As a pastor in Columbus, Ohio, I am keenly aware of the health needs of so many in our community and the need for community well-being. From asthma to lyme disease to heatstroke and cardiovascular disease, many illnesses our communities suffer could be lessened or eliminated if our communities had cleaner air and a more stable climate.
In April, the Obama administration released a broad scientific assessment of the impact of climate change on human health in the United States. Without taking action to abate climate change, the study says, health impacts will get worse.
The United States has a big plan to curb climate change, encompassed in the president’s Climate Action Plan. One key part of the plan is cutting U.S. emissions of methane, and it merits our attention. The administration’s target of reducing oil and gas methane emissions by 40 to 45 percent in the next decade sets a historic, worthy, and necessary goal.
Methane pollution is taking a devastating toll on God’s creation and our health. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas — one ton of methane in the atmosphere warms the climate more than 80 times as much as one ton of carbon dioxide during the 20 years after release. Oil and gas wells, and other equipment across our country, emit millions of tons of methane gas each year into our atmosphere, along with toxic chemicals, through the harmful practices of venting, leaking, and flaring. This pollution contributes to asthma and cancer. The climate impacts contribute to even more health problems.
Loving our neighbor means a call to action as we recognize the urgency of saving lives.
The good news is that people of faith are taking action.
In December, the world celebrated as more than 190 nations finally reached an international climate change agreement at a meeting in Paris. On Earth Day 2016, many world leaders signed what is now known as “the Paris Agreement.” My denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has accompanied decision-makers every step of the way to get to this agreement, and have pledged to see to its implementation.
From sending church representatives to testify at public hearings, to participating in countless meetings with Congress and the administration, to raising awareness in the media, to even sending a representative to the COP21 Paris climate negotiations, faithful action for a safe climate has been a high priority for our denomination. We must persist.
President Obama and the EPA recently took action to stem the harmful practice of methane emission by finalizing the first nationwide standard for limiting dangerous methane pollution from the oil and gas industry, its largest source. This is a critical step towards protecting God’s creation and our health. It will mitigate the negative effects of climate change, including on our health.
Methane gas is responsible for a quarter of all human-caused climate change, and President Obama’s swift and responsible actions to cut it have shown that he takes this threat seriously. In the process of consulting industry leaders and scientists while crafting the first methane rule, our nation learned that solutions to plug methane leaks already exist at low cost. The finalization of the rule on new sources of methane pollution is an important first step. Now, we must build on that great progress, and continue to do all that we can to fight this dangerous pollution by enacting standards for existing sources of methane as well.
When it comes to climate change and protecting our communities’ health, time is of the essence. Each day of inaction, we allow more methane to pollute the air. By acting now, we can stop another case of cancer or asthma. We can better follow our Genesis call to till and keep the earth, and be better stewards of the fragile web of life depending on a stable climate. Our communities and God’s precious creation can't afford to wait.
It is time to expand government standards to cut methane emissions coming from oil and gas sources in operation today.
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