Presiding Bishop urges Senate action on climate change

March 31, 2008 

United States Senate 

Washington, D. C 20510 

Dear Senator: 

 

Urgent action by the United States in response to global warming is long past due.  As 

the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, I urge the Senate to take up climate 

change legislation at the earliest possible moment.  As one who has been formed both 

through a deep faith and as a scientist, I believe science has shown us unequivocally that 

climate change and global warming are real, and caused in significant part by human 

activities.  Climate change is a threat not only to God’s good creation but to all of 

humanity.   

 

I am pleased that bi-partisan legislation introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman and 

John Warner successfully moved through the committee process with many 

improvements and now awaits Senate debate.  Senate bill 2191, America’s Climate 

Security Act, is a strong step forward in achieving carbon emission reductions.  At the 

same time it includes measures aimed at addressing the needs of the world’s most 

vulnerable:  those, who for demographic reasons such as health or location are most 

susceptible to the effects of climate change, and those living in poverty at home and 

around the world.  I strongly support this legislation.  Our nation, historically the world's 

largest greenhouse gas emitter, has a responsibility to lead the way in addressing the 

impact of climate change. 

Climate change exacerbates extreme world poverty and poverty is hastening global 

warming.  Most people living in poverty around the world lack access to a reliable energy 

source, forcing many to choose energy sources such as oil, coal, or wood, which threaten 

to expand significantly the world's greenhouse emissions and thus accelerate the effects 

of climate change.  That need for resources to purchase energy must be addressed in any 

attempt to lift a community out of poverty.  This cycle—poverty that begets climate 

change and vice versa—threatens the future of all people, rich and poor alike.  The 

poverty cycle driven by climate change will only add to political instability, social 

violence, and war.  Our own domestic tranquility and security are intimately tied to the 

wellbeing of the poor both here and abroad. 

I am grateful for Congressional attention to climate change, and I challenge the Senate to 

support measures to further strengthen S. 2191 during floor consideration.  I want to be 

absolutely clear that for those living in poverty, inaction on our part now will ultimately 

be the most costly of all courses of action.  I am grateful to the members of Congress who 

have recognized and spoken out on that very important truth. 

Many in the faith community have long been aware of the ways in which our lack of 

concern for the rest of creation results in death and destruction for our neighbors.  We 

cannot love our neighbors unless we care for the creation that supports all our earthly 

lives.  I join my fellow Episcopalians in urging the Senate of the 110th Congress to pass 

the strongest climate change legislation possible.  The acknowledgment of global 

warming and the Church’s commitment to ameliorating it are a part of the ongoing 

discovery of God’s revelation to humanity and the call to a fuller understanding of the 

scriptural imperative to love our neighbor as ourselves.  I remain 

 

Your servant in Christ, 

Katharine Jefferts Schori