenue from their climate change legislation as an important first step towards investing in the infrastructure and development needs—the dams, sea walls and upgraded agricultural practices—that will allow the world’s poorest people to not only weather this very literal climate storm, but even continue to make progress against poverty and disease.
Please take action and join me in making sure our senators hear from us right now, while they’re writing this climate change bill: http://www.one.org/us/climatefive/
Climate change is a phenomenon of biblical proportions, and its first victims will be those who can least afford to face more suffering. A challenge this big will take all of us: students, teachers, doctors, lawyers, moms, dads, activists, and yes, even evangelical ministers, working together as ONE. That is the strength of our movement, the ability to come together as people of all different faiths, ideologies, and from all walks of life to compel our senators to take action and make sure the world´s poor have the resources they need to meet this climate challenge.
I hope you’ll join us and send a message to your senators that their climate bill must include 5% for the world´s most vulnerable people: http://www.one.org/us/climatefive/
Thank you,
Rev. Richard Cizik, ONE member and President of The New Evangelicals
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August 7, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Signed, sealed & delive(red)!
AS ONE, debbie:)
August 7, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I grew up in a lower middle class family in a fairly large city. I was raised to respect others and help whenever I could but being we were always short on cash it was difficult to help with monetary donations. Then one day when I was about 8 years old my father said something to me without emphasis or a lesson involved, just from the hip, that changed my mindset and thinking forever. We were at a car wash and I noticed a cup full of change in the center console and to an 8 year old it was a fortune. I said to my father that we shouldn’t leave it there because one of the car wash guys saw it they would steal it. Almost instantly and without hesitation he replied, “If they take it then they need it more than we do.” That resonated through my mind for the past 28 years. I am now in a position to help out the world with monetary donations as well as to provide everyone the opportunity to do the same without asking anyone to spend any of their hard earned money! Please take your time to follow this link and answer the question truthfully. The results of this 1 blog could change the world forever. http://donatewithoutspending.blogspot.com/
August 7, 2009 at 5:01 pm
The bigger the lie, and the more you tell it, the more it will become the “truth”.
First off, every birth of a human being on this planet, is another equal opportunity in this world. With your welfare, you are (making yourself feel better) enabling them to continue their UNWILLINGNESS to help themselves and LIVE LIFE.
Secondly, Is anyone familiar with “carbon credits” and how they relate to Al Gore’s investment’s? Global warming is a sham, a LIE, a huge lie. That is, if you believe SCIENTISTS, and not POLITICIANS.
Gore has invested HEAVILY in Goldman Sachs’ companies related to CAP AND TRADE of Carbon Credits. Look for the next economic boom to be “green”, and the people you intend on helping never receiving what you think they need, nor what they really need, EDUCATION.
GET A CLUE, AGAIN. Stop distorting information, facts and language. And Vote Ron Paul ASAP.
August 10, 2009 at 10:26 am
Thank you for bringing attention to the fact that global warming is hitting the poor the hardest.
However, this campaign fails to mention that 70% of the world’s poor are women. Climate change burdens women and girls living in poverty more than any other group.
http://www.oxfam.org
August 10, 2009 at 11:34 am
This petition is right on the mark. In a recent survey our firm (Public Religion Research) conducted for Oxfam America & Faith in Public Life, we found 69% of Americans agree that climate change is making it harder for world’s poorest people to support their families. And this support was widespread among people of faith including more than 6-in-10 evangelicals, Catholics, and Mainline Protestants.
For more, see http://tinyurl.com/l6q9bk.
August 19, 2009 at 1:50 am
It is puzzling that the ONE movement would engage in a political debate that has very big stakes for some wealthy people (as correctly pointed out by Jah above), and incredibly harmful outcomes for the world’s poor – who after all should be the focus of ONE.
Modern countries like the USA, Canada, most of Europe and Australia have abundant low cost energy – and the web sites I have provided are just a few with ample evidence that NEITHER CO2 or other human activity is driving climate change. Climate change does happen – for thousands of years there have been climate cycles. In the shorter term we observe in a lifetime, we used to call it weather – now we have to blame it on something (or at least Al Gore and others want you to blame it on something that they hold the keys to and stand to become very rich by “fixing”).
The legislation that is generally being pursued in the USA and many parts of the world will undoubtedly lead to a lower standard of living. And yet it is abundantly clear to any person who have travelled widely and seen firsthand the living conditions of the poorest of the poor to the obscenely rich, that there is nothing better for the environment than profitable industries and a vibrant economy. A quick trip to, India, China, Indonesia or an FSU country will demonstrate this.
This is not to say we should not be making every effort to do more for the environment, which I and many of faith believe has been deliberately created and entrusted to us. We can and should consume less oil and a lot of other materials. Driving standards of living down however has a huge cost – if we have disposable income, we can make choices that protect or are favorable to the environment. This is how modern countries have cleaned up so much environmental damage created in ignorance or in the haste to become wealthy.
But the beggar on the streets of India or the refugee camps of Africa does not care that their next meal comes from environmentally and sustainable sources – they just want to be able to afford it. Increasing the cost of energy will deny the poor of the world a chance of a better life while doing nothing to affect what is only weather.
http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/
http://www.nipccreport.org/