Leading evangelicals and climate scientists met on Capitol Hill in November to urge policymakers to tackle the issue of climate change. The briefing, which opened with a prayer to the “God of the Bible and the genome,” was the latest effort by the Scientists and Evangelicals Initiative, a program of Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. The alliance offered a model of cooperation on a subject that sometimes stymies politicians. “The threat of climate change has become a weapon in a political and partisan battle in Congress,” Center founder Eric Chivian said at the press briefing. “We are squandering the possibility of our being a responsible leader among nations.”
By fusing facts with faith, the group aims to strengthen the case for swift environmental action. Renowned marine biologist Nancy Knowlton from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography told Sojourners that “the science on climate change is in,” but stressed the need for faith leaders to translate scientific truths into moral imperatives. Deborah Fikes, executive adviser to the World Evangelical Alliance, is one such leader. “It’s not popular for me to be on this side of the issue,” she said at the briefing. “But as a matter of conscience, I don’t have a choice.”
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