Council re-issues declaration on climate in advance of the Rio+ 20 UN Earth Summit

The Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land  Declaration

In Advance of the Rio +20 United Nations Earth Summit

In advance of the Rio +20 United Nations Earth Summit, The Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land (CRIHL), constituting the high representatives of Israeli and Palestinian religious authorities, recognizes the imperative for action posed by the environmental challenges facing humanity. We also recognize the spiritual roots of this crisis, and the importance of a religious response to promote more environmentally sustainable living.

We call on adherents of our faiths in the Holy Land and worldwide to address this crisis by undertaking a deep reassessment of our spiritual and physical relationship to this God-given planet and how we consume, use and dispose of its blessed resources.

In particular, we acknowledge the scientific basis of human-caused climate change and the threat it poses to human societies and the planet, as articulated by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We also call all people of faith to reduce their personal emissions of greenhouse-gases and to urge their political leaders to adopt tangible, science-based targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases in order to avert the worst dangers of the climate crisis.

We hope that environmental challenges in our common home of the Holy Land and Planet Earth move religious adherents to overcome inter-religious strife and work together for ours and our children’s common well-being.

To see media coverage of the statement please click here: http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=274803