2015-05-05

Galileo, Nicholas Copernicus and Charles Darwin must be rolling over in their graves.

The long history of Christian churches opposing scientific progress in their dogmatic defence of theological beliefs hasn’t deterred the Roman Catholic church or the Church of England from taking strong positions on climate change ahead of a major UN conference later this year.

Pope Francis hosted a summit with religious, scientific and policy experts at the Vatican last week to discuss sustainable development and respect for the environment while the Church of England released a report on climate change and will divest its interests in companies that produce fossil fuels.

The report — which mentions both oilsands and fracking — calls climate change “an urgent ethical issue.”

As if oilsands development didn’t have enough critics, these latest detractors literally have a pulpit to influence billions of followers worldwide.

“As Christians we have a divinely mandated responsibility for the physical world, for its creatures for one another, especially the weakest and least,” states the Church of England report. “This requires us to do all we can to mitigate whatever is damaging creation and God’s creatures.”

It lists the Garden of Eden as a biblical example of people making “wrong choices out of greed or pride.”

Pope Francis’s summit came ahead of an encyclical — an authoritative papal teaching — in June that will focus on taking action on climate to help the poor. Most of the 1.2 billion Catholics live in the developing world, which scientists say is disproportionately affected by climate change.

Cardinal Peter Turkson told the conference there’s a “fundamental need to change course” on global industrialization and he put the onus squarely on developed countries.

The campaigns give new meaning to the phrase religious activism.

It’s not the first time religious leaders have criticized Big Oil. The World Council of Churches has said they will reduce or eliminate fossil fuel investments. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights activist from South Africa, is an outspoken opponent of oilsands development.

There’s an obvious irony to religions aligning with the scientific community.

Galileo, Copernicus and Darwin each endured persecution from religious authorities in their day after putting forward society-changing theories on the universe and human evolution. To be fair, religious historians point to any number of renowned scientists — from Issac Newtown to Blaise Pascal — who were devout in their faith and dedicated to their work in academic fields.

The divestment campaigns align religion with another group they’ve often been at odds with — universities.

In February, professors at the University of British Columbia voted 62 per cent to urge their board of governors to sell investments in fossil fuel stocks. Faculty at the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, University of Toronto and Mount Allison University have also voted for divestment.

The effectiveness of divesting of financial stakes in fossil fuel producers by university endowment funds has been debated on campuses for years. The student/faculty led campaigns typically urge the institutions to support renewable energy.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, heirs to the oil fortune, gained notoriety last year announcing it would divest its stake in fossil fuel companies. Critics have dismissed the efforts as more PR than substance.

Nonetheless, the trend is undeniable.

Under pressure from its students, Harvard University refuted the impact of pulling investments from corporations as a way to change policy around issues from climate change to sweatshop garment factories. The campaigns may not have financial impact but they generate public awareness of issues and can damage reputations.

“Church groups, faith groups, are very influential still, even in an increasingly secular world,” Ben Caldecott of Oxford University’s stranded assets program told BBC Radio after the Church of England announced its divestment of coal and oilsands assets.

The church’s report lists its investments in BP and Royal Dutch Shell — which both have operations in the oilsands — but neither company would meet the divestment criteria that they derive more than 10 per cent of their revenues from coal or oilsands.

For perspective, oilsands contributes approximately 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions compared to about 44 per cent from coal.

While the Vatican is developing a position on climate change before the UN summit in Paris in December there won’t be papal infallibility on the issue. Given the human progress from industrialization, the summit is not likely to go as far the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae that enshrined the church’s opposition to birth control.

Nonetheless, in a year when oil prices have plunge dramatically and threatened the economic viability oilsands projects this isn’t the divine intervention some were praying for.

Stephen Ewart is a Calgary Herald columnist

sewart@calgaryherald.com

twitter.com/stephen_ewart

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