Religious Leaders Unite in Prayer on Climate Change
Date: 10-Sep-07
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
"In our small world we all need to struggle together," said
Sofie Petersen, the bishop of Greenland, of the meeting of
Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Christians aboard a cruise ship
amid icebergs near Illulisat on the west coast.
Organisers said the prayer was to express common concern but
stopping short of asking God to reverse the thaw. Such a request
might have invited comparisons with the legendary vain attempt
by 11th century English King Canute to stop the rising tide.
Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world's
Orthodox Christians, led a two-minute silent prayer aboard the
cruise ship in the iceberg-clogged fjord during a symposium he
is leading called "The Arctic: Mirror of Life".
Arctic ice has shrunk this year to the smallest on record
and almost all experts say that greenhouse gases from human use
of fossil fuels are behind a thaw of recent decades. Warming may
also bring rising seas, floods, erosion and desertification.
"We have duties towards our fellow men, but also duties to
the whole of creation," said Rene-Samuel Sirat, a former chief
Rabbi of France who was among about 200 participants.
"This prayer is a recognition that we have spoiled the earth
and we now need to rectify this by changing our lifestyles,"
said Musharraf Hussein, a British Muslim leader. "We seek the
help of our creator to acquire the strength and ability to make
the necessary changes."
POPAL APPROVAL
Pope Benedict gave his backing to the Greenland symposium on
Wednesday in a new appeal for protection of the environment,
saying issues such as climate change had become gravely
important for the entire human race.
During the prayer, which ended with singing by an Inuit
choir, the loudest sound was the lapping of water on icebergs in
the fjord, participants said.
The North Atlantic island of Greenland has enough ice to
raise world sea levels by about 7 metres (23 ft) if it all
melted in coming millennia, swamping small island states and
vast stretches of coast from Bangaldesh to Florida.
Scientists attending the symposium will also explain
research into the melt, which is putting pressure on indigenous
hunting cultures and wildlife such as polar bears and seals.
"It's remarkable how little ice there is now compared to
when I was here a couple of years ago," said Grete Hovelsrud, of
the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research
in Oslo. "The rate of change has accelerated a lot and people
are wondering 'what is going on?'
"This event sends the message that climate change is upon us
and we are all responsible," said Aqqaluk Lynge, the head of
Greenland's Inuit population. "We must stop harming creation. At
this point Inuit philosophy meets all other religions."
