COP21—the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—is happening right now in Paris. Over 40,000 people, including lobbyists, activists, representatives from business, industry, and agriculture, as well as spiritual and religious leaders from around the world, have come together to forge a global agreement to curb human activities that interfere with the climate. This process began in Rio in 1992 and came into force in 1994 when 195 countries, including the US, ratified a plan to “stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
Karenna Gore, Director of the Center for Earth Ethics based in New York City at Union Theological Seminary, is a key American voice at the summit. When she emailed me from Paris late one night last week to tell me she’d like to publish a series of real-time articles coming directly from the conference floor, I immediately activated the Patheos Spirituality Channel group blog to serve as a platform for these timely messages. Patheos Spirituality is in the process of welcoming the Center for Earth Ethics to our blogging community, but we simply couldn’t wait to bring to light the role of indigenous, ancient, and contemporary spirituality in the historic events currently unfolding in Paris.
As religious and non-religious people alike recognize the need to change human patterns of consumption and destruction of our planet and fellow creatures, transformation is both necessary and, thankfully, happening before our eyes. Please join in this important conversation along with the Center for Earth Ethics. If you can’t come to Paris, come to Patheos.
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