Newsletter

Winter 2003

Science and Faith Conference Calls for Urgent Action on Global Climate Change

“Climate change is a moral, ethical and religious issue” declared an influential group of high-level climate scientists and theologians at a conference in Oxford July 14-17. “Forum 2002 – Global Climate Change,” co-organized by The John Ray Initiative of the UK and the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies, issued a stinging challenge to individuals and institutions of the world - especially the Christian church - to take seriously the threat of global climate change and act now to mitigate its effects. In a strongly worded statement aimed at Christian leaders, government officials, and policy decision makers, the Forum agreed that “we must take immediate steps to stabilize the climate” and acknowledged that “While industrialized nations have largely caused the problem, its most severe effects fall upon the peoples of developing countries.” The conference statement concludes, “We call upon leaders in churches, business and government to join us in recognizing human induced climate change as a moral and religious issue and to take necessary action to maintain the climate system as a remarkable provision in creation for sustaining all life on Earth.”

Forum 2002 Global Climate Change Statement

Chairmen, Sir John Houghton and Prof Calvin DeWitt making clsoing statements:

For more information:
Climate Forum 2002: www.climateforum2002.org Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change www.ipcc.ch
John Ray Initiative: www.jri.org.uk

Forum 2002 on CD-ROM now available!
For those of you who did not attend Forum 2002: Global Climate Change in Oxford, England last summer, we have the next best thing to being there: A CD-ROM for your computer that contains audio recordings of almost all of the presentations at the Forum, as well as the text of the Forum statement, photos from the Forum, and links to further resources on Climate Change. This disk is a virtual mini-course on climate change, presented by leading scientists, government officials, policy analysts, theologians, and religious leaders.

The CD-ROM is available from the Au Sable Outreach Office for $4.95. (Note the new Office contact information) Audio is also available on the Forum website, www.climateforum2002.org.

Forum participants on a field trip to Wytham Woods led by Dr Mike Morecroft, an Ecologist at the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology & Oxford University in England. Mike is also a director of the John Ray Initiative. He is in the back row, second from the right: