Churches to Urge Action on Global Warming

Acknowledging that they have arrived late to the environmental cause, religious leaders in the United States and Canada have vowed to make up for lost time.

Leaders of the Canadian Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches said they will begin by pressing their governments to take action to avert global warming.

“This is a spiritual issue, not just a technical problem. It’s a matter of God’s creation under assault . . . because of our reckless actions,” the Rev. Bruce Mcleod, president of the Canadian Council of Churches said here following a meeting last week of high-ranking church leaders in the two countries. They met to plan a religious campaign against global warming and heard from various experts in the field.

The church leaders endorsed the World Climate Convention, a treaty on global warming that may be ready for adoption in June at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil.