Faith, business, government and environmental leaders recently challenged the premise of a consumer society that devours itself. Instead of retaining financial aspirations, they urged us to grasp this economic opportunity to redefine our quality of life, reconnect with nature and achieve climate and carbon justice.
Attendees at the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management’s Dinner Debate on faith and the environment, led by Rt. Reverend Dr James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, and hosted by CIWEM President, Ken Shapland, questioned whether the political leadership needed is in place to achieve the enormous social, cultural and environmental change required to avoid climate catastrophe. Instead of ineffective politicians and a society built on excessive consumption, their faith is in human empathy, instinctive moral justice and hope.
The debate encouraged a vision of a quality of life that allows a fundamental reassessment of our relationship with the creator and creation. Strong religious leadership must utilise inspirational language to remind us of our relationship with the natural world – after all, people share 50 percent of their DNA with a cabbage – and help find common ground for a common problem. There is to be no false hope in technofix solutions, but science and religion must combine to address climate change on the political, parochial and personal levels.
The debate finished with a call for co-operation between all faiths to provide an ethical and environmental framework that will inspire urgent action on climate change, which echoes CIWEM’s recent Policy Position Statement on the issue. Read more at