 December 3 , 2008
Dear Friend, As you read this week's WeGetIt.org Wednesday Bulletin, please be thinking of friends who would benefit from it, and then forward it to them. Thanks for your support! UN climate talks are missing the point
Representatives from 180 countries have gathered for two weeks in Poland to begin hammering out the details of a successor to the 1996 Kyoto Protocol. The goal is to ratify a global warming treaty by the end of 2009. But there are signs of trouble. With the U.S. economy officially in recession and the global economic outlook grim, the political prospects of the treaty are uncertain. Meanwhile the price tag for preventing climatic disaster keeps rising: On Friday the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raised its estimate of the cost of taking minimal action from $200 billion to $340 billion annually, for the next two decades. Developing nations are demanding a “climate bailout,” claiming they can’t cut emissions without hurting their economies. China proposes that developed countries donate 1% of their GDP to help China and other developing nations “green” their economies. Brazil wants $50 billion to slow the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. Even accepting the UN's claims of impending climate catastrophe, cost-benefit analysis by top economists (including several Nobel laureates) showed that proposals to fight climate change offered the very worst options among seventeen solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. A subsequent panel ranked proposals to fight climate change 14th, 29th, and 30th out of thirty. As Christians, we are called to exercise discernment and remember the poor. This Christmas season is a reminder to look for meaningful ways to bless our neighbors, here and around the world; the WeGetIt.org campaign has some practical suggestions to get you started. European support for drastic climate action dwindles President-elect Barack Obama recently told a gathering in California, "Few challenges facing America--and the world--are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. But the truth is, the United States cannot meet this challenge alone." The same day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her country was joining Italy in saying efforts "to cut greenhouse gases shouldn't weigh on the economy." Germany's stance aligns it with Italy, Poland, and several other countries that have threatened to veto EU efforts to fight climate change. "As Germany and Italy are the two main manufacturing countries of Europe, we do not want" new EU rules on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to "have too heavy an impact on our businesses," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. To whom does the Earth belong?
Some environmentalists use Psalm 24:1 to argue against private property rights, but they tend to ignore Psalm 115:16. A balanced view recognizes that God, as Creator, owns everything, but that He has delegated subordinate ownership--properly understood as stewardship--to people. Without the right to control property, stewardship is impossible. With it, the incentive to protect one's own property makes stewardship attractive. And a Biblical view of creation leads us to worship the Creator. Now, please forward this message to your pastor, other Christian leaders, and friends and urge them to sign the WeGetIt.org Declaration, too! The more people sign, the stronger the message our leaders will hear that Biblical principles and factual evidence, not media hype about speculative fears like global warming, should guide our care for the environment and the poor.Gratefully,
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