Religious Community Disappointed with Earth Summit, Calls for Stronger Action
Episcopal News Service. June 26, 1992 [92140]
Ethan Flad
Despite worldwide coverage of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), alternative meetings in Rio de Janeiro may contribute more to solving the world's environmental crisis.
Thousands of representatives of community and advocacy groups expressed disappointment with the official documents released at the so-called "Earth Summit," as did many members of official national delegations.
Although two treaties -- one on "biodiversity," which seeks to protect the world's plant and animal life, and one on climate change, which seeks to place restrictions on the causes of global warming -- were signed by 153 nations, members of grass-roots organizations and delegates from developing countries claimed that the treaties were weak and would not lead to global action. "The watering down of the global climate change treaty with immoral posturing and misrepresentation [by the U.S. government] was inexcusable," said the Rev. William Somplatsky-Jarman, chair of the National Council of Churches eco-justice working group.
The slogan "Fora Bush!" (Go Home Bush) was splattered across banners and chanted throughout daily protest rallies marking the final week of the conference, a clear sign that most participants disagreed with the U.S. contention that the treaties would hamper economic growth.
"I did not come here to apologize," said President George Bush in defense of his position during a June 12 speech to the Earth Summit. "America's record on environmental protection is second to none," Bush claimed.
Faced with the certainty of weakened treaties, and unable to play a role in the negotiations, more than 2,000 representatives of Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) associated with the United Nations convened in separate, parallel meetings and wrote their own set of treaties, more comprehensive and forceful than the ones signed by the governments.
Although NGOs -- especially representatives from indigenous groups and women's organizations -- were frustrated with the formal Earth Summit meetings, they took the opportunity to make contacts and build networks.
The Rev. Franklin Vilas, chair of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark's environmental commission, compared UNCED's influence on the environmental movement to the 1963 March on Washington's influence on the civil rights movement: "To some, nothing seemed to be happening at the actual events. But each one will have had a profound effect though a rise in consciousness."
"History is going to show this as a turning point in our treatment of the Earth if we are going to leave anything for future generations," added the Rev. James E. McJunkin, Sr., an American Baptist minister from Shaker Heights, Ohio.
The voices of the religious community were raised in prayer and advocacy throughout the various meetings in Rio. An interfaith vigil on June 4 attracted more than 10,000 participants -- perhaps the largest single gathering during the summit in Rio, and one of the few activities to welcome local residents.
While others negotiated environmental treaties, advocates from faith communities brought a unique spiritual quality and an urgent call for "eco-justice," the idea that concerns about ecology and economic justice are intertwined.
Religious activists asserted that an increased consciousness of environmental concerns must lead to lifestyle changes. In particular, they sharply confronted the pattern of overconsumption in the United States. "If the message at Rio is 'We are going to maintain the status quo at any cost,' people are not going to go down gracefully, especially the poor," noted the Rev. Al Cohen, a United Church of Christ minister from Pasadena, California.
The U.S. religious community left Rio determined to address over-consumption at home. "The U.S. churches have a moral obligation to tell the truth about the real issue at UNCED," said Dr. Jean Sindab, program director for environmental and economic justice at the National Council of Churches. "It's not jobs versus the environment, as the multinational corporations and the Bush administration would like you to believe. It's overproduction and over-consumption on the part of the developed nations," she said.
"We need to make UNCED come alive in our churches so people begin to understand the relation between our consumption and poverty around the world," added Don Clark, a United Church of Christ delegate. "We're beyond the point where we can say that being smart about our lifestyles is enough. Now it's time to change our lifestyles, to use less energy, to live simpler and to eat foods that are lower on the food chain."
Two people of color from the U.S. religious community called on Americans to take personal action. "As you point a finger at someone else, you are pointing three fingers at yourself. Who are you really pointing at?" said Chief Johnson of the Onondaga Nation.
"God didn't say 'appreciate' justice or 'encourage' justice; he said do justice. If justice was being done, if it was indeed 'flowing like a mighty river' as it says in the Book of Amos, none of us could look at our environment and not be called to act," said an African-American religious leader.
A street organizer, speaking at the Parliamentary Earth Summit, called on the churches to lead in integrating religion and social issues. "We need a new religious order," he said, "with the Bible in one hand, and a book on political economics in the other."
The Rt. Rev. Sydney Ruiz, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Brazil, supported this call by quoting the theologian Nicolas Berdyaev: "If you are hungry, that's your material problem; but if your brother is hungry, that's your spiritual problem.
Religious persons decided to follow up on the issues and debates from UNCED in four specific ways. First, they intend to continue and to increase the religious voice in the environmental movement. For example, religious workshops focusing on spirituality and on eco-justice are being planned for a September 24-27 UNCED follow-up conference in East Lansing, Michigan.
Second, religious leaders intend to take leadership roles in organizing dialogues among religious groups, legislative representatives, and grass-roots organizations. At the Parliamentary Earth Summit, they supported efforts to organize local environmental conferences. "I want us to have state-by-state parliamentary forums involving spiritual leaders, statespersons, women, youth, scientists, grass-roots activists," said the Rev. Susan Dulany, who has organized conferences in the Diocese of Georgia.
Third, religious leaders intend to support legislation that would increase awareness of and improve the environment. One proposal currently before Congress, known as the "Environmental Justice Act of 1992," would authorize a study of 100 counties in the United States with dangerous toxic waste sites and call for local input on how to clean up the sites.
Fourth, religious leaders intend to pressure the United Nations to adopt an "Earth Charter" by 1995 -- the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Thecharter would outline the personal and corporate responsibilities involved in environmental awareness. Although UNCED delegates adopted a statement known as the "Rio Declaration" at the close of the conference, many religious leaders said that it lacked the simplicity and spiritual dimension needed in a charter. The Rio Declaration "is not a charter to inspire people who love this planet," said the Rt. Rev. Paul Reeves, Anglican Observer at the United Nations, in calling for passage of an Earth Charter.
Several activists were not pleased with what they characterized as the slow pace of leadership by the national Episcopal Church on environmental concerns. "I want the Episcopal Church to take a leadership role on this issue, and it has not," said the Rev. Peter Kreitler, director of Earth Service, Inc., in Santa Monica, California.
Ironically, some Americans from other religious communities credited Episcopalians with tremendous leadership on the environment. "The Episcopal Church, and the whole Anglican Communion, has played a large role in bringing in justice and peace concerns to the environmental debate," said Sylvia Diss of the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology, based in Washington, DC.
Activists left the conference determined to change their personal habits and to educate their communities on the gravity of the earth's condition. "I want to have one-on-one meetings with every clergy member of my diocese," announced Sally Bingham, chair of the Diocese of California's Environmental Commission, "and I want to integrate environment into the structure of our diocesan life."
The challenge to Bingham and the tens of thousands of other concerned human beings who attended the Earth Summit is an overwhelming one: to save the planet and its peoples from a multitude of problems on an uncertain timetable. The Earth Summit was a small, initial step in this process.