Add Your Voice:

We come together as people of faith to call on the world’s leaders to commit to decreasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in Earth's atmosphere to below 350 parts per million, the stable and safe upper limit for the world's people, creatures, and future generations.

Our spiritual traditions teach that we should extend justice and protection to all living beings, including the very least among us. Those most injured by global warming are those who have least caused it: poor people and poor nations. Exceeding 350 parts per million opens a path to suffering that is a betrayal of our vision of justice.

People and other living beings share a common desire for health and happiness and should not be harmed by polluting technologies and by over-consumption of Earth’s resources. History proves that societies and economies that fail to respect ecological limits are doomed.

On behalf of the whole human family, we plead for immediate and forceful action -- before “tipping points” of warming take us beyond the edge of no return. At current or increasing levels of CO2 emissions, billions of human lives and two-thirds of living species are imperiled.

We call upon governments and businesses to lead a global transition to safe, clean, renewable, and sustainable forms of energy. Human communities need efficient technologies and decentralized forms of energy production that take us below 350 parts per million of CO2. We need to ensure that the efficiency revolution and low-carbon alternatives are available to everyone, including those living in poverty.

As nations prepare for climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009, we ask that each country commit itself to setting us on a path to the 350 goal in its own laws, policies, and budgets, as well as in the treaty negotiations.

We ask each congregation and religious community in wealthier nations to advocate the 350 goal among its members and to its political leaders. We pledge to work with our respective communities to reduce our carbon footprint: in our homes, in our places of business, and in our places of worship. We commit ourselves to action as we ask our leaders to commit to action.

We ask for this commitment on behalf of all who suffer today from global warming and on behalf of future generations.

We ask for this commitment in the hope that together we can serve and protect the health and wellbeing of life on Earth, now and for generations to come.