Mainstream religion has its place in climate discussions

To the editor:

Re: The environment as a spiritual issue 05/16/19.

As usual, the recent “faith” column by Don Murray was well written and interesting. His quote of James Seth in which Seth says the top environmental issues are selfishness, greed, and apathy is spot on but I might be inclined to add ignorance.

I recently had a neighbour inform me that our Canadian efforts were pointless because the problem was with all those underdeveloped countries! It is the opposite.

I had a relative inform me that Canada is only responsible for about two per cent of the world’s harmful emissions. He neglected to add that we only have 0.5 per cent of the world’s population; we generate four times the average of all of the 195 countries in the world.

I have also been told that since CFCS have been banned, the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking. That is not the entire story about our ozone layer but, in any case, it has nothing to do with greenhouse gas emissions and climate/temperature change. We can, and must make a positive contribution to reducing these emissions if we want the planet to survive.

Seth also says we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. Some religionists (fundamentalists), especially in the U. S., have impeded the mitigation of climate issues as they felt it was God’s business and not ours. That hasn’t worked out too well so far. The idea of adding, or increasing, the awareness and involvement of mainstream religion to its other good works would certainly be a positive concept

We don’t have time on our side and it must be a joint effort.

Earl Sharpe,

Truro