When it comes to curbing climate change and its deleterious impact on the most vulnerable among us, we need a little less talk and a lot more action.
Pope Francis made this point himself, when he said that “On climate change there is a clear, definitive and ineluctable ethical imperative to act.”
But while we can certainly all make changes in our own life to be better stewards of God’s creation, the reality is that much of this power is concentrated in the hands of our political leaders and institutions. In this case, uniting our talk as a form of political leverage is action.
With this wisdom in mind, the Global Catholic Climate Movement–a group of almost 100 Catholic organizations (including Catholic Rural Life) working to respond to climate change–announced a unique petition campaign to provide an easy way for Catholics to act and voice their concerns. With the United Nations COP21 climate summit coming up in Paris this December, the goal is to raise a strong Catholic voice demanding world leaders to commit to ambitious action to address the climate change crisis.
Mindful of core Catholic principles and the Church’s social and environmental teachings, the GCCM petition states:
Climate change affects everyone, but especially the poor and most vulnerable people. Impelled by our Catholic faith, we call on you to drastically cut carbon emissions to keep the global temperature rise below the dangerous threshold of 1.5°C, and to aid the world’s poorest in coping with climate change impacts.
The GCCM invites Catholic individuals, parishes, and communities around the world to sign the petition and to collect signatures, by either promoting the petition online, embedding the petition in their websites, or (if necessary) printing paper forms to collect signatures in an offline fashion. Instructions and the petition can be found on the GCCM website. Check it out today!
