Interfaith Cncl for Env Stewardship ICES

Not to be confused with The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation is the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Global_warming_skeptics" title="Global warming skeptics">global warming skeptic</a> group formerly known as the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance; it was renamed in 2007.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Interfaith_Stewardship_Alliance#cite_note-0">[1]</a>

===

"...D James Kennedy hosts an annual "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference, at which fellow activists like Shirley Dobson, Larry Poland, and Janet Parshall exhort Christians to organize at the grassroots level, swaying the decisions of national policymakers; April 19, 2000, ecumenical group form the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship (ICES) [SEE: ICES] members include, Father Richard John Neuhaus of the magazine First Things, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, "Bill" Bright, Tom Minnery, etc., and Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Toward Tradition. "

Inhofe's views are also closely tied to the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship, a radical-right Christian organization founded by radio evangelist James Dobson, dispensationalist Rev. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Jerry Falwell, and Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest who has been editing Vatican texts to align the Catholic Church's historical teachings with his free-market philosophy, according to E Magazine.

The ICES environmental view is shaped by the Book of Genesis: "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the seas, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on this earth." The group says this passage proves that "man" is superior to nature and gives the go-ahead to unchecked population growth and unrestrained resource use. Such beliefs fly in the face of ecology, which shows humankind to be an equal and interdependent participant in the natural web.

Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship

Intended as a challenge to the National Religious Partnership for the Environment's claim

to represent Judeo-Christian thought on environmental issues, the Interfaith Council for

Environmental Stewardship (ICES) was founded in April 2000 by Jewish, Catholic, and

Protestant leaders promoting a theologically and politically conservative public religious agenda.

These leaders argued that religiously-informed moral action, rather than governmental controls,

should guide behavior, and that the environment can best be sustained in a context of free market

economics, strong property rights, and technological innovation. The ICES was conceived and

established by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, an advocacy and

educational organization created in 1990 by Fr. Robert A. Sirico "to promote a society that

The defining document of the ICES is the Cornwall Declaration on Environmental

Stewardship, created in October 1999 at a conference center in West Cornwall, Connecticut.

Largely a distillation of arguments made by E. Calvin Beisner in his 1997 book Where the

Garden Meets Wilderness, the Cornwall Declaration minimized the threat of global

environmental problems, such as "destructive manmade global warming, overpopulation, and

rampant species loss," arguing instead that the greatest environmental threats were local in

Rather than depicting humans as

"consumers and polluters," the Cornwall Declaration envisioned them as "producers and

stewards" with the ability to "add to the earth's abundance" and to "enrich creation" by

"developing other resources" and by unlocking "the potential in creation." Humans were "given

a privileged place among creatures" in the divine order and thus "the human person is the most

valuable resource on earth." Nature is not best when "untouched by human hands" but instead

Humans are to exercise wise

stewardship, "which must attend both to the demands of human well being and to a divine call

for human beings to exercise caring dominion over the earth." A series of aspirations at the end

of the Declaration envisioned a world in which "objective moral principles" and "right reason"

unite with limited government, a free market economy, assured property rights, and

technological advancement to produce a better environment for all creatures.

Though it was at odds with mainstream secular and religious environmental thought

(even questioning some of its fundamental assumptions), the Cornwall Declaration represented

the first acknowledgment of the need for environmental care by religious leaders combining

Among the prominent evangelical conservatives

supporting it were Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ), Charles Colson (Prison Fellowship

Ministries), James Dobson (Focus on the Family), D. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Ministries),

Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women for America), and Donald Wildmon (American Family

Association). The Catholic and Jewish supporters included Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (editor of

The ICES created a stir among Christian environmentalists in April 2000 when it sent the

Cornwall Declaration to 37,000 religious leaders along with an introductory letter accusing the

National Religious Partnership for the Environment of seeking to "redefine traditional Judeo-

Christian teachings on stewardship" and claiming that "its agenda will have devastating,

The Evangelical Environmental

Network was forced to defend its evangelical credentials and policies in an open letter to its

The ICES provided an extended explication of its views in its book Environmental

Barkey, Michael B., ed. Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Jewish,

Catholic, and Protestant Wisdom on the Environment. Washington, DC: Interfaith Council for

Beisner, E. Calvin. Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental

Debate. Grand Rapids, MI: Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty and William B.

Larsen, David Kenneth. "God's Gardeners: American Protestant Evangelicals Confront

<cite>www.clas.ufl.edu/.../Larsen--Interfaith%20Council%204%20Enviro%20Stewardship.pdf</cite> -

<a href="http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bron/PDF--Christianity/Larsen--Interfaith%20Council%204%20Enviro%20Stewardship.pdf">http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bron/PDF--Christianity/Larsen--Interfaith%20Council%204%20Enviro%20Stewardship.pdf</a>

pbs moyers

The Evangelical Climate Initiative <a href="javascript:openWindow('/moyers/moyersonamerica/media_players/iggevanclimate_video.html','popop', 565, 430, 'resizable');"><img src="/7bfd647c-c631-5adf-bc54-9dca13f22bc9.jpg"/></a>

The rhetoric over the role of evangelical Christians in the global warming debate escalated significantly in February 2006 when 86 Evangelical leaders signed and publicly released a statement entitled Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action.

Among the tenets of the statement:

<ul>

<li>Human-induced climate change is real.</li>

<li>The consequences of climate change will be significant and will hit the poor the hardest.</li>

<li>Christian moral convictions demand our response to the climate change problem.</li>

<li>The need to act now is urgent. Governments, businesses, churches, and individuals all have a role to play in addressing climate change-starting now.</li>

</ul>

(<a href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/documents.html" target="_blank">Read the document</a>)

News that the call to action was in the works in January 2006 prompted the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, a group related to the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship and the Acton Institute, to attempt to forestall any global warming policy statement by the National Association of Evangelicals. They sent the group a missive warning them to "not adopt any official position on the issue of global climate change," as "global warming is not a consensus issue, and our love for the Creator and respect for His creation does not require us to take a position." Led by high-proflie evangelical leaders Charles Colson and James Dobson, Interfaith Stewardship Alliance called for the National Association of Evangelicals not to put their name to the document. Richard Cizik, the vice-president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals acceded to their demands but continued to voice his agreement with the statement. The debate within the evangelical community soon hit the public consciousness, with articles in NEWSWEEK and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Cizik even made it to the pages of VANITY FAIR.

For others in the evangelical community, taking a public stand on issues like global warming just isn't part of the religious plan. Christian broadcaster Jan Markell believes that evangelicals are called by God to win souls for Jesus, not to take up social issues, and that environmentalism distracts from the real mission of the evangelical church.

And for some on the evangelical community the embracing of causes like environmentalism represents a dangerous move to the left — to partnership with groups with very different views on the core "culture war" issues. Explore the possibilities of that shift in political power in our <a href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/citizensclass/is_god_green/religion_and_politics/">Citizens Class on Religion & Politics</a>.

<a href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/print/religionandenvironmentclass_print.html">http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/print/religionandenvironmentclass_print.html</a>

=

see also

A retired coal miner traveled roughly 1,300 miles from his home in Harlan County, Kentucky to Denver, Colorado where the Environmental Protection Agency was holding public hearings on its new proposed regulations to cut carbon pollution from power plants.

In the five minutes he was allotted, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/opponents-supporters-discuss-clean-air-rules-24756555" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Stanley Sturgill spoke</a> to the EPA about how he now suffers from black lung diseases among other respiratory illnesses and how the pollution from coal plants were adversely affecting not only his health, but the public’s too. His plea: “We’re dying, literally dying for you to help us.”

The hearing in Denver was one of several the EPA held across the country Tuesday and Wednesday to gauge public opinion on the Clean Power Plan, the new proposed regulations to cut carbon pollution emitted from existing power plants by 30 percent by 2030 proposed in early June. Other hearings this week on the rule were held in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. At EPA’s headquarters in D.C., pollution’s health effects dominated the concerns of speakers giving their testimonies.

For Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, that meant the health of his son who seven years ago was diagnosed with serious asthma. “On one occasion, before we really understood what was happening, he woke up in the morning unable to breathe,” he said during his testimony. “It’s the kind of frightening experience a parent never forgets.”

Cizik was also part of the Environmental Working Group’s “<a href="http://www.ewg.org/sites/humantoxome/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Humane Toxome Project</a>” which tested the Reverend’s body for 84 industrial compounds, pollutants and other chemicals to see how his body was personally affected by the intake of pollution. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Cizik listed all the chemicals found present in his body: mercury, methylmercury, pesticides, lead, among 39 other pollutants.

“One reality is very clear,” Cizik said during his testimony. “The EPA’s first-ever carbon rule for regulating existing power plants is absolutely essential to reduce the effects of climate change that worsen smog and trigger asthma attacks and other health consequences.”

According to the EPA, the Clean Power Plan would eliminate 25 percent of the soot and smog polluting the air by 2030, and would help prevent 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths, 340 to 3,300 heart attacks, and 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks in children like Cizik’s. The public health and climate benefits, <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/carbon-pollution-standards" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">the EPA estimates</a>, are between between $55 billion and $93 billion, or upwards of $7 for each American family.

Some at the D.C. hearings said the regulations don’t go far enough, however, noting the potential shift away from coal will most likely result in an increase in use of natural gas. Though natural gas releases about <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/26/3419111/natural-gas-coal-exports/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">half</a> the carbon emissions as coal when burned, it is mostly methane, which is 86 times better at trapping heat as carbon dioxide. Scientists have<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/29/3465051/obama-executive-actions-methane/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">found</a> that even low leakage of methane from using natural gas resources is just as harmful for climate change as pollution from coal. And as it is now, methane leakage in the United States is <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/26/3464570/epa-inspector-general-methane-report/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">quite high</a>.

Natural gas production and its potential leakage can also impact health too, according to Dr. Poune Saberi, a physician in occupational and environmental medicine who works at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In places where natural gas booms are happening, such as Texas, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/23/3429788/fracking-verdict/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">families are increasingly experiencing symptoms</a> such as chronic nose bleeding, irregular heartbeat, muscle spasms, and open sores from methane leakage. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Saberi said the EPA’s regulations on coal plants could lead to more health benefits — but only if states chose to switch to truly renewable sources when trying to reach their 2030 goals.

“Instead of switching from coal to natural gas or to nuclear, if states switch from coal to non-combustible sources to renewable sources, they will actually get there faster and it’s better for climate change and it’s better for the air,” Saberi said. “It’s almost like a win, win, win, but somehow that gets lost in the discussion.”

Sara Via, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, agreed.

“Natural gas is not the solution,” she said during her testimony. “It just swaps one health problem out for another.”

<em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannon Greenwood is an intern at ThinkProgress.