From Logan's Herald Journal

Global warming: A religious view

Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, 10th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, talks during a panel at the Eccles Conference Center on campus at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, Thursday, January 31, 2008. Irish was among a panel of religious leaders who discussed the moral implications of not stopping global warming. (Alan Murray/Herald Journal)

By Kim Burgess

Published:

Friday, February 1, 2008 2:11 AM CST

Utah State University biologist Kevin Young believes that a compassionate relationship toward the environment is part of a compassionate relationship with God. That’s why the active member of the LDS Church supports efforts to stop global warming.

“Why can’t conservation be tied to conservatism?” he asked.

Young brought this view to an Ethics and Stewardship panel at Utah State University’s Focusing Cache event. The day-long series of global warming discussions was held Thursday as part of the Focus the Nation “teach-in,” which was held across the country.

While most of the panels emphasized scientific projections of global warming’s effects, the Ethics and Stewardship group took a different approach, looking into the moral implications of ignoring a heating climate.

The six panelists all drew upon their strong religious views. Carolyn Tanner Irish is bishop of the Utah Episcopal Diocese; Paul Heins serves as pastor of Logan’s First Presbyterian Church; David Sakrison, an Episcopalian priest, is also Moab’s mayor; Steve Ritchey is a Protestant who runs Utah Interfaith Power and Light, bringing faiths together to combat global warming; and Ed Redd is a Bear River Health Department physician and, like Young, an active LDS Church member.

Though they come from diverse faiths, all agreed that global warming is occurring through human activity — and they think something must be done. The hotter climate will bring large-scale suffering. Standing aside and watching the world plunge into environmental catastrophe isn’t just foolish, it’s immoral.

Redd emphasized that The Third World is typically hardest hit by environmental catastrophes.

“There are people who are on the edge,” he said. “All of us in this room could probably afford it if gas went up to $10 a gallon. We could get a smaller car or take the bus. There are a lot of people who already don’t have a car and are taking the bus.”

Redd recalled a Boy Scout trip where he spent four days subsisting on a few plants. He thinks of that hunger when he hears about starving people around the world — a situation he worries will become more common as crops die in hotter weather.

The only hope, the panelists said, is to take action by reducing consumption.

“With 7 billion people on the planet, there is not enough to go around,” Ritchey said. “The Navajos said we have to think seven generations down the road. ... I end my sermons by saying ‘I wish you enough.’ You have to start asking yourself, ‘How much is enough?’”

Though he is not religious, audience member Dave Bastian enjoyed that message.

“Throughout history, a lot of the most significant social changes have come from people of faith,” he said. “I’m not seeing that lately, but I think I saw a bit of that (today).” ———