ELCA on Climate Change

Here is a link for "A Policy Agenda for The New Administration: From Communities of Faith." (see here) 

This document was put together by eleven national faith communities and institutions, including the ELCA.  It can be found on the official ELCA website. (see here)

The document is filled with global poverty and world conflict policy recommendations for the President of the United States.  

Section number 7 on Climate Change says,

"It is vital that the U.S. joins the rest of the global family and take effective, cooperative, and just action on climate change, making the critical linkages with global poverty. To this end, U.S. policy must recognize our responsibility for creating a disproportionate share of greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that those who are bearing a disproportionate share of the consequences are impoverished, marginalized communities in low income nations.

The gravity of climate change, the nature of its ramifications, and the scope of strategies required to
effectively address it require a re-examination of all aspects of U.S. foreign policy. Climate change will not only exacerbate demands on existing programs such as emergency/disaster relief, immigration, hunger and food aid, global health, and women’s and girls’ empowerment, but also require fresh strategies to address economic development, trade, debt relief, and global security.

Specifically, we urge the next Administration to:

• Provide a U.S. fair share of adaptation funding, directing it to the countries which are most vulnerable to climate change. This funding should be above and beyond current foreign assistance levels and be seen as compensation for harm done, not as an optional act of goodwill.

1.  -- The primary focus of adaptation funding must be to: build resilience and adaptive capacity in vulnerable, local communities; address magnified disaster assistance and relief needs; and to include climate change in development planning.
2. -- Adaptation funding should be provided through channels that are transparent, accountable,
   and fully responsive to the needs of affected communities in developing countries, ensuring
   that the interests and needs of women and girls are included.

• Couple U.S. adaptation funding with a thorough reassessment of the economic and military premises which serve as the foundations of our foreign policy."

Many people question whether climate change is happening and if so, if its caused by man.  I find it premature and careless for our denominations to recommend that the citizens of the United States make "adaptation" payments to other countries for "damage" done to them because of  global warming that the United States supposedly caused.

The Climate Change policy recommendation is just one part of 19 pages worth of recommendations to the US President.

Throughout the document, the eleven religious institutions suggest the United States fund a multitude of programs, as well as "(f)ully finance, by pressing for Congressional appropriations, the world’s existing debt cancellation mechanisms."

It's easy to spend other people's money, I guess.  I wonder when the ELCA and it's mainline denominational friends will write the president and lobby congress asking them to not spend money they do not have.

Look over the rest of the document and see what policies you, as a member of the ELCA, are advocating for.