FAITH LEADERS LETTER
As people of faith, spirituality and good will, we are deeply concerned about the effects of climate change ravaging our planet, and we are compelled by our traditions and collective conscience to take action together on this deeply moral challenge. Our lives and those of future generations are now in the balance - determined by the actions we take today as stewards of this earth.
Inspired by the recent and unprecedented call from dozens of the world’s top scientists urging museums of science and natural history to cut their ties to the fossil fuel industry, we now join our voices with theirs.
We are deeply troubled by the link between museums of science and natural history with those who profit from fossil fuels or fund lobby groups that misrepresent climate science.
The Code of Ethics for Museums, adopted in 1993 by the Board of Directors of the AmericanAssociation of Museums, states:
“It is incumbent on museums to be resources for humankind and in all their activities to foster an informed appreciation of the rich and diverse world we have inherited. It is also incumbent upon them to preserve that inheritance for posterity.
Museums are grounded in the tradition of public service. They are organized as public trusts, holding their collections and information as a benefit for those they were established to serve. Museums and those responsible for them must do more than avoid legal liability, they must take affirmative steps to maintain their integrity so as to warrant public confidence. They must act not only legally but also ethically.”
We are concerned that the integrity of these institutions is compromised by association with special interests who distort the truth about global warming, and who fight environmental regulation, oppose clean energy legislation, and seek to ease limits on industrial pollution.
For example, David Koch is a major donor and exhibit sponsor at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and a donor, exhibit sponsor and trustee on the Board of Directors at the American Museum of Natural History. David Koch’s oil and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries is one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Mr. Koch also funds a large network of climate-change-denying organizations, spending more than $67 million since 1997 to fund groups denying climate change science.
When some of the biggest contributors to climate change and funders of misinformation on climate science sponsor exhibitions in museums of science and natural history, they undermine public confidence in the validity of the institutions responsible for transmitting scientific knowledge. This corporate philanthropy comes at too high a cost.
In this time of unprecedented peril from the dangers of global warming, we speak with the greatest sense of urgency of our moral duty to defend and protect life. We draw upon our conviction that we are charged by our many faith traditions and spiritual voices to be good stewards of this earth – to assure the opportunity for a safe and healthy place to live not only for our brothers and sisters all over the world now, but for our children as well.
We hold that the only ethical way forward is for our museums to cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry and funders of climate science disinformation.
SIGNATORIES:
1. Calvin Dewitt; Co-founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network, President of the Christian Environmental Council, president of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists, and Professor of Environmental Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison
2. Reverend Richard Cizik; New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
3. Rabbi Larry Troster; Founder and Coordinator, Shomrei Breishit: Rabbis and Cantors for the Earth; Rabbinic Scholar-in-Residence, GreenFaith
4. Jim Winkler; President and General Secretary National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
5. Reverend Rodney Sadler; Vice Chair - People Demanding Action; North Carolina Forward Together/Moral Monday Movement, Radio Host: Politics of Faith
6. Reverend Lennox Yearwood; President and CEO Hip Hop Caucus
7. The Reverend Jim Ball; Ph.D Vice President Evangelical Environmental Network; author Global Warming and the Risen LORD
8. Reverend Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, Green Faith
9. Reverend Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship
10. Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Founder & Executive Director, The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development
11. Reverend Jacob Bolton, Associate Pastor, Huguenot Memorial Church, Pelham, NY
12. M. Doretta Cornell, RDC, Sisters of the Divine Compassion, RDC Social Justice Board Chair, GreenFaith, and ROAR
13. Rev. Peggy Clarke, Minister, First Unitarian Society, Hastings on Hudson, NY
14. Madeline Labriola, GreenFaith Fellow, Coordinator, Pax Christi, Hudson Valley, NY
15. The Ven. Betsy Blake Bennett; GreenFaith Fellow; Archdeacon, Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska
16. Rev. Kimberly C. Morrow, Executive Director, Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light
17. Rev. Mary D. Gaut, GreenFaith Fellow, Pastor, Maryland Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD
18. Jacquie Keefe, cssf, Co-Director of Jericho House Youth Leadership, Social & Ecological Justice and Spirituality Centre, Ontario, Canada
19. Rev. Dr. Susan G. De George, Stated Clerk, Presbytery of Hudson River, Scarborough, NY
20. Wanda Guthrie, Chair, Environmental Justice Committee, Thomas Merton Center, GreenFaith Fellow
21. Dr. Karen A. Killeen DAc, RN, Catholic, Companions of Charity, Bronx, NY, Holistic Clinician, GreenFaith Fellow
22. Reverend Scott M. Kershner, University Chaplain, Susquehanna University.
23. Rev. Dawn Sangrey, Assistant Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester, Mount Kisco, New York
24. Martha Lyle Ford, United Methodist Church, GreenFaith Fellow
As people of faith, spirituality and good will, we are deeply concerned about the effects of climate change ravaging our planet, and we are compelled by our traditions and collective conscience to take action together on this deeply moral challenge. Our lives and those of future generations are now in the balance - determined by the actions we take today as stewards of this earth.
Inspired by the recent and unprecedented call from dozens of the world’s top scientists urging museums of science and natural history to cut their ties to the fossil fuel industry, we now join our voices with theirs.
We are deeply troubled by the link between museums of science and natural history with those who profit from fossil fuels or fund lobby groups that misrepresent climate science.
The Code of Ethics for Museums, adopted in 1993 by the Board of Directors of the AmericanAssociation of Museums, states:
“It is incumbent on museums to be resources for humankind and in all their activities to foster an informed appreciation of the rich and diverse world we have inherited. It is also incumbent upon them to preserve that inheritance for posterity.
Museums are grounded in the tradition of public service. They are organized as public trusts, holding their collections and information as a benefit for those they were established to serve. Museums and those responsible for them must do more than avoid legal liability, they must take affirmative steps to maintain their integrity so as to warrant public confidence. They must act not only legally but also ethically.”
We are concerned that the integrity of these institutions is compromised by association with special interests who distort the truth about global warming, and who fight environmental regulation, oppose clean energy legislation, and seek to ease limits on industrial pollution.
For example, David Koch is a major donor and exhibit sponsor at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and a donor, exhibit sponsor and trustee on the Board of Directors at the American Museum of Natural History. David Koch’s oil and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries is one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Mr. Koch also funds a large network of climate-change-denying organizations, spending more than $67 million since 1997 to fund groups denying climate change science.
When some of the biggest contributors to climate change and funders of misinformation on climate science sponsor exhibitions in museums of science and natural history, they undermine public confidence in the validity of the institutions responsible for transmitting scientific knowledge. This corporate philanthropy comes at too high a cost.
In this time of unprecedented peril from the dangers of global warming, we speak with the greatest sense of urgency of our moral duty to defend and protect life. We draw upon our conviction that we are charged by our many faith traditions and spiritual voices to be good stewards of this earth – to assure the opportunity for a safe and healthy place to live not only for our brothers and sisters all over the world now, but for our children as well.
We hold that the only ethical way forward is for our museums to cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry and funders of climate science disinformation.
SIGNATORIES:
1. Calvin Dewitt; Co-founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network, President of the Christian Environmental Council, president of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists, and Professor of Environmental Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison
2. Reverend Richard Cizik; New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
3. Rabbi Larry Troster; Founder and Coordinator, Shomrei Breishit: Rabbis and Cantors for the Earth; Rabbinic Scholar-in-Residence, GreenFaith
4. Jim Winkler; President and General Secretary National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
5. Reverend Rodney Sadler; Vice Chair - People Demanding Action; North Carolina Forward Together/Moral Monday Movement, Radio Host: Politics of Faith
6. Reverend Lennox Yearwood; President and CEO Hip Hop Caucus
7. The Reverend Jim Ball; Ph.D Vice President Evangelical Environmental Network; author Global Warming and the Risen LORD
8. Reverend Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, Green Faith
9. Reverend Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship
10. Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Founder & Executive Director, The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development
11. Reverend Jacob Bolton, Associate Pastor, Huguenot Memorial Church, Pelham, NY
12. M. Doretta Cornell, RDC, Sisters of the Divine Compassion, RDC Social Justice Board Chair, GreenFaith, and ROAR
13. Rev. Peggy Clarke, Minister, First Unitarian Society, Hastings on Hudson, NY
14. Madeline Labriola, GreenFaith Fellow, Coordinator, Pax Christi, Hudson Valley, NY
15. The Ven. Betsy Blake Bennett; GreenFaith Fellow; Archdeacon, Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska
16. Rev. Kimberly C. Morrow, Executive Director, Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light
17. Rev. Mary D. Gaut, GreenFaith Fellow, Pastor, Maryland Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD
18. Jacquie Keefe, cssf, Co-Director of Jericho House Youth Leadership, Social & Ecological Justice and Spirituality Centre, Ontario, Canada
19. Rev. Dr. Susan G. De George, Stated Clerk, Presbytery of Hudson River, Scarborough, NY
20. Wanda Guthrie, Chair, Environmental Justice Committee, Thomas Merton Center, GreenFaith Fellow
21. Dr. Karen A. Killeen DAc, RN, Catholic, Companions of Charity, Bronx, NY, Holistic Clinician, GreenFaith Fellow
22. Reverend Scott M. Kershner, University Chaplain, Susquehanna University.
23. Rev. Dawn Sangrey, Assistant Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester, Mount Kisco, New York
24. Martha Lyle Ford, United Methodist Church, GreenFaith Fellow